studio catherine griffiths

photographs / Bruce Connew

‘Installation with mirror and line’ working with the circle form, a mirror ‘O’ (the mirror belonged to my late mother-in-law) which references an unbuilt mirror work awaiting suspension in a downtown city street, not far from the exhibition site, this response to Transitionalfieldwork – 36.8670511, 174.7597644 (with fluorescent builder’s line from my construction kit) considers the vertical shift between the now, past and future.

/ Catherine Griffiths, 2016

studio test and drawings for installation / Catherine Griffiths, 2016

top: Rebecca Steedman + David Cowlard, Transitionalfieldwork (booklet)
Oliver Neuland, SlimRide (video) / Transitionalfieldwork (poster)
Caroline Powley, Designated surface (drawings)

middle: Ruth Watson, Soon-to-be-lost addresses (boxed) / O.N., SlimRide (video)
Yolunda Hickman, Buildings (carpet) / Lucky Bulldozer, Shaddock Street (video)
C.P., Designated surface (drawing) / C.G., Installation with mirror and line

bottom centre + right: R.S. + D.C., Transitionalfieldwork (posters, rocks, map, sound)

Catherine Griffiths, 2016

03 other in(ter)ventions

TypeSHED11
an international typography symposium, Wellington, NZ

typ gr ph c
a series of compact workshops, Karekare, NZ

installations, exhibitions

Catherine Griffiths: Out of Line
Griffith University Art Museum, Meanjin Brisbane, Australia
24 February — 16 May 2026

Catherine Griffiths: Walk With Me
Te Wai Ngutu Kākā Gallery, Auckland University of Technology, Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa NZ
30 July — 24 October 2025

Catherine Griffiths: Out of Line
The Design Gallery, University of Melbourne, Naarm, Australia
19 May — 27 June 2025

Iterations/Alterations
Enjoy Contemporary Art Space, Chapter 1, Aotearoa NZ
15 February — 29 March 2025 [extended to Chapter 2]

What is my threshold now?
Manifesto vs Manifest, PLATES #1, 2024, New York, USA

7/7, 14 views
Te Tuhi Project Wall, Aotearoa NZ
20 August – 22 October 2023

Self-preservation
Offering It Up, Adam Art Gallery, Aotearoa NZ
24 August — 29 October 2023

The Phone Book: Club de Conversation (2012): deconstructed (2019), suspended (2022)
Counterparts // Part one: Where To From Here?, No Vacancy, Naarm Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
12 – 31 July 2022

catherine griffiths : SOLO IN [ ] SPACE
The Space Gallery, Shanghai, CHINA
13 October – 1 December 2019

Work/Space
Shanghai Art and Design Exhibition, CHINA
3 – 13 December 2017

A whakapapa, two lines of women, an installation drawing
All Lines Converge, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery Aotearoa NZ
2016

Installation with mirror and line
transitionalfieldwork, an exhibition, Aotearoa NZ
2016

only U know ...
collaboration, Lela Jacobs AW17 Auckland, and SS17 Paris collection, Aotearoa NZ + FR

Constructed/Projected
installation, Typojanchi 2015, 4th International Typography Biennale, Seoul, KR
November 2015

The Tuwhare Poster Project
fund-raiser for the Hone Tuwhare Trust Writers Residency, Aotearoa NZ
2014

memento :: motif
Proyecto de Arte Contemporáneo Alzheimer, Valparaíso, Chile
23 September — 23 August 2012

The Phone Book
a maquette, for the Club de Conversation project, Aotearoa NZ
2012

Club de Conversation at S/F with Dino Chai, Auckland, Aotearoa NZ
14 July – 18 August 2012

Club de Conversation: Keyhole Series and Dials
rug series, Dilana Workshop, Aotearoa NZ
June — July 2012

Sound Tracks
installation, The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, Aotearoa NZ
2011

The Jets
short film, Paris, France
2010

posters, protest, statements

SHREDDED
[LUXON QUOTES] RUBBISH COLLECTION, six [type specimen] posters, 2026, Aotearoa NZ

The Best Design Awards
three [type specimen] posters, 2018, Aotearoa NZ

Labour of Love
another word-play poster, 2018, Aotearoa NZ

W in black
drawings in progress, 2017, Aotearoa NZ/FR

The Alphabet
front page takeover of the Sentinel & Enterprise newspaper for 26 days, Fitchburg, USA

The Brexit Series
a word-play [type specimen] poster series in response to Brexit, Aotearoa NZ

Raising the Flag
contemplative, suggestive — design unravelled, Aotearoa NZ

Protest Vessel 1/2 PRICE
a collaboration with ceramic artist Raewyn Atkinson, Aotearoa NZ

Installation with mirror and line

2016

Transitionalfieldwork – 36.8670511, 174.7597644, a group exhibition

‘Installation with mirror and line’ ... my response to Transitionalfieldwork, DEMO artspace, 21 Shaddock Street, Auckland, 6–9 December 2016

Curated by Rebecca Steedman and David Cowlard, Transitionalfieldwork – 36.8670511, 174.7597644 invited responses to a territory flagged for infrastructural development. Respondents /researchers were given 6-weeks to imagine; re-imagine; map or record an archive of the existing landscape, or propose alternate futures as the starting point for an ongoing enquiry into our changing geo-spatial relations.

David Cowlard
Catherine Griffiths
Yolunda Hickman
LuckyBulldozer
Oliver Neuland
Caroline Powley
Nick Spratt
Rebecca Steedman
Ruth Watson

“The catalogue of forms is endless: until every shape has found its city, new cities will continue to be born. When the forms exhaust their variety and come apart, the end of cities begins.” – Italo Calvino, ‘Invisible Cities’