Locked in a room full of secrets

By this time next week a New Zealand artist will be $50,000 richer and planning a trip to New York. They will also be the third winner of the Walters Prize, established in 2002 and held every second year.

The inaugural winner was Yvonne Todd, followed by the et al. collective in 2004.

The finalists vying for the prize this time were announced in June. They are Stella Brennan, Philip Dadson, Peter Robinson and London-based Francis Upritchard. Each were nominated for a particular exhibition or group of works, which will be judged by Italian curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev on Sunday and announced at a gala dinner on Tuesday night.

Although the Herald has no inside information on who will win, this writer must confess to having a head-start on finding out the finalists.

As an arts journalist with an ever-ready ear to the ground for advance information, it was a surprise when Auckland Art Gallery director Chris Saines called me with an invitation to be one of four jurors for the 2006 Walters Prize. But by accepting the role, I also accepted the burden of secrecy, not an easy task for a journalist hotwired into local gossip networks and itching to publish.

But the only secret I was party to before the jury convening in May was my own role and decision-making. The selection process was not influenced by anticipating the preferences of the other three jurors, whose identity remained a secret until jury day.

The successive arrival of fellow jurors Christina Barton, Heather Galbraith and Wystan Curnow was like a scene from a reality show. At least we weren't required to vote each other out of the competition. Curnow would certainly have been the first to go, given that an administrative slip-up in email forwarding had revealed his attendance to the rest of us. But even that titbit did not result in any strategising of artist nominations or tactical voting alliances. In fact, for all the promises of tense debate and bloodshed over jury stalemates, there wasn't so much as a raised voice.

Although it took all day to reduce our shortlist to only four names, there was no disagreement on the final selection.

Brennan's Wet Social Sculpture was the most difficult to re-exhibit at the New Gallery. Involving a spa pool that viewers can relax in while watching psychedelic projections and listening to whale sounds, the resulting chlorine fumes would not have made a good neighbour to the gallery's painting conservators.

With a long career behind him, evidenced by the survey exhibition at St Paul St Gallery, it is impressive that Dadson can still surprise. Polar Projects is the result of Dadson's 2003 Antarctica residency. A large group of works were created for this project and different combinations were shown in galleries throughout New Zealand. Polar Projects' incarnation for the Walters Prize exhibition is the most comprehensive yet, offering viewers a distinctive multimedia experience of an alien environment.

Having been relatively quiet since appearing at the Venice Biennale in 2001, Robinson's The Humours was a significant statement when it was first shown at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery in 2005, and the new work he is showing at Artspace is evidence of another artist in top-form. The four large sculptures that comprise The Humours are witty, yet sickly, presenting the interiority of psychology as a big sticky mess.

Upritchard's Doomed, Doomed, All Doomed already came with an endorsement, being one of the only solo exhibitions shown at Artspace while German curator Tobias Berger was director. With an idiosyncratic approach to home-made and recycled materials, it presents shonky, hybrid artefacts as a quirky reconstruction of history, questioning consumption and colonial impulses.

The final piece in the puzzle for the 2006 Walters Prize is the judge, who was announced in August. Speculation over which of the finalists she will favour immediately followed. Perhaps Robinson or Upritchard, who have worked extensively in Europe, have an advantage? Will Brennan's critique of modernist idealism appeal to Christov-Bakargiev's interest in avant-garde movements? Offering a spa pool from which to contemplate the work must be currying favour? Or does Dadson's seniority give him the edge?

Christov-Bakargiev, who will spend Monday and Tuesday meeting artists and curators before leaving for Sao Paulo on Wednesday, admits she has little knowledge of the artists she will be assessing.

"I have decided to not do too much research before viewing their exhibition, as it is important to understand what one's first reaction is to art, before reading about it. Then of course, it is useful and interesting to read about it, and to speak with the artists is always illuminating."

Christov-Bakargiev, who judged the Venice Biennale prize in 2001 and is chief curator at the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art in Turin, is also the curator for the 2008 Biennale of Sydney. She says judging the Walters Prize is a good opportunity for her to become better acquainted with the art of this region.

ON SHOW

What: Walters Prize 2006
When: Winner announced Tuesday, Oct 3
Exhibition of finalists: New Gallery, to Nov 19
On the web: aucklandartgallery.com
Public lecture: Judge Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
Where and when: Auckland Art Gallery, 6pm Monday Oct 2