Rohesia Hamilton Metcalfe is a new media artist whose film, video and internet work is personal, experimental and dogma-resistant—deconstructively exploring the discrepancies between the polarized narratives of our soundbyte-saturated world and the realities of private
lives as lived.
She is currently working on an internet project exploring the elusive edges between fact and fiction. Her most recent video, PEACE IS (2006), was made for the “For Life Against The War! Again!” program organized by filmmaker Lynne Sachs. She also designs websites and, in 2001, established the website design company hamiltro website design.
She has made two 16mm experimental films and eight videos, including KEEP MOVING (1984), LA BLANCHISSEUSE (1993), QUEEN OF THE MIST (1996) and EVERYONE MUST TIGHTEN THEIR BELTS (1997). Her films and video works have been shown internationally in festivals (including Locarno VideoArt Festival, Dallas Video Festival, Experimenta, Tampere Film Festival, femme totale festival); in solo and group shows at art-film/video art exhibition spaces (including Anthology Film Archives, Millennium Film Workshop and Art In General in New York and similar venues elsewhere); and on television (including Channel 13 and WNYC in New York, and WTN-Lifestyle Television in Canada).
She has received grants from the New Zealand Arts Council, the Australian Film Commission, New York State Council on the Arts, Niagara Council for the Arts and the Experimental Television Center, and has been awarded creative residencies at The Experimental Television Center, MacDowell Colony for the Arts, Harvestworks, Millay Colony for the Arts and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Awards her work has received include First Prize (narrative), New Arts Project Festival; Director’s Choice (several times), Black Maria Festival; and Prize for Experimental (Baltimore Film Festival).
Rohesia has coordinated major arts events—including an outdoor summer performing arts festival in Wellington, New Zealand (SUMMER ’79), and the performance art sections of two Sydney Biennales. She has worked in New Zealand, Australia and New York as set and lighting designer for dance and theater. She has curated several film and video programs—most recently, the “Unfixed Point Of View” program in New York (2006).
Born in England, Rohesia grew up and was educated in New Zealand (BA in French and German literature, MA in Arts Administration, Victoria University of Wellington), and made her first film during a three-year stay in Sydney, Australia. She has lived and worked in New York City since 1984 but spends time in New Zealand every year — where she enjoys planting trees.
Statement of Artistic Intent | Film/Video Exhibition History | Press
Grants & Residencies