Presenting Conrad

Christina Conrad has been called New Zealand's greatest living artist. She is certainly its greatest eccentric. An obsessive filmmaker, script editor, writer and "outsider" painter & sculptor, Conrad lived as a recluse for twenty years without electricity or running water, where she "kept her paintings in cupboards instead of food". Her work is disarmingly original and not easily pigeon-holed, nor does the term "outsider" sit easily with her, suggesting as it does someone who is untrained. Conrad's paintings and clay sculptures possess a focus that reflects a rigorous self-training.

"One must leave the ego at the door of the tomb, and create like a blind beggar who hears nothing and knows nothing," she explains. "In this way the painting has a chance to be born whole, without the insidious tampering that adulterates false creative acts."

Conrad's life as a painter/sculptor has been influenced by the principles of (and her past-life among) the 13th century Cathars of southern France. This influence is reflected in her sculptural paintings, clay masks and icons, all of which are strikingly emotional and profoundly philosophical. When asked how she might characterise her work, she laughs: "you mean the spillings of the unconscious!" 

In the past few years, Conrad's interest and attention has turned more and more to the medium of dramatic writing and filmmaking. Her study of modern love as dramatised in Jelly's Placenta, a 30-minute film which she wrote, designed and directed, is so thoroughly original it caused one critic to describe her as "Australia's answer to Robert Bresson!". In some venues, its showing has caused near riots. Conrad's unique insights and skills as a script editor/consultant are much sought-after by scriptwriters and producers alike. Scripts that she has edited have gone on to win major awards in international festivals, including Jonathan Wald's What Grown-Ups Know  (2005 Best Foreign Film, Gotham City Film Festival, NYC, 2005 Slamdance invitee), and George Barbakadze's Black Rain - (Golden Unicorn nominated film).

In 2001 Conrad was invited to edit scripts for the writing department at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (Sydney, Australia), and more recently has developed and delivered courses in screenwriting ("Conducting the Scream" and "Introduction to Documentary") for MetroScreen in Sydney, Australia. She is also a current mentor in the Northern Territory's Year of the Screenwriter scheme, where she has been praised for the effectiveness of her revolutionary methods. Conrad and her creative partner, Melissa Anastasi, have established Heretic Pictures which seeks to find, develop and produce quality short- and long-form dramas. Their second film, Bonfire, a thirty-minute drama, was recently screened at the St Kilda Film Festival in Melbourne. 

Conrad is the author of three books and a play, entitled A Modern Crucifixtion. She is listed in the Bloomsbury Book of Women Writers (U.K.) and her poems anthologised in Kiwi & Emu (ed by Barbara Petrie), The Penguin Book of Contemporary New Zealand Verse (ed by Ian Wedde) and The Oxford Book of Modern New Zealand Poetry (ed by Vincent Sullivan). In June, 2000, the University of Auckland Press published a selection of Conrad's poems in Big Smoke, their definitive anthology of New Zealand poetry in the 1960s and 70s. She is also a featured poet in Another 100 New Zealand Poems for Children (Random House, 2001).

Conrad's poems, monologues and "two-handers" have appeared in numerous print journals, little magazines, and newspapers around the world. including Clay Palm Review, Voice, Outsider Ink, Mentress Moon, Octavo, Moondance, Deep South, Stirring, Conspire, and Poetry Magazine. An excellent editorial by Conrad can be accessed online in issue 3 of BlackMail Press (see LINKS). A highly entertaining on-line interview featuring Conrad in conversation with Martin Downs can be read in the Spring 2000 issue of the Alicubi Journal (see LINKS). 

The poet, Billy Marshall Stoneking, describes the experience of listening to Conrad speaking her poetry as "tribal, unearthing some deep, instinctual understanding that has been buried in the unconscious. She is bardic."

Conrad's paintings, clay icons and artistic theories have been the subject of three documentary films, and her paintings and other works shown by major galleries and museums in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. She is the daughter of the English painter, Patrick Hayman.

Conrad currently lives and works in Sydney. 

Contact Conrad via email at  EMAIL CONRAD