The No 8 Wire - Issue 72
Gondwanaland Ministry of Culture
Artists' Information Bureau
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An Electronic Alert for 1280 of Wellington's Creative People
ENDNOTE: A Low Hum in August
To submit your news, project details, call for participation, or cultural item of any sort, please send your description/text as email to
arts@wcc.govt.nz
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72.00
TOI PONEKE
The Wellington’s Arts Centre has celebrated its first birthday by unveiling a new name – Toi Pöneke, Wellington Arts Centre…which translates as Arts Wellington.
Toi Pöneke comprises the two buildings located at 61 - 69 Abel Smith Street, and is 3000sqm of space over a total of seven floors. The facility has rooms and creative spaces for hire, regular courses and workshops, a ground floor gallery space, and many other resources. Creative people, new users, producers, and arts organisation leaders are always welcome to stop in and have a tour of the complete facilities.
More than 35 local artists have studios in the buildings, and a community of arts organisations have established their headquarters at Toi Pöneke. The Centre supports and promotes emerging and early career artists, new collaborations and productions, and people wanting to develop cultural projects of any sort. The Council’s Arts Programmes & Services Manager, Eric Holowacz, is based at Toi Pöneke, level one, and is available to consult, advise, and seek out new resources. His office is also the home of the No.8 Wire, now also over one year old.
Learn more about Toi Pöneke – Wellington Arts Centre, here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington_arts_centre
Or contact
Eric Holowacz, Arts Programmes & Services Manager
Wellington City Council
The Arts Office…Level One… Toi Pöneke - Wellington Arts Centre…
Home of the No 8 Wire and an
Open Door for Creative Ideas
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72.01
GALLERY OPENING ON FRIDAY
You are invited to celebrate the opening of
Windance
an exhibition of recent work by emerging British artist
Emily Farncombe
5.30pm
Friday 28 July
Toi Pöneke - Wellington Arts Centre Gallery
61 Abel Smith Street
Windance comprises photography, film and sculpture in an installation that explores energy production. Artist Emily Farncombe integrates images of wind turbines with dancers movements and projects these onto large spheres constructed from tissue and wire.
Windance considers whether it is possible for humans to generate their own energy through body movement and power of mind. Emily has filmed wind turbines in action at the Tararua Wind Farm and likens the turbines to dancers movements. Her imagery is reminiscent of early photographer Eadweard Muybridge's photographic studies of humans in motion. Emily is celebrating the aesthetics and innovation of both machine and human-made energy.
In preparation for this exhibition Emily researched cultural icons that symbolise energy production, such as the Tibetan Prayer Wheel and Whirling Dervishes. She compared those to wind turbines and noted that they have a positive impact on humans in the environment.
“I come from the Lake District in England, where I have witnessed opposition to the development of wind energy. I would like my work to encourage and celebrate the development of this renewable energy source.”
Windance is at the Wellington Arts Centre from 25 July until 8 August.
For more information please contact the Gallery Coordinator at the Wellington Arts Centre, 61 Abel Smith Street; phone: (04) 385 0654; email: artscentre@wcc.govt.nz; website: http://www.wellington.govt.nz/services/artscentre/gallery.html
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72.02
IT’S A WIKIPEDIA WORLD
Defining culture, place, identity, history…the hyperspace way
March 1st, Wikipedia, the online interactive encyclopedia, hit the million-articles mark, with an entry on Jordanhill, a railway station in suburban Glasgow. Its author, Ewan MacDonald, posted a single sentence about the station at 11 P.M., local time; over the next twenty-four hours, the entry was edited more than four hundred times, by dozens of people. (Jordanhill happens to be the “1029th busiest station in the United Kingdom”; it “no longer has a staffed ticket counter.”) The Encyclopædia Britannica, which for more than two centuries has been considered the gold standard for reference works, has only a hundred and twenty thousand entries in its most comprehensive edition. Apparently, no traditional encyclopedia has ever suspected that someone might wonder about Sudoku or about prostitution in China. Or, for that matter, about Capgras delusion (the unnerving sensation that an impostor is sitting in for a close relative), the Boston molasses disaster, the Rhinoceros Party of Canada, Bill Gates’s house, the forty-five-minute Anglo-Zanzibar War, or Islam in Iceland. Wikipedia includes fine entries on Kafka and the War of the Spanish Succession, and also a complete guide to the ships of the U.S. Navy, a definition of Philadelphia cheesesteak, a masterly page on Scrabble, a list of historical cats (celebrity cats, a cat millionaire, the first feline to circumnavigate Australia), a survey of invented expletives in fiction (“bippie,” “cakesniffer,” “furgle”), instructions for curing hiccups, and an article that describes, with schematic diagrams, how to build a stove from a discarded soda can. The how-to entries represent territory that the encyclopedia has not claimed since the eighteenth century. You could cure a toothache or make snowshoes using the original Britannica, of 1768-71. (You could also imbibe a lot of prejudice and superstition. The entry on Woman was just six words: “The female of man. See HOMO.”) If you look up “coffee preparation” on Wikipedia, you will find your way, via the entry on Espresso, to a piece on types of espresso machines, which you will want to consult before buying. There is also a page on the site dedicated to “Errors in the Encyclopædia Britannica that have been corrected in Wikipedia” (Stalin’s birth date, the true inventor of the safety razor).
Because there are no physical limits on its size, Wikipedia can aspire to be all-inclusive. It is also perfectly configured to be current: there are detailed entries for each of the twelve finalists on this season’s “American Idol,” and the article on the “2006 Israel-Lebanon Conflict” has been edited more than four thousand times since it was created, on July 12th, six hours after Hezbollah militants ignited the hostilities by kidnapping two Israeli soldiers. Wikipedia, which was launched in 2001, is now the seventeenth-most-popular site on the Internet, generating more traffic daily than MSNBC.com and the online versions of the Times and the Wall Street Journal combined. The number of visitors has been doubling every four months; the site receives as many as fourteen thousand hits per second. Wikipedia functions as a filter for vast amounts of information online, and it could be said that Google owes the site for tidying up the neighborhood. But the search engine is amply repaying its debt: because Wikipedia pages contain so many links to other entries on the site, and are so frequently updated, they enjoy an enviably high page rank.
Read more
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060731fa_fact
Defining Wellington, and the things in it, the Wikipedia way...
OPENING NOTES
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opening_Notes
A LOW HUM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_low_hum
CUBA STREET
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba_Street%2C_Wellington
BLANKET MAN
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanket_Man
FAT FREDDY’S
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Freddy's_Drop
POLYFILLA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollyfilla
WETA WORKSHOP
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weta_Workshop
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72.03
CHINESE WALK
First Pass Under Heaven - One man’s 4,000-kilometre trek along the Great Wall of China by Nathan Hoturoa Gray
The Great Wall of China is one of the world’s last surviving ancient wonders and the planet’s longest graveyard. It is over 2,000 years old and said to be visible from space. There were 200 crimes you could commit that would provide a sentence of Wall building — either for life or perpetually. If you were handed the latter, your punishment would be passed down through the next generation.
In 2000, five men set out in an attempt to become the first Westerners to walk and document the entire length of the Wall. The group included a Buddhist monk, Mormon golfer, Jewish photojournalist, Catholic recording artist and Nathan, a Maori lawyer. Given the extreme environment they were about to enter, this was a combination destined to cause disharmony and eventually division.
From the outset, Nathan experienced thirst and starvation, raging blizzards and extreme temperatures. He was to enter into serious encounters with the Chinese police and army, witness unexplainable apparitions, disease and murder. He was also the recipient of breathtaking kindness from the Chinese peasantry.
First Pass Under Heaven is a spellbinding story of personal growth, valuable not just as a great piece of travel writing and geopolitical commentary but also as a literary work.
First Pass Under Heaven
by Nathan Gray
August 2006 Penguin (NZ) $29.95
Rachel Wallis Publicist Penguin Group (NZ)
(09) 414 9924 or 0275 973 670
rachel.wallis@nz.penguingroup.com
The Author
Nathan Hoturoa Gray (Ngai Tahu, Rangitaane — Waikato whangai) was born in Wellington but has spent much of his life exploring the social intricacies of over 50 countries. He holds an LLB (Hons) and a BA in International Relations from both Victoria University and UC Davis, California and can communicate in 7 languages. Nathan’s passion for travel stemmed from being the first Rotary Exchange Student to reopen the exchange programme between New Zealand and South Africa during the build up to their first free democratic elections. Having a preference for overland exploration, he has hitchhiked over 20,000 kilometres through Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East. Back in New Zealand, Nathan served a stint at the Waitangi Tribunal as research clerk to Chief Judge Joe Williams and most recently as a communications advisor to the Ministry of Maori Development.
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72.04
THE SEVEN BY SEVENS
Wellington idea nexus…be there
http://www.7x7.co.nz/
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72.05
ABOUT FLIGHT
Thistle Hall is a vibrant community centre in the heart of New Zealand's cultural capital. We provide a community hall, meeting room and Wellington's only community gallery showcasing a range of artists and crafts people, from the established to the emerging.
23 - 29 JULY 2006
TAKE FLIGHT
New Works by Melissa Wyman and Mica Still
Mica Still and Melissa Wyman invite you into investigate and discover their new show "Take Flight." Melissa Wyman has worked with Mica in a series of experimental works which deals with letting go of ego and experiencing the process. This collaboration includes drawing, painting and reworking each others aesthetic expressions. Mica Still individually explores two new series: In Mica's first series she invites you to have a closer look to discover the meaning and myth of her installation of mounted crow heads. The second is an on going series of works titled "Drink you own culture". This work is the first of more to come that investigates the use of symbols and language that represents her culture of the United States and how they supposedly define her. Feel free to contact Mica Still for further details on 0210796923
Lily Chalmers - Coordinator
PH: 04 384 3088
http://www.thistlehall.org.nz
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72.06
RUNNING ON EMPTY
Kaleb Bennett
Uses for an Empty Room
The Engine Room - School of Fine Arts
Massey University, Wellington
In Uses for an Empty Room, artist Kaleb Bennett proposed to offer The Engine Room gallery as a temporary space for those in need of night-shelter during the weeks July 25-August 11.
Negotiations between the artist and Massey University took place, and ceased on July 18. In reference to this proposal an open forum will take place at The Engine Room on Tuesday 8th August at 5.30pm. Featuring the artist, this talk is an opportunity to discuss the complex issues of space, homelessness, urban environments and institutional structures.
The Gallery itself will remain closed and empty from July 25 to August 11.
During the period that the gallery is closed Kaleb Bennett and The Engine Room will develop a small publication for Uses for an Empty Room. This will be The Engine Room’s first publishing project.
For information, interview enquiries or to obtain images for reproduction please contact:
The Engine Room
Massey University School of Fine Arts, Wellington
Access via Entrance C, Upper Taranaki St
Eastern Corner, Block 1
Opening Hours Wednesday-Saturday, 12pm-4pm
T: 04 801 5799 x6313 or 6324
E: the_engine_room@massey.ac.nz
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72.07
YOUTUBE YOUR VIDS
http://www.youtube.com/
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72.08
SMOKEY FRONTROOM
Marshall Stack & Co. Proudly Present
SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE - The Songs of Leiber & Stoller
Words and music by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller
Smokey Joe's Cafe is presented through special arrangement with Origin Theatrical Pty Ltd, on behalf of R&H Theatricals of New York City .
The Frontroom, 5 Hania Street , Mt. Victoria
Thursday July 27th, Friday July 28th and Saturday July 29th at 8pm .
$30. Doors open from 7pm. Cafe menu and full bar available from this time.
LET US WELCOME YOU TO AN ELECTRIFYING EVENING AT SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE.
SO... WHAT'S ON THE MENU?
Building on the success of their concert version production of Godspell in December 2005, MARSHALL STACK & CO. present an energetic new production of SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE - THE SONGS OF LEIBER & STOLLER. Performed for the first time in Wellington by an ensemble of some of New Zealand's greatest musical theatre talent, MARSHALL STACK & CO. present SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE at luxurious THE FRONTROOM for three nights only. A six-piece combo led by musical director Kate Marshall supplies the smokin' instrumental action, supporting ten singers as they paste hits of the fifties and sixties into a sonic scrapbook.
Smokey Joe's Cafe is an effervescent musical revue celebrating the prolific songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Their classic tunes defined the golden age of Rock 'n' Roll with hits for Elvis, the Drifters, Dion, the Coasters, Ben E. King and many other pop legends.
With a Grammy Award-winning score, Smokey Joe's Cafe is the longest running musical revue in Broadway history. Weaving an extraordinary string of Leiber and Stoller's hits into a powerful piece of musical theatre. But you don't have to remember these songs originally blaring from the radio of a '57 Chevy coupe to enjoy this production. The musical numbers featured are familiar - these are the songs that launched many a career and influenced numerous writers and performers in the decades to follow.
The rollicking night at SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE showcases over 40 classic tunes including Jailhouse Rock, Hound Dog, Love Potion #9, On Broadway, Kansas City, Spanish Harlem, Poison Ivy, Yakkety Yak and Stand By Me. Featuring singers Simon Bentley, Chris Crowe, Michelle Daley, Joanne Hodgson, Bella Kalolo, Jane Keller, Matthew Pike, Alan Rench, Jason Te Patu and Kristy Whichelo. With instrumental combo, The Fe-Fi-Fo-Fum Sextet, comprising Tim Solly [piano], Alistair Campbell [guitar], Alistair Isdale [bass], Joel Batson [drums], Andre Paris [saxophone] and Nic Marshall [organ & rhodes].
Tickets available from the Downstage Box Office. 12 Cambridge Terrace. 04 801 6946 or www.downstage.co.nz
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72.09
NEW ART IN ISLAND BAY
Chrysalis Art & Design Backroom Gems
The first exhibition in The White Room….
Monday 7 August to Saturday 2 September 2006
Opening night from 6pm to 7.30pm
7th August
Empire Cinema & Café
The Parade Island Bay
...backroom gems represents all the artists that create their glorious individually crafted original works in domestic settings. The inspiration was the good old kiwi No 8 wire attitude and DIY creativity bursting from the sheds, kitchen tables and backrooms around Wellington.
Chrysalis Art & Design
Kristen Clarke and Lizzie Waipara
The White Room is a wonderful new community resource operating as a exhibition space, featuring...
Paintings
Kristen Clarke
Lizzie Waipara
Abby Wendy
Marianne Kerridge
Prints/Etchings
Ceallaigh Norman
Laura Garland
Textile Art
Jane Leverington
Jewellery
Lucy Moore
Jeanette Troon
Carrie Burke
Tony Drawbridge
For information please contact :Alana Spragg on 021 576775
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72.10
AFFORDABLE ARTS ON ITS WAY
4-6 August 2006
The inaugural New Zealand Affordable Art Show took place in August 2004 at the Events Centre in Wellington. The show ran for a three-day period with an opening gala evening. 6,000 people attended the show and spent a total of $395,000. Many people walked away from the art show with their first ever piece of original art under their arms; many artists sold their first piece of art. Artists were being scouted by art connoisseurs and eventually had phone calls from gallery owners.
Feedback from artists and the public was extremely positive and it became very clear that the event was sustainable annually. The 2005 show built on the success of its predecessor, but more streamlined processes and a refined marketing campaign made it run much more smoothly and attract many more artists and visitors. This trend is set to continue as process, strategy and marketing are further improved in 2006.
http://www.affordableart.co.nz/
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72.11
DEAD LETTERS
http://www.publicaddress.net/default,3370.sm#post3370
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72.12
GET THE DRIFT
Drifting Clouds International Film Festival has a new domain name:
www.driftingcloudsfilmfestival.com
Email Contact
administrator@driftingcloudsfilmfmestival.com
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72.13
SOUNDTRACK OF WELLINGTON
Part One…
Click here for a look at this Opening Notes track, sung beautifully by Wellington East Girls College Choir, and set to video of waves and long-lost islands...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4adBOqSdi0
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72.14
CRYPTO-ENJOYMENT
Cryptozoologist G. Bridle presents
Calling the Mirrorical: Deep dive into the deepest depths
Opening Wednesday July 26 6pm
Artist talk Thursday August 10 6pm
July 27 – August 11
G. Bridle is a cryptozoologist; he investigates and studies the mirrorical, an entity which is ‘hidden’ or possibly unattainable. He describes it as a demanding existence requiring perseverance and faith in the face of scepticism, but tirelessly he does not waver from this lifelong vocation. G. Bridle here documents this quest for the mirrorical, an aesthetic spirit, through the portrayal of potential habitats and sites of reference.
For as far back as human records exist we have been eager to load notions of unfeasible purity and spirituality on to creatures, anthropomorphisising their nature. G. Bridle continues in this age-old tradition, searching for a truth in the natural world around him.
G. Bridle lives and works in Wellington. This year he had an article ‘Contemporary Art…. What is it?’ in New Zealand Freemason magazine.
The artist would like to thank the National Aquarium and the Department of Conservation for their support with this project.
Reminder
Fiona Connor’s Inner City Real Estate finishes tomorrow, Friday July 21. There will be a closing party with performances by The Stumps and Birchville Cat Motel starting at 6pm. This will also be your last chance to see the exhibition with additional works installed by Daniel du Bern, Sarah Gruiters, Sarah Hopkinson and Kate Newby.
If you no longer wish to receive e-mails from us, please reply with ‘remove’ in the subject line
Enjoy Public Art Gallery
Level 1, 147 Cuba Street
Wellington
P: 04 384 0174
E: enjoy@enjoy.org.nz
W: www.enjoy.org.nz
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72.15
FUNGAL GROWTH
White Fungus 6 Out Now
Wellington-based arts magazine White Fungus is now on sale throughout New Zealand and around the world. The experimental arts zine, which began as a free photocopied handout in late 2004, is now available at international locations including San Francisco’s City Lights Books, Brisbane’s Institute for Modern Art and Singapore artist-run space the Substation.
Current issue, number six, features an interview with New Zealand Melbourne-based artist Ronnie van Hout and an article on Islanded, an exhibition of New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan art that was held at Wellington’s Adam Art Gallery and is now at Singapore’s Institute for Contemporary Art.
The issue also includes a full-colour comic drawn by Wellington comic artist Tim Bollinger and an article on world-renowned New Zealand experimental sound artist Birchville Cat Motel.
The beginnings of White Fungus trace back to Taiwan where three of its creators, editor Ron Hanson, designer Mark Hanson and music editor Rowan Laing, lived for several years before returning to New Zealand in late 2003. The name of the magazine comes from a brand of canned food discovered in a local Taichung supermarket.
"Taiwan’s been through some pretty rapid economic development," Laing says, "and some of the English branding of products can be a little haphazard or chaotic at best. It started to make us think about branding in general."
The magazine, while focusing on the experimental arts in New Zealand, looks to tap into a wider dialogue. German music magazine Tokafi described White Fungus as being "an active opposition to the information model – instead of feeding you with knowledge, they spark the fire of inspiration and the desire to go out and explore for yourself. It knows that awareness comes into being through active involvement."
For more information on White Fungus, check out: www.whitefungus.com
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72.16
NEW TINAKORI GALLERY
http://www.tinakorigallery.co.nz/newgallery.php
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72.17
DEATH (and love) IN GAZA,
Homage to a young activist.
Death (and love) in Gaza will run from 25 July – 5 August at BATS Theatre Wellington, followed by a season in Christchurch and then Melbourne in 2007. ‘Death (and love) in Gaza’ is homage to young people, to those who question – and to the dignity of the Palestinian people.
In 2003, Rachel Corrie, a twenty three year old American, went to Palestine to work with local communities. While trying to protect a Palestinian family’s home from demolition, Rachel was crushed and killed by an Israeli Army bulldozer.
Since then, Rachel’s vivid descriptions of the two worlds she inhabited and the controversy surrounding her death have seen her become an iconic figure. Writer/director Paul Maunder wrote this tribute, so that Rachel’s journey and those of other young activists can be heard in Aotearoa.
Based on Rachel’s own writings, accounts from other activists and reports of the situation in Palestine, the play is set in Gaza and centres on an imagined relationship with a fellow activist. This is cutting-edge, yet moving political theatre that welcomes a new generation of people with ‘fire in their belly.’
The play stars well-known Kiwi actor Charlie Bleakley, Palestinian Katrina Baylis and ex-pat American actor Elizabeth Marshall. The Wellington City Council Grants Scheme and the University of Canterbury support the production.
For further details, please contact
Katrina Baylis
P.O Box 11085
Wellington
Cell: 021607676 /ph: 04 3896868
katrina@fairytrina.com
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72.18
AT MARY NEWTON GALLERY
http://www.marynewtongallery.com/
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72.19
‘PULSE’ WITH THE NZSQ AND MADELEINE PIERARD
After successful recent performances in Auckland and Christchurch, New Zealand’s premier small classical ensemble, the New Zealand String Quartet, opens its 2006 Wellington Season with HSBC PULSE, a concert of famous and romantic music for the enjoyment of both music aficionados and first-time concert attendees.
Mendelssohn’s romantic String Quartet in E-flat Op 12, written when he was just
20 years old, is an ideal introduction to opera composer Puccini’s Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums) for string quartet, written in 1890 in memory of the Duke of Savoy who became the King of Spain.
Barber’s popular Adagio, familiar from movie soundtracks, is a poignant threnody for our time and gives pause for thought before soprano, Madeleine Pierard, winner of the 2005 Lexus Song Quest, joins the quartet to sing Respighi’s Il tramonto (The Sunset), set to words by Shelley about a night of young love, death, and ultimate peace, followed by Mozart’s haunting ‘Laudate Dominum’ and the famous ‘Alleluia’ from his Exsultate, jubilate. The concert ends with a jazzy touch of Manahattan in an arrangement of Gershwin piano Preludes.
Since winning the 2005 Lexus Song Quest, soprano Madeleine Pierard has become much a sought-after soloist and performer in a variety of roles in opera, recitals and contemporary music. There’s even a suggestion she’d like to try cabaret and get into “one of those dresses”.
www.nzsq.co.nz
HSBC PULSE
Wellingon Hunter Council Chamber, Victoria University of Wellington
8.00pm Monday 14 August 2006
Bookings at Ticketek: (04) 384 3840 (Service fee may apply) www.ticketek.co.nz
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72.20
THE POWER OF THREE
Three Adult Females
Stings, bites and ballads from
Hinemoana Baker, Tyree Robertson and Christine White
Saturday 29 July, 2006
Katipo Cafe, 76 Willis St, Wellington
8pm
$10 door
brought to you by shameless ! promotions and Musicworks NZ Ltd
Katipo spider - the adult female is three times the size of the male.
Hmmm...interesting. Come to Katipo Cafe Willis Street, Saturday 29 July for a night of searing, sexy rock, stinging commentary, biting ballads and warm, red-light romancing from three adult females: Tyree Robertson, Hinemoana Baker and Christine White.
These women are powerful solo artists collaborating for the first time in a no-miss threesome. All three have reputations that precede them. In fact, it wouldn't be going too far, as one local radio DJ did recently, to describe them as 'Their Royal Highnesses'. They've all toured nationally several times and Christine internationally, too. Between them they've released seven studio albums and featured on many beloved NZ compilations (Tuwhare, He Karanga, Kosovo Benefit CD).
Hinemoana's debut album 'puawai' (Jayrem Records), released in 2004, was a finalist for the NZ Music Awards and the APRA Silver Scrolls Award for songwriting. Christine's third album, 'Pirouette', also released in 2004, follows her top-selling acoustic CD 'Pure White' and the full brass-section sound of 'Live at Helen Youngs' - recorded at a 2000 invitation-only concert for National Radio. Tyree Robertson's album 'Gladeye' (Jayrem Records) was released in 2005 and has been embraced from Gore to Gisborne during her recent tour to launch the CD. Tyree is sponsored nationwide by Musicworks and Ibanez guitars. Christine White and Tyree Robertson have grown up in and out of the Auckland music scene. Pop-rock powerhouse Christine recently moved to Wellington from 18 years in the big smoke.
Tyree performed there for many years as the scorching Henrietta Ford, blues-raunch artiste extraordinaire. The 'glorious, unfettered, so-laid-back-she?s-nearly-horizontal' Hinemoana Baker - as described by literary website 'leafsalon' - is a poet and songwriter who's been Wellington-based for longer, currently living on the Kapiti Coast.
So what have other people said about these artists? Here's a
taste:
Christine White:
'Vocal presence, power and songs others would kill for.' - NZ Herald
'Cut from the same cloth as any of Neil Finn's best...delve deeper into this, her first studio produced album, and you will find electronic sounds, drum loops, unusual percussion and edgy guitar that takes her closer to the fractured pop of Aimee Mann...A convincingly strong album that...does at last capture White's songwriting talent.' - NZ Musician
Hinemoana Baker:
'Baker sings of the power of nature in a way which is heartfelt but never cloyingly sentimental, of the fires of love which both warm and sear the heart, and of her heritage...You have been warned of a major talent.' - NZ Herald
'First, foremost, there's the voice. It's a fine wine of a voice, pinot of course - rare, exquisite, the sort found hidden in some wine-snob's cellar. The sort you might buy once in a lifetime, just for a taste of how the other half lives.' - Nelson Evening Mail
Tyree Robertson
'Poetry was dubbed 'the new rock'n'roll' by Tyree Robertson, a singer at the heart of the Wellington scene...she punched out love and hard rock, as expected, making the audience sit up and ask for more.' - NZ Poetry Society Newsletter
'Went to the Songwriter's Showcase at Kitty O'Shea's last night, and I have to say Tyree Robertson has the most kickass voice. During the other performers, people were chatting, vaguely listening, generally a little restless.
Within half a song Tyree had us spellbound. She's gutsy and uncompromising, and she managed to sing a song about angels and miracles without being corny. In fact, it made me go misty...' - You are a china shop I am a bull
(http://www.stonesoup.co.nz/chinashop/archives/000273.html)
Katipo Cafe is red. It's warm, and it does fantastic chocolate cake.
And this is an extraordinary triumverate. As one humble fan
writes: 'As someone who went to Glastonbury Festival every year since I was 5 years old these three are the closest I've come to being knocked off my feet by a raging PJ Harvey in an electric pink lycra catsuit.
'And that's what I want from the ladies. I want real music, I want smack in the face rock n roll and soulful tripping over notes and I wanna see us do it way better than the boys. I want to have women music heroes to pin up on my wall and idolise like I did the boy rockstar - and these are the ladies for the job.
'They'll make you want to play air guitar and swing on the microphone. And not only that - they're crooners, too: words and music lilting over imagery and chords that pull at the heart strings and draw a gallery of images across the mind...Delicious.'
Gig starts 8pm sharp. There'll be a door-charge of $10 - a bargain three-for-one price. More information or details call shameless ! promotions,
(027) 672 3527, or you can linger dangerously on the
web....
http://www.hinemoana.co.nz
http://www.christinewhite.co.nz
http://www.tyreerobertson.co.nz
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72.21
MARK HUTCHINS GALLERY
http://www.mhgallery.co.nz/
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72.22
NEW AUDIENCES
Curtain up for young at art
With theatres and galleries anxious to entice the young, has the time come for Richard Morrison's 'cultural passport'?
People in the arts continually fret about their audiences. Not so much their size as their age and social profile. Most are middle-aged and middle-class. There is no law, of course, against selling tickets to punters who fall into those benighted categories. But they worry the arts world for two reasons. Because most are over 45, the future looks bleak. And because they are mainly middle-class, the argument that the state should subsidise the arts is fatally undermined. Why should working-class taxpayers pay for middle-class pleasures?
Yet if you are in London this summer you might wonder what the problem is. The Proms are packing the Albert Hall with audiences like no other in classical music: open-minded, eager, youthful. At the gloriously revitalised Roundhouse a saucy show called Fuerzabruta is wowing young crowds. Kids Week (actually two weeks, from Aug 18) sees a number of West End theatres offering free or half-price tickets to children. The National Theatre is already crowded with teenagers for its Shell Connections festival of youth theatre. And at the Royal Opera House last Sunday The Marriage of Figaro was watched by 2,000 people of all ages and backgrounds in a performance sponsored by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, a body set up 20 years ago by the philanthropic publisher to bring great culture to those with little money.
Read more
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,14929-2264856,00.html
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72.23
GOOD LUCK, WHEELER
Hello,
After rave reviews and sell out shows around New Zealand Wheeler's Luck is launching itself onto the world by performing in the prestigious Assembly Rooms at the Edinburgh Festival. Please find below a Media Release for their fundraising show. If you are interested in speaking with Nigel Collins please contact me to arrange an interview.
Wheeler's Luck Fundraising Gala
Come along and support the boys as they take on The Edinburgh Festival!
For two nights only
July 25th and 26th
9pm
Bats Theater
Bookings
Bookings 802 4175,
book@bats.co.nz
"Hugely entertaining and quirkily Kiwi ...two brilliantly talented comic actors create not only an entire community with over 400 locals, but also a dance routine, pub brawl, shipwreck and, dizzyingly, a bareback horse race... Energising, hilarious and perceptive, this beautifully honed show is pure theatrical magic"
New Zealand Listener, 2006
"The whole story is told in 80 extraordinary minutes through 55 characters and a pet rock, all created with minimalist wit, great ingenuity and monumental talent by Toby Leach and Nigel Collins.... there is no one you don't know, or know of, in this community."
National Business Review, 2005
"...gloriously performed ...rivalling Ben Hur for excitement but much funnier ...a sure fire hit."
Dominion Post, 2005
Wheeler's Luck is a New Zealand play with a universal theme - what happens to a small beachside town when a big city developer moves in. Will the community stand up and claim the piece of land that has been close to its heart for over a century? Or will they choose a new course for their town? It's the town's decision.
And the entire population of the town is played by just two actors with no costume changes a minimalist set (one ship's bell) in what one reviewer described as "a dynamic explosion of dazzling physicality and vocal dexterity."
Morphing from hard-case pub owner and frustrated town beauty, to nosy rural postie and townie developer, to the Queen of the slot machines and a self-important mayor, Nigel Collins and Toby Leach effortlessly shift from male to female, character to character to create a town meeting with over 400 locals, a dance-off in gumboots, a pub brawl, and a climactic bareback horse race down the town's prize beach.
Wheeler's Luck is a first-time collaboration from New Zealand Drama School graduates, actors Toby Leach and Nigel Collins under the direction of Damon Andrews. The script was written collaboratively.
Angela Meyer
ph 021 405 619
ladybossproductions@gmail.com
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72.24
EVENT 16
Derek Pearson’s Event 16 at
Wellington International Film Festival
Come and see the world premiere of the feature film, Event 16, at the Wellington International Film Festival, Wednesday 26th July, 6:30pm at the Paramount Theatre.
Derek Pearson’s labour of love is Wellington’s first independent, digital-effects heavy sci-fi feature film. Pearson’s time-tripping characters run around Wellington as you have never seen it – 1893 and 2038 look extraordinary here, but so does 2006. City landmarks are reproduced and reconfigured; flat, sterile and slightly menacing: it’s a world at once instantly recognisable and surreal.
Of the 15 digital features submitted by New Zealand filmmakers this year, this was the stand-out: the product of concerted industry and ingenuity, Event 16 plays like an indie film that doesn’t know it’s not a blockbuster.
The film stars: Peter Rutherford, Jocelyn Christian, Ezra Keddell, Julian White, John Porter, Brett Ormsby, James Stewart, Andrea Chapman
Tickets can be purchased from Telecom Wellington Film Festival either through Ticketek or the Box Office. For more information visit www.nzff.co.nz
EVENT 16 screening at the NZ Film Festival 2006
Paramount Theatre, Wednesday 26th July 6:30pm
Paramount Theatre, Friday 28th July, 1:30pm
Derek Pearson will be attending both screenings.
www.event16.com
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72.25
BLACK POWER
at City Gallery
The blackness in Lonnie Hutchinson’s work seduces as the colour of power and potential. Parallel Seductions, part of the Telecom sponsored 2 x 2 Contemporary Projects, follows on thematically from her 2005 Australian exhibition This Show is What I Do. Both exhibitions present drawings alongside sculptural works, each medium different yet speaking across each other and to the colour black.
Hutchinson, of Ngai Tahu and Samoan descent, has been exhibiting regularly in New Zealand and internationally since the late 1990s. In this exhibition, in a flowing confident brushstroke, Hutchinson paints intimate large-scale drawings of women directly onto the gallery walls. Hutchinson’s distinctive iconography is suggestive of a symbolic protection. The work is sensual, seductive and politically charged.
Hutchinson, the first Pacific woman artist to be awarded the Macmillan Brown artist-in-residence at the University of Canterbury (2000), is attracting significant international attention. She features in Pasifika Styles 2006, at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, England. She also has prestigious forthcoming projects in Chile and at the Shanghai Biennale.
Emma Bugden, exhibition curator says, “Hutchinson has talked of a connection between these works and the sex industry, sex slavery and the historical practice of ‘black birding’ (the practice of kidnapping black workers into labour during the 1800s). The drawings reclaim this painful history of servitude, and the aftermath of exoticism which colonialism has carried with it. The women in Hutchinson’s drawings may be seductive, but they’re also strong and knowing in their vampiness. Their enticement of us is strictly on their terms.”
City Gallery Wellington is pleased to present 2 x 2 Contemporary Projects, a series of two exhibitions, each showcasing two contemporary artists’ solo exhibitions – photographer Edith Amituanai and Palmerston North-based painter Kelcy Taratoa in the first and Hutchinson and 2005 Trust Waikato National Contemporary Art Award winner Sriwhana Spong in the second. Fresh and innovative, these artworks and artists are at the forefront of contemporary practices.
Whilst these are four distinct exhibitions, each with their own sets of agendas and concerns, they have been carefully selected by curator Emma Bugden to speak to each other, to generate dialogue. Individually they explore a diverse range of issues from the impact of colonisation on Maori identity to the never-ending resonance of a heritage in a distant land. Together they create a conversation about the complexity of personal and cultural identity in today’s urban and global environment.
Lonnie Hutchinson
Parallel Seductions
2 x 2 Contemporary Projects:
Lonnie Hutchinson/Sriwhana Spong
City Gallery Wellington, 5 August – 24 September 2006
Free Entry
www.city-gallery.org.nz
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72.26
RETURN OF THE KING
Following a sell-out season as part of the New Zealand International Arts Festival, King and Country will return to Wellington at Downstage Theatre in July 2006.
This powerful and evocative drama is based on accounts of ordinary New Zealanders during World War I. From the euphoria of sending troops off to fight in 1914 to the horrors of Passchendaele, King and Country interweaves stories of Mäori and Päkehä soldiers, nurses and civilians with treasured New Zealand war songs and Maori hymns, all sung to the accompaniment of a live local brass band.
Humorous, entertaining, and poignant, King and Country is written by award-winning playwright Dave Armstrong (Niu Sila, The Tutor, Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby) and was inspired by letters and poems written by his grandfather from the Western Front.
“Thanks to the sure hand of a seasoned writer, Armstrong’s six characters take us on life-changing journeys… the thorough research (everything is sourced from first-hand writings), the needle-sharp insightful script and the absolutely authentic realisation of each character by the actors ensure we share their journeys with increasing empathy …” John Smythe theatre review blog www.nbr.co.nz
In a New Zealand first, King and Country was co-commissioned by seven festivals: New Zealand International Arts Festival, Christchurch Arts Festival, Lake Taupo Arts Festival, Nelson Arts Festival, Taranaki Arts Festival, Tauranga Arts Festival and the Southern Lakes Festival of Colour. In each place the show is performed, a local brass band is recruited to take part in the production.
“This innovative combination of home-grown Kiwi reminiscing and local musical expertise certainly reached both mind and heart. Good lively festival fare that will surely be welcomed wherever it plays. In this production it is the emotional impact of the music and the simple directness of the players that sets the experience apart and marks it as a highpoint in the festival.” Christchurch Press
“We are delighted to secure a return season at Downstage Theatre”, says Producer Caroline Armstrong. “King and Country really resonates with New Zealanders so we’re delighted to give the people of Wellington a second chance to see the show. “
Directed by Conrad Newport (Niu Sila), King and Country will also play in Hamilton, West Auckland and Dunedin in 2006. Bookings for the return season open at Downstage this Monday 20 March.
“What Dave Armstrong has done is to create a work which will have a very long performance life in the future. I think in terms of the significance of both the play itself and what it’s doing to our history, that this is going to be seen as an extremely significant play by future theatre historians who’ll see this as a really major moment in New Zealand theatre history.” Paul Bushnell, Festival Review, Radio New Zealand
Thursday 13 July – Saturday 22 July
Monday and Tuesday at 6.30pm Wednesday to Saturday at 8.00pm
Book at Downstage Theatre
Ph 801 6946 or www.downstage.co.nz
Running time: 90 minutes (no interval)
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72.27
SPECIAL SURPRISE TOUR
I, Lukasz Pawel Buda am very excited to announce that there is a tour! (if you can call two gigs a tour)...
LUKE BUDA
LAWRENCE ARABIA
BACHELORETTE
28th JULY, Schooner Tavern, AUCKLAND.
4th AUG, San Fran Bath House, WGTN
Tickets $20 from REAL GROOVY.
It's twenty cause theres three really good ones.
Love you to come.
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72.28
LOOKING FOR SPACE
"studio space wanted". Affordable studio/gallery space wanted in Wellington, prefer CBD or Eastern suburbs. I'm a printmaker with a press in tow.
Contact
kyla@kylacresswell.com
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72.29
LOOKING FOR SALSA
1: Salsadrome & Tango Bar
2: Urban Latino: Tango, Salsa, Samba and Brazillian Funk at Tupelo's
1: Salsadrome Party & Tango Bar: Friday 21 July
Springtime is just around the corner but it's already Summer here at the Wellington Salsadrome!
This comming Friday we heat up the night with the usual spicy hot mix of Salsa, Merengue and other latin beats in Studio 1 plus the Tango Bar features sultry Tango Argentino sounds till late in Studio 2 with guest DJ
If you like plenty of space to dance in, the latest hard out salsa sounds, state of the art sound system and air conditioning!.... then get along to the Salsadrome this Friday.....This Week: DJ Oliver & DJ Zebrita!
Tango Lesson 7:30pm.
Salsa lesson 8:30am.
DJs from 9pm.
Still only $8
The Salsadrome & Tango Bar: Room to move and groove....
http://www.salsadrome.co.nz/
http://calendar.salsadrome.co.nz/
Wellington Performing Arts Centre
36-42 Vivian St.
2: Urban latino!
The salsadrome DJs have teamed up with Tupelo Bar on Edward St to offer and exciting and stylish venue combined with latin sounds about once every 6 weeks.
http://www.tupelo.co.nz/
Tango/Salsa/Merengue/Samba/Brazillian beats Party Tango from 6pm-9pm:
Salsadrome DJs from 9Pm - 12Pm playing salsa/merengue and DJ Topknot playing Brazillian and latin funk sounds from 12 till late.
It's a great venue with excellent cocktails and antipasto bar menu....
Saturday 29 July at Tupelo Bar on Edward St (just off Victoria St oposite Maners Mall)
3: Cool salsa web site
http://www.salsanewzealand.com/
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72.30
TUDOR CONSORTIUM
Dear friends,
At the end of July The Tudor Consort presents a programme of Renaissance and Baroque settings of the Latin Magnificat, including Bach’s magnificent setting in D for baroque instrumentalists and voices:
Baroque and Renaissance Magnificats
Magnificat BWV 243
J S Bach 1685-1750
Pepe Becker, Nicola Edgecombe, Megan Hurnard, Alastair Carey, Ken Ryan
Academia Sanctae Mariae Baroque Orchestra dir. Robert Oliver
Magnificat a Sei Voci
Claudio Monteverdi 1567-1643
Magnificat "Praeter Rerum Seriem"
Orlandi di Lassus 1532?-1594
St Mary of the Angels, Boulcott Street
8pm*, Sunday 30 July 2006
The Magnificat is one of the great Latin hymns of the Catholic Church and has inspired some of music’s finest sacred writing. In this performance we present Bach’s famous D major setting for baroque orchestra and vocalists, plus Monteverdi's fabulous but little-known "alternate" Magnificat from the 1610 Vespers for virtuosic soloists, six part choir and chamber organ, along with Lassus’s powerful unaccompanied setting based on the themes of Josquin des Prez’s magnificent Christmas motet Praeter Rerum Seriem.
With very best regards,
Alastair Carey
Cantor
The Tudor Consort
Details on upcoming concerts, performance archives and reviews, past pre-concert talks, and free MP3s: all ready for download at The Tudor Consort's website.
http://www.tudor-consort.org.nz/
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72.31
THE FAMOUS TWINSET
http://www.myspace.com/twinsetband
http://www.twinset.co.nz/
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72.32
ERRANT SUBMARINE
U Boat Down Under at Downstage
Peter Tait’s wacky new comedy slams into
Downstage Theatre
In the summer of 1945 a German U boat - U 862 - under the command of Heinrich Timms, visited the east coast of New Zealand. Some say one of the sailors came ashore and milked a cow, that he might even have stayed here. Based on this fascinating legend U Boat Down Under hits Downstage Theatre on July 29 for a 9-night season only.
Starved of good food, fresh air and reeking of diesel, the desperate Germans cannot resist racing ashore to milk a cow on the East Coast. But one of them befriends a farmer’s daughter and suddenly small town eyes are being raised. The result is an hilarious yet tender tale of West meets West.
Performed around an ingenious set of scaffolding, this physically demanding comedy is written and directed by Peter Tait and features an original music score by Billy Kristian and songs from German band Schelmish.
U Boat Down Under
Directed by Peter Tait
With Jo Davison (Outrageous Fortune, Orange Roughies, Shortland Street)
Michael Lawrence (Toy Love, The Price of Milk, Decadence)
Donna Akersten (Honour, The Birthday Party, Bread and Roses)
Christopher Brougham (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Lost Children, Shortland Street, John McLeary (Gimme Shelter, Open House, The Anglophiles)
and Peter Tait
Director's Notes
Our history is a mine of possible dramas. I’ve chosen a rural myth that has many variations to it’s theme; the German sailor who came ashore and stayed in the years between Lovelock and Snell when New Zealanders were renowned for being good at running around in circles.
I've always been a bit of a rugby fan. One time at an airport I introduced myself to Josh Kronfeld. We got talking and I explained that I'd based my Shagrat (the Uruk-hai character from Return of the King) on him. He seemed amused by the story. Kronfeld, the character in my story, comes ashore with a football. The world inside a U boat is a claustrophobic one, there's no opportunity to kick a football around. In this year of the world cup where the Germans probably played the best football it seems fitting we should look at the German influence in our country. Names like Vogels, Von Tempsky, and of course Kronfeld come to mind.
U Boat Down Under was originally intended as a film but ended up being premiered at the Bay of Islands Arts Festival this year. I've managed to pool together a strong cast here in Wellington and I’m sure it'll be a show that's funny, invigorating and challenging.
Dates: 27 July – 5 August
When: 6.30pm Mon & Tues, 8pm Wed-Sat
Duration: approx. 1 hour 55 minutes including interval
Where: Downstage Theatre
Bookings
Phone: 801 6946
Web: www.downstage.co.nz
Email: bookings@downstage.co.nz
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72,33
THE TOASTMAN COMETH
Between July 23 and August 13 of this year Maurice Bennett (aka. The
Toastman) is set to wow Wellingtonians with his first official solo exhibition. Bennett, known nationally and internationally for his pixilated portraits of celebrities made from slices of toast, has found new inspiration in which to develop his toast art. One could say he is on the path to becoming a “Toast Master”. His new work draws heavily from both his natural and cultural environment, the South Coast of Wellington, New Zealand and the Pacific. His knowledge of toast, as an artistic medium, has allowed him to explore new ways of manipulating it using a gas fired torch, whereas previously toasters were employed.
Visually Bennett’s work is striking for its unassuming simplicity and clarity of message. It ranges from variations on Pacific tapa cloth designs to slices of toast burnt with curved lines and arranged in a way that conveys his view on Wellington’s inner city by-pass.
Found objects are creeping into Bennett’s work. Sticks, pebbles and the odd well placed starfish have become part of his ocular vocabulary, not just for their inherent beauty, but also and perhaps more importantly, as a means of positioning himself within his physical surroundings.
The combination of these ideas allows one to see the man and his way of thinking. Bennett’s work, once perceived as quizzical or even comical, has matured and with his new found freedom and flexibility with this medium he can express his deeper creative impulses.
Maurice Bennett’s work can be viewed at South Coast Gallery. 302 The Esplanade, Island Bay, Wellington. 04-971-8151 or 027-543-0418 or info@southcoastgallery.co.nz
Gallery Hours: 10.30 am - 6 pm WED – SUN
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72.34
WHAT A CHERRY
Cherry’s Gemstones and Actor/Model
This spring season get your act together for noisy pop rockers Actor/Model (Melborne) and Cherry’s Gemstones (Wellington) as they have a fierce tour planned to strut their rock thing out in New Zealands main centres.
Your September tour catalogue will include the sizzling punkedalic ladies of Cherry’s Gemstones. They’ll bring you out of this winter’s blizzard with their stunning first video clip release for single ‘Ruby Rewind’ off their debut EP ‘Love in the dreamscape matrix reality’, which was recently snapped up all over the country in May on their Nationwide whistle stop tour.
Not just a flash in the pan are Wonder Women Cherry (guitar/lead vocals), Greta (drums/vocals) and Heleyni (vocals) of Cherry's Gemstones, who proved they could act the part in May when they featured at the Music Month Launch in the Wellington Town Hall with The Bleeders and Dejavoodo (screened mid month on C4), and performed live to air on Radio Active 89FM. The heart of this group pumps strong as they ramp out the cat walk for their September tour with Actor/Model.
Like most Actor/Models, Ricky French, Karen Anson and Philip Smilie are extremely talented and can walk and talk at the same time. In 2004 they decided to follow in the footsteps of fellow Actor/Models Milla Jovovich and Naomi Campbell and become 'musicians'.
A three-piece band with a lo-fi, high energy philosophy, Actor/Model (pronounced Actor Slash Model) utilise cheap toy keyboards, synths, old beat-up guitars and inventive, pounding drums to construct simple, beat-driven pop songs with an experimental noise punk slant. But it’s classy stuff. They are catchy as fuck and put on a supreme live show. The dueling guitar and synth will take your head off. Like Cherry’s Gemstones, they write ‘big’ songs.
This September brings the band’s second trip to New Zealand. Their five-show tour last July culminated in a memorable final show at a packed-out Happy, supporting Die! Die! Die! The guitar amp broke after the second song, leaving guitarist Ricky to abandon his instrument and sing the next song swinging from the lighting rig. It was the final song of their show, and very much a case of leaving the audience wanting more. This September they return.
Actor/Model are experiencing a rapid rise amongst the mass of bands in their hometown of Melbourne. There’s quite simply no band like them. Two of the members, guitarist Ricky, and drummer Philip are New Zealand ex-pats, and cut their teeth playing in bands such as Rawer, Two Lane Black Top and The Inkling. Synth genius Karen completes the lineup. The band have just recorded their debut EP, and their first single, ActorSlashModel, has already been playlisted by Wellington’s Radio Active.
"There is a definite narrative at work here, and one forged by solid legato keyboards, textured drumming and nimble guitars all working as one. Its a careful operation, and it really works. If you listened to ActorSlashModel on your iPod, I reckon you'd walk to the beat.”
- http://www.melbs.org/
“An arsenal of heavenly pop hits…”
- Chris Girdler, “Beat” Magazine
As well as selling their EP, Cherry’s Gemstones’ video clip for ‘Ruby Rewind,’ directed by Sally Tran, is to be lauched at the Wellington show. The ‘Ruby Rewind’ clip will be part of a collectable DVD featuring the single, the clip and Cherry’s Gemstones still shots as well as insider information on the band.
Of the track ‘Ruby Rewind’ Cherry says, ‘It’s a tribute to my great aunt Ruby who committed suicide after finding out her husband had cheated. The words “won’t live my life in rewind” are about not living in the past and letting others determine your fate. The chorus is quite hopeful and is about living life to the full. When I wrote the song I could almost feel her sadness. Ruby lived in a time when very few women received recognition for anything.’
Cherry’s Gemstones defy genre bracket placement, yet with just one listen the tunes are stuck in people’s heads. Whether you like Metal or Pop, Grunge or Opera, this band plays it all for you in one meshed symphony. It’s unlikely that these ladies will be lost in the window of time. Comparisons of Cherry Gemstone to P.J Harvey, Patti Smith, ‘Belly’s’ Tanya Donelly, Diamanda Galas combined with the ambition of Madonna have already seen them recognised as a strong emerging talent.
http://www.myspace.com/cherrysgemstones
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/mywellington/people-city/cheerygemstones.htm
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72.35
THE PLAY’S THE THING
The 9th New Zealand Young Playwrights Competition is on. If you’re between the ages of 16-24 on December 8th and are interested in writing for theatre, NZYPC could launch your playwriting career. Past winners include Paul Rothwell, Rochelle Bright, Thomas Sainsbury, Zoe Deverick, Sonal Patel and Kathryn van Beek.
Scripts must be minimum of 30 minutes in length. Deadline is December 8th 2006. For more information or a registration from, please email scripts@playmarket.org.nz
We’re offering a special Wellington playwriting workshop to kick start NZYPC applications at Bats Theatre, Saturday August 5th, 2-5pm, supported by Valley Print. Places are limited. To register, email scripts@playmarket.org.nz or ph 04 382 8462.
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72.36
I SAID, THE PLAY’S THE THING
Adam Playreading Series
Organised by Downstage Theatre Society, Playmarket and Downstage Theatre with the support of the Adam Foundation, these readings bring great plays to the Wellington stage. The aim of the readings is to provide a bridge between new New Zealand plays and their eventual production in Wellington. Congratulations to these four successful applicants.
His Mother’s Son
By Leilani Unasa
Sunday 13 August 3pm
The Cape
By Vivienne Plumb
Sunday 20 August 3pm
The Human Engine
By Philip Braithwaite
Sunday 27 August 3pm
Finding Murdoch
By Margot McRae
Sunday 3 September 3pm
Tickets are $8.
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72.37
WRITERS ON MONDAYS
At City Gallery
Just over fifty poets, playwrights, novelists, non-fiction writers and filmmakers from New Zealand, Ireland and Australia will take part in the free Writers on Mondays series starting running every Monday from 1-2 pm at City Gallery Wellington until 2 October. The July events are listed below: future readings will feature poets Bernadette Hall and Cilla McQueen, Irish physicist/poet Iggy McGovern, Jane Stafford and Mark Williams on the literature of ‘Maoriland’, and the series concludes with Australian writers Ken Bolton and Cath Kenneally. Writers on Mondays is presented by the International Institute of Modern Letters in partnership with City Gallery Wellington. For the full programme, see
www.vuw.ac.nz/modernletters/activities/monday-writers.aspx
31 July Eagle vs. Shark: Taika Waititi & Loren Horsley
Taika Waititi has been an actor, comedian, painter, photographer, writer and, perhaps most famously, director of the Oscar-nominated short film, Two Cars, One Night and the internationally acclaimed Tama Tu. Actor/director Loren Horsley has appeared in The Insiders Guide to Happiness, The Strip and Kombi Nation, and shares the writing credit with Waititi for the forthcoming feature film Eagle vs Shark. They talk about making their debut feature with filmmaker Lee-Jane Bennion-Nixon.
All Writers on Mondays events take place at City Gallery, Civic Square, Wellington, at 1pm. Admission is free.
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72.38
SPACE HERE
Small office to lease at Wellington Arts Centre
Suitable for one to two people
$90 per week (excluding GST)
Phone Carol on 385 1929
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72.39
FEATURE RESTORATION PROJECT
The Telecom 35th Wellington Film Festival presents the first results from a significant new venture by the New Zealand Film Archive with the screening of new prints of three classic feature films. Ngati, Patu! and Bad Blood have been reassembled and restored by Archive staff, Geoff Rogers and Louise McCrone, and laboratory specialists at Park Road Post. Later in the year, DVDs of three titles from the same era will be released by the New Zealand Film Commission.
The pilot phase of the Feature Restoration Project received funding from the Ministry for Culture and Heritage in last year’s Budget. The Project aims to find and preserve the feature films from the renaissance of New Zealand’s feature film industry in the 1970s and 1980s and prepare many of them for release on DVD. While less than 30 years has passed since these films were made, some have almost as many problems as much older films in the collection.
From its founding in 1981 the Film Archive told everyone who would listen that the country’s earliest film heritage was at risk of ending up as dust. These days the battle to find pre-1950 films made on cellulose nitrate film stock and transfer them to modern safety film is all but over. The Archive has saved around 1,000 New Zealand titles from oblivion and sent hundreds more back to their country of origin for preservation.
Unfortunately, the job didn’t end there. While nitrate film’s highly unstable chemistry and propensity for bursting into flames made it a candidate for urgent treatment, no film is forever. More modern stock also has its problems, with colours that fade and chemical deterioration of its own. Most threatening of all, though, is the tendency of some film makers to neglect their own creations. Films made as recently as 10 years ago – even feature films – can end up poorly stored, mislabeled or completely lost.
In 2002 Geoff Murphy, director of Goodbye Pork Pie and Utu, approached the Archive with a problem. The expanding DVD market was opening up opportunities for re-release of classic New Zealand movies, but it was also exposing just how many of them were incomplete or missing. His own films from the 1980s had been deposited into the Archive over the intervening years, but vital elements were missing or had been handed over in uncertain condition. He was better off than most; many titles from the period were not in the Archive at all and the majority of those that had been deposited were without the master negatives, intermediate materials or sound components needed to re-create them.
With government support and cooperation from the Film Commission, producers and laboratories, a full list of films from the era 1971-1989 was drawn up, documenting the whereabouts and condition of essential elements.
The Archive set about analysing its holdings and searching the world for absent items. A great deal of the material has now been located and brought together in the Archive’s vaults.
The task of restoring the films will take years and is heavily dependent on funding to meet the considerable technical costs involved, but if it can be done a major part of New Zealand’s cinema history will be saved for future generations.
- Frank Stark
The Films
Ngati (1987)
Described as the first feature film written and directed by Maori, Ngati was released to enormous critical and public acclaim, attracting international attention as a landmark in New Zealand cinema. The film features particularly notable contributions by writer Tama Poata and actor Wi Kuki Kaa, both of whom subsequently played major roles in the development of the Film Archive.
Patu! ( 1983)
Shot on the streets and behind the scenes by a number of independent cinematographers during the Springbok rugby tour of New Zealand in 1981, Merata Mita’s Patu! was summed up by the promotional line: “you may love it, you may hate it, you may even be in it”. The film caused an echo of the national upheaval of the tour itself when it was released two years later, and 25 years on the intensity of the confrontations it depicts is still extraordinary.
Bad Blood (1981)
This film was a co-production with the UK, but deals with a New Zealand event almost as disturbing in its time as the Springbok Tour – Stanley Graham’s shooting of seven men, including four policemen, on the West Coast of the South Island in 1941. While the film had a strong impact at the time of its release, it had been virtually lost to New Zealand until recently traced to a film laboratory in England.
Los Olvidados (1950)
Along with the three New Zealand features the Archive has collaborated with FIAF colleagues to secure a print of Los Olvidados (Mexico 1950) to screen at the Auckland and Wellington Festivals in a beautiful, brand new print courtesy of Filmoteca de la Unam (Mexico). Set amid the slums of Mexico City, the film follows a roving pack of abandoned street kids as they struggle to survive a typical day. Los Olvidados was Luis Bunuel’s comeback film, after two decades of virtual exile by the hostile response to L’Age d’Or, and won him the Best Director award at Cannes.
Shorts
Look out too, for five short films from the Archive’s collection which will screen along side features in the Festivals in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin. The selection includes a newsreel item introducing the caravan – “the modern home on wheels”, the theme song and pledge of The Young New Zealanders’ Club and an advertising featurette urging people to enter the 1963 Young Miss and Young Mister New Zealand contest.
For further information or to arrange high resolution stills or broadcast betas please contact
Rebecca Adams
Publicist
Nga Kaitiaki O Nga Taonga Whitiahua
The New Zealand Film Archive
PO Box 11449 Wellington
Aotearoa, New Zealand
ph +64 4 384 7647 x 823
fax +64 4 382 9595
http://www.filmarchive.org.nz
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72.40
REAL
At Mezzo-space
Main Library
Jewel encrusted, endearing creatures; soft toys as you have imagined
them: a precious treasure!
REAL is an exhibition of contemporary jewellery by Vaune Mason. The pieces, which range from small, wearable dolls to larger soft animal-like figures (which form housing for the jewellery itself), investigate the sense of life that dolls impart and the relationships that children can have with their dolls. This is a show for children as well as adults, which Vaune hopes will open up the contemporary jewellery arena to a younger audience.
The works Vaune says will more likely be worn by adults, but, she hopes that “inside those adults there’s a child that recalls their favorite doll and the adventures they had together!”
*REAL will be showing at the Mezzanine Gallery in Wellington Central Library July 18- August 6.*
Vaune Mason is a third year Visual Arts Student at Whitireia Community Polytechnic, majoring in Jewellery. Her work often has an unexpected playful quality to it, using wind-up toy mechanisms and hidden compartments.
Vaune has worked with children as a storyteller for over ten years, (you may have met her in her Fairy Guise as Crystabelle) and she says: this exhibition is the culmination of a desire to combine two parts of her creativity: children and art.
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72.41
GLOBAL GRASSROOTS FILM
http://www.kotahiao.org/
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72.42
MONEY MONEY
Funding:
The next round for Council grants closes at 5pm 31 July. Applications can be made to any of four grant pools (Social, Cultural, Economic and Environmental). For more information see: www.Wellington.govt.nz/services/grants
For an excellent guide to making grant applications see The Grant Seekers guide to successful funding applications on: http://www.trustwaikato.co.nz/grants.page
Insurance:
Concerned about your group’s liability as event organisers? See an excellent (and short) summary about the different types of insurance options that are available in:
Good Practise Guidelines, Hutt City Council, on: http://www.huttcity.info/council/services/community/gp-guidelines.html
Permission for road and footpath closures:
If you are running an event that requires road or footpath closures, then you will need to notify and get special permission from the Council.
See http://www.wellington.govt.nz/services/eventplnsup/organising/organising.html for more information.
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72.43
SHEPARD CLASSIC AT BATS
High Kick Productions Presents
FOOL FOR LOVE
By Sam Shepard
Directed by Julie Noever
BATS Theatre
27 July – 5 August, 9pm
BOOKINGS: 04 802 4175 or book@bats.co.nz
Tequila, a ten gauge shotgun, burnt-out plains and broken love in the American Mid-west collide in Sam Shepard’s ferocious play Fool for Love.
May and Eddie thrash out their dysfunctional love story in a beat-up motel room at the edge of the Mojave Desert, entangled in their tumultuous past and a secret that binds and separates them until love and the terrible truth explodes.
Director Julie Noever, (The Cottage), spent a large portion of her childhood in Atlanta, the heartland of southern USA. This connection to America, her obsession with Americana, cowboys and the belief that NZ needs more country music compelled Julie to direct this relentless and surreal dark comedy.
Sam Shepard is one of America's leading contemporary playwrights. In his plays he demonstrates his interest in popular American culture and the folklore of the American South-west: through the use of imaginative language, composed of slang, scientific jargon, B-movie dialogue, and Rock and Roll idioms; as well as a stage peopled with farmers, devils, witch-doctors, rock stars, space men, cowboys, gangsters and other American stereotypes.
Fool for Love is brought to life by the talented cast of Rob Lloyd, K.C. Kelly, Jade Daniels and Rachel Forman. Rachel studied in America at the prestigious Black Nexxus Actor's Studio while K.C. Kelly is a well known thespian from the US, who teaches at Toi Whakaari, New Zealand Drama School. The play’s designer, Leo Gene Peters, is another versatile talent from America, now emerging in the Wellington theatre community.
“The proper response to love is to accept it. There is nothing else to do” – Archbishop A. Bloom
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72.44
FILM FESTIVAL TIME
In Case You Forgot
http://www.nzff.telecom.co.nz/region_home.asp?RegionID=1&EventID=10
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72.45
FILM FESTIVAL REVIEWS
Thanks to Lumiere Reader
http://www.lumiere.net.nz/reader/item/69
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72.46
HELLO LLAREGGUB
Under Milk Wood
12 August – 9 September
Mon –Thu 6.30pm, Fri & Sat 8pm
Bookings: 04 801 6946 or www.downstage.co.nz
‘Look. Look. Listen. Come closer now.
Only you can hear and see behind the eyes of the sleepers.’
Under Milk Wood is a hilarious and irreverent midnight-to-midnight prowl through Llareggub, a small fictional seaside town in Wales full of raucously scandalous goings-on, where eccentricity is tolerated, sin is forgiven and love and lust are nurtured - or at least dreamt about.
A polyphonic evocation of a day in the life of an imaginary small Welsh seaside town, Thomas' play - "a green leaved sermon on the innocence of men" - visits in turn the inhabitants of Llareggub (try reading it backwards) while they sleep, when they wake and go about their daily activities, as the night falls. Balancing a rhythmic, densely poetic language with a nuanced ear for the musical cadences of speech, the play's gentle, affectionate charm and humour resonate to create a deeply textured portrait of a community responding almost mythically to the awakening of spring.
‘I’ll sin until I blow up!’
As Under Milk Wood originated as a radio play the design elements will pay homage to this history whilst lending strong theatrical magic. The space, the performers and the light will transform a play for the ears into a play for the eyes as well. “Lighting is the lover to poetry, and Thomas' words connect the audience to both their musical and intellectual minds.” Says lighting designer Lisa Maule
Actor Ray Henwood attended Swansea Grammar School in Wales, (Thomas’ old school), and was a senior pupil the year Thomas passed away. Henwood remembers, “The school library was invaded by reporters eager to search the old copies of the school magazine, which Thomas had edited. Being editor he couldn’t have two many poems with his name on and he was not above publishing others under pseudonyms”.
‘I will warm the sheets like an electric toaster.
I will lie by your side like the Sunday roast.’
Dylan Thomas: Thomas is widely regarded as one of the Twentieth Century's most influential lyrical poets, amongst the finest of all time. His acclaim is partly due to his hallmark of idiosyncratic and surreal introspection, partly by his startling imagery that is brilliant and inspirational. His most famous poem is arguably ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ containing the line, "Rage, rage against the dying of the light" - an impassioned account of the scene which haunted him at his father's deathbed. Thomas liked to boast about his drinking. During an incident on November 3, 1953, Thomas exclaimed "I've had 18 straight whiskies; I think this is a record". He collapsed on November 9, 1953 at the White Horse Tavern, after drinking heavily while in New York on a promotional tour; Thomas later died aged 39.
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72.47
CITY, SEA, MUSIC
Wellingtonia Live
Free Sunday afternoon concerts at the Museum of City and Sea
This programme has been running for 3 weeks now, and continues over the next 5 weeks. This super programme of local performers has been organised by Anne McGregor as part of the Museum's public programme for this winter.
Sunday 30July
12.30pm Whirligigs
1.30pm Full Fathom
2.30pm The Beat Girls
Museum Website gives a short resume on each group. It's under Wellingtonia Live.
www.museumofwellington.co.nz
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72.48
SONIC BOOM
Thanks to computer technology, sonic art is a multi-hued reality
For the past hour I have listened to a man carefully describe the sleeve covers of a rather large record collection. I have not gone on a date with the most tedious music geek on the planet. This, my friends, is sonic art.
Every Monday until September 14, for one hour the art radio station Resonance 104.4FM is turning its airspace into gallery space for works of sound art. This is a phrase that would usually send me screaming in search of a silent room, but this velvet-voiced description of unnamed album sleeves by the graphic design collective åbäke, is weirdly engaging. You never hear the album title; it’s like being at a virtual pub quiz (which is how it was recorded).
Anna Colin, who curated the series, was particularly intrigued by the radio format and the way it could be used to create artworks. “Most of the artists we have used usually make visual work. I’m interested in how they translate their practice to this format.”
The works in the series avoid the conventions of radio, the clichéd devices and rhythms that structure it, and instead try to make something new. Many of the programmes will go out live.
But sound art is not just restricted to avant-garde radio. Its origins lie in the early 20th century, with the Futurist painter and musician Luigi Russolo. In his manifesto The Art of Noises (1913), he wrote: “This musical evolution is paralleled by the multiplication of machines.”
Read more
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,585-2274899,00.html
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72.49
TURBINE SPINS
A good southerly blast has reminded us that it’s time to call for submissions of fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction for the 2006 issue of Turbine, the online literary journal published by the Institute of Modern Letters. The submission deadline is 20 October. Back issues and submission guidelines are available at www.vuw.ac.nz/turbine
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72.50
MUSIC NEWS
For those interested in the Wellington music scene: issue #2 of Exposure Lifestyles is hitting the streets now. It's a FREE A5-size journal of interviews and photographs of local musicians and bands, edited by Pat Shepherd. The release party is at The Matterhorn, Tues. 25th July, with the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra performing (gold coin entry). The magazine issues are also viewable as PDFs on www.exposurelifestyles.com
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72.51
ART WITH CLASS
Wellington College are hosting an art auction on Friday 11 August, 7.30pm in the Breirley Theatre. This will feature work by some of Wellington's finest artists plus music and other entertainment. There is an entry fee of $10.00 which will buy you a glass of wine and the opportunity to put your money where your mouth is. See Michael Hawkins, Studio 2 for further information.
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72.52
VIDEO-MAKERS ALERT
MAGMA directors are calling for entries to this DVD format festival in Rotorua, the first of its kind in the region. MAGMA is a four day short film festival programme, open to all filmmakers, New Zealand and worldwide. There is no restriction on age of the filmmaker or on the age of the film!
“Digital technology has opened the door to so much more visual and sound arts and information,” says festival co director, Juliet Boone.
“We are taking that opportunity, to increase the range of arts available to the people of our community.”
Categories open for entry are: documentary (time limit of 30 minutes), adventure and sport (also 30 minutes), music (7 minute limit), and with drama, dance/experimental, animation, and comedy (with limits of 20 minutes in length). The MAGMA Festival audience will be asked to select their favourite film as well.
"We also have a special category with the theme of MUD, to signify the festivals link and homage to Rotorua" says Ms Boone. " Entries in this category must make some reference to MUD in a five minute short film".
The MAGMA Showcase section will screen previous award winning films. Entries to this category are free (with NZ Classification in place).
This is the festivals first year of celebrating short film and we are planning to kick it off with a fusion of local and regional performance artists.
MAGMA will feature guest speakers from NZ¹s film industry. Awards will be presented on the final evening of the festival. Filmmakers are invited to keep an eye on the MAGMA website for details on prizes and guest speakers.
Entries close on August 18, 2006.
MAGMA SHORT FILM FESTIVAL
Shambles Theatre, Rotorua
November 8-11, 2006
www.magmafilm.org.nz
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72.53
CALL FOR PLAYS
Playmarket has completed a cycle of Playwrights’ Studio 2005 that saw writers meet for 10 weeks then present excerpts from their work. These were presented in Auckland at THE EDGE© and in Wellington at Downstage to great success. Write Out Loud, the Dunedin Studio readings, will be presented on July 22nd and 23rd. It’s now time to start up Playwrights Studio 2006. Deadline for applications is 27th July. Classes commence September 2006.
In the four main centres under the guidance of a leading playwright and tutor, writers will meet one evening a week over a 10-week period as part of a small dynamic group of active playwrights. Using nominated great classic, modern and contemporary plays as a base for discussion, reading and exercises, The Studio is aimed at giving playwrights community, an opportunity to develop their craft skills through tinkering under the bonnet to examine how great plays do and don’t tick, and exploring their own individual voices. At the end of the 2006 Studio writers will be given the opportunity to write a draft of a full-length play for selection for presentation in a New Zealand professional theatre, as part of our National Script Development Programme in partnership with STAMP at THE EDGE©, Auckland, and other leading producers nationally.
Application Process: Applications must be made in writing (by email or mail) no later than 27th July 2006 to scripts@playmarket.org.nz Your application needs to be any play you’ve written of at least an hour in length.
The Studio is suitable for active playwrights of either strong potential or experience. Selection will be based on the strength of your application and availability of places. Places are limited.
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72.54
ON THE TUBE
Triangle Television Wellington is right on target to broadcast live to the capital city in early August. The free-to-air channel, which has been operating successfully in Auckland for almost eight years, is thrilled with the tremendous response it has so far received from Wellingtonians. Triangle Wellington will be unique to the area and will offer a variety of local content together with international news, information and entertainment programmes.
The licence to broadcast in Wellington was granted in 2004, and Triangle Television has been working since then to ensure the region will receive the greatest possible coverage. Though Wellington¹s geography poses major transmission problems, reception will reach most of Greater Wellington and the Hutt region and it is expected that this will extend even further later this year when the station is included in the offerings available on the Saturn cable network.
Triangle Television Chief Executive Officer Jim Blackman says the response from Wellington so far has been outstanding: ³We are delighted that, at such an early stage of its history, Triangle Television Wellington already has programme-providers whose shows are on target for screening when broadcasting begins in early August. And there are others who are working at present on programmes that will go to air later in the year. The Wellington station will be an excellent alternative to mainstream channels.
The opening line-up of local programmes will include a look at the workings of a local council in the city’s life, a programme on Wellington’s Baha’i community, and capital-based Kiwi Pro Wrestling.
The station will also screen some programmes that already have a proven track record on Triangle Television and are relevant to a Wellington audience. These include PlanetTV which focuses on politics, social issues and environmental matters, and “Darpan - The Mirror” which offers insights into local topics.
Jim Blackman says the station will work with prospective Wellington programme-makers, giving them support to take their stories to air. Potential programme providers should contact Triangle Television’s Station Manager, Callum MacGilvray, on 0800 874 888. Triangle expects to open a local office in the near future.
An advance launch, which marked Triangle Television¹s intention to start broadcasting, took place in March at Weltec City Campus and was attended by a broad representation of Wellingtonians, including members of the diplomatic community, MPs, councillors, representatives of community groups and government departments, news media and the film and television industry.
The Hon. Judith Tizard, host for the launch, underlined the important contribution that Triangle Television makes to the communities in which it broadcasts. Newspaper publisher, Michael Horton - a Triangle Television supporter since its inception in the 1990s - encouraged Wellingtonians to “tell their story” by making programmes for screening on Triangle Television Wellington.
“I am struck by how different our well-supported advance launch in Wellington was to our somewhat tenuous one nearly eight years ago in Auckland, and that confirms for me that regional television has grown up,” Jim Blackman says.
Triangle Television¹s main mast for Wellington will be at Kaukau on UHF Channel 40, with other transmission points at Fitzherbert (UHF Channel 41) and Baxter¹s Knob (UHF Channel 41).
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72.55
ACCESSORISE!
Wellington City Council is calling for design submissions for the parade which will happen on Friday 22 September and is this year themed Excessive Accessories in Motion.
Artists and designers need to come up with an idea based on the theme and submit a sketch. Those selected to be part of the parade will be awarded a materials grant of $75.
Wellington City Council Events Co-ordinator Melody Scales says that last year's parade showcased more than 60 works accepted through the design submission process. "There were wonderful, wacky works such as a giant cellphone, a two-metre long moustache, giant crocodile shoes, and an inflatable handbag parading through the streets of Wellington," she says.
Excessive Accessories in Motion is a new slant on last year's theme. The submission panel would like to see accessories found in the natural world that enable motion like wings, tails and fins. Or they could be exaggerated items worn on the body that would help a person move such as huge skates, a skateboard, bike or even a wheelbarrow. The criteria has been made deliberately broad and includes ideas such as flight, sail, wheel and swim.
Suzie Moncrieff, Founder/Director of WOW, says the street parade is a chance for Wellington's artistic community to show off the wealth of creativity in the city. "Last year was stunning. I can't wait to see what Wellington will produce this year."
Prizes will be presented to the three top entrants on parade day, they include WOW show tickets, dinner for two before the show and WOW merchandise.
Mayor Kerry Prendergast says the parade is a fitting way to kick off the city's WOW celebrations. "We're New Zealand's creative capital for a reason – there are many people with amazing skills. We're encouraging as many people as possible to submit a design and get into the spirit of the parade."
Design submissions are due Friday 14 July. Entry forms are available online.
http://www.wellington.govt.nz/services/events/wow/pdfs/exaccessories-regform.pdf
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72.56
FLICKERING NEW FILMS
Wellington Arts Centre is now offering a regular FILM NIGHT, to showcase media arts projects and video/film in progress.
FILM NIGHT offers emerging film makers the opportunity to show their work to an audience in an informal environment. Films can be in any genre, from experimental to animation. Directors are encouraged to discuss their work with the audience, gain constructive feedback, stimulate debate and develop ideas for future projects.
If you or your organisation are interested in submitting a film for viewing at the Wellington Arts Centre GALLERY’s FILM NIGHT, please send a cover letter, including contact details with your film on miniDV or as a quicktime file, to the Wellington Arts Centre, 61 Abel Smith Street, Wellington, Attn: Gallery Co-ordinator.
Interested? Contact arts@wcc.govt.nz
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72.57
FULL SCHEDULE OF ARTS APPOINTMENTS
http://www.artscalendar.co.nz/
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72.58
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
EXPANDING DOCUMENTARY – 2006
Exploring Documentary in Aotearoa/New Zealand
22 – 24 September 2006
The sixth annual biennial documentary conference will be held in Wellington, a collaboration between the host Massey University and the University of Auckland, in association with The New Zealand Film Archives, Screen Director's Guild, and the DocNZ Film Festival. The conference format will consist of two days that will interweave documentary presentations by filmmaker and photographers, along with academic papers. Evening screening events will be held at the NZ Film Archive. The conference will also include participation with Australian and New Zealand commissioning editors and New Zealand commissioning and funding bodies.
DOCUMENTARY WORKS
Makers and artists are invited to show documentary works still in production (rough-cuts, representative takes, edited sequences, etc.) or, if completed, works that have not yet shown widely. An open discussion session will follow each presentation. In addition to film and video works, we will also feature documentary works in photography and related art-genres. We welcome projects from every aspect of the documentary spectrum – community, activist, indigenous, mainstream, oral history, avant-garde, experimental, art-house, contemporary art, etc. – but each will be chosen for their particular and unique quality. We are looking for exciting, innovative works. The final line-up of projects will be selected through a peer-review process. Currently we are soliciting presentation proposals (250 words max.) along with visual documentation for consideration.
DOCUMENTARY PAPERS
In addition to documentary works, we are also interested in selected written presentations that continue debates and discussions around documentary theory and practices. We are seeking papers from academics and others writing on documentary from a variety of perspectives. Papers may focus on documentary within film studies, history, anthropology, cultural studies, art history, media studies, fine art studies, etc. The final selection of papers will be determined through a peer-review process. Currently we are soliciting abstracts (250 words) for consideration.
EVENING SCREENINGS & VISUAL ARTWORKS
In addition to the documentary work presentations and papers, we are also planning programmed screening events and possible exhibition. The nightly screening events will showcase projects that have been recently completed. Participants from the 2004 Expanding Documentary conference are invited to submit their now-completed works for these screenings. Photographers and visual artists are invited to submit works for possible exhibition during the conference. This may include still works, and/or time-based works. The final selection will be determined through a peer-review process. Currently we are soliciting abstracts (250 words max.) along with visual documentation for consideration.
Final date for all submissions: AUGUST 7 2006 (no extensions)
Notification of acceptance: September 1, 2006
Please send all proposals to:
Bronwyn Smith
Massey University
School of Fine Arts
Private Box 756
Wellington
For information please contact: b.smith@massey.ac.nz
http://expanding-documentary-conference-2006.blogspot.com
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72.59
VISUAL ART GIGS
Natasha Conland is the new curator of contemporary art at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki. She has moved on from Te Papa where she got straight to work in 2001 commissioning major new sculpture by Gregor Kregar, Caroline Rothwell and Derrick Cherrie. She replaces Robert Leonard, who has transtasmanned to the IMA in Brisbane. New Zealand’s game of musical art chairs expands. Greg Burke, former director of the Govett Brewster in New Plymouth, is now director of the Power Plant in Toronto. Simon Rees, who did a stint as a curator at the Govett Brewster, is now at the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius, Lithuania, where the other curators have names like Dovydaityte. He is co-curator with Magda Kardasz (curator of the Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw) of High Tide: new currents in art from Australia and New Zealand. Tobias Berger, former director of Artspace in Auckland, is now curator-director of Para/Site Art Space in Hong Kong. In 2005, while at Te Papa, Conland was curator of the et al installation at the Venice Biennale (of which more soon), and she pitched successfully for the internationally paired co-curatorship of Christchurch’s Art and Industry SCAPE project. She’s quick on her feet, resourceful, mobile, alert – like the best of much contemporary art.
Read more
http://www.listener.co.nz/issue/3453/artsbooks/6544/before_after_venice.html
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72.60
WHOLE NEW WELLINGTONISTA
http://wellingtonista.com/
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72.61
SOUTH PROJECT HEADS EAST
Aided by the generous support of Creative New Zealand the South Project looks towards Chile as the next location for the annual Gathering of artists, writers and cultural thinkers, following on from the success of the gathering held in Wellington in 2005. Creative New Zealand has been an integral supporter of the project and this will continue in 2006 through funding from the CNZ Arts Board. The South Project will base itself in Santiago, in October 2006, to present two major international exhibitions under the South banner alongside the symposium Culture and Politics in times of the South, which will feature speakers from across the south including a consortium of leading New Zealand arts practitioners and commentators.
TRANS VERSA, conversing across the south features the work of Australian and New Zealand artists and is co-curated by Australian curator Zara Stanhope, who made a significant contribution to the New Zealand art scene as the inaugural Director of the Adam Art Gallery, and Danae Mossman, Director of the Physics Room in Christchurch. Reflective of New Zealand’s growing relationship with its Pacific neighbor Chile, TRANS VERSA brings to the fore important cultural ideas and practices emerging from lateral connections between the countries. TRANS VERSA features the work of six established and emerging artists from New Zealand including Dane Mitchell, Maddie Leach, David Clegg, Daniel Malone, and Fiona Jack. All avid contributors to the New Zealand art scene, these artists present an artistic perspective firmly grounded by a New Zealand vernacular yet progressively outward looking in their attempts to explore the tenants and threads of lateral connections, migration, travel and modes of communications – the language of an increasing global village. The Australian artists include, among others, Tom Nicholson, Selina Ou and Ash Keating.
Housed in three of the leading venues in Santiago, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Galeria Metropolitana and Matucana100, TRANS VERSA will be the first major exhibition to be developed by the South Project and an important point of contact for a Chilean audience largely unfamiliar with contemporary art practice from New Zealand and Australia. The second exhibition to tour to Santiago is Make the Common Precious, an exhibition of contemporary Australian craft, curated Kevin Murray, director of Craft Victoria and the South Project.
The exhibitions will open during the symposium Culture and Politics in Times of the South, which will take place from 3-6 October 2006. The symposium will provide speakers an opportunity to debate and explore issues concerning contemporary art practice in the south, particularly notions of translation, political activism in the arts, notions of exile, alternative structures and collective practices. The New Zealand presence at the symposium will be significant and include leading arts thinkers such as Ian Wedde, Christina Barton and Manos Nathan.
Further information on the Santiago Gathering can be found on the project website
http://www.southproject.org
Registrations for the Gathering will be received in August.
For all media enquires please contact Nicola Harvey
nharvey@craftvic.asn.au
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72.62
DEPP SOUTH
Online journal Deep South is emerging from several years of hibernation. It is currently inviting submissions of original poetry, short fiction, critical essays, extracts from work in progress, reviews, and work by artists and photographers. Submissions can be made by email to deep.south@stonebow.otago.ac.nz or by mail to Deep South, Department of English, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin. The journal can be viewed at
www.otago.ac.nz/deepsouth/index.html
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72.63
GO WILD
Wild Creations artist residencies applications open Deadline August 31 "Wild Creations residencies are a unique opportunity for artists to really focus on their art in some of the most beautiful areas in New Zealand,"
The six-week residencies are open to practising artists in any artform or cultural tradition, and are chosen from one of over 20 significant conservation sites throughout New Zealand. The Department of Conservation hosts the artists during their residencies and Creative New Zealand provides a stipend of $5000, plus up to $2000 for travel and materials, to each artist. Artists selected for the residencies must be New Zealand citizens or permanent residents.
For more information about the residencies, artists should contact Anastasia Turnbull at the Department of Conservation (04 471 3182 or
aturnbull@doc.govt.nz) or Helaina Keeley at Creative New Zealand (04 498
0702)
helainak@creativenz.govt.nz
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72.64
COMING SOON TO ILOTT GREEN
www.softasstone.org.nz
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72.65
LOOK AT THIS, KIDS
SQUARE EYES present film events for New Zealand children and the adults that accompany them. Primarily dedicated to those between five and twelve, this programming is suitable for young audiences, however - these are not your average 'family' or 'children's' films.
SQUARE EYES New Zealand Children's Film Foundation was established in July 2005 to acquaint New Zealand children, and those who accompany them, to the world of quality and diverse children's film. It is governed by a seven member charitable trust.
Dedicated to enriching the filmic experience of children in New Zealand by making world cinema accessible to them, SQUARE EYES New Zealand Children's Film Foundation enthusiastically promotes the importance and impact of quality filmmaking, film availability and media literacy. Young New Zealand audiences rarely get a chance to see films as a collective viewing experience that reflects anything beyond the contemporary mainstream. SQUARE EYES screenings and events offer an alternative.
A refreshing change from the usual children's film offerings on our national screens, SQUARE EYES presents cinema from around the world, introducing children to new ideas and different cultural perspectives through a familiar medium. Celebrating a wide array of complex visions by talented, imaginative filmmakers, SQUARE EYES pays tribute to the timeless art of film.
SQUARE EYES New Zealand Children's Film Foundation actively supports the availability of film for young enthusiasts, introducing children to a selection of imaginative, original and consistent films, and gives them a chance to enjoy watching and discussing these with others.
As an advocate for exceptional film for children, SQUARE EYES is both a much needed community service and a vital arts initiative. Without SQUARE EYES, New Zealand children will not have an opportunity to see many of the films offered in its programme, as they won't appear in our cinemas, on TV or on DVD in this country.
We hope that our SQUARE EYES programming will both encourage and reflect a lifelong interest in things that are idealistic, diverse, innovative, simple, pure and entertaining. Children's film is an aesthetic and genre that we can connect with at any age. SQUARE EYES events are suitable for all and aim to display films that are ageless. These presentations stand alone as great films, not just 'great films for kids', but great films full stop.
SQUARE EYES want to acknowledge that our audience is interested in, and can be entertained by mischievous, complicated or thought-provoking film. Alongside this, we hope audiences will note the absence of blatent moralising that is so often present with media directed to children, and the hefty presence of whimsy and artistry.
http://www.square-eyes.co.nz/
Square Eyes | New Zealand Children's Film Foundation
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72.66
YOUR WELLINGTON
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/mywellington/arts-culture/index.htm
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72.67
PUBLIC ART IN YOUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT
http://wellington.govt.nz/plans/policies/publicart/index.html
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72.68
ART WITH A PUBLIC FACE
Wellington Sculpture Trust Annual Report
http://www.sculpture.org.nz/engine/SID/10042/AID/1179.htm
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72.69
BALKAN THEATRE BLOWS INTO WELLY
"Performing Space" Workshop and Presentation
Belgrade-based theatre director Jadranka Andjelic and scenographer Antonella Diana are to lead a week-long workshop in Wellington, 24-28 July, exploring the interaction between the performer and the performance space. The workshop culminates with a public presentation and discussion with the artists, at 7pm on Friday 28th, at Thistle Hall; everyone is welcome and entry is koha/donation.
Where does the space end and the performer begin? How do the two communicate? How can the scenography become alive and the actor become part of the scenography?
The workshop is for artists involved in any aspect of theatre-making, from performing to directing and designing. Places are still available, phone (04) 934 9605 or email magdalen@actrix.co.nz.
Jadranka Andjelic is a founding director of DAH Theatre Research Centre (Belgrade, Serbia), and Antonella Diana has worked for more than twenty years as a graphic designer, scenographer, painter and mask-maker in Italy, Denmark and Serbia. Further information about Jadranka and Antonella is available at http://magdalena.actrix.co.nz/guests/jadranka.html
Jadranka and Antonella have been collaborating since 1995 on performances with DAH Theatre Research Centre (Serbia), Theatre OM (Denmark) and international projects. They first visited New Zealand in 1999 for the Magdalena Aotearoa International Festival of Women's Performance, and will return to New Zealand after attending the Magdalena Singapore festival, 9-15 July.
"Performing Space" Workshop: 24-28 July, Thistle Hall
Phone 934 9605 or email magdalen@actrix.co.nz to book a place
Public Presentation: Firday 28 July, 7pm, Thistle Hall
Half hour presentation followed by discussion with artists; entry by koha/donation
The "Performing Space" workshop and presentation has been made possible thanks to the support of the Pelorus Trust, NZ Community Trust and People's Coffee.
For further information, contact Helen Varley Jamieson, (04) 934 9605, magdalen@actrix.co.nz
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72.70
THE NO.8 WIRE: PAST AND PRESENT
Archives of the No. 8 Wire are on-line at
www.arts.blogspot.com
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72.71
CONTACT THE NO.8 WIRE
To be removed from this email list…
To be added…
To submit contents, events, opportunities, or comments to contribute to…
Please send word to
arts@wcc.govt.nz
Furthermore, send comments, questions, requests, etc to
Eric Vaughn Holowacz
Arts Programmes & Services Manager
Wellington Arts Centre
61-69 Abel Smith Street
Wellington, New Zealand
Arts@wcc.govt.nz
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Endnote: A LOW HUM PLANS LATE WINTER ONSLAUGHT FOR AOTEAROA
A LOW HUM is gonna turn that winter frown upside down!
I decided to spend July tucked up in bed trying to get some sleep, hidden away from the nasty cold weather. I knew I’d have to get some sleep, because I did something silly. I booked an absolute behemoth of a tour for August. 18 shows in 15 days! If my winter flu doesn’t kill me, this sure will
From silence to violence, the swelling, lush soundscapes of Jakob from the Hawkes Bay have been responsible for creating some of the most magical and memorable shows in New Zealand over the past decade. Whether you’re a lip biter, a shoe gazer or a hippie arm swinger, odds are you fell in love with one of their first two albums, the amazing power of debut “Subset of Sets” or the sonically massive follow-up album “Cale:Drew”. You’ve been waiting for that third installment and Jakob are currently putting the finishing touches on their third record “Solace”. They’ve toured the US, Europe, Australia and are now about to embark on their biggest ever New Zealand tour, including their first EVER All Ages shows (seven of em!).
I thought to myself….. This is too sweet! Taking a three piece instrumental band on tour like Jakob, its all just going to be too easy…how can I complicate things for myself and have that heart attack that I’m overdue?
Hmmm...Maybe I could bring over a multi-instrumentalist five piece band from Australia that has two drummers and four vocalists? City City City are from the fine city of Melbourne and have been confusing reviewers and making journalist’s lives hell ever since they formed. Perhaps the only way to describe their sound is to take 60's film scores add New York post-punk add free jazz add kraut-rock, a smattering of post-rock; finally add some bleeps and chaos. Whatever you do, don’t call it “Cinematic”.
After the rave reviews following the release of City City City’s awesome album “The Perimeter Motor Show” in Australia, they’ve secured a release for it here in NZ. Yup, it’s out now. Buy it. Listen to it and then party as City City City take that bag of snakes that I straightened out and get them all twisted up again.
According to Die! Die! Die! they are the “Best Band in the World”, and even though it’s taken as granted that you won’t see Operation Rolling Thunder entered in the “World Battle of the Bands”, take it as fact, if they were a metal band, they would have won. Like an ebbing wave of noise washing in over a windswept peninsula… a sound that only a band from Dunedin could emulate, Operation Rolling Thunder are gonna make sure that you don’t go swimming for at least an hour after you’ve eaten. Even though they don’t have a bass player, Operation Rolling Thunder will still make all your empties fall off of the subs and smash on the floor.
An EPIC line-up…so I needed an EPIC tour.
A LOW HUM + JACK DANIELS + CREATIVENZ present
Jakob (Napier) + City City City (Melbourne) + Operation Rolling Thunder (Dunedin)
AUGUST
11th AUCKLAND - Kings Arms
12th HAMILTON - Upsett Records (Matinee AA show from 2-5pm)
- The Castle (R18 Show)
13 th NORTH SHORE – Takapuna War Memorial (AA show)
15th NEW PLYMOUTH - Basement Bar. Early 8PM start!
16th WANGANUI - ALC5's place
17th NELSON – The Phat Club
18th CHRISTCHURCH – The Civic (All ages show from 6-9pm)
- The Civic (R18 Show from 10pm)
19th DUNEDIN - Refuel (All ages show from 6-9pm)
- Refuel (R18 show from 10pm)
20th INVERCARGILL - Tillermans. Early 8PM start!
21st OAMARU – The Penguin Club. Early 8PM start!
23rd BARRYTOWN - Barry Town Hall
25th PALMERSTON NORTH – The Stomach (All Ages show from 8pm)
- The Coliseum (R18 show from 10pm)
26th WELLINGTON – San Francisco Bathhouse (All Ages show from 6pm)
– San Francisco Bathhouse (R18 show 10pm)
Yikes.
To accompany such a mammoth tour, it would only be fair to offer a spectacular compilation and album this month. So, as usual, entry to all the shows is $10, but if you pay $15 you will get the new August issue of A LOW HUM magazine and the new compilation featuring: Jakob, Barnard’s Star, Explosions in the Sky, Operation Rolling Thunder, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, The Deadly Deaths, Three Month Sunset, The American Dollar, City City City and more…!
Oh boy. If you pay $15, as well as they magazine and the compilation, you also get this month’s feature record and I am SOOOOO excited about it! The best thing about being a record label is when you can make available an album so good that you know it will totally change people’s musical inspirations and influences. The last album by this Napier threesome “Continuum” totally altered my life and I am as proud as punch that I am releasing Looma’s third album “III”, just a few weeks after they played their final ever show in Napier. This album is amazing. Simply spectacular. I get butterflies in my stomach whenever I listen to this record… and I am going to share the butterflies all round. Songs like “Jetsetters”, “What kept You” and “Everything is Level” are destined to be underground classics. This album is genius.
A deafening roar of a thanks goes to Jack Daniels for making this all possible, a quiet lull then massive storm of appreciation to CreativeNZ for making it a party. If you are not listening to R1, RDU, Active89FM, 95BFM, Contact, Control, MostFM or FleetFm, then you’re simply not listening.
YEHAAAAA!
You can hear the bands here:
www.myspace.com/jakobmusic or www.jakob.co.nz
www.myspace.com/citycitycity
www.myspace.com/operationrollingthunder
www.myspace.com/alowhum or www.alowhum.com
posted by Cultural Engineer @ 9:36 am
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