Erla Þórarinsdóttir and Erla S. Haraldsdóttir predicted the future of The Living Art Museum last saturday.

As a part of Karls Holmqvist´s exhibition Boomtown, his stage will host a program of readings, performances, ect every saturday from 14-17 during the exhibition.

This saturday artists Kristín Ómarsdóttir og Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir will be reading selective poetry by Jelaluddin Rumi and as a continuation of the fortune telling from last weekend´s tarot session, Mystic Foley will be on hand reading palms. The stage acts as an open mic and we encourage the audience to participate spontaniously in the program.


NýlistasafniðThe Living Art Museum
Laugavegi 26101 Reykjavík
Tel:+354 551-4350



Vera Dika on “Reconsidering the Nostalgia Film: FAR FROM HEAVEN, ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS, and ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL”

TODAY, Thursday 29 May 2008, 4pm


A4 Lecture Theatre, South Arts Lecture Block
University of Canterbury (Car parking off University Drive , see map)


FREE

The impulse to return to past images and styles has become a s tap le feature of filmmaking, but is practiced in different ways by various filmmakers. In this talk Vera Dika discusses Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven (2002), Douglas Sirk's All That Heaven Allows (1954), and Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Ali: Fear Eats The Soul (1974), comparing their methods in re-working the source material, and the effects created. These films are especially interesting for their treatment of pertinent social, historical, and aesthetic issues, and while often quite removed from our era, are still pressing today.

Vera Dika holds a Ph.D. in Cinema Studies from New York University and has taught at UCLA and USC. She is currently Assistant Professor of Film Studies at New Jersey City University . Specializing in American film, Dika is the author of two books, Recycled Culture in Contemporary Art and Film: the Uses of Nostalgia (Cambridge University Press, 2003) and Games of Terror: Halloween and the Films of the Stalker Cycle 1978-1983, (Fairleigh Dickenson University Press, 1991). She has written film criticism for Art in America , Artforum, and The Los Angeles Times, and other publications.

Dika's critical writings also appear in a number of anthologies. Her essay "The Representation of Ethnicity in The Godfather" is included in The Godfather Trilogy, (Cambridge University Press, 2001). Professor Dika was a founding editor of Millennium Film Jo urnal, and is currently an Associate Member of the Columbia University Film Seminar.

On-going research includes transnational cultural exchanges, and cross media studies. In 2005 Professor Dika attended a NEH Summer Institute on "German and European Studies". From this study she wrote an essay on the East German Western entitled "An East German Indianerfilm: The Bear in Sheep's Clothing" published in Jump Cut. Dika has also co-curated a show at the American Museum of the Moving Image, "Beyond Wiseguys: Italian Americans and the Movies". She is presently writing her next book, The Role of the Cinematic in Downtown Film and Art, a study of Downtown practice in the late 1970s and 1980s and its distinctive use of film, as medium and as an inspiration.

Vera Dika's talk in Christchurch is presented in association with Te Puna Toi (Department of Theatre and Film Studies, University of Canterbury ).

Vera Dika is visiting New Zealand thanks to the ARTSPACE International Visitors Programme.

Auckland
Tuesday 27 May 6.30pm at the Auckland Museum Auditorium,Level 2, entry through Atrium, South entrance. Host ed by ARTSPACE, http://www.artspace.org.nz/

Dunedin
Wednesday 28 May 7pm at Dunedin Public Art Gallery , http://dunedin.art.museum/

Christchurch
Thursday 29 May 4pm, A4 Lecture Theatre, South Arts Lecture Block, at the University of Canterbury . Hosted by The Physics Room http://www.physicsroom.org.nz/




Upper Hutt Posse live at happy.

Also on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coDfBCNWL3Y

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Kyoko Murase"Sherbet" 2008oil, color pencil on cotton,190 x 230 cm Courtesy of the artist and Taka Ishii Gallery

Kyoko Murase
“Emerald”
June 28-July 26, 2008
Opening reception: June 28, Sat, 18:00 - 20:00


Taka Ishii Gallery is pleased to announce our sixth exhibition, and firstsince 2006,“Emerald” with Dusseldorf-based artist Kyoko Murase. The exhibition willinclude ten new paintings.

Kyoko Murase has been drawing girls since her early works. A girl who wastimidly looking outside from her room eventually opens the door and startsto walk outside.Sometimes enjoying the sense of her body floating in thewater, other times moving into the forest, slipping through the branches,sometimes pausing. And continuing her walk even now, where and what will the girl encounter?

Text by Sachiko Shoji (quoted from the press release of Kyoko Murase’sexhibition “Cicadas and Horned Owls” at The Sculpture Garden Museum VANGIMUSEO)


Hauled Head First into a Leviathan

Iain Britton
Cinnamon Press

This long awaited first poetry collection from one of New Zealand ’s finest writers reveals Iain Britton as a poet with a remarkable and distinctive voice who is already attracting international interest. Hauled Head First into a Leviathan, published by Wales-based publisher, Cinnamon Press is not only attracting critical acclaim, but has also been nominated for one of the most prestigious poetry prizes, The Forward Prize for best first collection published in 2008.

“The intensity of NZ light, the breadth and imagination in our best thinking, strong attitudes and natural splendour, how our culture may appear as a quick-change melange, Britton celebrates and explores those perceptions and further. This collection is on the UK long list re Forward Prizes in Poetry, (known as the ‘bardic Booker’), and a London magazine has nominated one of Britton’s poems for the Best Single Poem category.

“Britton exalts and describes, then leaves the reader to grasp their own meanings. I fade into the coolness/of a flowering rhododendron. I/recede deeply, the sunlight/turning green. (from Dangerously Close)

Mainly, this collection celebrates penetrating responses to life’s enormity and emphasises fidelity towards existence and others, through an acceptance of one’s own vision and beliefs; bold acceptance of a range of emotions and ideas quite evident. Britton’s writing builds complex scenarios in simple, fresh, easy to access passages. A definite sense of place in every poem, even when positions shift and people transform. Rewarding language exhilarates, merits many readings..”

Raewyn Alexander


BILL O'REILLY MELT-DOWN - 1:33



YOU MAKE ME MAKE YOU
Suzanne Husky Solo ExhibitionMay 22 - June 29, 2008Opening Reception: Friday, May 23; 7-10pmArtist Walkthrough, 6pmLive Music Afterparty @ Bluesix (next door), 9pm-12am


Triple Base Gallery is pleased to present You Make Me Make You, an exhibition of new work by San Francisco-based artist Suzanne Husky. For her ambitious installation at Triple Base, Husky has crafted a series of soft sculptures that include Chinese factory workers, Mexican laborers, "counter-mainstream hipsters", and a series of inventive Berkeley "eco-heroes." The work depicts extreme labor, oppression, community, superficiality, unmindful expending of resources, and white guilt. This show is sure to entertain if you like stories, using your imagination, and thinking critically about the world we live in today.The artist explains, "In this project, the audience members are invited to become visual anthropologists. What do the portraits of people, ideas, and scenes reveal about a sample of local culture and society? In each piece the details are based on observation and the analysis of the subject simultaneously captures a specific individual or concept as well as a broader lifestyle. As a whole, the growing inventory format of the installation unveils the nature and complexity of a community. The represented figures are striking in unusual ways and together reflect cultural diversity and environmental awareness."In June, there will also be a Dinner Lecture Series event in conjunction with You Make Me Make You. For more information please visit: http://www.basebasebase.com/projects.html -- Triple Base 3041 24th Street (@ Treat) San Francisco, CA 94110 http://www.basebasebase.com/ Gallery Hours: Thurs-Sun 12-5pm



Please join us at Gambia Castle for the opening of Recent Haircuts, a new image-focused exhibition by Simon Denny.


Simon is an artist that works in Auckland and Frankfurt am Main. Simon will be presenting a major body of new work at the upcoming Bienniale of Sydney, opening in June, and a solo presentation at Uplands Gallery, Melbourne, in August this year. During the past year Simon has been based at the Stadelschule in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.


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Gambia Castle is open Thursday, Friday from 12-6 and Saturday from 11-4. Level One, 454 Karangahape Rd, Newton, Auckland, New Zealand. Ph: +6493361601 or +64212442243
http://us.mc511.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=info@gambiacastle.nethttp://www.gambiacastle.net/



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Exhibition Targets Tasers
Thistle Hall, 293 Cuba Street. Exhibition runs Monday 26 – Sunday June 1, 10.30 am – 6.30pm. Exhibition opening 26 May 2008 5.30-7.00

A Wellington businessman and leadership consultant has created an exhibition of graphic visual images to generate public discussion about the consequences of introducing the Taser as an everyday policing tool in New Zealand.
Lawrence Green says there hasn’t been enough debate about the issue in this country and he is deeply concerned at the possibility of the Taser being introduced.
“I am not the kind of person who joins protest groups or political parties or stands on a soapbox, but I needed an outlet to express what was stirring me up,” he said. “I have always been drawn to the world of visual advertising and to the poster work of political/satirical artists - the way they use language and imagery to communicate. So creating my own posters seemed like a good idea to capture people’s attention and make them think.”
Lawrence Green says while there is no doubt that police face many difficult situations in the course of duty that can be a threat to their own safety as well as the safety of others, and while advocates of the Taser argue that it will actually save lives (because it is 'less-lethal' than a gun), the North American experience shows unnecessary lives lost.
“Between June 2001 and September 2007, Amnesty International recorded 291 deaths of individuals struck by police Tasers in North America. They reported that the vast majority of these deaths were unarmed men who did not pose "a threat of death or serious injury when they were electro-shocked". In only 25 of the 291 deaths was the individual reported to be armed in any way.
“I am not sure that New Zealanders want a country where it is deemed socially acceptable that a certain number of people die as the price for police carrying out their duties. We need to keep what is good about our country and not lose it by becoming more like North America in this regard. I believe that if we start down this path there is a real risk that we will lose something as a caring and humanitarian nation.”
Lawrence has pulled his ideas together in 12 different posters, which directly address issues raised by the experience of the United States where he says police have begun using the Taser routinely rather than as a weapon of last resort.
“The Taser is described as having a ‘low level electrical discharge’ but it actually hits people with 50,000 volts of electricity. As it has the capacity to inflict multiple and prolonged electric shocks, it is easily abused. Amnesty International also reported that in about a third of the North American cases those who died were subjected to between 3 and 21 shocks. In November 2007 the United Nations Committee Against Torture described the Taser as an instrument of torture because of the extreme pain it provokes.”
SITTING BULL
36”x 36”
Screenprint in colors, 1986, on Lenox Museum Board paper, from the Cowboys and Indians portfolio.
Andy Warhol
Mark Ransom Presents
Andy Warhol: American Indians
An exhibition of 20 drawings, prints and a painting

Fourteen images serve as the basis for Warhol’s “Cowboys and Indians” series, comprising drawings, paintings, edition and unique prints. American figures such as General Custer and John Wayne share an uneasy proximity to iconic images of Native Americans; popularised photographic portraits of each, ratified and in some cases commissioned by the sitter, expand in meaning in Warhol’s skilled reproductions.Shown here is a selection of popular images of the Indian players from American mythology. Figures from history such as Geronimo, an Apache chief rendered stateless by the US government, become especially eloquent – as an exiled embarrassment, recuperating from a sentence of hard labour, the authorities allowed him to sell photographs of himself as a means of support. This is the image that Warhol uses, yet cropped in such a way that his original pose – a scowl with a rifle resting on a bare knee – becomes merely a face that appears more on the verge of tears than full of defiance, as originally intended. The irony of depicting the noble profile of an Indian “brave” on the coinage of the conquering country is strengthened by the word “Liberty”, outlined potently in a block of colour near the edge of a five-cent piece. “Indian Head Nickel”, a print of a coin of a mass-produced sterotype of a dwindling race, is a subtle yet scathing comment on the value of fame for the marginalized Native-American Everyman. A portrait of a young Teddy Roosevelt in uniform created for the series, not featured here, is suggestive – his famous quotation of an African saying, “Speak softly and carry a big stick” has clearly been taken to heart by Warhol.


10 June – 21 June62 Pimlico RoadLondonSW1W 8LS10 - 6 mon – satcontact@markransom.co.ukmailto:www.markransom.co.uk

020 7259 0220, 020 7259 0200.

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if you're in Chch on wednesday, we'd love to see you at...

THE BORDERLINE BALLROOM
in association with ALT MUSIC
presents

Philip Jeck (UK)
Crude (Dunedin)
I-Rory (Chc)
with DJs Stanier Black-Five & snippet

Wednesday 21st May – 7.30-11pm - $10 (door sales only)

The Media Club, 191 Armagh St, Christchurch, NZ


Legendary UK turntablist Philip Jeck makes his New Zealand debut at this month's Borderline Ballroom, supported by Dunedin DIY experimentalist, Crude and local improviser, I-Rory.

PHILIP JECK
Fusing the turntable creativity of Christian Marclay with the sampling terrorism of Negativland, the UK's Philip Jeck has been working with turntables and electronics since the early 80s. Using old vinyl and record players salvaged from junk shops, he plays these like musical instruments, using loops, lockgrooves, scratching, surface noise and disembodied fragments from forgotten vinyl to create his transfixing soundscapes.

Jeck is known for his captivating performances, such as Vinyl Requiem with Lol Sargent, a work for 180 1950s and 1960s record players. He has also made art installations using from 6 to 80 record players, such as "Off the Record" for the Sonic Boom exhibition at London's Hayward Gallery.
www.philipjeck.com


CRUDE
Supporting Jeck is Dunedin-based Crude, aka Matt Middleton, one of New Zealand's most diligent and prolific DIY experimentalists. Crude will be performing a set that marries here-and-now action with prepared elements, which promises to deliver heady brew of sci-fi synths, degraded bit-rate renderings, over-treated vocal works, bottles and other percussive items, face pulling and magneto-chug-u-lug.
www.crude.co.nz

I-RORY
Local input will be provided by I-Rory, a Christchurch dilettante, percussionist and improvising musician who plays the stereo. More than likely, he will be creating a shifty sound field of mud.

But watch out, that mud is booby trapped! Expect amalgamated sound constructed from manipulations of a record player without records, possibly one with a record, pre-recorded recordings and live ephemera.


DJs STANIER BLACK-FIVE & SNIPPET
Accompanying proceedings is The Borderline Ballroom's Stanier Black-Five plus guest DJ snippet. In the spirit of the evening's turntablism, Stanier Black-Five's sets will provide multi turntable interludes involving lockgrooves, modified records and other vinyl oddities, while snippet will be spinning sounds from the likes of the touch, ash and raster-noton labels.
www.myspace.com/borderlineballroom
www.borderlineballroom.com

Cortina - I am not an American (live)
03:54
A live performance by legendary New Zealand band Cortina at Wellington's Bar Bodega. Video by White Fungus.

also on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ychapxzt6ug

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image: The Stumps performing at Happy for the White Fungus issue 8 release party 2007

For those of you in the capital or within striking distance :::


Saturday 17th @ Happy 9.30pm


Elise and Jem. (Aus) Bass and drums noise rock. Intense heavy squall andglory.


Black Boned Angel (Orchestra).- Extended line up for this outing by "theheaviest band in the world". More doom for your buck!


The Stumps. Usual psyche noise bullshit... ;-)


The Inventionists.- New comers on the Wellington scene... The dark horse...
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Image: Clare Noonan’s Search for other half 2006

Open Window opens out Govett-Brewster Art Gallery

Visible from the street and accessible anytime, the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery ’s front window space is the site of a new series of contemporary art projects.

Open Window, will feature a range of emerging artists offering art that engages with the commercial nature of the shop-front window and the attributes particular to window gazing.

Govett-Brewster Art Gallery Director Rhana Devenport says Open Window was conceived to bring new art from throughout the country to the community in fresh and engaging ways.

“One of our many aims is to extend the gallery’s reach and encourage audiences to engage with art outside of the traditional museum context. This new series offers 24/7 street access to contemporary art.”

This month’s artist featuring in the space is Wellington-based artist Clare Noonan.

Noonan’s work Search for other half sits at the edge of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery , the sole occupant of the space, and continuously signals out to those passing by.

“This miniature lighthouse literally acts as a subtle beacon for the gallery, however we are left to ponder what the emitted communication is or for whom it is intended,” says Assistant Curator Melanie Oliver.

Oliver says Search for other half also gestures towards other more curious quests in life. “It offers guidance for a raft of mysterious searches, including that which we struggle with most frequently – the hope and crusade to locate one another.”

Noonan completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture at the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts in 2003 and has exhibited in solo and group shows in galleries throughout New Zealand , including The Christchurch Art Gallery and The Physics Room in Christchurch , and Artspace in Auckland .

Search for other half will be exhibited until May 28.
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WHITE FUNGUS PROFILE AT ENDEMIC WORLD
White Fungus is on-sale at New Zealand On-line Design Store Endemic World. Check out the White Fungus Profile at: www.endemicworld.com/Publications.htm
Photo by Terry Bag
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TWO NEW EXHIBITIONS AT THE PHYSICS ROOM

The Water Show
Harold Grieves & Alan Lacan, Sam Hartnett, Amy Howden-Chapman, Sophie Jerram, Miranda Parkes, Susie Pratt, Jonathan Smart
7–31 May 2008

Whether you have to go out of your way to get the good stuff, or pay each time you turn on the tap, water continues to be a subtle but problematic entity within many urban contexts. The Water Show consequently addresses some of the issues faced when water is treated as a resource. Incorporating works by a range of New Zealand artists such as Sam Hartnett (Auckland), Amy Howden-Chapman (Wellington), Sophie Jerram (Wellington), Miranda Parkes (Christchurch) and Susie Pratt (currently based in Wales), The Water Show also presents responses to more local contexts via inclusions by Harold Grieves & Alan Lacan and Jonathan Smart.

Whether tracking the politics, infrastructure and spheres of influence that underlie the management of water, or documenting more subjective terrain with an eye for the ecological as well as the aesthetic, The Water Show ultimately seeks to raise awareness and offer its audience some creative responses to water’s circulation and its ever increasing value.

screening room / exhibition space C
Fiona Connor
7–31 May 2008

Using the gallery as a material in and of itself and creating a situation where everything matters, Fiona Connor presents to us screening room / exhibition space C. By replicating and echoing surfaces that in this case forge an all inclusive plinth which potentially activates the possibilities of everyday happenings, here Connor utilises the pre-existing gallery space as a model for the raised floor construction she’s created, which is an elevated carbon copy of what would normally be encountered within the space.

This rising tide of construction flooding the room not only supports the concurrent exhibition surrounding the politics of water, but also the works on paper presented in the existing Physics Room publication stand. Here the interests motivating Connor’s large-scale architectural intervention extend subtly outside of that space, as other echoes of representation merge with the more communal, everyday spaces of The Physics Room for an audience familiar enough to notice them.
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White Fungus Editor On Kim Hill
White Fungus Editor Ron Hanson was on Kim Hill last Saturday. You can hear a pod cast of the interview here. http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday
Image from Tim Bollinger's Noah 2008

White Fungus Issue 9 Out This Week
The new issue of White Fungus is at the printers and will be available at all good retailers throughout New Zealand by the end of the week, and at international retailers approximately one month later. This issue features new work by Richard Killeen, Yao Jui-Chung, Hye Rim Lee and Tao Wells, whose exhibition Three Ideas For the State is currently showing at Auckland’s Gambia Castle.


Wellington comics artist Tim Bollinger has created a seven-page colour comic, Noah, for this issue, while Los Angeles-based writer Juan Santos writes about the coming emergencies of Global Warming and resource wars in the 21st Century. Jane Janesly returns to write about the incredible story of 19th century Chinese migrant Chew Chong who kick-started the Taranaki dairy industy in the 1860s.


Auckland writer and curator Andrew Clifford interviews Sydney artist Justice Yeldham about his knife-edge sound performances involving amplified glass. Wellington musician and composer Daniel Beban interviews New York-based New Zealand sound artist Annea Lockwood. The issue features an in-depth article on the Dead C, not to mention writing on Greg Malcolm, John Wiese, Leslie Rice, Manuel Gottsching, and Terrence McKenna. Plus check out new poems by Iain Britton (Auckland), Gu Xie (Guangzhou) and Anne Cammon (New York); and some pages from Sheba William’s as-yet unpublished book Shanghai Sheba.


White Fungus Issue 9 is kindly supported by Creative New Zealand and is distributed in North America by Disticor.

The Lost Weekend Launch Party at Mighty Mighty

White Fungus is about to celebrate the release of its 9th issue with a party at the capital city's fabulous bar and night-haven Mighty Mighty on Friday, May 9. Titled The Lostweekend - in reference to the magazine's weekly Sunday radio show on the VBC - the night will include performances by local artists Shanghai Sheba and avant-experimental group The Elephant Men. There will also be DJ sets by Eric Ultimate (Coco Solid), Tao Wells (Gambia Castle), Ace Hurt (Cortina) and White Fungus.

Party starts at 8pm. The Lost Weekend kicks off at Mighty Mighty next Friday, May 9 at 8pm. Entry is $5 or $10 (including a copy of the mag).

www.whitefungus.com

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