06/09/06

Kicking off soon at Auckland's ARTSPACE is Ack, an exhibition of new work by Peter Robinson. Robinson’s new show reanimates and introduces motifs into a complicated web of Maori, Pakeha and contemporary art iconography. A major catalogue examining the artist’s work during the past 15 years will be published by ARTSPACE and Clouds in conjunction with ACK and released in Febuary 2007. Ack runs at ARTSPACE from 16 September-14 October. There is an opening at 6pm onFriday, 15 September.

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Wellington avant-punk performance group the Mr Sterile Assembly are set to embark on a 19 day-tour of South East Asia. Beginning at Tunestone Studio in Kuala Lumpur on September 9, the band will play 10 performances, winding up at the GausHaus in Singapore on September 23. A new promotional CD has been recorded for the tour and is now available for listening at;
http://www.myspace.com/mrsterileassembly

29/08/06

Window Shopping in Brick City, an exhibition by Daniel Malone, is now showing at WINDOW, a contemporary art project space located by the foyer of the Auckland University Library. Employing a range of different media, including sculpture, video, photography and painting, Malone explores the present moment in China, a time of "hyperactive modernisation". The exhibition builds on work began in 2002 when Malone was studying at the Beijing Culture and Language University in China.

Window Shopping in Brick City runs until September 22. For more information check out:
www.window.auckland.ac.nz

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New Zealand-based web label Postmoderncore is set to release punk necromancers The Shambolic’s debut studio album: First I Kill You. Then I Steal Your Power. Once described as "bad music for bad people", the album is finally available.

Check out www.postmoderncore.com for more details.

23/08/06

Now running at Govett Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth is Len Lye ~ Body English, an exhibition looking at the close relationship between text and image in Lye's work. Curated by Tyler Cann, Body English features Lye's Surrealist photograms, poetry and films, as well as six hand-printed books for which he designed the covers, including his own No Trouble. For the first time, Lye's poetry will sit alongside some of these works, shedding new light on their curious imagery.

Len Lye ~ Body English is on show at Govett-Brewster Art Gallery until Ocober 1.

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Happy Bar and Venue – Wellington’s premier purveyor of live experimental music and performance – is celebrating its third birthday this week. The Tory Street music haunt promises three nights of musical revelry in honour of the occasion, kicking off Wednesday night and running through to Friday. The line up so far is as follows:

Wednesday 23 Aug:
Gerard crewdson back from oz
BITtrio – Bridget Kelly, Taylor Taylor and Isaac Smith
Alphabethead

Thursday 24 Aug:
Onomatopoeia – Dave Ward, Ian Downer and Isaac Smith
Manimanima
Some reorganisation of Cleatus
DJ Day G Day
And The Mystery Guests

Friday 25 Aug:
The Deconstruction Unit
Pleasing Mummy
The Not Quite Quiet Quior
Alphabethead
DJ Day G Day
DJ Elon

Check out: www.myspace.com/happybar

Also, web-based label Postmoderncore has just released the first "studio" recording of punk rockers The Shambolics. Recorded September 2004 in Brooklyn, Wellington, the album, First: I Kill You. Then: I Steal Your Power, has been described as "Bad music for Bad People".

Visit www.postmoderncore.com for more details.

04/08/06

Dane Mitchell, Dunedin Public Art Gallery (Specimen 001), (2003),

ARCHIVING FEVER

Just opened at Wellington's Adam Art Gallery is Archiving Fever, an exhibition exploring memory, archiving, fiction and the impulse to build narrative. Curated by Emily Cormack, the show features the work of nine artists from New Zealand, Italy, Austria and Singapore, mixing in the mediums of video, photography and installation.

Mexican artist Gaston Ramirez, whose video work Gotcha feautures as part of the exhibition, will be performing an intervention, Urban (Play) Traces, on Upper Cuba Street this Monday, 7 August at 1pm. Highlighting the changing face of the city and its many layers of history, Ramirez will be performing the intervention in rememberance of the houses and artist studios that have been demolished or removed to give way for Wellington's upcomming Inner City Bypass. Archiving Fever runs until 1 October.

11/07/06

WHITE FUNGUS ISSUE 6 OUT THIS WEEK:

White Fungus Issue 6 will be in stores this Thursday throughout New Zealand and at international retailers a short time thereafter. The new issue features an interview with Melbourne-based artist Ronnie van Hout whose recent work Sick Kid will be showing at Auckland City Gallery later this month.

Also featured is an article on Islanded, an exhibition of New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan art that was held earlier at Wellington’s Adam Art Gallery and is now on at Singapore’s Institute for Contemporary Art.

Wellington comic artist Tim Bollinger has drawn a new full-colour comic for this issue. There is also an article on internationally renowned New Zealand sound artist Birchville Cat Motel and a report on Wellington band Cortina and its current adventures in Berlin. German publisher and curator Christoph Keller talks to White Fungus about independent publishing and travelling archive Kiosk which was recently in New Zealand and is now heading to Vancouver.

Also, in Wellington, check out the White Fungus stall at Craftwerk this Thursday at the Paramount at 5:30pm. Issue 6 will be on sale as well as the full range of White Fungus back-issues.

04/07/06

International Sound Trio Hit New Zealand

Kicking off in Dunedin, July 7, at Dunedin Public Art Gallery is Alt.music – a festival of experimental sound bringing together three international sound artists for a series of performances throughout the country.

Lawrence English (Australia), Greg Davis (USA) and Jeph Jerman (USA) will be performing in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, New Plymouth, before winding up at ARTSPACE, Auckland on July 11 where they'll be joined by Dunedin’s Michael Morley of the Dead C and Gate . On Wednesday July 12, Greg Davis and Jeph Jerman will be giving a free artist talk, starting at 6pm, ARTSPACE.


NZ tour dates:

07.07.2006 Dunedin Public Art Gallery
08.07.2006 The Physics Room, Christchurch
09.07.2006 Happy, Wellington
10.07.2006 New Plymouth (TBC)
11.07.2006 ARTSPACE, Auckland

21/06/06

"holy shit sorry about the delay"

THIS IS NOT A COMIC 5

Pritika & Coco present the fifth edition of their lo-fi, high-octane zine/comic/bible.

check out www.thisisnotacomic.com coming soon

"wellington stock is coming! hold tight"

13/06/06

Martin Basher, installation shot from Fine Dining, High Street Project, Christchurch, 2006

Artspace's annual new artist exhibition, Headway, is coming up in Auckland this July 22, running until September 2. The exhibition - which this year features work from Andrew Barber, Martin Basher, Fiona Connor, Robert Hood, Tessa Laird and Clare Noonan - aims to highlight what is new and vital in New Zealand contemporay art. For many of the artists, it is an opportunity to realise their work in a larger context. In keeping with the exhibition's tradition, an on-line catalogue will be created by an emerging designer with contributions from new writers. An opening will be held Friday, July 21.

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Opening at Wellington artist-run space Enjoy this Wednesday, June 14, is Clubs Project Inc, an artist-initiated project by artists Christopher L G Hill, James Deuthsher and guests. The nomadic exhibition, which first resided above the old Builders Arms Hotel in Melbourne, now travels the world as an event-based project searching for temporary sites. These have so far included a shop balcony, furniture store, container and artist space the Ocular Lab. The Wellington exhibition will explore themes of ownership, anonymity and arts hosting. All artwork will be given away free at the end of the exhibition.

06/06/06

Two shows kick off simultaneously at Christchurch's the Physic's Room next Tuesday, June 14. In Upping the Anti, Melbourne-based artists Rob McKenzie and Kain Picken, known for their collaboration as Slave, have invited New York/Paris-based artist duo Claire Fontaine + Food Not Bombs to participate in a series of activities exploring the realms of real and symbolic action. Running concurrently will be Dirt Work, an installation by Wellington artist Daniel du Bern involving documentation, dirt and peripheral political movements. A preview for both shows will be held on Tuesday at 5:30pm.