10/10/06

Photo: selina ou

Resist, a live art event devised by Australian arts group pvi collective was held recently in Chile outside the presidential palace as part of trans-versa, an exhibition of Australian and New Zealand art at Museo De Arte Contemporana, Santiago. Employing the ancient non-violent conflict resolution device of the tug-of-war, the artists invited members of the public to engage in resolving local disputes through an intimate symbolic power struggle. The event has been documented and is presented via a video diptych in the gallery space.Trans-versa is curated by Zara Stanhope and Danae Mossman. It runs at Museo De Arte Contemporana, Santiago, until November 10.

Last Chance To Enter National Drawing Award

Entries to the National Drawing Award need to be posted to ARTSPACE by this Friday, October 13. Organised by ARTSPACE, Auckland and the Physics Room, Christchurch, the Award aims to highlight the depth and skill of drawing practice in New Zealand. All entries will be exhibited at ARTSPACE and the Physics Room and judged by a jury of contemporary professionals, Brian Butler (Director of ARTSPACE), Heather Galbraith (Senior Curator, City Gallery, Wellington) and Danae Mossman (Director of the Physics Room). For more information plus entry forms go to: www.artspace.org.nz.

27/09/06

Lash, installation view, The Gus Fisher Gallery, 2005. Courtesy of the artist,
Starkwhite, Auckland and Kukje Gallery, Seoul

Two works by Auckland-based Korean artist Hye Rim Lee, Lash and Boom Boom: Super Heroine Super Beauty, are currently showing in Barcelona, Spain at Casa Asia as part of The Sea That Has Two Names: Video Art From Korea. Curated by Manu Park – artistic director of Busan Biennial – the exhibition features works by nine Korean artists projected onto the walls of Casa Asia’s exhibition halls. Lash was recently purchased by the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Gwacheon, Korea. The Sea That Has Two Names: Video Art From Korea runs at Casa Asia until 31 October.

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Third installment of sound performance series STATIC MANSION is set to kick off at Lyttelton’s Wunderbar for two dates: Saturday, 30 September and Thursday, 12 October. Featuring ten sound artists from throughout the country, expect two nights of sonic adventure incorporating hacked electronics, aural assaults and wayward processors.
For more information contact STATIC MANSION at staticmansion@gmail.com

Saturday 30 September 8:30pm - $5
Adam Willetts (Auck)
Sean Kerr (Auck)
The Hi-Aces (Chc/Wgtn)
Stanier Black-Five (Chc/UK)
Thursday 12 October 8:30pm - $5
Sam Hamilton (Auck)
Ben Spiers (Wgtn)
Andrew Weeks (Wgtn)
Tim Coster (Auck)

17/09/06

Just opened at Wellington’s the Engine Room is A Brief History of Time, the final show of the gallery’s 2006 programme. Curated by gallery manager Kim Patton, the exhibition features work by Wellington artists Amy Howden-Chapman, Shay Launder and Tao Wells exploring strategies for making art in a climate of rising political activism. Whether skeptic or believer, the artists promise affronts, asides and personal accounts of modern living. A Brief History of Time runs at the Engine Room until November 3.

Some other local happenings...

Craftwerk returns to Wellington this Labour Day, Mon, Oct 23. The locale is the Southern Cross Tavern and the time is 2-5pm. White Fungus will be there along with Tim Bollinger’s Attitude Problem. The full range of White Fungus back-issues will be available. For more info check out;
www.craftwerk.co.nz

Also coming soon to Wellington is the City Library’s new zine collection. For now you can check out the webpage: www.wcl.govt.nz/popular/zines.html

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Improvisational Music at Happy

Friday 20th sees Happy Bar and Venue play host to the resurfacing of The Idle Suite. The improvisational rock outfit – featuring a cast of members drawn from The Stumps and Cloudboy - has been out of action for several years but is soon set to release its debut record Up Two Sticks Rd on Last Visible Dog. Joining the festivities will be Temple of Heaven, a new guitar duo pairing Pseudo Arcana main-man Antony Milton and Campbell Kneale in his guise as the Black Boned Angel. The mysterious two-piece Pale Fire is also expected to be making an appearance. www.myspace.com/happybar

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