David Kilgour and The Heavy Eights to tour NZ and Australia

Legendary Dunedin musician / songwriter David Kilgour and his band The Heavy Eights are about to kick off a tour of New Zealand and Australia to support Kilgour’s new album, The Far Now. The new album - recorded in Dunedin but mastered in Nashville - is out this February on Arch Hill Records in New Zealand and Merge Records in the US. A US tour is also planned for later in 2007



Check out David Kilgour and The Heavy Eights

Feb 3 Arc Café Dunedin
Feb 8 The Dux Christchurch
Feb 15 SFBH Wellington
Feb 16 Latitude Live Napier
Feb 17 Schooner Tavern Auckland
Mar 1 Metro Sydney
Mar 2 Ricks Bar Brisbane
Mar 6 Corner Hotel Melbourne
For more info go to www.myspace.com-davidkilgour

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The New Dowse About to Open

After an 18 month 6 million dollar revamp, Lower Hutt’s public art gallery The Dowse is finally about to re-open Saturday, February 17 with an opening party followed by a month-long festival of classes by international artists, workshops, performances and lectures.

The opening party kicks off 12pm on Saturday, February 17.

12pm: Opening Ceremony Batucada & The Titan Hutt City Brass Band
2:30pm: Ricky Boyd & The Boomshack Band Loonesco – Fringe Street Performers
VJ – Video Artist Showcase
4pm: Real Hot Bitches Danceathon
5:30pm: DJ Duke Willis
6pm: All Star Dawnraid Entertainment Showcase
7:30 pm: Hollie Smith & Band
check out www.dowse.org.nz

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Perilous – A Summer Circus in Civic Square

Featuring two outdoor trapeze rigs, live music, rolling workshops and roving performances by stilters, jugglers and adagio acts, Perilous – a summer circus – will be occupying Wellington’s Civic Square this Sunday, January 28, 12-5pm, sponsored by Summer City. White Fungus will be holding a stall with the full-range of back-issues available plus comics and other art publications.

www.myspace.com/perilouscircusfestival

White Fungus Issue 7
Out Soon

White Fungus Issue 7 is set to be released. The bright red new issue will be the biggest yet with articles on New Zealand artist Yvonne Todd, Australian artist Hany Armanious, Japanese Noise pioneer Merzbow and an interview with LA writer and filmmaker Chris Kraus talking about her new novel Torpor and growing up in Wellington in the 1970s.

There will also be new drawings by Peter Robinson, a short story by Wellington writer Hamish Low, an in-depth history article by Tim Bollinger: Strange Days on Lake Rotomahana: The End of the Pink and White Terraces, plus much more…

The magazine will be available at New Zealand retailers December 15 and at international retailers about a week later.


White Fungus Release Party and Fizz Factory Premier

A release party for the new issue will be held at Wellington’s Happy Bar and Venue this Thursday, December 14, at 8pm. Music will be provided by Jeff Henderson, DJs Ace Hurt and Bek Coogan (Cortina) and the Noise Machine.

Also, there will be the premier screening of new experimental short film Fizz Factory starring Jeremy Randerson and set at the iconic and historical Foxton Fizz Factory that Randerson took over earlier in the year. The film features a soundtrack by Rowan Laing including the saxophone of Jeff Henderson and music by German composer Hans Otte, courtesy of Pogus Productions (US) and Radio Bremen (Germany).

Party is Free Entry, White Fungus Issue 7 will be on sale.

On now at Wellington’s The Walrus Gallery – cnr Jessie and Taranaki St – is Contemporary Artifacts, an exhibition of new work by Sandy Rodgers running until December 12. Rodgers’ work explores the Maori and Pakeha histories drawing upon maps, illustrations and other archival materials.

Exit Dunedin

Exit Dunedin - a recent project organised by Wellington artist John Borley – undertook the task of proving this year’s graduates of Dunedin’s School of Fine Art with detailed critical responses to their work from a team of invited arts professionals. Inspired, in part, by a 2002 project Static that took place in Liverpool, Exit sought to deal with the issues and problems confronting art students moving from the protected environment of the art school into the professional realm by giving students a direct experience of public reception of their work. To see the reviews check out:


http://buro.net.nz/exitdunedin

07/11/06

Just kicking of at Enjoy in Wellington is
Hallways of Lives,

an exhibition by Rachel O’Neill pursuing the philosophical intersection between romance novels and Physics. Within the exhibition lie different arrangements, hopes and poetic sensations. The artist will be doing a performance at the Film Archive on Thursday, November 16 at 6pm, followed by an artist talk at Enjoy at 7pm.
Hallways of Lives runs until November 25.

For more info check out: www.enjoy.org.nz

Also happening at the Film Archive in Wellington this Friday, November 10 is a screening of My Father is Into Terrorism, a film by William Karel set in Paris in 1990 and based on terrorist events of that time. The film was written by journalist / author Clemence Boulouque who will be in New Zealand this month for the Belles Etrangeres Literary Festival.

Check out: www.ambafrance

My Father Is Into Terrorism starts at 7:30
Arrive earlier for drinks and nibbles

On Now At BATS
On at Wellington’s BATS Theatre until November 25 is a play directed by prolific young theatre director Jade Eriksen as one of this year’s STAB commissions. Arcane weaves together archival 1960 scripts from the wife of a Gisborne farmer with the communication systems of bee colonies and the forms involved in the Oracular establishments of the classical Greek period.

For more info go to www.theatreheuristic.co.nz

Greg Malcolm to Play Wellington Jazz Festival

Guitarist extraordinaire Greg Malcolm is set to perform as part of the Wellington Jazz Festival running Nov 2-11. Malcolm will be performing a selection of Steve Lacy tunes adapted especially for customized solo guitar. Inventive and innovative, Malcolm’s approach to the guitar incorporates everything from coiled springs to monkey wrenches, irreverently extending the scope of what a guitar may or may not be or can do. David Keenan of The Wire wrote of Malcolm’s music: "His customized instruments give him the reach of a miniature orchestra".

Greg Malcolm plays The Frontroom, 8:00pm, Thursday 9th, November.

25/10/06

The Invisible Reading Room

Running until October 29 at Sydney artist-run space First Draft is the second-ever exhibition of The Invisible Reading Room, a traveling and continually expanding archive of more than 500 independent publishing projects and 100 artists videos. Compiled by Sydney-based artist-run initiative The Invisible Inc, the archive’s first exhibition was held earlier this year at Melbourne’s Next Wave Festival.

For more info check out: www.theinvisibleinc.org.au

Also coming up in Sydney is the launch party for Australian independent arts magazine Runway Issue Eight: Trash. The party will be held this Sat. 28 October at MOP Projects.
Check out: www.runway.org.au

Climate Change and the Spanish Civil War

This November 4th has been dubbed "Climaction", a global day of action, participation and discussion about global warming and its implications. "Climaction" takes place in Auckland City at Aotea Square at 1pm. Organised by a large coalition of environmental, community, social and political organisations, the day will have speakers ranging from scientists and politicians to concerned citizens. The public is encouraged to come and show their solidarity and that they are serious about this issue.

www.climaction.blogspot.com

New Zealand and the Spanish Civil War

Coming up this November 4-5 is a two-day seminar, New Zealand and the Spanish Civil War run by the Trade Union History Project. Beginning on 17 July 1936 with a military revolt against the democratically elected centre-left Popular Front Government, the War became the great ideological struggle of the 1930s. While the West maintained a "non-intervention" policy and fascist dictator Franco would win and remain in power until his death in 1975, historian and seminar speaker Peter Clayworth says one of the "few bright notes from this grim story was the example of international solidarity show shown by thousands of young, mostly working class people, who came voluntarily from around the world to assist the people of Spain to resist fascism".

New Zealand and the Spanish Civil War will include a number of talks by prominent speakers on issues of the war and the involvement of New Zealanders whether in the spheres of trade unionism, politics, literature or art. The seminar will also include a concert at Bar Bodega, a book launch, panel discussions and a party and barbeque, to be confirmed. The seminar will be preceded by a number of related film screenings at the Film Archive from November 1-4.

To register or find out more about the event, go to: www.tuhp.org.nz

For more information on the film screenings visit: www.filmarchive.org.nz

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