The Curator for GWSBWD, Janet Lilo, took some time out of her busy schedule to have a quick chat to us about the show.

GWSBWD opens this 10:30am Saturday 19 May 2012.

Kate Newby, Moods and Buildings, 2007 from After the Situation: Moment Making curated by Laura Preston, Artspace Curatorial Intern 2006/2007

The Artspace Curatorial Assistant (formerly named Curatorial Intern) is a one-year training position in which you will gain experience in and contribute to all levels of Artspace’s work. This includes working with the director alongside leading local and international artists and curators and actively participating in critical dialogue through our publications and public programmes. In this role you can make a real difference to contemporary art in NZ.

The year of training will culminate in you curating an exhibition at ARTSPACE. As Curatorial Assistant you will work creatively and proactively to generate this project from initiation to completion with the support of the rest of the Artspace’s team.

As the successful applicant, you will be the 8th person occupying this unique and sought after role. Previous Artspace Interns have gone on to work as curators, critics and writers in highly regarded national and international institutions.

As the ideal candidate you will be full of initiative, willing to take on diverse tasks, able to work within a small and dedicated team and, most importantly, will be passionate about contemporary art. Some degree of technical or practical experience would also be an asset.

You will likely also have an art history or fine arts background, a proven talent for writing and a strong desire to be involved in curating at a professional level.

Pacific Dance New Zealand is pleased to announce the Pacific Dance Artist In Residence for 2012 – Sesilia Pusiaki Tatuila.
This Pacific Dance Artists’ Residency is in its third year and is a community dance project presented by Pacific Dance NZ, Dance Aotearoa NZ, Auckland Council and Creative NZ. This year Sesilia will work in the South Auckland community for 10 weeks starting on 14 May.

 
The purpose of this residency is for the local community to be able to access the skill base of an established dance artist who will deliver a dance programme specific to their needs. This year Sesilia will use the residency to promote the maintenance of traditional Tongan dance, to “preserve (the) culture and heritage” of the New Zealand based Tongan community.
The residency will focus on the learning of a repertoire of traditional Tongan dances for men and women. In particular Sesilia will focus on the Me’etupaki, Otuhaka and Faha’iula dances as well as the transmission of broader dance skills to Auckland based youth. Sesilia’s background as a descendant of the Lapaha Punake (master artist) pedigree can also be traced back to her great grandfather Vili Pusiaki, composer/choreographer to the late Queen Salote of Tonga.

 
Pacific Dance NZ director Iosefa Enari has seen the residency grow over the past three years and is encouraged by this year’s artist’s proposal of work. “I’m really pleased to see this residency evolve and develop as part of the Auckland dance calendar,” states Enari. “It is vital that dance programmes for the community are in sync with the needs of that community. This year’s artist continues the tradition of providing Pacific dance that caters for everyone, which is what we (Pacific Dance NZ) are about.”

 
The residency will be delivered at the Metro Theatre in Mangere East over 10 weeks and culminate in a public presentation on Saturday 21 July. Sesilia will be given a designated dance studio (at Metro Theatre) to teach weekly classes. Classes will be held on Tuesday and Thursday evenings as well as Saturday afternoons.

On show at the Papakura Art Gallery until 16 June, this is not a show about Cowgirls and Cowboys.  Nor does it make witty references to drug epidemics and samurai swords.

Rather, it is a show that is quite literal in its naming. “Girls Who Shoot” refers to female photographers Anita Jacobsen, Ane Tonga and Amanda Warwick and “Boys Who Draw” refers to male artists Anthony Tia, Limi Manu and Onesian who have strong drawing-based practices.

The exhibition Girls Who Shoot / Boys Who Draw has been curated for Papakura Art Gallery by Auckland artist Janet Lilo through invitation by Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust.

Lilo graduated from AUT with a Master of Art and Design in 2007 and is known for her community-based documentary-style work, which has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. She describes the objective of her practice as being “to engage, involve, research and educate diverse communities using visual art and creative processes as a platform for learning and empowerment”.

This exhibition is part of the Pacific Arts Summit 2012 and an Auckland Festival of Photography 2012 fringe event.

EXHIBITION DATES : 19 May to 16 June 2012

OPENING : 10.30am Saturday 19 May

PUBLIC PROGRAMME : 10am to 2pm Saturday 26 May

FAM BAM! Anyone can come into Papakura Art Gallery and have their family portrait taken for free by a professional local photographer. The high quality portrait image will be put on a disc for participants to take away.

COMMUNITY PROJECT : 21 May to 1 June

Walking Murals : Girls Who Shoot / Boys Who Draw

A collaboration between years 3 to 12 students from St Mary’s Primary School in Papakura and artist Allen Vili, AKA Onesian. Designed and facilitated by Kate Hart. With thanks to Creative Communities.

Opening night performance for the City Gallery Wellington show.  Performed in the Civic Centre, Wellington.

This is just a small video that we whipped up from some footage that we took of Ioane Ioane’s opening night performance for the ‘Poly Wants a Cracker’ show in Wellington last month.  Tautai was in Wellington as part of the crazy but successful Tautai Tertiary Road Trip, with a bus load of Art Students in tow to support artist Ioane Ioane.  We think you’ll agree, that this footage is worth sharing!!

We thought that we would write up a small blog about the latest Tertiary Trip to Wellington and try to describe the trip for those that weren’t able to be there.

The road trip began in Auckland at 5:15am with Siliga Setoga and myself performing a dawn procession across the city to collect 20 tertiary art students from 5 different tertairy institutions, Whitecliffe, MSVA, ELAM, Unitec & AUT.

We were off to a slight disadvantage with someone sleeping in… Reina.  With our students still half asleep as we began our journey it was a quiet start to our day long road trip to the countries capital, but as the kilometres notched up, this group of strangers became a tight little whanau.

We stopped in the middle of the country, ate food and introduced ourselves properly.

We then arrived in the capital and it was off to the opening of ‘Poly Wants a Cracker’ at City Gallery Wellington where we were mesmerised by the opening performance by Ioane Ioane and collaborators.

On Saturday Ioane Ioane gave his artist talk (which was very much a highlight of the trip for alot of us) and John shared his thoughts, experiences and time with us in such a way that opened the floor up to dialogue and laughter.

Much of the trip was spent discussing and laughing from one gallery to the next.  From Pataka and the Nollywood exhibition, where Amiria and Forrester were lost in deep analysis and discussion of the work, then to Te Papa with laughter during the behind the scenes tour when we realised that Faafeu was missing.  We thought that he may still be at Pataka!

Imagine our surprise when we walked into Bowen Gallery (off Cuba Street) only to discover Ans Westra standing there!  On her birthday no less!  So our little whanau were more than happy to sing a rendition of Happy Birthday and take in her work.

So from being ‘blown away’ by Ioane Ioane’s stunning performance in Civic Square (for the opening of his show Poly Wants a Cracker), laughter, artists’ talk, more laughter and a chance encounter with Ans Westra, are but a few of the things that made this trip a real life road trip.

In 3 short days we have all created new friendships, through a love of art and by sharing our stories.

We went down to support Ioane Ioane’s exhibition ‘Poly Wants a Cracker’, but I think we all have taken away more than that.

Thanks for the memories Trish Ah Sam.

 
Thursday 31 May, 8.00pm | Great Hall, Auckland Town Hall

 
2012 marks five years since Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra musicians began working with hip-hop artists and musicians at OMAC (Otara Music Arts Centre) in South Auckland to compose and perform new works that blend elements of classical with urban music styles.

This one-off, ground-breaking performance fuses the power of a full orchestral sound with the groove and improvisational talent of young Auckland pro hip-hop artists who deliver the message of local lyrics. The Auckland Town Hall is transformed to match the mood with a mosh pit at stalls level and a non-stop 90 minute programme connected by drums and bass, and with original music orchestrated by conductor Kenneth Young.

Presented as part of New Zealand Music Month, this concert is a fusion of classical and contemporary music, exploiting the full colours of the orchestra and the contemporary stylings of the hip-hop crew. The result is an exciting and edgy musical voice that is nothing short of mind blowing!

For more info click here.

8 – 26 May 2012 |Whitespace

Regular opening hours: Tues to Fri 11-6pm | Sat 11-4pm

Artists include Andy Leleisi’uao, Niki Hastings-McFall, Pete Wheeler, Lauren Lysaght and Locust Jones

Few exhibitions in recent memory, save perhaps 2007’s Turbulence Triennial, have self-consciously assembled work that is so hard to look at, so challenging to think about, and so necessary.  Doris Salcedo once said of her work that: ‘As an artist, I don’t have the opportunity to choose the themes that inform a piece.  The oft-celebrated freedom of the artist is a myth.’[1]
Artists that address these themes do not simply choose to – they are compelled to engage with violent themes because they have to.

 
The artists that make up Whitespace’s  Not For Entertainment – Andy Leleisi’uao, Ross Ritchie, Niki Hastings McFall, Pete Wheeler, Lauren Lysaght, and Locust Jones – share the impetus to create works that confront realities that we wish were not real.  The themes of death and war, violence and abuse, would be shocking were they not so familiar.  An exhibition of works of this nature is unusual; the prevalence of abuse and violence in ours – and indeed most of the worlds’ societies – is not.

Location: Corban Estate Arts Centre Gallery
Dates: 20 April – 27 May, 10am-4:30pm

Corban Estate Arts Centre Gallery has three collections.

Re-Collection by Anne-Sophie Adelys references kitsch and contemporary styles to incite visual triggers in the spectator by clustering together an assemblage of items from or inspired by the mid-20th century.  Vaimoana Eves’ exhibition Play-Space involves interactive soft sculptures which act as a vehicle for exploration, while Harvey Benge’s exhibition, Against Forgetting, sees the camera artist return to his childhood home in Auckland’s Mt. Roskill and look at his past through the lens of the present.

Culture for Sale is the third and the final project from Shigeyuki Kihara for the  Edge of Elsewhere.

Edge of Elsewhere is a three year project commissioned by the Campbelltown Arts Centre & the 4a Centre for Contemporary Asian Art for the Sydney Festival.

Culture for Sale is a public performance and video installation devised by artist Shigeyuki Kihara.  The performance explores the close relationship between performance, identity and money in relation to the commercialisation of Samoan culture and in the lead up to the 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of Samoa in June 2012.

Shigeyuki Kihara is a leading inter-disciplinary artist who explores the intersection between visual arts, performance and theatre.

Kihara’s solo performance entitled Taualuga: the last dance has been staged at venues and festivals throughout the world including Berlin, Paris and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

In August 2011 Shigeyuki Kihara traveled to Germany to research materials related to the German administration of Samoa from 1900 till 1914. The research followed the historical footprints of Samoans who traveled and toured across Germany where they were exhibited in a zoo.  The practice was commonly known as ‘Völkerschau’ a popular form of exotic and colonial entertainment.

Conceptually informed by the Samoan participation in the ‘Völkerschauen’, the ‘Culture for Sale’ public performance and video installation was staged in collaboration with the ‘Spirit of the Islands’ Samoan dance group in Sydney held at the Campbelltown Arts Centre in January 2012.

The ‘Culture for Sale’ documentary is commissioned by Campbelltown Arts Centre and 4a Centre for Contemporary Asian Art for Sydney Festival 2012. Directed by Shigeyuki Kihara. Edited by Filmmaker Kirsty MacDonald.

For more information please visit:

shigeyukikihara.com
shigeyukikihara.wordpress.com/