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/

Call for Submissions

Pacific Dance New Zealand is inviting submissions to the Pacific Dance Artist in Residence programme 2012. The Auckland-based residency is presented by Pacific Dance New Zealand in partnership with Auckland Council, DANZ (Dance Aotearoa New Zealand) and the ASB Community Trust.

The residency will be carried out in South Auckland for 10 weeks starting on 14th May 2012.

The successful applicant will be given the opportunity to create dance works with participants from the community culminating in a public showing at the Metro Theatre (Mangere East Hall) in Mangere East.

The successful applicant will also be expected to create an original work as well as to deliver a small series of public workshops.

The applicant will present a two-page proposal of how they intend to use the residency and supply a full CV outlining essential experience.

This proposal must clearly outline what the artist intends to achieve at the completion of the residency and clearly state the targeted community i.e. youth, women, local dance groups, traditional troupes, hip-hop etc.

The successful applicant will receive:

- a stipend of NZ $5000.00
- a dedicated studio located in South Auckland.
- a professional mentor provided by DANZ.

For more information, please email auckland@pacificdance.co.nz or call 09 376 00 60.  Or, you can download an application form – HERE!!

Application Deadline: Friday 27th April 2012

Official Starting Date of Residency: Monday, 14th May 2012

Lindah Lepou is one of the New Zealand designers commissioned by Te Papa to create a wedding dress for their exhibition Unveiled.  Unveiled is an exhibition on at Te Papa at the moment celebrating 200 years of wedding fashion from the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

Lepou has been instrumental in bringing Pacific fashion out of the stereotypical shadows of grass skirts and aloha shirts. She uses raw materials and natural fibres in an innovative way, under a term she coined herself – ‘Pacific couture’.  So as part of the Te Papa Unveiled exhibition Te Papa are putting on a retrospective exhibition for Lepou’s stunning work, covering the past 17 years, as well as extraordinary new pieces for purchase.

Just one of the highlights of Pacific Couture Unveiled at Te Papa is Cocomono (2004), above.  Based on a kimono, the work is made from varnished coconut rings.

‘Some artists create art for a particular time and place, while I am more interested in creating art that transcends this time and space.’  Comments Lepou on her own process.  Lindah Lepou is a New Zealand artist of Samoan and palagi (English/Scottish) descent, with a background in performing arts, music, and fashion.  Lepou has built a strong body of work that pays homage to her love of French haute couture and her own rich New Zealand and Pacific heritage.

Watch Lindah talk about the dress she designed for Unveiled

Pacific Couture Unveiled
When:   Thursday 19 April   -  6.15pm–6.45pm
Where:  Wellington Foyer, Level 2
Cost:  Free entry

Auckland’s Ane Tonga is the fifth recipient of the Blumhardt Foundation’s Curatorial Internship funded by Creative NZ.  A legacy of New Zealand potter Dame Doreen Blumhardt’s commitment to arts education, the internship provides a rare opportunity for an aspiring curator to develop their skills alongside professional museum staff, in a contemporary gallery setting. Ane will begin work part-time at The Dowse in May, under the mentorship of Senior Curator, Emma Bugden.

Ane’s interest is in the distinction between decorative arts and contemporary art, questioning the value of the object; the basis for her potential exhibition at The Dowse – and her drive to pursue curatorial and public planning roles.

‘I am really excited about moving to Wellington and working with The Dowse,’ says Ane, ‘My project, while very early in its inception, will investigate taking objects beyond the purely aesthetic; and exploring the intangible values embedded in them. ‘

23 year old Ane is a recent graduate of Auckland University’s Elam School of Fine Arts. She is proud to have fulfilled her Tongan-born parents’ dream of their children pursuing higher education opportunities in New Zealand. For three years while studying, Ane worked as a Tuakana Mentor for Maori and Pacific students at Elam. She currently works as Deputy Supervisor at the TSB Wallace Arts Centre, and previously at FHE Galleries.

“We are delighted to welcome Ane to our family of Blumhardt interns”, says Kaye McKinley, Chair of the Blumhardt Foundation, “As previous winners have demonstrated, the internship is a valuable opportunity for career development in the competitive and highly specialised curatorial field.”

The 2011 Blumhardt intern was Lily Hacking, now curator of the Hirschfeld Gallery at City Gallery Wellington. Lily’s exhibition A View From Where I was Sleeping runs until 22 July at The Dowse. It features works made in collaboration, often forged from friendships between artists.

NZSA Manuscript Assessment Programme seeks projects with Maori/Pacific Island Content.

 
The NZSA Programme offers an exceptional opportunity for writers to have their completed manuscript evaluated by an experienced assessor.

An assessment assists an author to improve their work by providing a constructive, detailed report on the project’s strengths and weaknesses, and offering suggestions on how the author might move the project forward.

A selection panel will choose 13 successful applicants who will be matched with an assessor who specialises in the genre in which the applicant writes. The programme is open to writers of poetry, fiction, short fiction, plays, non-fiction, memoir and children’s fiction. (excluding picture books.)

This year 1 of the assessment places will set aside for a manuscript with significant Maori/Pacific Island content. NB: The author of this manuscript does not need to be a member of the NZSA.

The programme will also offer 5 of the successful applicants discretionary ‘mini-mentorships’ to be undertaken when the assessment is completed. These short mentorships begin in early October and will help to guide the writer in the reworking of their manuscript.

Application Deadline: 1 June 2012

For an application form please contact the NZSA national office by emailing programmes@nzauthors.org.nz or visit our website www.authors.org.nz