D.A.N.C.E Art Club

Auckland-based artists collective D.A.N.C.E. Art Club has created a repertoire of exhibitions and events that celebrate the social dynamic as a creative platform. The collective organises events that incorporate art installations and include themed music, entertainment, food and refreshments. They encourage audience engagement and participation as a way of opening up conversation and making art accessible to a wider audience.

D.A.N.C.E. Art Club consists of visual artists Chris Fitzgerald, Ahilapalapa Rands, Linda T. Tanoai and Vaimaila Urale. They continue a rich history of artists collaborating towards a creative vision, in the vein of definitive performance art collective Pacific Sistas, who formed in the 1990s.

Embracing a collective art-making practice came naturally for these artists, who met while studying art at Auckland University of Technology and formed as a group in 2008. The group’s conception came from a desire to facilitate social networks within the larger community at art school. Discovering a natural hierarchy among undergraduates, master’s students and staff was the impetus for creating a neutral zone: ‘we wanted people to socialise on an equal level, in an equal space.’

D.A.N.C.E. Art Club was born and regular art gatherings were organised to mobilise their peers and the art-school community. They were given permission to hold events on school grounds and providing free food and beverages such as ‘Dodgy Dance Punch’ and free DJ music encouraged people to get involved. They also invited fellow art students, staff and friends to submit artwork and be part of art installations.

The events were challenging on several fronts. ‘The fact that we would stage the events had people on edge – lots of tutors and support staff were talking and it was hugely political without us knowing and realising it.’ On the surface the events had the aesthetics of a party. It challenged people to think of social interaction as art. ‘People began to ask, “Is it art?” Yes, it’s an art event; and just because it looks like a party and sounds like a party, doesn’t mean it is one.’

Casual Romance Club,  2010

The success of the AUT events inspired the collective to continue with the group after graduating. Their events continue to be self-curated and self-funded with a strong focus on collaborative practice. ‘It’s about how we share space. Our practice is about how we relate to each other as individual artists within a collective, how we relate to our audience and how our audience relates to each other.’

In 2008, they presented work outside of AUT for the first time as part of the magazine station no. 5 exhibition at Artspace, in conjunction with leading Relational Aesthetics artist Rirkrit Tiravanija and part of a month-long series of events involving local artists.

This event included setting up a space to make fresh pina colada; the audience were invited to scrape fresh coconuts to make pe’e pe’e[T1] . Vaimaila worked with fellow emerging artists Seilala Sini, John Vea and Fristar Viliamu to orchestrate the food-sharing activity. Artist Tiffany Singh was invited to set up a space where she gifted green wax apples in exchange for words/poems or drawings.

Following Artspace, in 2009, the collective were asked to be part of a photographic exhibition called ‘I Go Where The Party Takes Me’ at James Wallace Gallery in Auckland. They collaborated on a video featuring Ahilapalapa, who has a performance-based practice. The video, ‘Laundromat’, in which Ahilapalapa impersonates Beyoncé, also featured in ‘I Go Where The Party Takes Me’ at Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui and in ‘Off Stage’ for Tautai, both in 2010.

Conceptually, D.A.N.C.E. Art Club draws on everyday life to explore universal themes. In 2010 they created a year-long trilogy of exhibition events called ‘Casual Romance Club’. The Club dealt with romance, love and relationships in the modern age.

The first Casual Romance Club event took place on Valentines Day at the Albert Park rotunda, Auckland. This was the collective’s first event in a public space. Linda T. and Chris set up a DJ zone dedicated to love songs and Ahilapalapa and Vaimaila made romantic decorations, sweet treats and love potion.

In June 2010 D.A.N.C.E. Art Club were curated into Enjoy Public Gallery’s 10th Anniversary Exhibition in Wellington. The collective were asked to host the exhibition opening and exhibit for one week. Working outside of Auckland for the first time was an exciting challenge. The call to create a unique celebration was the perfect proposition for the collective.

For this project they expanded their collaborations beyond the members of their group. They invited other artists to make work, including Janet Lilo, who in turn chose to collaborate with two young Wellington artists, Jonathan Cameron and Marie Fonoti. The result was a video re-enactment of a scene from the Twilight series’ New Moon. Chris worked with artist Jackie McGraw, who produced an oil painting portrait of him. Continuing the romance theme, Linda T. asked friends to text her their ‘heartbreak’ songs, which she then used as her DJ playlist at the opening. Inspired by watching reality TV show Masterchef Australia, Vaimaila collaborated with two Wellington artists, Emma Nicholls and Keila Martin, to bake a croquembouche, a traditional towering, cone-shaped French wedding cake. The dessert was shared among guests at the opening celebration.

The collective say: ‘Romance is heavily mediated through digital communication. We’re using internet dating sites, Facebook, mobile texts to connect. We’re also influenced by the media's idea of what “romance” should be through popular movies, reality TV and music videos.’

For the Enjoy exhibition the collective produced a self-published supplementary publication. The theme of romance in the digital age gave them the idea to look beyond the art world for a writer to contribute the main text. ‘We asked Greer McDonald, who used to write for a well-known singles dating blog called Greer 2.0. It was important for us to include a voice which operated in the blogosphere.’ Greer is now the social media editor for www.stuff.co.nz.

Other opportunities opened up for the group. They were invited to take part in a seminar alongside New York-based collaborative artist Gregory Sholette, The Wellington Collaboratorium. This gave them the opportunity to share their practice with other like-minded artists and collectives from around NZ.

The third and final instalment of Casual Romance Club took place at Auckland bar Cassette Number Nine. The venue was the inspiration to hold an evening of musical speed dating. Guests were invited to participate in a soirée of love songs and conversation by candlelight in the form of speed-dating-meets-musical-chairs. Participants were provided with light-hearted conversation-starters such as ‘If an alien came down and asked you to go to their home planet, would you go with them?’ All conversation-starters were sourced from internet speed-dating sites.

Linda T., the DJ host for the event, signalled partner rotation by changing the music - from Marvin Gaye to Minnie Riperton to Ardijah - setting the scene for romance on this nightclub-meets-gallery occasion. Further into the night, guests were entertained with live drag performances by Ahiyonce and Tekuila Dream, who, in keeping with theme, performed ‘Video Phone’ by Lady Gaga and ‘Telephone’ by Beyoncé. The event blurred perceptions of ‘art’ and ‘entertainment’, as well as preconceptions about the role of audience, transforming them from onlookers to performers and even instigators for the art project.

Venues are a core part of D.A.N.C.E. Art Club events and the collective is strategic in choosing the right venue for their projects, looking for spaces where they can host late and take the liberties needed to construct the right environment. An event such as their Pool Hall Comp held at K’Rd Ballroom in 2010, where participants were encouraged to take part in competitive rounds of pool, demonstrates how heavily their work can draw on and be informed by site specificity.

While they are focused on collaborative art-making, they do have their individual roles, which they find are always shifting: ‘We all bring something different to the table and are constantly learning and honing our practice.’

D.A.N.C.E. Art Club has a full year ahead of them with their main priority being to work on their online presence. Documentation is key to their work, as what they create is ephemeral by nature. The collective are planning to launch their website/blog in May. They have also been curated into the Pacific Arts Summit at Papakura Art Gallery for a one-off event. In June the collective will head back to Enjoy Public Art Gallery, to collaborate with Sydney-based performance artist Brian Fuata, who has invited the group to take part in a one-day performance-art project. Later in the year they will also be working on a half-hour community television project.

‘It’s totally inspiring being able to collaborate with people you love and care about. We hand-pick the people we work with and that’s power. Power to the people stuff.’

D.A.N.C.E Art Club