Snap, Crackle, Pop-up – The ShutterRoom, Whangarei

17Feb

12 Oct – 5 Nov 2019
The self-deprecating title, also a witty allusion to pop art (Roy Lichtenstein’s paintings of cartoons with speech bubbles were often onomatopoeiatic and pop art itself re-presented the ordinary and contemporary). The exhibition was a photographic project that translated the snap-shotted individual instant into the multi-medial.

Detail of Snap, Crackle, Pop-up at The Shutter Room, Whangarei

It was also a participatory project: anyone with a smart phone and $2 was invited to add one of their snaps to the walls. A horizon line served as a visual guide but also added a level of complexity to the experience of Snap, Crackle Pop-up. Images above, below or across the line invited the viewer to read meanings into the placement and juxtapositionings – akin to how (despite our belief in our individualisms) each of us, is affected by our society.

The ShutterRoom is hardly a pop-up gallery having a stable following for over five years in its central Whangarei space directly across from the city public library. This proximity was part of the aesthetic experience created by The Shutter Room Collective curators, Heath, Leigh & Ken.

Detail of one of the walls in Snap, Crackle, Pop-up,
The Shutter Room, Whangarei
Click for a larger view

The first instruction I was given was to take 30-odd steps towards the library to use the wifi access there to download the app required to print out my snapshot. Back in the gallery, the snapshot was printed and I was given pins to place it anywhere on the walls. Feeling rebellious, I pinned my image across the line then I counted only one cat and several baby photos in the 50 or more images. The open curation approach had an element of risk, especially where a broad public could easily walk in, but the eye height line appears to have encouraged a self displine in regards to the content and thoughtfulness in the total composition.

The Shutter Room Facebook page

Re:configuring @ The Shutter Room, Whangarei

14Apr

Detail of Re:configuring by Sarah Kippenberger and Chris Schreuder

“Re:configuring” by Whangārei-based artists, Sarah Kippenberger and Chris Schreuder in the artist run The Shutter Room gallery and studio space, makes the aesthetic experience mutable and participatory.

Detail of over 80 images on one of the walls.



You are instructed to choose an image and then to find it peeping out of one of the orfices of the stacks of 80 or more banana boxes in the gallery space.

Detail in the Shutter Room gallery, Whangārei

The title of the show refers to the continually changing configurations created by the visitors. While the photographic images by the artists showing snippits of their lives are framed to be looked at, pondered over or recognized, the frames obscure more than they reveal and the installation of nooks and crannies and towers is not only random but temporary.

Detail in the Shutter Room gallery, Whangārei

By removing both frame and label this project blurs authorship which often in the art world is an important part of the artwork’s value or reception. Visitors place and re-position the boxes and so affect the way the images or the boxes are read by the participants themselves as well as later visitor-participants. Not only the medium is blurred (installation, performance or an opportunity to rearrange) but also the usual separation between the art object and the gallery visitor. The risk is that the next visitor, expecting their art gallery experience to be about reading a static arrangement, sees nothing resembling ‘art.’ But like many social practice art projects which blur the borders between life and art, a clear context – here in the form of instructions to find the image – helps the viewer to step inside the magic circle and once engaged in the game there’s space for contemplation.

The banana box itself is a migrant entering the country on the back of trade as well as being the ubiquitous storage system. But I am being too serious, because this exhibition oozes with joy and lightheartedness. The images are light or delicate with not a trace of angst and none of the boxes are overly battered. There is an out of the box sense of exploration and play that blurs the lines of “object making, performance, political activism, community organizing, environmentalism and investigative journalism, creating a deeply participatory art” [1] experience. In another sense the box functions as an enabler of alterity (to reference Spivak whose 1997 Documenta lecture made a huge impact on me), a way of exhibiting the photographic in a divergent space – from the inside of the migrant banana box, with whatever baggage it might have that distinguishes it from a gallery wall.

Footnote: Outside the Citadel, Social Practice Art Is Intended to Nurture, New York Times, 2013

“Reconfiguring” by Sarah Kippenberger and Chris Schreuder,
29 March – 27 April 2019,
The Shutter Room, 9 Rust Avenue, Whangārei
Opposite the public library main door
Wed – Fri 12-4pm, Sat 10-2pm
The Shutter Room Facebook page

The Poetic Condition @ NorthArt – Gallery 3

28Nov

Left to Right: “HearSay,” soundpiece, 2018, recording of a generated audio work, by Jonathan Reus.
Two paintings by Roger Morris. “Trope,” 2018, oil on canvas, 190 x 75 cm by Raewyn Turner and ceramic works by Jess Paraone. Two small works by Sonja van Kerkhoff. “Pandora’s Box” 5 piece suspended double side painting by Alexis Hunter.

Left to Right: “HearSay,” soundpiece, 2018, recording of a generated audio work, by Jonathan Reus.
“Enduring Freedom” and “‘Axis’ ONE” Oils on board by Roger Morris.

“HearSay,” was created by an algorithm which recombined recordings of news broadcasts from CNN, MSNBC and the BBC of an underground slave trade emerging in Libya as reported by CNN in October 2017. The story of the slave trade in Libya was reported through rumors and collections of stories by migrants stranded in local detention camps. This work highlights the problem of news organisations presenting images of truth when these are based on fragmented and subjective testimony.
This is one of several algorithmically generated sound works by Jonathan Reus, which explore the aesthetic elements of news broadcasts, by contrasting the authoritative voices of news reporters to witnesses, foley sounds, and background music used to enhance drama in the macro and micro sonic. A first sketch of this work was created during the Transmarcations work session in Brussels, 2017 organized by http://constantvzw.org

“Trope,” 2018, oil on canvas, 190 x 75 cm, by Raewyn Turner. Ceramic works by Jess Paraone.

“Binary investigations,” 2 piece glazed ceramic, “Binary investigations,” glazed ceramic, “Liminal,” ceramic, “Binary with foundation,” partially glazed ceramic by Jess Paraone (Ngāti Kawau, Kaitangata).

 
The rows of zeros and ones stamped into the slab-like “Binary series” works by Jess Paraone (Ngāti Kawau, Kaitangata) play off against expressionistic abstract colours and glazes. These numbers can be read simultaneously as abstract element and as symbol for the human or mark of the human made machine. The central piece, from the “Liminal” series is a rolled slab of black dyed raku clay and porcelain clay – materials with very different properties. The contrasting materiality (rough vs smooth, brittle vs elastic) and colours invite multiple readings on the theme of oppositions, compatibility, and diversity.

“Liminal,” slip cast porcelain slab + raku clay coloured with black stain, fired to 1260 degrees celcius, “Binary with foundation,” glazed porcelain and brick by Jess Paraone. Click for a larger view.

Ceramics by Jess Paraone



 
Gallery 1 | Gallery 2

The Poetic Condition @ NorthArt – Gallery 2

15Nov

“See Nothing,” monoprint on paper by Roger Morris, “Bird of Prey” video by Sanne Maes, “Outer mantel 3” + “Outer mantel 4” (and each side of the open wall) by Yair Callender, “Trope” (in the third gallery beyond) by Raewyn Turner and ceramic sculpture by Jess Paraone, “Tomorrow will never be the same” interactive projection by Jian Yiwei and Sonja van Kerkhoff,
2 video loops by Pieterje van Splunter.

“Vaat” (Washing Up) 2014, stop motion animation, 7 minutes, 11 seconds, and “Cleaning the Air,” 2014, video, 43 seconds by Pieterje van Splunter, The Hague.
“Cleaning the Air” is a film of a sculpture by Pietertje which rotated diverse household items.

“Tomorrow will never be the same” interactive work by Jian Yiwei and Sonja van Kerkhoff, 2 video loops by Pieterje van Splunter.

“Outer Mantel 4” by Yair Callender, “Tomorrow will never be the same” interactive work by Jian Yiwei and Sonja van Kerkhoff

“Tomorrow will never be the same” interactive work by Jian Yiwei and Sonja van Kerkhoff[/caption] When you click on the Mondrian painting the pixel the mouse touches switches colours with another colour in the painting and then creates ‘children’ who land at random, where the same colour swap happens and more ‘children’ are created that swap colours. The affect is that the painting continuously mutates as if it is being eaten by colours. The order (straight lines) created by Mondrian is decomposed by randomness initiated by you.

Detail of “Trope” (in the third gallery beyond) by Raewyn Turner and ceramic sculpture by Jess Paraone, “Outer Mantel 4” by Yair Callender, “Tomorrow will never be the same” interactive work by Jian Yiwei and Sonja van Kerkhoff

“Outer mantel 3 + 4” (on each side of the open wall), Layers of latex, LED lighting + recycled NZ pine, by Yair Callender. The wooden support was built to instructions given by Yair which included reusing old wood. Detail in the back gallery of drawings by Marianne Muggeridge.

Detail of “Outer mantel 3” by Yair Callender



 
Yair Callender, born in Groningen (1987) to a Dutch mother and a father who came from Suriname (South America) to the Netherlands to study in the early 1970s, is a graduate of the Hague Royal College of Arts (2014).

He works in concrete, plaster, clay and wood and his main focus is on making public sculpture.

Often his sculpture has some performative social element that involves the local community.

His major themes are cultural expressions and art in society in relation to playing with the idea of beauty in the ugly. The two larger pieces, layers of resin which are back-lit, were made for this exhibition.

These four pieces are playful interpretations of diverse religious symbols (Catholic gargoyles, Asian temples, the Kabbalah tree, etc) found on the exterior of buildings. He has made skins which are lit from within as a metaphor for our human condition – the beautiful seen through the rough and raw. Who could say art is ever ugly?
 

 

“Bird of Prey” video by Sanne Maes, latex light boxes by Yair Callender
Back gallery: “Your Honour” + “Eva was hier” (Eve was here) by Sonja van Kerkhoff, “Pandora’s Box” suspended panels by Alexis Hunter.

Detail: “Bird of Prey” video by Sanne Maes, latex light boxes by Yair Callender. Two videos by Pieterje van Splunter

“Bird of Prey” video, HD, loop 0’25” photocopy on transparent paper. 21″ LCD tv inside custom-made frame, 61 x 40, Edition of 3. “Outer mantel 3” latex, LED lighting + recycled NZ pine, by Yair Callender.


 
“Bird of Prey” by Sanne Maes is from the morphological studies which concentrate on aspects of the outward appearance of humans and animals. In these works distant species are blended and so create transformations of identity.

 

 

 

Detail: “Bird of Prey” video by Sanne Maes.

The woman slowly turns her head away and then when she looks ahead her eyes match that of the hawk.

Videos by Channa Boon (The Hague), by Jonathan Reus + Sissel Marie Tonn (The Hague), and by Raewyn Turner and Brian Harris (Auckland). Four etchings by Virgina Guy (Hikurangi, Northland).
Side wall: Monoprint by Roger Morris (Taranaki), video by Sanne Maes (The Hague) and back lit latex relief by Yair Callender.



 

The latex boxes by Yair Callender on the left light up when approached. Monoprint by Roger Morris. Suspended sheet metal and lamp by Sonja van Kerkhoff. Videos by Channa Boon, by Jonathan Reus + Sissel Marie Tonn, and by Raewyn Turner and Brian Harris. Four etchings by Virgina Guy.

“Plastic Play,” video by Pietertje van Splunter
Middle Gallery: “Outer Mantel 1 + 2” responsive light latex light boxes by Yair Callender. “Road to JerUSAlem,” monoprint on paper by Roger Morris.

Responsive light latex light boxes by Yair Callender. Monoprint on paper by Roger Morris. “Fain would they put out God’s light,” cut out text sheet steel, nylon and lamp by Sonja van Kerkhoff. “Et in Arcadia ego” 29 min video by Channa Boon, “Sensory Cartographies,” 7 min video by Jonathan Reus + Sissel Marie Tonn. “Finding Flight,” photo intaglio with gold leaf by Virginia Guy.

Left: “Et in Arcadia ego,” 2016, 29 minute video by Channa Boon.

Joseph Stalin once expressed his view on art and cinema stating: “Propaganda is the strongest and most important weapon of our party and our battle, and in this battle the visual arts are the infantry while the cinema is the air force.” This was one of the inspirations for the video, “Et in Arcadia ego” by Channa Boon, shot in the former Soviet Union. While historical events are the carrier of the film, a chess game, played by two residents of Odessa, sitting near the city’s Arcadia Beach, is the physical link connecting the different locations: the Aral Sea (Uzbekhistan), Odessa (Ukraine) and Tbilisi (Georgia). This film ends when the chess game is over, but the large-scale power game that is still being played out in the former U.S.S.R. is not over. Stalin’s cotton industries for example, founded by him in Central Asia, are still the reason why large parts of the Aral Sea are gone and the entire region is polluted. In this work, Boon investigates the idea of ‘location’ as a ‘carrier of information’, which any individual or being can tap into, just by being present at a given spot. Conversely, the film aims to show the system of thoughts and ideas that, throughout history, has created both the physical landscape and those who live in it; how it has affected the way they think and act; and how a collective consciousness has been formed in the past and is still being formed in the present.
The phrase ‘Et in Arcadia Ego’ is from a text by Virgil, and is the title of a famous painting (1638) by Nicolas Poussin. The phrase refers to the ideal world that Communism aimed to bring about in this region and the nostalgia that it still invokes.

Above: two etchings by Virginia Guy. “Et in Arcadia ego” 29 min video by Channa Boon. “Sensory Cartographies,” 7 min video by Jonathan Reus + Sissel Marie Tonn. “Fallible,” 3 min video by Raewyn Turner and Brian Harris.

“Sensory Cartographies” was filmed in the oldest primal forest in Europe in the upper altitudes of the island of Madeira to create a new entry into the herbarium of the Jardim Botanico in Funchal. The herbarium holds an archive of plant species and taxidermized animals dating back to the 16th century and serves as a blueprint of the history of colonization and acclimatization of plant species from the new world. Sissel Marie Tonn and Jonathan Reus created physiological data gathering devices and sensory-extension instruments to challenge the body’s conditioned ways of moving through the environment. These devices served to reshape a sensory worldview to create an alternative sensed cartography of this place. More: jonathanreus.com/portfolio

Above: “Finding Flight,” photo intaglio with gold leaf. Edition 1/1, 23 x 28 cm
“Finding Flight,” photo Intaglio with gold leaf. Edition 1/1, 33 x 33 cm by Virginia Guy.
“Sensory Cartographies,” 7 min video by Jonathan Reus + Sissel Marie Tonn.
“Fallible,” 3 min video by Raewyn Turner and Brian Harris. Unscented flowers rotate above a vase which holds a sensor and the data from the sensor is turned into piano notes.
More: raewynturner.com/projects

Raewyn Turner & Brian Harris combine art, engineering, science research and their skills developed over years of practice in theatre, the film industry, robotics, interactive software, video, olfactory, art installations and performances. They engage simple elements with engineering to create experiential art, utilising everyday objects reinterpreted with robotics, electronics and microprocessors.

Wall on right: “See Nothing,” monoprint on paper, 2017 by Roger Morris,
“Bird of Prey” video in custom frame by Sanne Maes.
Back wall: 4 etchings on paper by Virginia Guy.

“Finding Flight,” photo intaglio Edition 1/1, 75 suspended prints, 84 x 118 cm by Virginia Guy.

“Finding Flight,” photo intaglio on rag paper. Edition 1/10, 23 x 28 cm. “See Nothing,” monoprint on paper. 2017, by Roger Morris [R E M O].

“Outer Mantle 3,” latex, LED lighting + recycled NZ pine, 2018, by Yair Callender. “Tomorrow will never be the same,” interactive projection by Jian Yiwei + Sonja van Kerkhoff. Two videos by Pietertje van Splunter. “A Meditation,” 7 min video loop by Sonja van Kerkhoff. “Several Seas,” laser print on transparency by Sonja van Kerkhoff. “The Experience of Change,” interactive projection by Jian Yiwei + Sonja van Kerkhoff.

“Once our World had Edges” 2017, 3 min, 22 sec., HD video using only NASA International Space Station footage. Music: ‘a distant backdrop’ by sink \ sink, on the album ‘a lone cloudburst’ by Gareth Schott.
“Several Seas,” laser print, edition of 50, by Sonja van Kerkhoff.

 
Gallery 1 | Gallery 3

Met dank aan Stroom Den Haag / with thanks to STROOM The Hague for finanicial assistance as well as to NorthArt.

The Poetic Condition @ NorthArt – Gallery 1

8Nov

18 Artists from Aotearoa | New Zealand and the Hague, The Netherlands:
Jess Paraone (Northland) | Brit Bunkley (Whanganui) | Virginia Guy (Northland) Alexis Hunter (London), Marianne Muggeridge (Taranaki) | Roger Morris (Taranaki) | Raewyn Turner + Brian Harris (Auckland)
Thom Vink | Jonathan Reus | Pietertje van Splunter | Sanne Maes | Channa Boon | Anne Wellmer | Martje Zandboer Sissel Marie Tonn |
Yair Callender | Sonja van Kerkhoff

Aesthetic explorations of the individual in society
by
artists from The Hague and Aotearoa | New Zealand.
Photographs: Sen McGlinn.

“Hazzard Sheep” by Brit Bunkley (Whanganui),
Still from “Een Rode Citroen” (A red lemon), 9 minute 53 second animation.
Soundtrack Anne Wellmer. Drawings: Geerten Ten Bosch. Animation Harriët van Reek

Still from “Een Rode Citroen” (A red lemon) by Anne Wellmer.
Foreground: “Rejoice” and right, “Hamlet”
3D plastic prints by Brit Bunkley.
Ceramic vessels by Jess Paraone (Northland)

“A Red Lemon” video by Anne Wellmer, “Vessel 1” + “Vessel 2” ceramic with mixed media by Jess Paraone (Northland), Photo intaglio, Emboss, Chine colle, 1/1, by Virginia Guy (Northland)

Still: Vox Sanguinis (Voice of the blood), 2015 1′ 52”
Video and soundtrack by Anne Wellmer. Camera: Florian Cramer. Voice: Cora Schmeiser. Music: “O rubor sanguinis” by Hildegard of Bingen. Trumpet: Heimo Wallner. Silent performer and stage design: Geerten Ten Bosch.
“Vessel 1” + “Vessel 2” ceramic with mixed media by Jess Paraone
“Rejoice!” PLA plastic and paint by Brit Bunkley”

“Vessel 1” + “Vessel 2” ceramic, engraved sequences of zeros and ones, and nuts and bolts,
by Jess Paraone (Ngāti Kawau, Kaitangata)

Transfusionen (Transfusions), 2015, video with sound, 2′ 43”
Soundtrack: Anne Wellmer. Hands: Geerten Ten Bosch, Voice: Cora Schmeiser. Music fragment from BLAST (2015) by Lukas Simonis. Text fragment from ‘Della Religione Christiana’ by Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), first published in Italian in 1568. This German translation was published in ‘Das Blut: Symbolik und Magie’ (2004) by Piero Camporesi. The text tells of how witches used the blood of children to make medicine and the various uses (transfusions or transmutations) of this medicine, including the making of wine.
Two Photographic intaglio and embossed prints by Virginia Guy, Ceramic vessels by Jess Paraone, Nine prints by Sonja van Kerkhoff (The Hague / Northland)
Two sculptures by Brit Bunkley

Detail: “Rejoice” 3D plastic print by Brit Bunkley.
“Turangawaewae – Aotearoa – Home,” Photo Intaglio, Emboss, Chine colle, multi-piece etching
by Virginia Guy.
“Child’s Play” photographic prints on dubond by Sonja van Kerkhoff
“Hamlet” 3D plastic print by Brit Bunkley.
“Apple Tree” oil on linen by Marianne Muggeridge (Taranaki).

“Turangawaewae – Aotearoa – Home,” Photo Intaglio, Emboss, Chine colle, multi-piece etching by Virginia Guy. “Child’s Play” photographic prints on dubond by Sonja van Kerkhoff

“Apple Tree” oil on linen by Marianne Muggeridge
“Hamlet” 3D plastic print by Brit Bunkley.
“Plastic Play” 3 min stop motion animation by Pietertje van Splunter (The Hague)
“What kind of Idea” print on aluminium by Sonja van Kerkhoff

“Hamlet” 3D plastic print by Brit Bunkley. Detail: print by Virginia Guy.

“Plastic Play” by Pietertje van Splunter, “What kind of Idea” by Sonja van Kerkhoff, “Social Realism” by Brit Bunkley, “The Speed of Dark” by Thom Vink

Two sculptures by Brit Bunkley, stop motion animation by Pietertje van Splunter, Architectural models on shelf by Thom Vink, Floor sculpture by Sanne Maes, Two wall works by Sonja van Kerkhoff

One corner of the front gallery

“Social Realism” by Brit Bunkley
“The Speed of Dark” by Thom Vink

“The Speed of Dark”, 3 cardboard models + shelf by Thom Vink (The Hague)



“Metamorphosis IV” Dutch concrete and Taranaki branch, 40 x 100 x 60 cm,
by Sanne Maes (The Hague)
One of a number self-portrait explorations on the inner and outer in relation to the natural world.

“Metamorphosis IV” by Sanne Maes

“Metamorphosis IV” by Sanne Maes

“A Tangled Tale,” batiked cloth strips bearing texts in Dutch, English and Maori, “Child’s Play” photographic prints by Sonja van Kerkhoff
“Take My Shoes” by Raewyn Turner and Brian Harris, shoebox, electronics and video
“Ungeziefer 2” ASB plastic and paint, by Brit Bunkley
“Dark Perfume with Integrated Circuit” by Raewyn Turner and Brian Harris
“MAP” by Roger Morris [ r e m o ] (Taranaki)
Small paintings by Pietertje van Splunter (The Hague)

“Take My Shoes” by Raewyn Turner and Brian Harris, shoebox, electronics and video. The voice of a retired police officier plays when someone looks into the box.

Detail of “Take My Shoes” by Raewyn Turner and Brian Harris showing a video, reflections of this in mirrors and figurines.

“Ungeziefer 2” ASB plastic and paint, by Brit Bunkley. “Ungeziefer 2” ASB plastic and paint, by Brit Bunkley. Ungeziefer (vermin, pest or unclean) refers to the main character in Kafka’s novel, The Metamorphosis (Die Verwandlung), in which a salesman awakes to find that he has metamorphosed into a monstrous vermin (“ungeheures Ungeziefer”).
“Dark Perfume with Integrated Circuit” by Raewyn Turner and Brian Harris. Perfume with electronics and sensor, Omani Frankincense, costus, cocoa, civet, tea, cepes, heliotrope, pink champaca, black pepper, vetiver, pure alcohol
When the work is approached to sample the sweet perfume sealed in the flask, the electronic circuitry emits a second earthy organic odour.

“Dark Perfume with Integrated Circuit” by Raewyn Turner and Brian Harris

“MAP,” Etching ink on original ‘PHILIPS’ world map by Roger Morris [ r e m o ] (Taranaki)
A map hung in many New Zealand primary schools in the 50-70s printed by the British company, George Philip & Sons, showing the British Empire (in pink), other colonial powers & British shipping lines as they were in the late 1940s.

Acrylic on hardboard votive like paintings by Pietertje van Splunter.
Left to Right: Speldenpop (Pincushion doll), Een Boom (One Tree), Masker (mask), Bandenman (Tyre man), Kater (male cat), Twee Spanen (Two spruce), Blikken Man (Tin man), Langhoefd (Long head)

Far wall: Photographic emulsion on shells from Zeeland by Martje Zandboer (The Hague), Te Maharatanga | The Recollection, diptyph on dubond + “Tulips from Istanbul” (suspended cast resin orange tinted forms) by Sonja van Kerkhoff
Foreground, “Metamorphosis IV” by Sanne Maes.

Photographic emulsion on shells from Zeeland by Martje Zandboer (The Hague)

Photographic emulsion on shells from Zeeland by Martje Zandboer (The Hague)

Photographic emulsion on an oyster shell from Zeeland
by Martje Zandboer.

Te Maharatanga | The Recollection, oils on dubond, diptych by Sonja van Kerkhoff.
Each piece is 30 x 30 cm. Edition of 38.
The fairytale takes a feminine point of view where the garden is a gateway for transcending social conditioning. Translation: Te Toroa Pohatu (Ngāti Apa).

Gallery 2 | Gallery 3

Met dank aan Stroom Den Haag / with thanks to STROOM The Hague for finanicial assistance as well as to NorthArt.

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