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Some thoughts on the COVID-19 pandemic and the Manners of Speaking – Te Pūkoro o Tāne exhibition video

12Apr

Still from the Manners of Speaking – Te Pūkoro o Tāne, Whangarei show under lockdown, 2020 12 minute video on youtube.

On March 23rd, three days before this exhibition was due to close, I was informed by the gallery that they have closed the gallery due to the COVID-19 pandemic and I was given permission to film and take photographs before the lockdown date of March 25th.

Still from the Manners of Speaking – Te Pūkoro o Tāne, Whangarei show under lockdown, 2020 12 minute video

In New Zealand things moved very fast. On Saturday evening we all heard news of a 4 step plan where we were at step 2, social distancing. Some libraries and swimming pools had closed on the Friday before. Then on Monday 23rd, when I heard of the gallery closure, we had moved to step 3 and then later in the day it was announced that New Zealand would go into lockdown, step 4, at midnight on Wednesday 25th.

Still from the Manners of Speaking – Te Pūkoro o Tāne, Whangarei show under lockdown, 2020 12 minute video

The poetry reading to be hosted by Piet Nieuwland was cancelled but we met in the gallery (and kept our 2 metre distance from each other) and Piet read, solo. However the sound quality was terrible … and no possibility for another shoot.
Then Craig Denham shared his lockdown morning improvisations amongst his friends, and so we have day 4 as the soundtrack for this 12 minute video.

Still from the Manners of Speaking – Te Pūkoro o Tāne, Whangarei show under lockdown, 2020 12 minute video


Forced into lockdown, like Craig, I have found these weeks thought provoking – two exhibitions I co-curated are in lockdown and two other exhibitions planned for 2020 are cancelled, yet this is nothing compared to the threat of losing one’s life or livelihood.

Still from the Manners of Speaking – Te Pūkoro o Tāne, Whangarei show under lockdown, 2020 12 minute video

I must go and publish the video here on youtube and then I will return to another blog later. In the meantime here is a link to a blog I wrote for a Dutch Arts Review website “CONNECTING ART IN A TIME OF CRISIS: New Zealand –The Netherlands.”

Manners of Speaking – Te Pūkoro o Tāne

17Feb

21 Feb – 26 March 2020
Geoff Wilson Gallery, NorthTec Campus, Whangārei, Aotearoa

Ghosts photographic print by Ashleigh Taupaki. 42.0 x 59.4 cm
I te huringa kōmuri, e haramā te whenua i te kēhua
On looking back, the land was covered white with ghosts
Hauraki proverb

When we speak of the world in metaphor, not only is it more engaging, but it is a reminder that whatever we say is a translation of the worlds around us.
Over 50 works in diverse media on themes of proverbs and sayings by artists based in Aotearoa and beyond, curated by Sonja van Kerkhoff with 3rd year NorthTec year students.

Artists

Animal Picnic, Archival Lambda print, 1 out of edition of 3
by Andrea Gardner. 82 x 57 cm
(click for a larger view)

Alicia Courtney, Moerwera, The Far North

Andrea Gardner, Whanganui

Ashleigh Taupaki, Auckland

Brenda Liddiard, Auckland

The Map of Hard Places, Mixed media on board
by Brenda Liddiard. 30 x 70 cm, 2014.

Brit Bunkley, Whanganui

Carolyn Lye,
Karetu, The Far North

Catrina Sutter,
Russell / Kororāreka

Chiara Rubino,
Matera, Italy

Cle Tukuitonga, Otangaroa, The Far North

Chiara Rubino, photographic print, 28 x 21 cm

Buona e’ la neve che a suo tempo viene
Good is the snow that comes in its time

Chiara Rubino photographs her home city, Matera, a UNESCO heritage city in southern Italy.

Elaina Arkeooll,
London, UK

Giacomo Silvano,
Irsina, Italy

Hilda Simetin, Auckland

Jacqueline Wassen, Maastricht,
The Netherlands

Jamie Larnach, Auckland

Jarred Taylor + others, Whangārei

Jeff Thomson, Helensville

Joas Nebe, Germany

Jeff Thomson, 3 piece assemblage

“There’s No Iron So Hard That Rust Won’t Fret It;
and There’s No Cloth So Fine That Moths Won’t Eat It.” Scottish Proverb

Joas Nebe, still, The Shareholder´s Room, video, 3 min 45 sec

Man steigt nicht zweimal in denselben Fluß
You Cannot Step Into the Same River Twice
Heraclitus (c. 535 – c. 475 BC, Greece)

John Hoby, Millwater

John Mulholland, Warkworth

Maartje Zandboer, The Hague,
The Netherlands

Naomi Roche, Waikato

Lipika Sen & Prabhjyot Majithia, Auckland

Peter Scott, Kerikeri

Piet Nieuwland, Whangārei

Robert Brown, Whangaparaoa

Sam Melser, Auckland

Sonja van Kerkhoff, Kawakawa

Tash Nikora, Whangārei

Tracy Singer, Auckland

Ursula Christel (Mokopōpaki), Warkworth

Yllwbro Te Ara ki Rangihoua: The Way to Rangihoua, 2018 Scallop shells, brown string, moko adhesive.
Courtesy the artists and Mokopōpaki, Auckland

Yllwbro (Mokopōpaki), North Island

Geoff Wilson Gallery, NorthTec, Gate 3, 51 Raumanga Valley Road, Whangarei

Opening 4-7p.m., 21 Feb 2020

open: 12 – 4 p.m. Wednesdays – Fridays,
and by appointment.

facebook event page for this exhibition

Geoff Wilson Gallery facebook page

northtec.ac.nz/geoff wilson gallery

The T-Shirt is the medium

11Aug

Front row: Ode to the cessation of bleeding by Lesley Anne Morgan (Te Awamutu), Alternative Activities for the Addicted by Elaine Arkell (London), Love Me Knots (with twists) by Sonja van Kerkhoff (The Hague), Elephants for Peace by Elaine Arkell, T-Shirt Plastic by Maureen Baker (Whangarei Heads), Out of Sequins by Brian Harris (Auckland), De-composition (with biogradable rubberbands) by Sonja van Kerkhoff.

Te T-Shirt Show
Curated by Sonja van Kerkhoff + Virginia Guy
Hikurangi Art Station, 31 King St, Hikurangi, Northland, Aotearoa | New Zealand

Detail of T-Shirt Plastic by Maureen Baker (made out of fused plastic bags), Out of Sequins by Brian Harris, De-composition (with biogradable rubberbands)
by Sonja van Kerkhoff.

20 Artists:
Elaine Arkell (London, U.K.) | Maureen Baker (Whangarei Heads) | Hamish Oakley-Browne (Whangarei) | Susan Burgess (Christchurch) | Megan Corbett (Hikurangi) | Virginia Guy (Hikurangi) | Brian Harris (Auckland) | Dulcie Hering (Hikurangi) | Sen McGlinn (Kawakawa) | Lesley Anne Morgan (Te Awamutu) | Julia Newland (Whangarei Heads) | Benjamin Pittman (Hikurangi) | Lisa Ponweiser + Mt Hutt College students (Methven) | Jason Ratahi (Opunake) | Jacob Squire (Hikurangi) | Ursula Safar (Wales) | Te Kowhai Trust (Whangarei) | John Thomson (Hampshire, U.K.) | Raewyn Turner (Auckland) | Sonja van Kerkhoff (The Hague, The Netherlands) | Jacqueline Wassen (Maastricht, The Netherlands).

T-shirts by Lesley Anne Morgan + Elaine Arkell.
Click for a larger view.

Front row:
Ode to the cessation of bleeding by Lesley Anne Morgan. In celebration of menopause, the delicately cut out pieces were scattered on the floor underneath this. The black t-shirt behind this is ‘Arch Overload’ – Portsmouth Festival – 1990, custom made by John Thomson. (thomsonart.co.uk) and Alternative Activities for the Addicted by Elaine Arkell is next, who wrote: “Well, yes I once was a foolish smoker with teeth all stained and brown. The wrangle with nicotine was long and hard and this work came through and out of that wrangle.”

Love Me Knots (with twists)

The design for her shirt which features an original 1960s spirogragh drawing made as an ‘alternative activity’ for smoking and the T-shirt was created for the “Your Art Here (too)” on Camberwell Green, South London for Daniel Lehan’s Camberwell arts Week event in 2010. This T-shirt series also had an outing to Brighton with David Medella and the artists of the London Biennale for the project, Longshore Drift. The pink T-shirt, Love Me Knots (with twists) by Sonja van Kerkhoff is a play on materiality and sentiment with the row of rosebud knots at gut level.

Left to Right, 4th row from the front:

Click for a larger view.

Tīmatanga Kaitiaki (Protected or guided beginning, start or intro) by Jason Ratahi. A T-shirt of slogans in Māori and New Zealand English, Red by Sonja van Kerkhoff, a padded and filled T Shirt. Rabbits by Dulcie Hering. The light blue Tao Shirt by Susan Burgess has the symbol cut. The black shirt at the end of the next row is ‘seed, crop, harvest’ from the album CLAY CLASS DFA Records New York, 2012 by John Thomson, who wrote “My kinetic sculptures feature in the music videos of the U.K. band, Prinzhorn Dance School.” Next is ‘I begin I end’ What I do in between is up to me, a unique symbol screenprint by Megan Corbett while Rabbit by Dulcie Hering is a printed design sewn onto a T-Shirt.

Details of T-shirts by Susan Burgess + Raewyn Turner.
Click for a larger view.

Apron with anti-spasmodic, anti-arthritic, anti-rheumatic galbanum by Raewyn Turner is a blue T-shirt that was cut and resewn into the form of an apron with cloth sachet of perfume. In constrast to Raewyn’s repurposing of the T-shirt, Forget Us Not is purpose-made by Ursula + Alison for their rural gardening business which cares for the gardens of the oft ‘forgotten’ in our society: the elderly.

Te T-Shirt show, Hikurangi

26Feb

The Hikurangi Art Station
Hikurangi, Northland
3 – 31 March
Opening on 3 March, 5 p.m. Music and potluck (bring some food or drink)
Open Tues-Sunday, 10-4 pm

Curated by Virginia Guy + Sonja van Kerkhoff

Nearly everyone has worn a T-shirt and most have outgrown one. T-shirts are often used as a form of branding, advertising or the making of a statement. T-shirt as a sculpture, a painting, a poem or as a second chance? Come view an installation of lines of hanging t-shirts in the newly opened, artist-run space, The Hikurangi Art Station along with a show of prints in the other half of the gallery.

Detail of Elephants for Peace by Elaine Arkell, London, U.K.


Some artists have responded to the T-shirt as medium such as Elaine Arkell’s “Elephants for Peace” series made for a the Ganesha art exhibition held on the streets on both sides of the border on the island of Cyprus. She made these T-shirts in 2011 to be worn by artists involved in performances on the streets. Another submission “Forget Us Not” are the work shirts of Alison and Ursula in their rural Wales gardening business which specializes in garden care for the often forgotten, the elderly.

Jason Ratahi’s submission is a statement of intent. Tīmatanga Kaitiaki (Protected or mindful beginning, start or introduction) is a T-shirt of slogans, in Māori and New Zealand English. Other artists have taken T-shirts and used them as a medium for re-shaping or re-making.

Jacqueline Wassen’s work uses the T-shirt as subject matter: she has created a paper shirt to be burned as an offering where what remains is a video documentation. More about this show is here