Layne Waerea, Free Public Sauna, research image, 2022.
Image courtesy of the artist.
Three new performance-based projects will unfold at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and in public sites around Ngāmotu between August and November 2022.
Chris Braddock and Layne Waerea, Free sweat cushion-bags, 2022, cotton, nylon, salt tile. Courtesy of the artists. Photo: Bryan James.
Each project interrogates how we arrive at and relate to public spaces – the park, the gallery, the archive, the beach. The sites and institutions we inhabit are made up of multiple, at times conflicting, histories, values and ways of knowing and navigating.
Deploying humour, ritual and movement, each artist in this series intervenes in everyday rhythms of life, posing alternative possibilities for being, relating, and making together – if only for a moment.
Alongside the performances, an exhibition in the gallery acts as an unfolding archive of these projects. Opening with a selection of documentation from previous performance works, drawings and preparatory studies, and objects that will be deployed during the course of the projects, the exhibition will evolve over the course of its season as new documentation and physical traces of performative actions are presented.
Public Relations launches on Saturday, 27 August, with Louie Zalk-Neale’s project Ngā Manuhiri Taura (The Visiting Ropes).
Curated by Simon Gennard.
Performance Schedule:
Saturday 27 August | 2:30 pm
Louie Zalk-Neale
Saturday 10 September | 1:00 pm
Layne Waerea and Chris Braddock
Saturday 17 September | 1:00 pm
Layne Waerea and Chris Braddock
Wednesday 19 October | 6:00 pm
Fayen d’Evie and Benjamin Hancock
Congratulations to Digital Design Major graduate Varvara Solovyeva whose animated film ‘USO’ has been selected in competition for the International Programme at the Melbourne International Animation Festival (MIAF 2023).
‘USO’ was Varvara’s graduating film for her Bachelor of Design in 2022. Varvara is currently undertaking her Master of Design studies at the School of Art and Design.
The ninthWavesound project, produced for Laura Marsh’s doctoral thesis, fuses feminist activism and a DJ practice to generate an installation and participatory art practice aimed at corporeal, low-frequency, sound-oriented experiences.