Events: Beyond the Visual
A programme of events alongside Contemporary Christchurch, showcasing the incredible talent of creative practitioners in Ōtautahi.
Ōtautahi Christchurch has a vibrant cultural scene; performance and dance, music and sound art, as well as architectural practices. Many of the artists within the exhibition, as well as the selection panel and CoCA staff, are inspired and informed by their overlapping connections in these circles, both socially and practically. As creative practitioners, we bounce ideas off each other, exploring similar themes through our diverse approaches.
When programming an exhibition by artists located in or informed by time in Ōtautahi, it seemed important to look beyond contemporary visual art to explore the context of the city.
Alongside the usual talks and screenings there is an exciting programme lined up including: musicians and sound artists that have been invited to respond live to the works in the exhibition; an artist collaborative and dancers will be in residence for a week; young people will workshop and produce a performance artwork; and during FESTA architectural interventions will take place on and around the site of CoCA.
Keep an eye on our events page for details of performances and talks.
The Artists
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Annemieke Montange
Annemieke Montange
New ZealandAnnemieke Montange (b.1996) is a Christchurch artist with a background in painting and mixed media. After studying art and design in 2015, she went on to run a small screen printing business. She is a part time photographer, zine maker and painter: full time creative.
Annemieke is a participating artist for Cardboard Confessional with Audrey Baldwin, Oscar Bannan, Bridget Harris, Neil MacLeod, Annimieke Montage, Patricia Parkin, Jennifer Katherine Shields
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Audrey Baldwin
Audrey Baldwin
ŌtautahiChristchurch based artist Audrey Baldwin’s practice is predominantly performance based and centres around the body as a fraught space of constant contention. She investigates identity, power and control narratives, seeking to destabilise public/private, abject/erotic and subject/object binaries. Often utilising everyday actions and routines, Audrey seeks to reframe these actions in an absurd or ritualistic manner.
Her work has been presented in galleries and as part of festivals around New Zealand as well as in Zimbabwe, Japan and India. 2016 saw her attend Morni Hills Performance Art Biennial in India alongside other performance artists from around the globe.
Since 2010, Audrey has been performing and creating interventions and events in and around the Christchurch CBD, through her roles as both artist and arts event manager/co-ordinator for The Social artist collective and curator for First Thursdays Chch.
Web site -
Gaby Montejo
Gaby Montejo
New ZealandGaby Montejo approaches art through photo, actions, music, interviews, and temporary installation. In often a performative style, Gaby explores democracy and hierarchy in a way where the finished work is normally not sold and hung, but instead, consumed. Gaby exhibits internationally, while staying pivotal in the social initiatives and collaborative interventions of Christchurch. Originally from Cuban origins, Gaby was attended art school in America and Australia.
Web site -
Hyde Productions, featuring Robyn Webster and Fleur de Thier
Hyde Productions, featuring Robyn Webster and Fleur de Thier
New ZealandA tactile exploration of sculpture, dance, sound and light.
Installation artist Robyn Webster and choreographer Fleur de Thier, with six dancers, musician and light artist, collaborate in the development of a new project in CoCA gallery.
Experience the process and see a presentation of the first phase of the project that navigates and alters a shifting terrain.
Process is open and free to view during CoCA gallery hours 10-5 Tuesday 30 August - Saturday 3 September
Performances Saturday 3 & Sunday 4 September, 5:30pm. $20 (booking link will be made available on CoCA website).
Anchor Point is the first work to be produced by Adam Hayward’s Hyde Productions, an agency interested in investing in the process of arts exploration.
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Jennifer Katherine Shields
Jennifer Katherine Shields
New ZealandJennifer Katherine Shields studied briefly at Elam School of Fine Arts before pursuing other research interests in sociology, history, and queerness at the University of Auckland. She is currently continuing to pursue these interests outside of strict academic institutions. Her academic work informs her artistic work and vice versa.
Jennifer is interested in ideas and dialogue around dominant narratives and the construction of social structures and norms. She researches these through the lens of queer history and theory, a lens that is also prevalent in her artistic practice, which entails highlighting glitches within these frameworks through interventions that use the language of performative installation. As research and academia is so integral to her practice, she also creates an artist text or essay alongside each of her own works, as well as producing these writings for other artists and exhibitions.
Jennifer is also a show host and producer at RDU 98.5FM.
Jennifer is a participating artist for Cardboard Confessional with Audrey Baldwin, Oscar Bannan, Bridget Harris, Neil MacLeod, Annemieke Montagne, Patricia Parkin, Jennifer Katherine Shields
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Neil MacLeod
Neil MacLeod
New ZealandNeil MacLeod (born 1999) is a Christchurch based musician who is soon to graduate high school. Neil’s background is primarily based in the performing arts however his interests extend to the visual arts too; being a very keen painter and photographer. Next year Neil intends to study Music in Wellington and hopes to collaborate with creative individuals.
Neil is a participating artist for Cardboard Confessional with Audrey Baldwin, Oscar Bannan, Bridget Harris, Neil MacLeod, Annemieke Montagne, Patricia Parkin, Jennifer Katherine Shields
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New Dawn
New Dawn
New ZealandNew Dawn is the ambient experimental project from sonic artists Indira Force (Doprah) and Anita Clark (Motte, Devilish Mary and the Holy Rollers). The two composers combine improvised violin loops, synthesized textures and ethereal vocals to achieve an immersive listening experience.
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Oscar Bannan
Oscar Bannan
New ZealandOscar Bannan (born 1998) is currently in his final year at St Andrews College. He has a background in dance and this has subsequently carried over into his artistic interests. Oscar’s current studies are predominantly art based, employing painting, photography and textile design as his main creative mediums. After graduating high school, Oscar intends to travel with a sole focus on establishing a personal voice as a creative.
Oscar is a participating artist for Cardboard Confessional with Audrey Baldwin, Oscar Bannan, Bridget Harris, Neil MacLeod, Annimieke Montage, Patricia Parkin, Jennifer Katherine Shields
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Patricia Parkin
Patricia Parkin
New ZealandPatricia Parkin is a Christchurch based artist who works predominantly in digital media, as well as photography, drawing and text based medias. She completed an Advanced Diploma in fine art at the Design and Arts College of New Zealand in 2015 and won the award for Student of the Year. She is currently a candidate for a BFA at Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design. Her practice is influenced by her fascination of self-archive normalized by social media and the contradictions of connections and isconnections within social media.
Patricia has participated in a number group exhibitions: We need to talk, 2015; First Thursdays Christchurch: Solid Goal Volume III, 2015; First Thursday Christchurch; Smallville, 2015; First Thursday Christchurch: The Fitting Room pop up exhibition, 2014;Continuum, 2014.
Patricia is a participating artist for Cardboard Confessional with Audrey Baldwin, Oscar Bannan, Bridget Harris, Neil MacLeod, Annimieke Montage, Patricia Parkin, Jennifer Katherine Shields
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The Auricle Sonic Arts Gallery
The Auricle Sonic Arts Gallery
New ZealandChristchurch has become a rich source of sonic art, boasting a growing body of respected practitioners with increasingly strong national and even international reputations. With the help of CNZ and the Christchurch City Council, the Cantabrian Society of Sonic Artists Inc. established the first iteration of the Auricle Sonic Arts Gallery in October 2013 to support the further development of the sonic arts in Ōtautahi.
The CSSA is a cross-genre and non-hierarchical sonic arts society, interested in providing an outlet for musicians, composers and audio artists investigating live sonic experimentation of any variety. We are also interested in experimental side projects, new collaborations, artists investigating the relation of audio to other (live) media, and in people who don’t yet consider they have an audience outside their own headphones.
The Auricle Sonic Arts Gallery and CoCA
CoCA curatorial intern Indira Force invited members of the CSSA to respond to artworks in Contemporary Christchurch during CoCAcabana, October 2016.
Contributing Artists
Alex van der Broek
Alex has a Masters in Composition from the University of Canterbury and a Diploma in Jazz fromCPIT Jazz School majoring in Composition and Arranging. He is much in demand as a composer and arranger by many New Zealand performers and organisations.
Alex was the co-founder and musical director/conductor ('05-'09) of the Silencio Ensemble, a ten piece new-music ensemble. Alongside many concerts in the Canterbury region they collaborated with the Christchurch Art Gallery to perform 'Art and Socialism' ('08), and ‘Listen/Rita’ ('09).
He has received several grants from Creative New Zealand including one in 2008 for 'Still Standing Silent' a work composed for mixed discipline ensemble (Classical and Jazz) and contemporary dancer (Julia Milsom). This work was premiered in Christchurch in November 2009. In 2010, Alex received funding to work with well-known Sydney group 'The Song Company' utilizing a text by a fellow Dutch New Zealander, Riemke Ensing.Recent creative projects have included performances of Still Standing Silent for the Body Festival; View From Mt. Peel for the NZ Trio; and Salon Kitty for the Christchurch Arts Festival.
Reuben Derrick
Reuben Derrick is a Christchurch based saxophonist, clarinettist, sonic artist and composer, active in New Zealand and Australian exploratory music communities. With an eclectic array of influences, Derrick plays reeds, keyboards and found objects.
With a doctorate titled, ‘Acoustic illuminations: recorded space as soundscape composition’ (2014) Derrick draws upon field recording and improvisation. This work featured locations in New Zealand, Australia and Sri Lanka. His soundscape works have been awarded the Lilburn Prize for Composition three times.
Recent projects include punk-jazz collective 'Poltroon', antipodean trio 'Big Other', sound design and music with Rory Dalley for Free Theatre for 'Frankenstein' , as well as multi-disciplinary collaborations with dance (Movement Art Practice and Kyungmi Kim), sculpture, circo-arts, poetry and film.
In 2016 Derrick played in the Music Matters Festival in Colombo, Sri Lanka. In 2015 he was awarded a fellowship to the Music Omi residency in New York, where he collaborated with 13 creative musicians from around the world. In 2009 Derrick visited Sri Lanka for collaboration between traditional ritual artists and western improvisers, from which the group ‘Baliphonics’ was formed. In 2007/08 he toured NZ and recorded with The Crust, a trio performing original arrangements of music by Steve Lacy (with Sum Suraweera and Greg Malcolm). In 2007 his commissioned work for jazz ensemble and pipe organ was performed in the Christchurch Cathedral.
Having recently embraced an exploratory focus, Derrick performs collaboratively and solo at music festivals and concert series such as the Now Now, Bomb the Space, and Fredstock. Highlight encounters include Shoji Hano, Franzisca Baumann, Kris Wanders, Misha Marks, Susan Alcorn, Clayton Thomas, Jeff Henderson, Daniel Weltlinger, Matt Earle, Adam Sussmann, Irene Kepl, Adrian Klumpes, Mike Nock, Roger Mannins, John Rae, Jaap Blonk, Richard Nunns, IRD, Peter Broetzmann, Rod Cooper and Karl Ludwig Hubsch.
Chris Reddington
Chris Reddington works as a musician, composer, sculptor, set designer and technician.
More recent work has developed into combining his sculptural and musical interests; in both musical performances using sculptural objects and in acoustic sculptures.
As a pianist and percussionist, he often develops home made instruments for different kinds of performances, with an approach that tends towards integrating sound, light, space, movement and action.
With fellow composer Alex van den Broek he founded Silencio Ensemble in 2004 which involved various different approaches to ensemble music making and live performances.
He has collaborated with many musicians, composers, theatre directors and performers, choreographers, dancers, technicians over the past 20 years.
Annemieke Montange
New Zealand
Annemieke Montange (b.1996) is a Christchurch artist with a background in painting and mixed media. After studying art and design in 2015, she went on to run a small screen printing business. She is a part time photographer, zine maker and painter: full time creative.
Annemieke is a participating artist for Cardboard Confessional with Audrey Baldwin, Oscar Bannan, Bridget Harris, Neil MacLeod, Annimieke Montage, Patricia Parkin, Jennifer Katherine Shields
View artwork
Audrey Baldwin
Ōtautahi
Christchurch based artist Audrey Baldwin’s practice is predominantly performance based and centres around the body as a fraught space of constant contention. She investigates identity, power and control narratives, seeking to destabilise public/private, abject/erotic and subject/object binaries. Often utilising everyday actions and routines, Audrey seeks to reframe these actions in an absurd or ritualistic manner.
Her work has been presented in galleries and as part of festivals around New Zealand as well as in Zimbabwe, Japan and India. 2016 saw her attend Morni Hills Performance Art Biennial in India alongside other performance artists from around the globe.
Since 2010, Audrey has been performing and creating interventions and events in and around the Christchurch CBD, through her roles as both artist and arts event manager/co-ordinator for The Social artist collective and curator for First Thursdays Chch.
View artwork
Gaby Montejo
New Zealand
Gaby Montejo approaches art through photo, actions, music, interviews, and temporary installation. In often a performative style, Gaby explores democracy and hierarchy in a way where the finished work is normally not sold and hung, but instead, consumed. Gaby exhibits internationally, while staying pivotal in the social initiatives and collaborative interventions of Christchurch. Originally from Cuban origins, Gaby was attended art school in America and Australia.
View artwork
Hyde Productions, featuring Robyn Webster and Fleur de Thier
New Zealand
A tactile exploration of sculpture, dance, sound and light.
Installation artist Robyn Webster and choreographer Fleur de Thier, with six dancers, musician and light artist, collaborate in the development of a new project in CoCA gallery.
Experience the process and see a presentation of the first phase of the project that navigates and alters a shifting terrain.
Process is open and free to view during CoCA gallery hours 10-5 Tuesday 30 August - Saturday 3 September
Performances Saturday 3 & Sunday 4 September, 5:30pm. $20 (booking link will be made available on CoCA website).
Anchor Point is the first work to be produced by Adam Hayward’s Hyde Productions, an agency interested in investing in the process of arts exploration.
View artwork
Jennifer Katherine Shields
New Zealand
Jennifer Katherine Shields studied briefly at Elam School of Fine Arts before pursuing other research interests in sociology, history, and queerness at the University of Auckland. She is currently continuing to pursue these interests outside of strict academic institutions. Her academic work informs her artistic work and vice versa.
Jennifer is interested in ideas and dialogue around dominant narratives and the construction of social structures and norms. She researches these through the lens of queer history and theory, a lens that is also prevalent in her artistic practice, which entails highlighting glitches within these frameworks through interventions that use the language of performative installation. As research and academia is so integral to her practice, she also creates an artist text or essay alongside each of her own works, as well as producing these writings for other artists and exhibitions.
Jennifer is also a show host and producer at RDU 98.5FM.
Jennifer is a participating artist for Cardboard Confessional with Audrey Baldwin, Oscar Bannan, Bridget Harris, Neil MacLeod, Annemieke Montagne, Patricia Parkin, Jennifer Katherine Shields
View artwork
Neil MacLeod
New Zealand
Neil MacLeod (born 1999) is a Christchurch based musician who is soon to graduate high school. Neil’s background is primarily based in the performing arts however his interests extend to the visual arts too; being a very keen painter and photographer. Next year Neil intends to study Music in Wellington and hopes to collaborate with creative individuals.
Neil is a participating artist for Cardboard Confessional with Audrey Baldwin, Oscar Bannan, Bridget Harris, Neil MacLeod, Annemieke Montagne, Patricia Parkin, Jennifer Katherine Shields
View artwork
New Dawn
New Zealand
New Dawn is the ambient experimental project from sonic artists Indira Force (Doprah) and Anita Clark (Motte, Devilish Mary and the Holy Rollers). The two composers combine improvised violin loops, synthesized textures and ethereal vocals to achieve an immersive listening experience.
Oscar Bannan
New Zealand
Oscar Bannan (born 1998) is currently in his final year at St Andrews College. He has a background in dance and this has subsequently carried over into his artistic interests. Oscar’s current studies are predominantly art based, employing painting, photography and textile design as his main creative mediums. After graduating high school, Oscar intends to travel with a sole focus on establishing a personal voice as a creative.
Oscar is a participating artist for Cardboard Confessional with Audrey Baldwin, Oscar Bannan, Bridget Harris, Neil MacLeod, Annimieke Montage, Patricia Parkin, Jennifer Katherine Shields
View artwork
Patricia Parkin
New Zealand
Patricia Parkin is a Christchurch based artist who works predominantly in digital media, as well as photography, drawing and text based medias. She completed an Advanced Diploma in fine art at the Design and Arts College of New Zealand in 2015 and won the award for Student of the Year. She is currently a candidate for a BFA at Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design. Her practice is influenced by her fascination of self-archive normalized by social media and the contradictions of connections and isconnections within social media.
Patricia has participated in a number group exhibitions: We need to talk, 2015; First Thursdays Christchurch: Solid Goal Volume III, 2015; First Thursday Christchurch; Smallville, 2015; First Thursday Christchurch: The Fitting Room pop up exhibition, 2014;Continuum, 2014.
Patricia is a participating artist for Cardboard Confessional with Audrey Baldwin, Oscar Bannan, Bridget Harris, Neil MacLeod, Annimieke Montage, Patricia Parkin, Jennifer Katherine Shields
View artwork
The Auricle Sonic Arts Gallery
New Zealand
Christchurch has become a rich source of sonic art, boasting a growing body of respected practitioners with increasingly strong national and even international reputations. With the help of CNZ and the Christchurch City Council, the Cantabrian Society of Sonic Artists Inc. established the first iteration of the Auricle Sonic Arts Gallery in October 2013 to support the further development of the sonic arts in Ōtautahi.
The CSSA is a cross-genre and non-hierarchical sonic arts society, interested in providing an outlet for musicians, composers and audio artists investigating live sonic experimentation of any variety. We are also interested in experimental side projects, new collaborations, artists investigating the relation of audio to other (live) media, and in people who don’t yet consider they have an audience outside their own headphones.
The Auricle Sonic Arts Gallery and CoCA
CoCA curatorial intern Indira Force invited members of the CSSA to respond to artworks in Contemporary Christchurch during CoCAcabana, October 2016.
Contributing Artists
Alex van der Broek
Alex has a Masters in Composition from the University of Canterbury and a Diploma in Jazz fromCPIT Jazz School majoring in Composition and Arranging. He is much in demand as a composer and arranger by many New Zealand performers and organisations.
Alex was the co-founder and musical director/conductor ('05-'09) of the Silencio Ensemble, a ten piece new-music ensemble. Alongside many concerts in the Canterbury region they collaborated with the Christchurch Art Gallery to perform 'Art and Socialism' ('08), and ‘Listen/Rita’ ('09).
He has received several grants from Creative New Zealand including one in 2008 for 'Still Standing Silent' a work composed for mixed discipline ensemble (Classical and Jazz) and contemporary dancer (Julia Milsom). This work was premiered in Christchurch in November 2009. In 2010, Alex received funding to work with well-known Sydney group 'The Song Company' utilizing a text by a fellow Dutch New Zealander, Riemke Ensing.
Recent creative projects have included performances of Still Standing Silent for the Body Festival; View From Mt. Peel for the NZ Trio; and Salon Kitty for the Christchurch Arts Festival.
Reuben Derrick
Reuben Derrick is a Christchurch based saxophonist, clarinettist, sonic artist and composer, active in New Zealand and Australian exploratory music communities. With an eclectic array of influences, Derrick plays reeds, keyboards and found objects.
With a doctorate titled, ‘Acoustic illuminations: recorded space as soundscape composition’ (2014) Derrick draws upon field recording and improvisation. This work featured locations in New Zealand, Australia and Sri Lanka. His soundscape works have been awarded the Lilburn Prize for Composition three times.
Recent projects include punk-jazz collective 'Poltroon', antipodean trio 'Big Other', sound design and music with Rory Dalley for Free Theatre for 'Frankenstein' , as well as multi-disciplinary collaborations with dance (Movement Art Practice and Kyungmi Kim), sculpture, circo-arts, poetry and film.
In 2016 Derrick played in the Music Matters Festival in Colombo, Sri Lanka. In 2015 he was awarded a fellowship to the Music Omi residency in New York, where he collaborated with 13 creative musicians from around the world. In 2009 Derrick visited Sri Lanka for collaboration between traditional ritual artists and western improvisers, from which the group ‘Baliphonics’ was formed. In 2007/08 he toured NZ and recorded with The Crust, a trio performing original arrangements of music by Steve Lacy (with Sum Suraweera and Greg Malcolm). In 2007 his commissioned work for jazz ensemble and pipe organ was performed in the Christchurch Cathedral.
Having recently embraced an exploratory focus, Derrick performs collaboratively and solo at music festivals and concert series such as the Now Now, Bomb the Space, and Fredstock. Highlight encounters include Shoji Hano, Franzisca Baumann, Kris Wanders, Misha Marks, Susan Alcorn, Clayton Thomas, Jeff Henderson, Daniel Weltlinger, Matt Earle, Adam Sussmann, Irene Kepl, Adrian Klumpes, Mike Nock, Roger Mannins, John Rae, Jaap Blonk, Richard Nunns, IRD, Peter Broetzmann, Rod Cooper and Karl Ludwig Hubsch.
Chris Reddington
Chris Reddington works as a musician, composer, sculptor, set designer and technician.
More recent work has developed into combining his sculptural and musical interests; in both musical performances using sculptural objects and in acoustic sculptures.
As a pianist and percussionist, he often develops home made instruments for different kinds of performances, with an approach that tends towards integrating sound, light, space, movement and action.
With fellow composer Alex van den Broek he founded Silencio Ensemble in 2004 which involved various different approaches to ensemble music making and live performances.
He has collaborated with many musicians, composers, theatre directors and performers, choreographers, dancers, technicians over the past 20 years.
View artwork
New Dawn - Opening Set, New Dawn
More about this artworkA live set from ambient experimental sonic art duo New Dawn, performed at the opening of Contemporary Christchurch.
Audrey Baldwin, Taughtrope, 2016
Performance art and identity - Youth Workshops, Audrey Baldwin
More about this artworkAudrey Baldwin graduated from Ilam School of Fine Art in 2009. She has been a key figure in contemporary art and performance scenes in Ōtautahi Christchurch since. Her work has been presented both nationally and internationally, and she has been a catalyst for regeneration, organising events and artistic interventions in post quake Christchurch.
In this series of weekend workshops, participants will gain knowledge and practical experience in creating contemporary performance art, with a focus on identity and site specificity. Participants should ideally attend all three workshops and at the end will have the opportunity to present a collaborative work in a public space.
Working Outline:
Workshop #1: Introduction to Performance Art
3 September 1 – 3 pm
Location: White Elephant HQ 442 Tuam St
An overview of performance art and introduction to Audrey’s practice with a live Group discussion of common interests, identities and ideas.
Workshop # 2: Ideas and Planning
10 September 1 – 3 pm
Location: White Elephant HQ 442 Tuam St
Group discussion and brainstorming with a focus on individual responses to performance art. Talk about site and practical parameters, including objects, costuming, contextual readings and documentation. Begin developing performance ideas.
Workshop #3: Practical Performance Workshopping
17 September 1 – 3pm
Location: CoCA Centre of Contemporary Art Toi Moroki, 66 Gloucester St and site visit to performance venue
Practical workshopping of performance ideas, group idea sharing and rehearsal. Site visit to the performance. Practical development performance ideas onsite.
Public Performance
24 September – Site and performance details to be developed with participants.
This project is proudly supported by Christchurch City Council through the Transitional City Projects Fund
Image: Audrey Baldwin, Taughtrope, 2016
Performance, 60 metres of Indian snack foods
Site specific performance at the museum of Chandigarh as part of the Morni Hills Performance Art Biennial
Kid's workshop during Vertigo Sea
Children's Workshop Series, Gaby Montejo
More about this artworkArtist Gaby Montejo runs hands on children's workshops which respond to the works in Contemporary Christchurch on the first Saturday of each month during the exhibition.
Feedback from previous workshops:
"The kids just got back from a kids workshop at CoCA. Genuinely surprised to hear a six year old be so excited about the process of developing film. You guys should definitely take your kids to the workshops if you can. Was a total hit."
Anchor Point, Hyde Productions, featuring Robyn Webster and Fleur de Thier
More about this artworkAdam Hayward - Producer
Adam Hayward spent fifteen years as artistic director of Dance and Performance, organising, amongst other things, The Body Festival, Dancing Like the Stars, Dance Ambassdors, Do a Little Dance and Southern Lights Dance Company.
He served as a board member of DANZ from 2006-2013 and is currently a board member of Arts Voice and the Christchurch Arts Audience Development Project.
2016 sees Adam take own a multitude of new roles as Arts Projects Manager at YMCA Christchurch, lecturer in Event Management at ARA institute and as Christchurch Ambassador for the Arts Foundation’s Boosted project. In addition he still continues to work on informing the soon to be built Performance Movement centre Move; the development of an international residency exchange process based project called Space to Fail and the development of Hyde Productions, producing independent dance and performance works both domestically and internationally through process as well as presentation.
Robyn Webster – Visual Artist
Roby trained in Raranga under the auspices of Whakatutu Marae, in Nelson and after settling in the Waiohine Gorge in Wairarapa, was very fortunate to be accepted for a short and intense course at the School of Maori Arts and Crafts at Whakarewarewa, Rotorua, in the care of Emily Schuster and the Guides, to learn about Piupiu.
Majoring in sculpture at Otago Polytechnic School of Art Robyn was comfortable with traditional methods of fibre construction, and by the way it fitted her feminist position. She began to build a sculptural practice using line and the vessel form, mostly in natural materials such as nikau fibre, harakeke, and willow as well as some major installation works using recycled plastics.
Making comment with materials alone is part of what Robyn does. she also paints, draws, print-makes, make photographs, and also works in film and performance.
Collaboration has formed a part of her practice on several occasions, including recent colalborations with poet Bernadette Hall and with Dance Photographer Bina Iris and with choreographer Fleur de Thier, which has led to this new collaboration.
Fleur de Thier - Choreographer
Since graduating from Auckland Perfroming Arts School in 1991, Fleur has established herself as a dancer, tutor and choreographer.
She is a founding member of Rebound and Jolt performance co. In 1998 she established Scrambled Legs Dance co. which operated for eleven years before Fleur decided to make and present work under her own name.
She has presented and been commissioned to make works for Christchruch Arts Festival, The Body Festival of Dance and Performance, Otago Arts Festival, Tempo Dance Festival, Southern Lights Dance Co., Footnote and Unitec. She is an established artist and practitioner in Christcurch and is the current Arts Advisor for Hagley Dance Co.
Photo: Janneth Gil
Cardboard Confessional, Patricia Parkin, Annemieke Montange, Oscar Bannan, Neil MacLeod, Jennifer Katherine Shields, Audrey Baldwin
More about this artworkCARDBOARD CONFESSIONAL
Audrey Baldwin, Oscar Bannan, Bridget Harris, Neil MacLeod, Annemieke Montagne, Patricia Parkin, Jennifer Katherine Shields
This is a space where we invite you to confess, not your sins, but your frustrations.
We invite you to vocalise, exorcise and recycle your woes into a collaborative community artwork.
Better out than in! Frustration is not a sin!
For three weeks in September, this group of young artists workshopped with Audrey Baldwin to design and construct a Cardboard Confessional – a performance piece that focuses on the identity of being a Christchurch citizen and the fragile nature of the city.
Cardboard Confessiona, made in Spark Park, 91 Hereford Street, Saturday 24 September 2016. The artwork is a place to vent frustrations and a space for critical thinking about the rebuild. The public are invited to participate - this can range from retelling every day inconveniences of daily life in Ōtautahi, to the confession of a bad deed or experience.
The performance consisted of two acts: act one being the physical construction of the confessional, handmade by the group out of cardboard; a nod to the cardboard cathedral, the temporary nature of inner-city Christchurch and the need to find DIY solutions within communities. Act two - the actual confessions taking place, as audience members walk into the structure and speak anonymously with members of the group to share their confessions.
With thanks to Life in Vacant Spaces, Christchurch City Council, and White Elephant Trust for making this artwork possible.
Sonic Artists Respond to Contemporary Christchurch, The Auricle Sonic Arts Gallery
More about this artworkAs part of Beyond the Visual, Curatorial Intern, Indira Force invited local sonic artists to respond to Contemporary Christchurch.