On 6th August a group drawing show is opening at ROAR! Gallery.

The show features work from artist in residence Yelena Barbalich, as well as 75 other artists.

(full list after the jump)...

Wellington zine artist makes home-made history

Don't move house, be sure to feed hungry ghosts and keep your sugar bowl full next month. August is the month of the Ghost Festival (15 August) or 'Chinese Halloween' -- the time when spirits of the dead visit the living.

Chinese families observe this date through Bai Shan, which involves lighting incense, burning joss papers and preparing a banquet to share with ancestors. Such customs have long been observed since the Chinese first arrived in New Zealand nearly a century and a half ago. They also feature in an upcoming exhibition by local artist Kerry Ann Lee -- Home Made: Picturing Chinese Settlement in New Zealand, which opens on 31 July at Toi Pōneke Gallery.

Read more after the jump...

Here's a couple of exhibitions with openings that you'll want to attend, and one that you really ought to see before it closes.

First up, Page Blackie Gallery (which is a much less geographically confusing name than its previous incarnation as Tinakori Gallery) launches a new exhibition of Gina Jones' light works tomorrow night (Tuesday 24th from 5:30pm). Jones' work will be familiar to many from her permanent installation in the gallery, and even if the Page Blackie crowd tends towards an older demographic (you could almost hear the old money rustling at the recent Max Gimblett launch), the openings can still be lively affairs: the Masked Barfly warns us to get there early and stake out the drinks table.

The opening of Jane Kellahan's Humankind exhibition, from which the above image "The Healers" is taken, sounds like it's aimed at a slightly different audience. It will feature live music by members of Phoenix Foundation and Fat Freddy's Drop, and it's on at the Woolstore Design Centre (262 Thorndon Quay) from 5:30pm next Wednesday the 2nd of July. If you miss the launch but want to see her work, you'll have to be quick because it's only on until the 5th, or if you're really keen she also runs workshops.

(more after the jump)

It's all going on this Saturday afternoon in the southern suburbs. For a start, at Solander; works on paper in Lyall Bay is the opening of the show Near and Far: New prints by Kyla Cresswell and Inge Doesburg.

If any further inducements are required to guarantee your attendance, we have been assured that bubbles will be being served between 1 - 3pm.

Click on the image (above) to view the full invite, including a map to the gallery.

As reported by Brenda in the comments, the Solace in the Wind statue was removed after it had been vandalised.

According to the story of Stuff:

The sculpture had to be removed from the Taranaki St Wharf earlier this week after vandals forced it from a nearly vertical position to a 60-degree angle over the water.

Apparently some kids had climbed up and were jumping into the water, but according to the creator, Max Patte, that wouldn't have done it.

Two stainless steel pins – each with a shear strength of three tonnes – had fixed the sculpture to the wharf, he said.

It would have taken a number of people and a lot of trouble to loosen the fixings as much as they had.

..."I can't imagine why anyone would have put this much effort into vandalising."

Well, the statue is back now. And I think I can say from all of us here at the Wellingtonista: "don't be touching our statue again!"

A swag of Wellington artists have produced video art for The Artists Film Festival, opening tonight at 5:30pm at the Film Archive (cnr Taranaki and Ghuznee Sts).

Curated by Wellington-based curator (and Listener art critic) Paula J Booker, the show promises an extreme mix of artworks....28 video works in total, possibly the largest video exhibition ever undertaken in NZ.

Highlights include someone singing to Janis Joplin until almost passing out, CHCH artist James Oram generating electricity by bike to power his own ME sign....it's all pretty entertaining/shocking/thought-provoking stuff.

EXHIBITION DETAILS
The Artists Film Festival
11 April – 17 May 2008

LIVE PERFORMANCE, Thursday 17 April, 7pm
The Twilight Drone by Johannes Contag (of Cloudboy fame) Tickets $8/6.

Contag explores the notion of the ambient film with live accompaniment to this film work shot in a snow-covered Austria...

Opening tomorrow night at the Film Archive - Wellington multi-media artist Sarah Jane Parton presents her wacky take on the future...

Well known for her beguiling video and installation work (and love of lycra leotards) Parton has assembled a cast and crew of Wellington's finest to create a sci-fi musical odyssey starring Toi Whakaari graduates Antonia Bale, Anja Tate-Manning (Chapman-Tripp award winner), and Jade Daniels, alongside theatre veteran Rose Beauchamp, dancer Sam Lahood and a bevy of young and talented children.

With music performed by a live band featuring the members of Cassette under the musical direction of Parton’s partner Luke Buda (Phoenix Foundation), fronted by the perpetually hilarious Jo Randerson, the show contains a reasonable degree of cynicism, offset by moments of absurdity and humour.

In this cross-genre work, ideological meltdown is imminent, the revolution is doomed long before it begins and audience members are advised to bring a blanket.

PERFORMANCE DETAILS
Thursday 28, Friday 29 February and Saturday 1 March at 7pm
at The Film Archive, cnr Taranaki and Ghuznee Streets

Tickets:
Full Price - $15,
Concession - $13,
Fringe Addict - $12

Read Brannavan Gnanlingam's great interview about the show
here

This is one of my favourite places in Wellington:

... and if anyone ever tries to do it harm, as I've heard rumours of happening in the past, well... they just better watch out.

Sorry for the crappy photo. Stupid phone. Looks like I also managed to catch a flying rat in full, uh, flight.

The "evil overlords" have won and the YMCA and swimming pool on Tasman St have closed down and are ready for demolition.

The area is all fenced off now and the public is not allowed in anymore. So hopefully you saw the wonderful graffiti that graced "The Ruins" (home of the occasional play, fringe festival event, fashion shoot or impromptu concert). And hopefully you had a swim in the pool. And maybe you even hung out at the Y.

Well, soon the site will be a Pak-n-Save... (sigh)

Photos after the jump

Next in our series of overlooked Wellington public art is this beauty here to the right.

If you've not seen it before I'd be extremely surprised, because it's plonked pretty much squarely opposite the Lido, somewhere seeming to always be awash with punters tipping the usual variety of liquids and solids into themselves.

As you can see, it's a great piece, bronze, and textured in a marvelously subtle way. The slightly abstract lines just make it all the more curious to look at, and the complete absence of nose-hair suggests the model was extremely well-kempt.

So... what is it?

The above piece of artwork is part of a series entitled Eye Candy and was skilfully hand painted by resident Wellington artist, Brad Williams aka Slope, and until sometime during the 31st of October, was on display at (best late nite venue nominee) Sandwiches.

On which date it was nicked - during daylight hours - and both the Sandwiches lads and Slope are understandably upset.

So, if you happen to catch sight of this piece of work (approximately 2m x 0.7m, so shouldn't be too hard to see if is in the vicinity) hanging in a flat, for sale on trademe, or under the arm of some shifty-looking charcter on the street, give the cops a call. Cheers.

Local start-up and Friends-of-Wellingtonista Ponoko (among other connections to us they're also part-sponsor of our awards this year) have their picture at the top of an interesting article in the tech section of today's New York Times. The article talks about the rise of internet-aided design and making and describes Ponoko thus:

Ponoko, a company based in New Zealand, allows customers to upload designs for flat shapes that can then be snapped together like Ikea furniture. Making a prototype can be as simple as cutting shapes out of cardboard. Users then create a digital version and send it to Ponoko, which cuts the pattern out in metal or wood with a laser.

There's a fair head of global buzz building up around Ponoko, whose potential extends far beyond the Times' fairly neutral description of what can be achieved with them today.

And as for us: well, we were very excited to note what looks like a prototype of the highly sought after 2nd Annual Wellingtonista Award trophy visible on the table between Dave and Derek. So maybe this means we've made the Times as well?

Footloose - so much to answer for...

Hinterland II
Sandra Schmidt

Michael Hirschfeld Gallery
(at City Gallery)
10 October — 18 November 2007

The crystalline shapes and icy-coloured forms of Sandra Schmidt’s Hinterland II make up the sequel exhibition to her 2006 hot-hued Hinterland which appeared at Mary Newton Gallery, Wellington. The earlier spiky-shaped works in Hinterland expressed ideas of fire, heat, pressure and friction. In Hinterland II the focus is on cool colours and references to ice and water. Both extremes of temperature represent inhospitable areas, the back country or underdeveloped place, either metaphorical or real.

(more after the jump)

Let's say this for the record: the Wellingtonista hates tagging. It's just an inane and territorial fury of poodle-pissings scrawled around the town signifying nothing but a terrifying lack of imagination on the part of the tagger.

That said, there's more to the world of graffiti than tags. And at some point graffiti changes from mindless and wanton property damage into ART, somewhere across boundaries as ragged and ill-defined and debatable as any cultural warzone. Around central Wellington, it's all there to be discovered and mapped, tucked away in the alleys and byways of Te Aro mainly, but also scattered around the wider inner city.

[We show you some great street-art, after the jump]