FINN MCLENNAN-ELLIOTT
February Music in the Parks The Auckland Council Music in Parks scheme is bringing three exciting events to the Ponsonby doorstep in February and March. Spread across a wide range of genres and areas of Auckland, Music in the Parks has been providing thrilling summer entertainment for many years, and 2016 is no different. Ponsonby is lucky enough to have some perfect green spaces to host music and concerts. This particular set of hard hitting gigs starts with Demon Energy Rock the Park 2016. On Saturday 12 February, Grey Lynn Park will play host to three of New Zealand’s rock standouts, Villainy, Blacklistt and the legendary Shihad. Last year this event saw thousands enjoying the sunshine and classic Kiwi rock music. This year from 2pm on 13 February it is bound to be the same. Villainy, who won the Tui for Best Rock Album for their debut album ‘Mode. Set. Clear’ in 2013, come to us fresh off their opening slot at AC/DC’s two New Zealand shows. Blacklistt, who by now should be known without any need to reference their former name, won the Tui for Best Rock album in 2014, and have been headlining festivals and shows ever since they formed. Shihad need very little introduction. They are like no other New Zealand rock act and show no signs of slowing down, despite last year being the 20th anniversary of their album ‘Killjoy’, the album that launched them into the hearts of many Kiwis. They also opened for AC/DC with Villainy at the end of 2015, and their most recent album ‘FVEY’ won the Tui for Best Rock Album in 2015. Rock the Park features the last three winners of the Tui for the Best Rock Album, if that’s not an incentive to get out to Grey Lynn Park, then what is? The success of the Myers Park Centenary celebrations last year and the great feeling of community that came from the event spurred the Waitemata Local Board to team up with local business associations, artists and friends of Myers Park, and Auckland Council’s Music in Parks to create the inaugural Myers Park Medley. A largely community driven event, with all the creative designed by Karangahape Road’s own resident artist Misery, it will bring together local entertainment, music, stalls and more. Performing at this, on Sunday 28 February, is local artists Delaney Davidson, Coco Davis and the magnificent Tami Neilson. Created by the community, for the community, visitors can expect all sorts of fun and even a few surprises.
Tami Neilson and Delaney Davidson have been taking the country/folk world by storm in the last few years. Since 2012, they have written or contributed to six nominees for the Best Country Album, winning in 2012, 2013 and 2015, sometimes together, sometimes with other musicians. Tami Neilson won the APRA Silver Scroll for her song ‘Walk (Back to Your Arms)’ in 2014. Finally, Saturday 5 March, Music in the Parks, Demon Energy and George FM present George in the Park. With performances from See Aroha, Dan Aux, Weird Together and The Black Seeds, it is sure to be an epic afternoon of sun and tunes. Hosted all day by the George FM Breakfast presenters Thane and Kara plus the rest of the George team for all manner of good times. The best thing is, it’s free, just like all of these Music in the Parks. Top tip: make sure you wear sunblock, there’s nothing worse than returning from a summer concert as red as a lobster. Happy gigging Ponsonby. (FINN MCLENNAN-ELLIOTT) F PN
Finn McLennan-Elliott has a Bachelor of Science Honours degree specialising in human geography at Auckland University. In his spare time, Finn plays clarinet and guitar in an orchestra and a folk music group. He is hosting ‘Folk at the Old Folks’ on the first Sunday of every month at the Auckland Old Folks Association Hall, an intimate afternoon concert of folk music.
UPTOWN ART SCENE The latest addition to the Uptown Art Scene is Bowerbank Ninow, the gallery that sits on the corner of K’Road and East Street, just next door to Artspace, Michael Lett and Ivan Anthony. Bowerbank Ninow has opened the year with Delusional Architecture by Eddie Clemens, an exhibition that follows on from the Terminator movie references of last year’s Glovebox show. Around the walls he’s aggressively intervened into the gallery with 13 2m x 2m fences woven from electrical wire and conduit piping. The walls form a fortification or barrier, physically demarcating action and experience. Barriers are often placed in front of paintings hanging on this wall. Here they push painting out, compromising the medium’s promise of a window onto another world. Yet Clemens’ practice is based on subverting the functional or use value of utilitarian objects. The fence has already collapsed, or been broken through. Traces of Gordon Matta-Clark’s ‘anarchitecture’ and Lucio Fontana’s slashed paintings can be felt here, but the primary reference point is a scene in James Cameron’s film Terminator 2 (1994). In this film the T-1000 materialises from the future by breaking through a chain mesh fence, leaving a smoking circular void. Clemens’ sculpture replicates this film prop, down to the use of a programmed cycle of LED lighting to simulate the molten metal wire ends. As in the film, Clemens’ sculpture fails as a fence that divides and maintains order. It becomes instead a dematerialised gateway or portal that facilitates escape and escapism, qualities more often invested in painting, film or science fiction than sculpture.
Bowerbank Ninow
124 PONSONBY NEWS+ February 2016
This blurring of the utilitarian object with the art object carries over into Second Generation fibre optic broom #1. Glowing icon-like on its rack, this hi-tech broom bristles not with dust, but with the accrued energies and resonances of the gallery space which Clemens swept in an unseen performance during the installation period. This second generation technology PUBLISHED FIRST FRIDAY EACH MONTH (except January)