A Reimagined Christchurch Arts Festival Artistic Director of the Christchurch Arts Festival, Dr. George Parker, has repositioned its attitude. In 2019 the Festival is not labelling the arts within traditional categories of theatre, dance, the visual arts and music. ‘Some of the most exciting work is happening between artists operating between disciplines, collaborating with other artists with backgrounds different to their own to make new works. What is interesting for the Festival at a local level is the way in which these disciplines speak to each other.’ What can residents and visitors to Ōtautahi Christchurch expect to experience? A cross-over between arts practices, and a reminder about the city’s reputation for exploration, experiment and its ability to surprise in all aspects of contemporary art. There is an engagement with the city’s history and anticipation about its future with some legendary and also promising names: The Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, The Bats and Douglas Lilburn, as well as DOG Power, Tusiata Avia, Fis and Rob Thorne and a grouping of bands presented by local indy label Melted Ice Cream. The Festival runs for ten days, (26 July to 4 August) with a smaller programme of artists but, as Parker promises, it will be spectacular; street performances, a mana whenua-led ‘mid-winter market and hangi’, installations and commissioned artworks. Working with CEO, Clare Wilkinson this is a reimagined festival with a programme that speaks vociferously about Christchurch’s unique arts scene. Parker’s appointment as director in 2018 sees the Festival’s attention on artists from Ōtautahi drawing from his background in acting and producing with the Free Theatre group for more than 20 years, and with FESTA, (the festival of Architecture, design and food) and as lecturer at the University of Canterbury from 2001 to 2015. How did the Festival’s change in thinking come about? Parker says that the Festival’s Board were signalling that they wanted to go in a new direction. ‘In terms of where it had been positioned previously, it had become unclear exactly what it was that made the Festival, the Christchurch Arts Festival.’ ‘The Board really wanted somebody who was Christchurch-based and would be involved in conversations of it being about Christchurch’s identity. The period after the earthquakes (2010 –2011) was an extraordinary time. So much was off limits and was gone and, at that time, the Festival decided to bravely go ahead. It became identified as a community-focused event in a way that it had never been before and that was exciting. In 2019, it can find that role again and build
IMAGE ABOVE Pine Reunion, Corsair Bay, 2019. Performing for the first time in nine years, Pine (Aaron Beehre, Hannah Beehre and Stephen McCarthy) is one of a number of Festival events recognising Christchurch as a city in which the visual arts and music have maintained a productive relationship for decades. Photo by: Dean MacKenzie.
a sense of community by interrogating and exploring what makes Christchurch, “Christchurch.” ’ Parker’s Festival programme is conscious of Christchurch’s history in multidisciplinary art. The explosion of a punk scene in the late 1970s and the rapid emergence of music that included Roger Shepherd’s Flying Nun records and bands such as The Pin Group, (their first single’s cover designed by School of Fine Arts graduate Ronnie van Hout), and a dynamic relationship between this music scene and the University’s School Of Fine Arts. The Festival’s inclusion of Pine, a three-piece 90s band made up of artists and designers Aaron Beehre, Hannah Beehre and Stephen McCarthy is no coincidence. ‘They are a three piece that were part of that Dux de Lux bar scene in the Arts Centre. There were all these bands playing that were part of a local scene but they were also having an effect nationally.’ Parker maintains that it is a relationship sustained today. ‘When you go to events at the Darkroom, Space Academy or Lyttelton Coffee Co-op, you also find visual artists, people involved in making and also patrons.
‘What I am also really excited about with the Festival is the Avon River and the Town Hall’s Avon Room as a hub for a diversity of music tastes to create a visual aural experience. For example, over one evening there will be different groups responding to works by visual artists: van Hout, Tjalling de Vries and Luke Shaw creating work and then Luke’s band Opawa 45s and No Exit and Dunedin group Space Wolf 2, generating these sound-scapes in response.’ ‘‘We want to build a sense of identity around the Festival as an active exploration of this place called Christchurch and a significant aspect of the budget that we have is to create a sense of being part of a festival focused in a particular area. So the Christchurch Town Hall is ‘Head Quarters’ and we are also using The Piano on Armagh Street. I would really like the Festival to come back to the river as a centrepiece. That is the defining feature of the city’s identity from the Town Hall and up to the Terraces. So there will be a light sound-spectacle down the river led by Free Theatre. That will be something very exciting. Christchurch Art Festival 2019 26 July – 4 August
Art Hole: New Creative Space in Central CHCH Darkroom at 336 St Asaph Street has opened a new space for not only exhibitions and events, but also as a dance studio, meeting room, theatre rehearsals, performance venue and photography studio. Formerly occupied by NEXT Gallery, Art Hole is adjacent to the music venue and bar, Darkroom and record store Ride on Super Sound. Its programme retains an important component of NEXT with its attention on local artists, although there is evidence of a greater priority
on young artists and students, offering an affordable venue for exhibitions. Art Hole is managed by Annemieke Montagne, working in association with curator, Feather Shaw. Recent exhibitions have included Kate Maher’s Space Girls [and Other Works] and opening 9 July is an exhibition by illustrator Yujin Shin. See: www.facebook.com/artholechch
IMAGE LEFT Kate Maher, Bastet#1, (from Space Girls [and Other Works]), 2019, collage
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