Hue & Cry LAUNCH this Friday! & White Fungus RELOCATION PARTY this Saturday!

Come to Enjoy this Friday night as we play host to the launch of Hue & Cry Issue Three: Good Times, Bad Times, and on Saturday night as we celebrate White Fungus' Relocation Party...(!)

With readings, installations and performances in the line-up, you'd be crazy not to stop by: join the festivities and beat the swine-flu blues!

Hue & Cry
Issue Three: Good Times, Bad Times.
Launch at Enjoy.
Friday 1st May. 6PM start.

Readings by: Airini Beautrais, Bill Nelson, John Summers
Performance by: Raised By Wolves
Posters by: Amit Charan

Issue Three is designed by The International Office. It includes new fiction by Anna Taylor and Pip Adam; essays by Richard Meros, John Summers, and Tahi Moore; poetry by Airini Beautrais, Johanna Aitchison, Charlotte Simmonds, and Amy Brown; a discussion of the 2008 Ronald Hugh Morrieson Festival in Hawera; and new art by Amit Charan, Kate Newby, Jo Langford, and Patrick Lundberg.

The journal will be available for $10 on the night. So bring your cash!

White Fungus 
Relocation Party 
Greg Malcolm and Peter Trevelyan
DJ Powerfull and the Lost Weekend
Enjoy, 6.30 - 8.30
Saturday May 2 

Come to Enjoy this Saturday evening for a one night only performance by Greg Malcolm and a temporary light installation by Peter Trevelyan as White Fungus celebrates four-and-a-half years and ten issues in Wellington and its upcoming move to Taiwan.

White Fungus will be returning to Taichung City where its founders spent four years before beginning the magazine in 2004.

White Fungus Editor Ron Hanson says the team is looking forward to a new adventure and a chance to re-engage with Taiwan.

"Taiwan's a dynamic place and we're all about cross-cultural communication," Hanson says. "We look forward to getting involved in the local art scene and producing the next issue of the magazine. "

White Fungus's Trip To Taiwan Is Kindly Supported by Asia New Zealand Foundation.

Image: Peter Trevelyan

gains on losses

A few shots of John Ward Knox's opening at Enjoy last Wednesday, taken by the artist himself.

A weekend treat

Beginning in Dunedin in 2005, and subsequently taking place in Auckland, Hamilton, Christchurch, New Plymouth and as far off as Santiago Chile, sound artist Kaleb Bennett's 'City Tours' are coming to Welly for the first, and last time!!!

Take a spin around the city in a (kick ass) van, customised to deliver a live site-specific audio visual performance. 

This is a curious, atmospheric, evocative and just plain different collision of subculture, art and performance that shouldn't be missed. 

Tours are FREE, approximately 15 minutes long and leave in groups of 5. They begin officially at 10am, Saturday April 25 outside Te Papa Tongarewa, Museum of New Zealand. (Although the project is unaffiliated with Te Papa)

Preview viewing Friday evening, April 25 from 6.30pm. Tours leaving from upper Cuba Street at Able Smith Street intersection. Look out for the sandwich board, and wait for the next ride if the van is not there. Rides last as long as people queue.

unofficial people's choice award WINNER!!!

A last, and after a bitterly fought contest, the WINNER of the unofficial people's choice award for the National Drawing Award's Wellington exhibition at Enjoy is...

...drumroll please...

Entry # 70 by Emma Mclellan 

- silk purse from a sours ear -

Congratulations Emma, your drawing must have struck a chord with Wellingtonians. Congratulations to all the entrants, the nation-wide winners, and thanks to all those that voted.

Image: silk purse from a sours ear, Emma Mclellan

art and architecture

Not long ago I was listening to a talk by a man who, in his long career, had directed many of the world's  great art and history museums. He spoke vehemently about the urge of such institutions - by nature - to wish and pretend to know everything. I suppose it's that thing of being (or attempting to be) ALL things to ALL people: which is the way most large publicly funded institutions, like Te Papa, operate. 

Funnily enough all this got me thinking about architecture and the way that art museums have become the fabric for testing the limits of what is current and what is possible, with a frightening uniformity of 'out there-ness'. The list here is pretty extensive, with examples like the Jewish Museum in Berlin and the Guggenheim on Balboa to name a few. 

Aside from these purpose built, monolithic shrines to architecture though, the redevelopment and interior modernisation of the classical museum building is something that I find interesting in the context of an art museum's conversation with its location and with what it contains. This is also pretty prolific and has been done with great success around the world; my personal favorite being the K21 in Düsseldorf. 

Anyway, it should be interesting to see what New Zealand can contribute to this art and architecture relationship in the coming years; with City Gallery Wellington and Auckland Art Gallery both inflicting major renovations on heritage buildings, and with the proposed Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth being designed (if this is still going ahead amid strong anti-art sentiment).  

Posted by Jeremy

Images: Second steel fix complete, City Gallery Wellington 2009; K21, J. Booth 2008

A date with enjoy

Enjoy is currently accepting proposals for its 2009/10 program. Or, better to say, we're heading towards our next proposal review on May 1 2009. So quick, don't be a stranger! 

See here for more details.

image: "Vignette auf einem Dresdener Liebesbriefbogen mit Goldschnitt. Un 1815".  No copyright

abandoning amusement

Very little to do with Enjoy; this chap was meant to guard a Japanese amusement park that was never built. 

image: johangf from dark roasted blend

art talk

As with all Enjoy exhibitions - and seemingly mandatory nowadays - the current show by Fitts & Holderness included an 'Artist Talk'. That is (cough), those involved in the exhibition - be it curators, artists, co-conspirators etc., speaking, presenting, or sharing something interesting about their projects with a captive and (sometimes) inquisitive audience. Informal. Interesting. Not scary at all!

It seems as though, perhaps through the ongoing and torturous critiques of art school, that the 'Artist Talk', for me and others, became arduous and akin to all things stodgy and wind-swept. And while this is sometimes still the case, it's refreshing to participate or be witness to a truly informative, and interesting event; particularly when the presenters leap and bound within a stone's throw from their topic, touching on whatever may keep their, and their audience's attention.

While the one present half of Fitts & Holderness did speak about and elucidate the work in question, she did so with a slightly tangential wandering around some contextual and theoretical background. A previous project: A video work. Snippets of research material: David Bain and others. An unfinished, unofficial publication; suddenly I'm curious as to where my copy of An Angle at my Table has disappeared to...(?) I guess that maybe judging an exhibition by its flier is all too common, in terms of only going to the Artist Talks of friends, colleagues, or big out-of-town names. It's interesting to see how, in general, their potential for idea and thought prompting can function.

Any thoughts?

posted by jeremy

image: courtesy of Hoogrrl! 'best artist talk ever'