2007 » New Zealand » National section

BLOW: An Installation of New Zealand Performance Design

Curatorial Statement Tracey Collins and Sue Gallagher: BLOW is an interactive installation experience of New Zealand Performance Art and Design. An interdisciplinary approach to performance media; lighting, sound, projection, set, object, costume, sensory, surface, body and space. A world to explore and to contemplate the evolving scenographic processes of innovative New Zealand practitioners of theatre and related media, their ideas, strategies, and performance work. BLOW will parallel a theatrical event as a site of transformation, generation, and cultural memory. It is a place of the mythical, the otherworldly, a light-space, a reflective space for collective imagination. The worlds created are always changing, where one moment is never the same for the audience. BLOW will operate as both an installation and as a performance, a cross sensory experience of art and design. Where artists and designers have explored design as a live and vital event. BLOW is designed as a performing body to transgress the shifting boundaries between visual arts, performing arts, architecture, and design, to ultimately expand our conception of performance. There are many influences on designers making work in NZ, including our unique location and physical isolation. Designers will often work across a number of different design industries and take on a number of different roles with each new project. Many NZ designers have developed a unique interdisciplinary approach to creating performance works that transgress many boundaries, resulting in diverse collaborative projects, creating an ever-evolving performance industry, here in New Zealand. As the curators, we developed a curatorial process where a design framework, structure, and form were created to stimulate adialogue between designers, their processes and strategies for creating performance. We collaborated with designers to create dynamic possibilities for translating their production designs into an interactive installation experience. One of our key objectives in creating BLOW has been to generate new audiences, new discussion and to generate a vitality for the NZ performance designers and theatre communities.

Exhibiting artists / ateliers

• Elizabeth Whiting

* 1951, Welington
Specialization: costume designer
Additional information: Currently operating a costume design and construction company which provides costume for NBR New Zealand, Auckland Theatre Company and others.

Exhibiting works

• Peter Schaffer: (Equus), Auckland Theatre Company 2005, Director: Colin McColl, , John PARKER - Set Designer, John Gibson - Sound Designer, Shona McCullagh - Choreographer ;
  Comments: Contribution to BLOW Project:
  1. With John Gibson and John Parker: An interactive installation: where the audience have a physical transformation through a costume element.
• John PARKER

Exhibiting works

• Peter Schaffer: (Equus), Auckland Theatre Company 2005, Director: Colin McColl, , Elizabeth Whiting - Costume Designer, John Gibson - Sound Designer, Shona McCullagh - Choreographer ;
  Comments: Contribution to BLOW Project:
  1. With John Gibson and Elizabeth Whiting: An interactive installation: audience physically transform through set, costume, and sound elements.
• Tracey Collins

Specialization: set designer, costume designer, Production Designer, Artist
Education: Bachelor of Fine Arts, Elam School of Fine Arts, Univeristy of Auckland
Collaboration with theatres: Auckland Theatre Company. Massive Theatre Company
Teaching activities: Lecturer in interdisciplinary studio, Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland (1996-2006); tutor in spatial design, AUT University (2002, 2006)
Continuing collaboration with directors: Simon Bennett. Mike Mizrahi. Samantha Scott.
Awards: NZ Chapman Trip Awards for Best Costume Design (2002;) NZ Qantas Screen Awards for Best Production Design in TV (2009); NZ Qantas Screen Awards for Best Costume Design in TV (2007); Moet and Chandon Artists International Residency
Additional information: She graduated from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland (B.F.A.) She works as a freelance production and costume designer for theatre, contemporary dance, opera, event and spectacles. Regularly collaborates with theatre companies: Inside Out Productions, Massive Company, and the New Zealand Actors Company. She is a visual artist working with and exploring aspects of installation. She collaborates regularly with Bryan Caldwell, lighting designer. She also works as a lecturer in 3-D Design in Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland. Her exhibit called "Feeling Seeing" is an active installation that embodies the ideas, philosophies and processes of her work over the last four years. Exploring the following: What is performance energy? Can performance occur without a performer? Can multidisciplinary design tell the ,storý in performance and create abstract narrative that engages the audience?

Exhibiting works

• Thomas Mann, Michael Mizrahi, Marie Adams: (The Holy Sinner), Inside Out Productions 2006, Director: Michael Mizrahi, , Marie Adams, , Bryan Caldwell - Lighting Designer, Grant Major - Set Designer, Bob Buck - Costume Designer ;
  Comments: Contribution to BLOW Project:
  1. With Grant Major: A motorised installation structure: that activates a dynamic spatial transformation.
  
• Jeremy Fern

Exhibiting works

• Anthony Burgess: (A Clockwork Orange), Silo Theatre Company 2005, Director: Andrew Foster, , ;
  Comments: Contribution to BLOW Project: A lighting installation: exploring the psychological and physical mechanisms of perceiving light.
• John Gibson

* 24.01.1959, Dunedin
Continuing collaboration with directors: Shona McCullagh


Exhibiting works

• Peter Schaffer: (Equus), Auckland Theatre Company 2005, Director: Colin McColl, , Elizabeth Whiting - Costume Designer, John PARKER - Set Designer ;
  Comments: Contribution to BLOW Project:
  1. An interactive installation: the audience create a sound composition through touch.
  2. BLOW Sound Composition with Michael Hodgson
  
• Michael Hodgson

* 13.09.1965, Dunedin
Education: Wellington Design School
Continuing collaboration with directors: Mike Mizrahi, Shona McCullagh
Additional information: www.pitchblack.co.nz

Exhibiting works

• Shona McCullagh: (Dancing the Divide), Human Garden Productions (Human Garden Productions), 2005, Director: Shona McCullagh, , ;
  Comments: Contribution to BLOW project:
  1. With Shona McCullagh: An interactive performance
  2. BLOW Sound Composition with John Gibson
• Grant Major

* 18.04.1955, Palmerston North, New Zealand
Education: Auckland Technical Institute, Diploma of Graphic Design


Exhibiting works

• Thomas Mann, Michael Mizrahi, Marie Adams: (The Holy Sinner), Inside Out Productions 2006, Director: Michael Mizrahi, , Marie Adams, , Tracey Collins - Co-Set Designer ;
  Comments: Contribution to BLOW Project:
  1. With Tracey Collins: A motorised installation structure: that activates a dynamic spatial transformation.
  
• Shona McCullagh

* 10.07.1962, Hamilton
Education: Victoria University, New Zealand School of Dance
Collaboration with theatres: Auckland Theatre Company
Continuing collaboration with directors: Colin McColl
Additional information: Shona McCullagh is the Director and Founder of Human Garden Productions.

Exhibiting works

• Shona McCullagh: (Dancing the Divide), Human Garden Productions 2005, Director: Shona McCullagh, , Michael Hodgson - Mulitmedia ;
  Comments: Contribution to BLOW Project:
  1. With Michael Hodgson: An interactive performance: where audience movement creates a projected choreography.
  
• Mark McEntyre

* 21.11.1960, Christchurch
Specialization: set designer
Education: BFA (Honours), Ilam School of Fine Arts, University of Cantebury
Collaboration with theatres: Auckland Theatre Company, Christchurch Arts Festival
Teaching activities: Programme Leader, Bachelor of Performing Arts, School of Art & Design, Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology
Continuing collaboration with directors: Roy Ward, Shona McCullagh
Additional information: Stage designer and sculptor. In 1991 he graduated from ILAM School of Fine Art, Canterbury University. Christchurch. He temporarily works as a ecturer in design, 3-D design, stage, film, TV design and as a freelance designer. Currently he co-operates with Canterbury Opera Company and Taki Rua Theatre and works as lecturer in 3- Dimensional Studies at Christchurch Polytechnic of New Zealand. He received UNESCO Prize on PQ in 1999.

Exhibiting works

• Briar Grace-Smith: (Potiki's Memory of Stone), Court Theatre 2003, Director: Cathy Downes, , ;
  Comments: Contribution to BLOW Project: Revealing materiality as a unique NZ storytelling process.
• John Verryt

* 23.01.1952, Auckland
Education: Trained at Theatre Corporate and Mercury Theatre
Collaboration with theatres: Silo Theatre, Auckland Theatre Company, Black Grace, Douglas Wright Dance Co, NBR NZ Opera
Continuing collaboration with directors: Michael Hurst, Jennifer Ward-Leyland, Oliver Driver, Neil Ieremia, Douglas Wright
Additional information: Born in 1952 in New Zealand. Currently Head of Design at Mercury Theatre, Auckland, New Zealand. Productions include stage and costume design for opera, musicals and drama.

Exhibiting works

• Roger Hall: (Glide Time), Silo Theatre Company 2006, Director: Oliver Driver, , ;
  Comments: Contribution to BLOW Project: A translation of set design into an installation of moving scenic elements: to create a transforming landscape.
• Tony De Goldi

Specialization: set designer
Education: BDes (Interiors) Victoria University, Wellington.
Collaboration with theatres: Taki Rua Theatre
Teaching activities: Senior Lecturer in Design, WelTec, Wellington
Additional information: He is the senior lecturer of Design at Wellington Institute of Technology, currently researching tho influences of 'land-scape' within New Zealand theatre design looking particularly at the historical notions of a colonized natural landscape, the built landscape and the influences on domesticity. In many ways the two presented plays create a cyclic reading of New Zealand identity. Bruce Mason pioneered the way for a future generation of writers to develop work from a local perspective. His interest lies in exploring the 'land-scapes' of his own cultural experience. He exhibited at PQ in 1995, 1996. Text to the PQ'15 Catalogue: Set costume and properties designer for the past 20 years. Predominantly works in contemporary Maori Theatre.

Exhibiting works

• Albert Belz: Awhi Tapu (Awhi Tapu), Taki Rua Productions 2003, Director: Nathaniel Lees, , ;
  Comments: Contribution to BLOW Project: An Installation: utilising darkness, materiality and symbolic language to create a world of cultural memory.
• Andrea Králová

* 17.12.1970, Plzeň
Specialization: set designer, costume designer, painter , fashion designer, puppet designer, scenographer
Education: Academy of Performing Arts, Prague, PhD in the scenography of alternative and puppet theatre; history of art, Philosophical Faculty, Charles University (Prague)
Collaboration with theatres: Ústí nad Labem: Činoherní studio; Prague: National Theatre, Na Zábradlí, Komedie, Minor; Plzeň: Divadlo J. K. Tyla; Cheb: Západočeské divadlo; Brno: National Theatre; Ostrava: National Theatre
Teaching activities: Academy of Performing Arts, Department of Scenography for Alternative and Puppet Theatre
Continuing collaboration with directors: Jiří Pokorný, Zdeněk Bartoš, Viktorie Čermáková, David Drábek, David Czesany
Additional information: She graduated from art history at FF UK and KALD DAMU (1998). Since 1996 she has continuously co-operated with the National Theatre Prague, the J. K. Tyl Theatre Plzeň, National Theatre in Ostrava, the Drama studio Usti n/L., the Theatre Hadivadlo Brno, the Dejvické Theatre and the Drama Club Prague. She also devotes her time to fine arts (painting, graphic art, carving, ceramics) and film. She is a freelance lecturer at DAMU - she holds a scenography seminar. She held ten individual exhibitions, too.
• Tracy Grant Lord (Tracy Grant)

* 1961, New Zealand
Specialization: set designer, costume designer
Education: Bachelor of Spatial Design, AUT University, Auckland
Collaboration with theatres: Sydney Theatre Co, Auckland Theatre Company, Singapore Dance Theatre, Australian Opera, Australian Ballet, Royal New Zealand Ballet
Participation in other important exhibitions: WSD Toronto 2005
Continuing collaboration with directors: Pamela Rabe, Simon Phillips, Raymond Hawthorne, Colin McColl, Gary Harris, Janek Schergen
Awards: Winston Churchill Award (1987); Olivier Nomination (UK) 2004
Additional information: Tracy Grant Lord is a leading stage designer of theatre, opera and ballet. Her career began serving a 10 year design apprenticeship at the Mercury Theatre (Auckland) and since then she has worked as a freelance designer with the major performance companies throughout Australasia. She is a Winston Churchill Fellow, has a Bachelor of Spatial Design from Auckland University of Technology and her work has been chosen to represent performance design in New Zealand, at the Prague Quadrennial (Czech Republic) in 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2007. She was also selected to exhibit at the World Stage Design exhibition in Toronto (Canada) in 2005. Highlights of her work include the acclaimed Royal New Zealand Ballet’s 50th Anniversary production of Romeo and Juliet, which premiered at Sadlers Wells in London in 2004. This production then went on to receive an Olivier Award nomination for Best New Dance Production in the UK in 2005. Recent projects include “In The Next Room” (2011) for Sydney Theatre Company, “Sleeping Beauty” (2010) for Singapore Dance Theatre, “Oliver!” (2009) and “Le SUD” (2010) for Auckland Theatre Company and a new festival opera work “Electric” (2011).

Exhibiting works

• Witi Ihimaera: (The Wedding), The New Zealand Ballet Company (Novozélandská baletní společnost), 2006, Director: Mark Baldwin, , ;
  Comments: Contribution to BLOW Project: A model: exploring theatre space and set design as a framing device for telling visual stories.