Share some Common Ground and be the first to experience LASERTAG
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
COMMON GROUND FREE PUBLIC PROGRAMMES FEBRUARY - APRIL 2009:
LASERTAG
Friday 13 February 8-11PM
Join the next generation of street artists and spray the walls of TheNewDowse... with lasers! Created as open source technology by New York's Graffiti Research Lab, LASERTAG gives you a chance to shout out in an urban space increasingly dominated by advertising and commercial messages. Throw up live legal building tags with Via Grafik and Cut Collective, to the sounds of Olmecha Soundsystem with King Homeboy (NZ beatbox champion), Mighty Asterix and local DJs, as well as pro skate demos. Thanks to AVS, Red Bull, Secret Level and Empire Skate.
PANEL DISCUSSION: KEEP THE WALL GREY AND THE MIND WILL FOLLOW
Sunday 15 February 3-4PM
Engage in the debate about the use of public spaces for creative expression with street artists from Cut Collective and Via Grafik, community youth workers, graffiti eradication specialists, media commentators and public space designers/architects. Hosted by artist/curator Jo Randerson. Bookings to newdowsebookings@huttcity.govt.nz or ph (04) 560 1470
ART FOR CHANGE STREET MURAL WORKSHOP
Saturday 7 & Sunday 8 March
School students are invited to work with local street artists to transform a Lower Hutt wall into a piece of art. Creative Workshop, TheNewDowse. Brought to you by Art for Change.
Bookings to sandy.beathcroft@huttcity.govt.nz or ph (04) 570 6973
HIT THE WALL COMPETITION
Entries due Sunday 15 March
Hit the Wall is your chance to showcase your graphics/illustration styles in one of New Zealand’s leading galleries: TheNewDowse. Send us your street art-inspired design and our judges will choose a winning entry to be thrown up on one of our Hit The Wall sites. Open to young people aged 14-25 years - see www.newdowse.org.nz/hitthewall for entry guidelines or pick them up from the Information Desk.
SECRET LEVEL SUNDAY SCRATCH SESSIONS
Sundays 15, 22 & 29 March 1-3PM
Chill in the summer sun to some solid street sounds by DJ Voodoo (Valley All-Stars) and DJ Duz (Perth, Australia) supported by local youth DJs in TheNewDowse courtyard.
DECK DESIGN WORKSHOP
Sunday 5 April 1-4PM
Join designer Chris Jackson to create a unique skate deck design. Bring your own deck (new or old) and your design ideas. James Coe 2, TheNewDowse. In conjunction with Board Art 08, toured by CoCA with support from Higher Ground, Burton, Analog and Gravis.
Bookings to newdowsebookings@huttcity.govt.nz or ph (04) 560 1470
Media release from TheNewDowse
Share some Common Ground and be the first to experience LASERTAG
Common Ground: Via Grafik meets Cut Collective
13 February – 17 May 2009 / FREE ENTRY
In co-operation with the Goethe-Institut and ZM
TheNewDowse / 45 Laings Road Lower Hutt / www.newdowse.org.nz/common
Street art spreads through the galleries, walls and courtyard of TheNewDowse in Common Ground, a collaborative exhibition from Germany’s Via Grafik and NZ’s own Cut Collective.
Based around the idea: ‘keep the wall grey and the mind will follow’, Common Ground incorporates wall paintings, stencils, sculptural installations and a full-to-bursting events programme celebrating street culture. Two ‘Hit the Wall’ sites expand the show into neighbouring gallery areas, with one site reserved for the winner of a graphics competition which gives an emerging artist/designer the opportunity to have work displayed alongside established artists. School children get their chance to have work in public view with a street mural project led by Keep Hutt City Beautiful.
On opening night Friday 13 February from 8-11pm, Via Grafik and Cut Collective will lead the public through an explosive new artform – LASERTAG. Making its first appearance in NZ right here in Lower Hutt thanks to AVS, LASERTAG uses lasers instead of spray paint to create live, legal, temporary tags on a huge scale. The audience is encouraged to join in, to the sounds of Olmecha Soundsystem with NZ beatbox champ King Homeboy, Mighty Asterix and local DJs in the Red Bull lounge. There’ll also be Empire Skate demos, and food and drink caravans to keep the creative sparks firing at this free event.
LASERTAG also features at Cuba St Carnival on 21 February, where Via Grafik and Cut Collective will decorate a GO Wellington bus.
Street artists often tread a fine line between creation and disruption. Via Grafik’s Leo Volland (BOE) notes “There are guys who make a living out of selling their works on auctions and in galleries as well as guys who break into yards to paint a train”. Emerging from the graffiti movement at the end of the 1980s, is street art a valid reclamation of public space - or reckless vandalism? Cut Collective’s Gary Yong (Enforce One) says “People are so used to advertisements in the public arena that they’re not sure how to react to artistic expression when it arises”.
The Common Ground opening weekend rounds off with a panel discussion on the role and status of street art on Sunday 15 February. Hosted by artist/writer Jo Randerson, the panel includes street artists from Cut Collective and Via Grafik, community youth workers, graffiti eradication specialists, media commentators and public space designers/architects.
Throughout Sundays in March, youth project Secret Level run DJ Scratch Sessions in TheNewDowse courtyard, adding a hiphop soundtrack to the gallery experience. Also featured alongside Common Ground is Board Art 08, a collection of 40 skate deck designs from CoCA in Christchurch, with an accompanying deck design workshop in April.