MAKING SPACE: a showcase of collaborative creative practice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday 22 May 2017

CoCA presents MAKING SPACE: a showcase of collaborative creative practice

FAFSWAG: Pati Solomona Tyrell, FA'AAFA, 2015. Image courtesy of the artist.

Collaborative art practice and why it forms will be explored in a dynamic new exhibition at Toi Moroki Centre of Contemporary Art (CoCA) this June.

Taking place in the heart of Ōtautahi Christchurch – where collaboration and collective working has become part of the fabric of the post-earthquake city - MAKING SPACE (10 June – 20 August 2017) will involve six diverse artist collectives and over thirty individuals practising at the cutting-edge of the Aotearoa New Zealand art community.

During MAKING SPACE the gallery will host works, events and the members of FAFSWAG, FIKA Writers, Fresh and Fruity, Mata Aho Collective, SaVAge K’lub, and The Social with the aim of inviting diverse communities to connect, create art, encourage conversations and offer an opportunity to shift how we view art and its potential for social change.

Notable highlights include Mata Aho Collective, who are also currently exhibiting at Documenta; one of the world’s most highly regarded art exhibitions and where this year, art by New Zealanders is being exhibited for the first time. For prolific and savvy South Auckland collective FAFSWAG, MAKING SPACE will be their first exhibition in Ōtautahi Christchurch.

Areas of the gallery will become home to each collective and an exciting collaboration by Christchurch Art Gallery and The Social will see a temporary artist residence in the form of a caravan appearing on the Montreal Street forecourt.

Khye Hitchcock, curator at CoCA said, “MAKING SPACE is a timely celebration of collective practices, which have flourished across Aotearoa over the last few years. Collectives often form around a shared need for space, whether that is conceptual, physical or cultural.

“Here in Ōtautahi Christchurch, groups like The Social formed in response to the post-disaster environment; working together as a community is how people in Canterbury got through post-quake and how we continue to function as we piece the city back together.

“This exhibition looks at what is happening nationally in collective practice by inviting six active groups to participate in a programme that will include both installation and live performances.

“MAKING SPACE will celebrate their mahi (work) and the important role these collectives play in maintaining their own communities, as well as acknowledging their contribution to contemporary art and culture in Aotearoa.”

MAKING SPACE is a free admission exhibition opening on Saturday 10 June and will be supported by a rich programme of public events.

Opening weekend event

SPACE BAR with The SaVAge K’lub
Saturday 10 June from 1.30pm / FREE

MAKING SPACE collective The SaVAge K'lub bring life to both objects and space through the art of Acti.VA.tion - at SPACE BAR - inviting a space of conviviality and conversation through kava circles and regalia making. This fluid collective of weavers of words, hip-shakers, myth-makers, fabricators, installators, red faces and activators will celebrate the radical act of connection by warmly welcoming the public to share space and time - bring a t-shirt to print, and be sure to sport your own regalia! Performances commence at 1.30pm.

The collectives

FAFSWAG is a Queer Pacific Arts Collective based out of South Auckland. They celebrate queer brown bodies, contemporary Pacific arts and cultural restoration. Their online platform documents in an artistic manner the cultural connectivity of queer Pacific people of colour navigating their unique identities within NZ’s urban landscapes.

FIKA Writers are a collective of Pasifika writers based in Ōtautahi, who have been meeting together regularly to write since 2004.

Founded in Ōtepoti as a physical space in 2014, Fresh and Fruity now exists entirely online and is run by Hana Pera Aoake and Mya Morrison-Middleton. Fresh and Fruity’s work has been shown and published across Aotearoa, as well as in Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. Fresh and Fruity is a sexy new look designed to slowly smash the neocolonial heteropatriarchy one sarcastic hashtag at a time #cuterthanu.

Mata Aho Collective is a collaboration between four Māori women who produce large scale fibre-based works, commenting on the complexity of Māori lives. Their conceptual framework is founded within the contemporary realities of mātauranga Māori. They produce works with a single collective authorship bigger than their individual capabilities.

The SaVAge K’lub was first conceived by artist Rosanna Raymond in 2010 and is named in reference to a historical gentleman’s club first established in London in the nineteenth century.

Raymond’s version has drawn on the cultural stereotype and decor of such exclusive institutions, while removing the gendered and elitist aspect entirely. The SaVAge K’lub has evolved into a collective that brings knowledges and practices of many individuals to engender Raymond’s central kaupapa: to bring about the non-cannibalistic cognitive consumption of the Other. It is now a multi-disciplinary vehicle built to discuss ideas of space, hospitality and what it means to be framed as ‘savage’ in the 21st century.

The Social is a collective of artists engaged in a practice of interactive and site-specific installations. The core of their practice has everything to do with critical public dialogue and establishing environments for art-based, social connections to take place within the urban centre of a post-quake city. The Social carries out projects in a way that is meaningful, relevant, collaborative and fun, with a low frills DIY approach. They encourage art to live and breathe outside of its usual infrastructure.

ENDS

About CoCA
Toi Moroki Centre of Contemporary Art (CoCA) is a place for new art and new experiences.

CoCA creates stimulating art exhibitions that spark conversations about contemporary life and culture. coca.org.nz

© Scoop Media