Blow.08 celebrates creative art success

A collaboration between final-year photography students and dancers from the New Zealand School of Dance is to feature at Blow 08.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Blow.08 celebrates creative art success

Fashion, dance, music and art feature in a packed programme for the Blow.08 festival hosted by the University’s College of Creative Arts in Wellington and Auckland next month.

Blow.08 runs from November 7-22 and includes contributions from the New Zealand School of Music, Toi Whakaari New Zealand Drama School, the New Zealand School of Dance and the School of English and Media Studies.

Highlights of the programme include a fashion show by final-year students, a seminar on adapting literature for animation and a dynamic collaboration between final-year photography students and dancers from the New Zealand School of Dance.

The College of Creative Arts will also welcome three new inductees into its Hall of Fame: industrial designer Mark Pennington, fashion designer Kate Sylvester and (posthumously) artist and printmaker Gordon Walters.

Pro Vice-Chancellor of the College of Creative Arts Professor Sally Morgan says she is incredibly humbled by the achievements of this year’s inductees.

“All three are internationally recognised and respected,” Professor Morgan says. “All have pursued excellence in their artistic and design endeavours and all demonstrate the contribution that an art and design education can make to the stamping of New Zealand’s mark on the world.”

Mr Pennington was a student at the former Wellington Polytechnic School of Design from 1963-66 and a staff member from 1974-88, including 10 years as Head of Industrial Design. He is now design director and consultant for Formway Design, a Petone business respected as a major global player in the design of inspirational, high performance office seating and furniture. His design accomplishments with Formway Furniture include the ZAF and LIFE chairs and the FREE system workstation, which have all won prestigious awards both in Australasia and internationally.

Ms Sylvester was a student at Wellington Polytechnic (which Massey took over in 1999) from 1985-86. She is one of New Zealand’s most commercially successful and respected fashion designers.

Her collections are highly anticipated at both New Zealand and Australian fashion weeks and her shows are received with acclaim, featuring as highlights for local and international media.

Mr Walters (1919-1995) was a part-time student at Wellington Technical College between 1935-40, while he was employed as a commercial artist. He also taught part-time at the college in 1945.

Mr Walters’ iconic, and at times controversial, contribution to New Zealand culture is largely due to his synthesis of Maori and European symbols through geometric abstraction. His investigation of the koru motif began in 1956 and, combined with hard edge modernist abstraction, formed the basis of his life’s work.

The Hall of Fame was established last year to recognise past students and staff of the college and its forerunner institutions (the School of Art, Wellington Technical College, and the Wellington Polytechnic School of Design), who have made outstanding contributions to New Zealand’s economy, reputation and national identity through art and design.

The first inductees welcomed into the Hall of Fame last year were Weta Workshop’s director Richard Taylor, New York-based fashion designer Rebecca Taylor and (posthumously) sculptor and filmmaker Len Lye.

This year’s inductees will be honoured at an invitation-only black tie dinner in the Museum Building’s Tea Gardens at the Wellington Campus on Friday 21 November.

For more details about Blow.08 visit: http://blow.massey.ac.nz/

ENDS

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