TOI TANGATA | ARTS UPDATE

04 October 2019

News

Final chance to view and take home any of The Press Archives that we currently have in storage. These cover the period from the 1950s through to 1971 and are bound copies often covering three months in one volume. If you have any interest in viewing them and/or taking one or more home then please contact [email protected] to arrange a time to view.

These will all be cleared from Locke by Friday October 11th

UC Arts at the Arts Centre

On Tuesday evening we held the October presentation of An Evening With, this month presented by Bradford P. Wilson. Bradford is a visiting academic from Princeton University, here as part of the Erskine programme. He will be spending a couple of weeks at UC as a Canterbury Fellow. His talk on the life and times of Alexander Hamilton was very interesting, and was followed by thought-provoking questions. The event was opened by UC Consortia Chamber Choir, performing two songs from Hamilton: An American Musical.

School of Music

On Saturday night we were delighted to attend the UC Blues Awards! It was a stellar evening to celebrate with all the winners, but in particular, it was fantastic to see Music and Arts nominees recognised for their hard work and dedication. Congratulations to our two students, Thomas Bedggood and Wenting Yang, who both won awards!

On Monday night, Head of New Music and Senior Lecturer, Reuben de Lautour, presented ‘This is not a Piano’ for New Music Central. It was an intimate concert that explored music that sonically turns the piano inside out, and included NZ premieres of works by Robert Bryce and Eren Gümrükcüoğlu.

Upcoming concerts • Friday Lunchtime Concert: Further steps of a contemporary voice – Friday 4 October, 1.10pm – Venue: Recital Room, UC Arts City Location

• New Music Central: UC Percussion Ensemble – Monday 7 October, 7.00pm – Venue: Recital Room, UC Arts City Location

Teece Museum of Classical Antiquities

Upcoming events: • Marion Steven: an Academic Legacy – Friday 11 October, 5.45pm – Venue: Teece Museum, UC Arts City Location

Marion Steven: an Academic Legacy Miss Marion Steven, founder of the James Logie Memorial Collection at the , dedicated her life to Arts education. Presented by Natalie Looyer, postgraduate Classics student, this talk will focus on Miss Steven’s life and achievements. Natalie has recently completed an oral history project interviewing family, friends, students and colleagues of Marion Steven.

Museum doors will open at 5pm. Each talk will begin at 5.45pm. The talk is free, but we encourage you to register via Eventbrite in order to secure a seat.

Encountering local heroes of Classics at the UC Teece Museum If you have ever had a teacher that sparked your enthusiasm and brought learning to life, you will know just how rare and valuable a treasure they are. In the past 146 years, Canterbury students of many disciplines have benefitted from some truly remarkable teachers of Classics.

Classics and the ideal of education have been intertwined for many centuries. When Canterbury College was founded in 1873, classical cultures and languages were regarded as central to the institution’s academic development. The College, which later became the University of Canterbury, ensured they had a professor to instruct new students in the Classics from the very first day.

This series of short-format talks will highlight the work of three local heroes of Classics, who were influential and inspirational for several generations of students in very different ways.

REGISTER online to join us for these free talks, and take advantage of the opportunity to view Fantastic Feasts, the newest exhibition at the Teece Museum. Museum doors will open at 5pm. Each talk will begin at 5.45pm.

Philosophy

Diane Proudfoot gave a talk, ‘Can computers act freely?’, to the New Zealand Association for Philosophy Teachers (NZAPT) 2019 Philosophy in Schools conference.

History

School of Fine Arts

Huge congratulations to English MA student Polly Hoskins, who was awarded an Arts Blues award, as well as the award for Outstanding Contribution to University Arts, during the UC Blues ceremony in the weekend. Polly was recognised for her work in championing the legacy of Dame Ngaio Marsh, both through her recent book on Marsh’s production of Hamlet, and in her work as UC Dramasoc president in spearheading events celebrating the opening of the new Ngaio Marsh Theatre. Ngā mihi nui Polly – we are really proud!

Summer at Colin McCahon’s House for UC academic

01 October 2019

Creating art in the place where influential New Zealand artist Colin McCahon painted many of his most celebrated artworks is senior lecturer Steve Carr’s new summer plan.

Steve Carr, Screen Shots, 2011, 9-channel installation, Phantom Flex, Duration 26mins 22 secs

The University of Canterbury (UC) film academic and moving image artist was recently awarded the prestigious McCahon House Residency for 2020. He will use the purpose-built studio and accommodation adjacent to the McCahon House Museum in French Bay in Titirangi from January to March next year.

Carr says he felt honoured to receive the accolade, particularly during McCahon’s 100th anniversary celebrations.

“The McCahon House Residency is a highly sought after opportunity and it has a prolific list of distinguished alumni,” he says.

The opportunity comes at the perfect time for the sculptor, photographer and filmmaker, who has “built a practice through using technology and materials to slow down and capture what we cannot otherwise see or hear; making the world seemingly and strangely anew”, he says.

It is timely for several reasons. “It lines up with my upcoming sabbatical period at UC, it is the perfect setting to work while allowing me to have my family with me, which many residencies do not accommodate, and most importantly, I have two major presentations to work towards in Auckland and Melbourne in 2020.”

He has big plans for his upcoming residency.

“Previous artists in residence speak of it as a place to immerse yourself in its natural soundscape. I plan to deliberate on this natural environment and use it as a material to investigate, manipulate and test its limits,” Carr says. “My proposal for the residency comprises of slowing down time iterated through a series of sound works, sculptures and film studies. The starting point will initially be based around a meditation on the McCahon House’s physical surrounds and in particular its immersion within the dense native bush.

“The importance of this history will be palpable when immersed in the physical surroundings. Thinking about the work that McCahon made during his time there and seeing the connections come through in his work, I am intrigued as to how this space will reflect upon my practice.

“I am aware of the references to the landscape that traverse my practice. For example, my 2009 film Burn Out, was shot against the lush Henderson bush and it transformed a macabre act into a hauntingly mesmerising film that references a painting convention. It’s a kind of perverse homage to a long tradition of New Zealand art made in response to journeys through the landscape, in which McCahon was deeply entrenched.”

Carr is the co-founder of the Blue Oyster Gallery in Dunedin and board member of Auckland’s Artspace (2002-04) and Christchurch’s Physics Room (2016-19). His publication Variations for Troubled Hands won the Australian Photobook of the Year Awards 2017, and his work has been collected and presented extensively in public and private galleries nationally and internationally.

Artists Ana Iti and Richard Frater were also selected for 2020 residencies. All three residency recipients demonstrated an ambition and level of critical thinking that will benefit from a three-month supportive residency, according to the McCahon House Trust.

The McCahon House Residency is supported through investment funding from Creative New Zealand Toi Aotearoa as well as support from organisations and philanthropists including The Trusts Community Foundation, Foundation North and Waitākere Ranges Local Board.

Sociology and Anthropology

Eleanor Hurton (Masters student sociology) received 2 major awards at the UC Blues Awards at the weekend. She won the Outstanding Contribution to Equity and Diversity Award. She also joint-won the most prestigious community award the Outstanding Achievement in Community Engagement Award. Eleanor also received more nominations for an award than anyone else had in the history of the awards.

Mike Grimshaw (sociology) gave a paper “The double –banger problem: what does it means to think about philosophy of religion in a country that understands neither philosophy nor religion?” at the NEW ZEALAND ASSOCIATION FOR PHILOSOPHY TEACHERS CONFERENCE, held in Christchurch last Thursday.

Media and Communication

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