A dance group from New York had the Wellington crowds moving to the beat in Cuba St.

People stopped to watch the Nubian Gents + Feminine Fire, alongside Wellington Girls’ College students doing a mix of hip-hop line dancing to loud music from a stereo close by – with helpful lyrics like “to the left, to the left”.

The group have been travelling the globe as part of their Revolution tour and visited schools and streets all over Australia and New Zealand to promote “music, dance and hope to change the world”.

They also performed in a concert in association with Life FM and Tear Fund Christian Action on 21 August and most recently danced in Christchurch.

LAUNCH PARTY: Kidzsmartzpath2money team celebrates with author Joanne Welch (centre).

AUTHOR: Joanne Welch

TWO YEARS’ hard work by Joanne Welch and a team of five Kapiti residents has been capped off with the launch of their children’s book series, kidzsmartzpath2money.

Lembas cafe at Raumati South beach was the perfect venue to celebrate completion of the series and website, bringing together the team’s local support network and reflecting the books’ “nature coast” themes.

Ms Welch, who recently moved to Waitarere after living on the coast for 15 years, said it was “fantastic” to have so much support behind her, including that of Kapiti Coast Mayor Jenny Rowan.

Guest speakers, regional Maori business award winner Denis Grennell, consultant Fraser Carson (MC), and Ms Rowan, commended Ms Welch and her assiduous co-creators, Lisa Wilkinson, Fiona McCauley and youngsters Sam Fenton, Georgia Fenton and Nathan Hutchinson.
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Chief executive officer of Nature Coast Enterprises, Chris Baber, spoke of the books’ local content, making important references to the Kapiti Coast and Kapiti Island.

Speakers also mentioned the books’ main characters who held principles, morals and beliefs relevant to people’s everyday lives.

GUEST SPEAKER: Denis Grennell

The series links the ideas and concepts of nature with the principles of how to live a financially successful life, starting at a young age.

The book launch included presentations, acknowledgements and a count-down to go live for the new website, www. kidzsmartzpath2money.com.

She believes the website will encourage people to share “the fresh innovative concepts” with friends locally, nationally and internationally.

“Because it’s electronic and using social media, it will spread like wildfire.”

The e-books can be downloaded free from the website until the end of August, after which they will be available for sale on line.

PRECIOUS: Mary Victoria with Gollum at Weta Cave where her first book will be launched on August 14. Photo: Anita De Muth.

Mary describes fantasy writing to her as natural, “like breathing”, which is logical given her years animating for movies such as Lord of the Rings.

Tymon’s Flight: Chronicles of the Tree is book one of a trilogy.

It is a coming of age story of a boy who grows up in a seminary after being adopted by priests, while living in a world set in a tree.

Mary was born in the US but spent most of her life in various parts of the world including UK and France.

She came to New Zealand to work on Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies as an animator for Weta Digital in Miramar.

COVERED: The cover of Tymon’s Flight: Chronicles of the Tree, illustrated by Frank Victoria.

A decade on, she is still here after falling in love with the kiwi lifestyle, and has settled in Wellington with her husband and daughter.

Tymon’s Flight is both a physical and a metaphysical one.

He takes off from the world of his birth and discovers new horizons, but fighting for freedom may mean severing ties with world he knows.

It has taken nearly six years from the first draft to final edits, during which she has completed the second book and half way through the third.

In the early stages of writing Tymon’s Flight, Mary gained valuable writing skills and advice from her mother, who is also a published author.

Mary started writing the novel between contracts on the Lord of the Rings movies.

It was a huge learning curve making the transition from animator to author, but she says she quickly fell in love with the writing process.

WRITE TIME: Mary Victoria gets set to launch her first fantasy novel Tymon's Flight: Chronicles of the Tree August 14 at Weta Cave. Photo: Anita De Muth.

She always had a voracious appetite for reading fantasy novels as a child, and has been writing short stories, scripts and poetry ever since she can remember, but nothing has seen the light of day until Tymon’s Flight.

The stunning cover art and map are created by Mary’s husband Frank, who still works as an illustrator for Weta Workshop.

“Fantasy worlds always need a map,” she says.

“That way we can look at the place names and guess where the characters are going next.

“It’s funny now that I think of it – it never occurred to me not to write fantasy. It was natural, like breathing,” she says.

The second book of the trilogy Samiha’s Song is due to be released in February 2011 and the third in August 2011.

Fantasy fiction fans can meet Mary Victoria at the Tymon’s Flight book launch, Saturday August 14, 1pm, Weta Cave, Miramar.

ARTIST ON SHOW: Catherine’s works are often inspired by Welington’s south coast.

WELLINGTON ARTIST Catherine Roberts says she is ecstatic to be named as a finalist for an award at the New Zealand Art Show in the TSB Bank Arena later this month.

Catherine’s piece ‘‘Appreciate and Preserve’’ has been chosen from 200 entries as a top 10 contender for the Single Piece Art Award.

“I have seen the work of the other artists entering, and to be even considered to be grouped with them in the top 10 is a huge confidence boost for me to keep doing what I love doing,” she says.

The winner, who will be decided by public vote, will receive a $5000 prize from the New Zealand Art Show Trust.

It will be Catherine’s second year at the show but the first at which her work will feature on a wall of its own.

Every year around 1000 artists submit their work for the show and of the 524 artists selected for this year’s, only 84 have been given a wall.

Catherine (right), a mother of four children aged two to 14, says having a wall at the show is a whole different game.

“When you have got a single art wall you have to be there the whole time and represent your wall. It’s really good for a career and really nerve-racking at the same time. I’m a little bit on the shy side.”

Catherine’s canvases are mainly abstract contemporary landscapes, with inspiration from the south coast near her Miramar home.

In recent years, she has shown her works at various exhibitions, galleries and cafes and has also exhibited at the NZ Fine Arts Academy.

The New Zealand Art Show, now in its seventh year, introduces emerging artists to the public and sells their work at affordable prices. It takes place from July 29 to August 1.

HAPPY ARTIST: Daniel Phillips with his entry in the annual IHC arts awards.

HUNDREDS of colourful murals and self portraits hang on the wall of a small studio in central Wellington, ready to kick off this year’s Telecom IHC art exhibition.

The artworks – on display at the Alpha St studio from now until August 27 – will be judged, with the winner receiving $5000, second $2000 and two third prizes of $1000.

Some 30 will be chosen for an exhibition at the St James Theatre gallery from September 14 to 21, prior to touring the country.

The government-funded programme started in 2004 and displays the range of artwork created by students with intellectual disabilities from around the country.

The purpose is to encourage IHC students to make art with emphasis on community involvement, says co-ordinator Emma Cullen (left).

Over the years, it has become an important event, with more than 400 entries in last year’s exhibition, a total expected to be exceeded this time.

She says most of the money made from selling the artwork goes towards buying art supplies for the students so they can continue to paint.

“Most of them that come here [the students] see this as a full time job, painting and making things.”

ALPHA ST ART: Poppy Hill gets creative with cardboard.

'F'LOATY' ART: Wellington design student Jenny Leov with an album of her fabric designs.

TEXTILE design student Jenny Leov loves cranes.

Lucky for her then, Wellington’s working barge with crane, the Hikitia, was moored on the waterfront until recently, and randomly caught her eye.

It was the inspiration for a seven metre piece of fabric now on her newly created website.

“I have a fascination with trees and industrial stuff, so I ran with it,” she says.

Her four-year degree in textile design wraps up in October and she needs to produce an exhibition to showcase her work.

She calls her art “floaty” and says it is about putting pattern into repetition with a natural component.

Jenny, 28, who lives above the Wellington Zoo’s lion pit in Melrose, says when things jump out (not lions) she builds on it, thinking about boldness and colour, then plays with different proportions to create a process that can be quite random.

Jenny says her exhibition will have a dreamlike ascetic:. “I am documenting my dreams, with a mix of things like photos and illustrative applications.”

Jenny’s passion for art has been longstanding. As a child she knew about colour, partly learned from sitting at the kitchen table with her family, cutting out images from magazines and pasting them up.

Before her degree, she studied design in Melbourne at night classes.

During the third year of her degree at Massey University, an opportunity arose to travel to a textile trade fair in Paris, Premier Vision, to “see what was going on in the world”.

In 2009, in a degree class exercise in design, her choice from “gross, over-crafted’’ lucky dips inspired her to make a fabric entrant for the Hokonui Fashion Design Awards in Gore,.

She also fulfilled her itchy traveller’s feet and studied in Scotland for a semester through the university’s exchange programme.

Jenny has just finished designing her own website, which displays her work and enables her to be a freelance designer for clients to buy special one-off art pieces.

Her current project is for a woman who wants a lace-inspired print, meaning detailed research at the library.

She likes to keep it natural with silk, cotton or linen home-wares, and canvas for durability.

The ultimate for Jenny would be living in New York and working for Marimekko Corporation, the Finnish design house.

“It’s hard to think I could do all this fulltime with New Zealand so small. Working overseas means I am taken more seriously.”

But first, that exhibition: “I have a lot of work to produce in a small amount of time – it’s going to be really full on.”

“What To Look For In Winter” shows pieces by 17 contemporary artists, from Shane Cotton to Milan Mrkusich, from painting to photography.

Black Crystal Costume by Australian artist Mikala Dwyer hangs high on the wall facing the gallery entrance on Ghuznee St.

Before the wall of windows in the main room (pictured right) stands Ronnie van Hout’s series I’m Not Out.

MONOPRINT: Jason Greig's "Obsidian"

The five, door-sized white canvases by the Melbourne-based Kiwi artist are text-based, a departure from his best-known self-referential sculptures.

Rohan Wealleans’ solo show finished last Friday at McKay’s gallery, but Wealleans’ layered and carved-paint kayak traces the midpoint of the room, pointing to the light in Marco Fusinato’s photograph Sun Series #9 – 2/6/02.

In the alcove to the right of the entrance, Christchurch printmaker Jason Greig’s monoprint, Obsidian, depicts a face emerging from dark ink.

Cotton, Wealleans and Greig are three of nine New Zealand artists exhibiting in the Sydney Biennale. Curator David Elliott selected 165 contemporary artists from 35 countries for the 17th Biennale, on from May till August 1 this year.

In the back room are Australian Ricky Swallow’s Apple 2000 sculptures, one in vivid colour, one in tones of black through white.

ISOBEL THOM: "Self Titled"

They rest in their perspex case on a coffee table.

On the wood-panelled walls, the largest works are Mrkusich’s dominating abstract Four Circles, Grey and Gavin Hipkin’s Eurasia, a soft-focus skeleton, located in the sightline of the entrance to the room.

New Zealand painter Isobel Thom’s Self Titled diptych is a great example of her art practice, and also of the winter theme, says McKay.

The exhibition runs until July 30 at the gallery, 1st floor, 39 Ghuznee St.

]]> http://www.newswire.co.nz/2010/07/art-food/feed/ 0 http://www.newswire.co.nz/2010/07/fewer-twi-hards-but-still-a-bloody-fangtastic-affair/ http://www.newswire.co.nz/2010/07/fewer-twi-hards-but-still-a-bloody-fangtastic-affair/#comments Thu, 01 Jul 2010 09:13:19 +0000 Grace Ackland http://www.newswire.co.nz/?p=21461 By Grace Ackland, Rachael Holmes and Nikki Papatsoumas

THE MIDNIGHT screening of Twilight: Eclipse drew a more mature crowd to Wellington cinemas last night than previous years, when fans had taken to dressing up and buying tickets months in advance.

Although fewer young teens queued up in vampire glam, many had travelled long distances to the capital’s Embassy and Reading theatres.

Waikanae resident Ashley Burns (left), 17, describes herself as a “twi-hard”: “I had to see it before everybody else saw it.”

The Embassy can seat 700 people yet the premiere screening sold between 300 and 400 tickets.

Reading’s midnight session attracted 800 people.

Moviegoers were buzzing with excitement to see their favourite vampires and werewolves on screen.

Eclipse, based on the book by Stephenie Meyer, is the third instalment in the popular movie franchise.

Debate rang through the theatre as fans discussed who was team Edward or team Jacob. Team Edward seemed to be the popular choice of the night.

“Edward is dark and mysterious, such a brooding character,” says 22-year-old student Catherine Prior.

LET'S DANCE: Whitireia performing arts students enjoy their new space.

WHITIREIA performing arts students are bursting out of their current home and dancing across the road in Vivian St.

With an increase of 30 students this year, the school needs a new home and it has been found nearby.

One level of the building is already being used for some lessons and a refit of two other floors will be complete by the start of next year’s programmes.

Whitireia Performing Arts Centre administrator Laura Hewetson says the programmes have outgrown the current space, which has been a home for performance training for more than 20 years.

It was originally Toi Whakaari, the New Zealand Drama school, which moved out in 1997 and was replaced by the Wellington Performing Arts Centre, which was taken over by Whitireia in 2008.

“We are in a very tight space. We have grown in numbers this year by about 30 plus students, so space can be a real issue,” Laura says.

This won’t be a problem in the new building, which will hold nine studios plus theatre space. The current building has six studios, including the theatre space.

The theatre space will be kept purely for theatre and no classes will be held in it.

The theatre space will be used to house the major body of shows the Whitireia students produce and will be also open for public performances.

The top floor dance studio will have a seating block and blackout curtains installed next year so it could also be used as an additional performance space.

Staff and students who have been using the dance studios since May are impressed with their new venue.

Anne Gare, commercial dance course coordinator describes the space as fantastic for dance.

”It is most appreciated from both the students and myself. The feedback from my tutors working there is great – large, light and just a general really good feel.”

Whitireia is looking into the possibility of renaming the space and there are plans for a celebration when the renovation and shift is complete next year.

OPENING CEREMONY: Elena wows the audience at the 2010 World Expo. (Photo: supplied)

JUST weeks after performing at the launch of the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, Wellington violinist Elena is back in China to support a group of businesspeople on a networking tour.

Elena and the four-member kapa haka group Tumeke are the cultural side of a Wellington business delegation, led by Mayor Kerry Prendergast, which left at the weekend.

ONE-WOMAN ORCHESTRA: Maori violinist Elena is taking music in a new direction.

New Zealand’s first classically trained Maori violinist, Elena says she feels honoured the Wellington council has confidence in her and her work.

Described by Ms Prendergast as a “cultural icon”, Elena, with the group, will be helping businesses build relationships with their Chinese counterparts at the expo and at Sister Cities Conferences in Beijing and Xiamen.

The ensemble worked closely on their expo show with choreographer Tanemahuta Gray, Maori and contemporary tutor at the Wellington Performing Arts Centre at Whitireia Community Polytechnic.

They’ve now updated the performance for the business trip.

Elena says the show condenses the classical orchestra into one instrumentalist and brings kapa haka from 40 to 50 group members to just four, but proves as powerful and spectacular as both. It’s a cutting-edge concept, she says.

She has had “amazing” support from costume designers Native Sisters and Rotorua-based weaver Karl Leonard.

Elena will launch her first CD at the expo’s New Zealand Pavilion on June 10.

No stranger to China, she performed there in 1975 as part of the New Zealand Youth Orchestra and in 2006 representing New Zealand at the Shanghai Festival of Arts.

The former Scots College music teacher says growing up as a Maori in a Pakeha world playing the violin was made difficult with criticism for doing the “white man’s thing”.

“I’m just a person playing in an orchestra,” she says.

“It takes a special type of person to spend so much time practising on their own instead of going to the movies with mates – it does make us different from other people.”

She says she has been criticised for westernising Maori chants but says European melodies have been overlaying Maori chants for the last 100 years, helping make them accessible. “I’m just taking it in another direction.”