Caption: Across divide: Dr Suzette Major from EIT (left) and Geraldine Guy from WITT with her driftwood piece representing Taranaki.
To put together the art exhibition, East West, art tutors from either side of the North Island turned to KAREN for help.
The show, now on in Puke Ariki, is a collaboration of 10 artworks from WITT and the Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) in Hawke’s Bay.
EIT art school head Dr Suzette Major says to prepare for the exhibition, the two polytechs held weekly video conferences using the Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network.
This network can transmit huge amounts of data at high speed via the internet, which meant their meetings were so clear it was like being in the same room.
“Donna Willard-Moore came up and said hi and I hadn’t met her before (in person),” Suzette says. “But I know her quite well; I know her art practices and her philosophies.”
Suzette says that using KAREN meant the tutors were able to sit in their institutes, with the TV in between, and it felt like everyone was around one long board table.
“There was a wonderful moment in one of our last conferences where we literally drew this space (Puke Ariki level two gallery) and where everything was going to go. Ian Clothier (from WITT) was drawing it up on a white board via video conference,” she says.
WITT art department head Geraldine Guy says this is the first time the polytechs from either side of the North Island have put together a joint show.
She believes it has worked well, particularly because the east-west exhibition brief was so open.
“It’s enabled all of us to participate without having to talk massively about the work and it works within the space and the theme,” Geraldine says.
The work includes a giant hanging poem, creepy crawlies in webbed boxes, a hanging piece about discovering the stars, sculpture work and more.
Geraldine’s work is an untitled piece made from a network of driftwood attached directly to the wall. “It’s made from found driftwood that I have been collecting off the Taranaki beaches. It’s temporary and will just get disassembled and put back into my shoe boxes,” she says.
If you look at it carefully, you will notice that it’s in the shape of Taranaki, representing the west.
From the east, Suzette says it’s vital to work with artists from other areas.
“Creativity is something that should be shared and, for it to grow and be nurtured, it needs to have a voice that goes beyond your region.”
The exhibition is on level 2 of Puke Ariki’s north wing and is open until December 11.