Season Greetings Amigos,
Hope this finds you well. Apologies for having been quiet on the response front. I am currently in Malaysia and have managed to blow up my power adapter for my laptop on my first day here.
Architectural Competition:
I met up with Allistair Kwun and Michael Hsu (architect) before I left over a BBQ just to get their take on the architectural competition. Michael loves the idea but also thinks that the timing is tricky in terms of receiving 'professional' entries from architectural students over this period, because they pretty much only return to school once the exhibition opens. He suggested, possibly, an informal workshop to be held over the duration of the exhibition - that could be a lot more interactive - say a large map of Auckland laid out flat and the public invited to put their 'two cents worth'/construct their small-scale version of Chinatown with provided materials (plasticine, toothpicks, grade-school construction materials?) in Gus Fisher. I think a good range of responses is definitely possible, and it will be beneficial to leave it pretty open - I have a few lanscape architects & artist friends who are interested in submitting entries.
Likewise, I agree that the Waterfront should be explicitly made part of the campaign - Michael's discomfort with the location had to do with practical issues - that it was not that great in terms of public access, and also feels uncomfortable with the idea of 'installing' 'imposing' a Chinatown - but these are all issues we are definitely wanting to bring out into the fold. I also spoke to my dealer, Anna Miles, who was commenting that the issue of public space in Auckland's architectural community has reached a kind of fever-pitch intensity because of the contentiousness of the Waterfront Stadium, and how close that came to being built in spite of their strong opposition. It seems that this long-standing conflict between the NZIA (New Zealand Institute of Architects) and the Auckland City Council's working/treatment of public spaces have been brewing for a while, whether over the grandiose gecko motorway art our council seem to favour, or the $$ it is investing into terrible art-in-the-city type projects. Anna's kindly provided a good list of architects, tutors who would be helpful to this project.
The Video:
So Daniel, I went to get out A Chinese Ghost Story circa 1987 from Video Ezy Ponsonby. It was available only on VHS in the, wait for it, CHINATOWN section. Venturing into the VHS section in the video store is like treading into a neglected cemetery, pre-PC, pre-digital - expiration central. Anyway, great movie - I'm hoping to just watch as many old-school Chinese horror as I can remember. What's interesting about A Chinese Ghost Story and the two sequels it spawned, apart from the amazing sound design/special effects, is the cheesy soft-porn that's meant to serve the romance sub-plot - quite frequently in the fantasy/period genre. Not necessarily a direction we want to take, I understand.
I did get very excited by the thought of Chinese vampires roaming Auckland City though: I learnt more about them from good ol' wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopping_corpse - I find it quite interesting that they are literally corpses, travelling across the land, being guided home for burial - that profound connection to land, especially in your death. (Perhaps this could be incorporated into the March somehow?) The female ghost in A Chinese Chost Story had to have her ashes brought back to her hometown to be buried in order to be reincarnated again.
Onto more technical details, I visited St Paul Street to measure out the window space properly. It seems like the outside projection might be unlikely, due to the non-availability of a projector strong enough for that projection. Paul said a 16mm projection would be no problem - so..perhaps that could be an option? But given the time constraints, we probably would have to shoot digital. They are sourcing a LCD screen which will most likely be placed outside the second gallery.
Anyway, have a great Christmas you guys. Hope you're showered with presents from every direction and stuffed with so much food you can't fit your jeans no more. I'm doing well on that count - I'll be away on crazy family tours in Taiwan for the next week or so.
Eat Drink and Be Merry,
xBeeast
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