Blue Oyster Performance Series 2022

Live performance and visual arts converge in the Blue Oyster Performance Series. In 2022 we are bringing back the Blue Oyster Performance Series, which existed for nearly a decade showcasing exciting experimental and interdisciplinary performance. All events either in person or online are free to attend and open to all.

Schedule:

Join artist Zoe Thompson-Moore for a daily invitation to play as an extension of her artwork Pissing While, which is currently installed as part of the exhibition Idle Hands.

Pissing While thinks about tending to daily practices of making while enfolded by the activities of household life, particularly moments of distraction, spells of idleness, time spent indulging in things that are not considered useful. Thompson-Moore has shipped an armchair from her home to the gallery, along with a length of french knitting time-stamped by a change of colour for each instance she paused and resumed knitting. These are accompanied by a collaborative drawing by her child and their friend.

Thompson-Moore will send a daily play invitation to all participants via email. These open-ended explorations will provide an opportunity to turn the everyday on its head and inspire curiosity about who we are outside of our work.

To receive Pissing While invitations please register by emailing pissingwhile@blueoyster.org.nz

Zoe Thompson-Moore (Pākehā - nō Mannin Isle of Man, nō Aerana, nō Ingarangi, nō Kōtarana) lives in Waiwhetū, Te Awakairangi with her family. Her practice plies the edges of art and the everyday. Zoe works with social fabric, focussing on sites and lived experiences of reproductive labour. Recent projects include To feel with the hand (tickling potatoes) with The Dowse Art Museum and The making of bread, etc. with Enjoy Contemporary Art Space.

Zoe seeks to practice in a way which interrogates isolation, scarcity, and the imperatives of the work ethic. She loves inviting others into her practice as a way to strengthen existing relationships as well as develop new ones. Zoe is interested in getting closer and going slower. Valuing idleness, play, maintenance, interpersonal relationships and internal transformation over unquestioned productivity and external outputs.

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Ngā Awe Ngaro - Lost Souls
Tīwai
Tūrei 22 Māehe —Hātarei 26 Māehe, 5:30—8pm
Tuesday 22 March—Saturday 26 March, 5:30—8pm

Blue Oyster Art Project Space, 16 Dowling Street

Ka mihi ki a koutou e noho rā ki tua o te ārai. Ka mihi ki a koutou e tū tonu nei ki te ao kikokiko.

Ka rongo mātou i a koutou, ā-tinana nei, ā-wairua nei.

He puninga toi a Ngā Awe Ngaro - Lost Souls nā te kapa hou o Tīwai. Nau mai, mātaki mai i te puninga toi nei ki te Whare o Tio Kikorangi, Blue Oyster Art Project Space, 16 Dowling Street, mai i te 5:30–8pm.

Ko wai a Tīwai? Ko Rebecca Johnson (nō Te Arawa, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Maniapoto, Tainui), ko Kereana Mosen (nō Ngāti Hauā, Ngāpuhi), ko Anthony Te Puke (nō Ngāti Kahu, Tainui) ngā mema o te kapa o Tīwai, e noho ana ki Ōtautahi, ki Tāmaki Makaurau hoki. Kua whakarōpūngia te tokotoru nei i raro i te kaupapa o Tīwai kia ahu mai ngā whakaaro o ngā iwi taketake ki ā rātou mahi toi.

I ā rātou mahi, ka kitea ngā wawata a ō rātou tūpuna—ka honoa te ao kikokiko ki te ao wairua, te kiri ki te whenua. He pou whenua a Tīwai e tohu ana i te takiwātanga hou. He wāhi e poipoi ana i te reanga o ngā ringatoi Māori e heke mai nei.

Ka noho ngā mema o te kapa o Tīwai hei manuhiri ringatoi ki Movement Art Practice, Ōtautahi, ā te Āperira 2022

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1 - To the sound of a thousand and one echoes. Let the Whare Raiti guide you home.

In acknowledgement of those who have passed and those who remain in our physical spaces.

We hear you, we see you, we feel you.

Lost Souls is an installation by the newly formed group Tīwai. This installation will be available to view in person at Blue Oyster Art Project Space, 16 Dowling Street between 5:30–8pm.

Tīwai is Rebecca Johnson (Te Arawa, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Maniapoto, Tainui), Kereana Mosen (Ngāti Hauā, Ngāpuhi) and Anthony Te Puke (Ngāti Kahu, Tainui), who are based between Ōtautahi and Tāmaki Makaurau. The three have formed under the title Tīwai to bring forward indigenous thinking to creative practice.

The mahi they make is reflective of the legacy their tūpuna hold—bridging the connection between our skin and the whenua. Tīwai marks the beginning of a new era. A place to foster the next generation of Māori arts practitioners.

The members of Tīwai will be in residence at Movement Art Practice in Ōtautahi, Christchurch in April 2022.

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Pū0r0 PL4Y V0L 002: Inside my Papahou symphony No. 2
M4URI M4STA
To be released Friday 25 March, 3pm

Pū0r0 PL4Y V0L 002: Inside my Papahou symphony No. 2 is a new sound work by M4URI M4STA also known as Abigail Aroha Jensen. This work is a continuation of Jensen’s layered sound practice, diving into oro by weaving together taonga pūoro and field recordings of her environment. This audio work will be released on Friday 25 March via Blue Oyster’s website. 

Abigail Aroha Jensen is an artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Abigail Aroha Jensen (Ngāti Porou through Te Whānau-a-Tūwhakairiora and Te Whānau-a-Ruataupare; Ngāi Tāmanuhiri through Rangiwaho; Crow and Steele clan, County Antrim) is an artist who places herself within her whakapapa by responding to space with oro, painting and installation. Previous exhibitions in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland include Occupied territories at RM gallery with Avigail Allan and Naomi Allan; Manawa i te Kāniwha, a mural produced in collaboration with George Watson for Artspace Aotearoa; and Pūtahitanga Kura, an artwork produced by Jensen and Watson for The Lightship, a digital light wall along Bledisloe Wharf.Her latest work - Inside My Papahou: Ngā āhuatanga o te kuku o te tangata e te kēhua is showing in the latest group show Ata Koia! at Te Tuhi, as well as Lamentation of Ruataupare which opened this month at Papatūnga located in the Parnell train station.

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dolphins and pearls
Tui Vutu
To be released Saturday 26 March, 3pm

dolphins and pearls presents a collection of love songs from shapeshifter Tui Vutu to Tokairahe, son of gods Tui Lakeba and Liku Cava. This work pays tribute to Tui’s retrieval of Tokairahe’s shell necklace, an act of devotion in which he chased down and faced Dakuwaqa, the mighty Shark God.

Tui Vutu is the moniker of J, an artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Raised in Te Whanganui-a-Tara and Naarm, J hails to Levuka, Fiji. Moving between club and experimental sounds, they explore expansiveness within hardware confines, the rawness and severity of a drum machine offering J the means to express.

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This experimental performance series is part of Dunedin Fringe Festival and supported by Creative New Zealand.