Greetings blogosphere, it’s been a while but with good reason – I’ve had stacks on the bubble and the pot just boiled. Lots of good stuff to pass on and some exciting projects in the pipeline. It’s been a month filled with photo projects, video projects and lots of words in print.
Let’s start with photos. Those of you who are in the Queenstown area will have undoubtedly have heard about the proposed tunnel connecting Glenorchy and Milford Sound. It’s a hot-button issue that definitely has me revved up in a big bad way – why they’d even consider auguring a out a big great dirty hole in the middle of a World Heritage site is beyond me. It’s a complex issue filled with politics, public safety, environmental impact, passion and apathy. When the issue reared its head about two months ago there was a huge gasp of… nothing. There seemed to be an apathetic fog that descended upon everyone in Queenstown and the desire to stay out of everyone else’s business floated to the fore.
More than the tunnel (which may not even happen unless it can clear some very steep environment court hurdles) the aspect that really concerned me was the outward lack of concern. It was at that moment that I knew that I really wanted to do something to try and spur people into felling anything. It all came to a head at Toby Eglesfield’s art opening when Toby and myself got talking about how an artistic response to the whole issue would be the best thing to do. An exhibition that addressed the issue and let the viewers make up their own minds. Ten minutes later Tim Buckley the owner of The Front Room Gallery had heard about the idea and said, ‘let’s do it!’.
Six weeks later we were in the same spot at the opening of the show – Tunnel Vision: An Artistic Response. The idea morphed into a group show and by opening night we had eight local artists on board and I had the privilege of curating my first group show. It was a real pleasure to put together and the art that came from it was just fantastic. The show runs until the end of April at The Front Room in Queenstown – be sure to drop by and have a look. In the meantime here are a couple of videos that fill in a few of the details.
