Te Henga Studios offers a full spectrum of creative projects as part of Open Studios Waitākere.
This year we will be showcasing visual artists, film installations, and sound artists.
Join us for a weekend of art, film, and performance!
For a complete list of all Open Studios in the Waitakere Ranges
(along with a driving map) see the main event website:
www.openstudioswaitakere.co.nz
Visual Artists
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shane hollands
Facets Of Life
President of the New Zealand Poetry Society, Shane Hollands is a veteran of the New Zealand performance poetry scene. He is well-known for his innovative work with music of differing genres from electronica to metal, and his efforts to give other poets a platform to perform; he established performance poetry collective The Literatti, and the NZ national celebration of beat poetry, The Kerouac Effect. He was one half of the art-music duo The Beautiful Losers, and now regularly tours the country as the front-man for jazz-beat poetry band, Freaky Meat. For Open Studios, Shane shares an exhibition of his oil paintings drawn from private collections. (Paintings include: Bemused, Saint Jo in the mountains, Katharine reclines, Nude with cello, Jen on fire, and Awakening). Freaky Meat Shane's Book |
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Jessica ShawArcana—Original watercolours from the Pythonic Tarot deck.
Animist and self-taught visual artist, Jessica Shaw works primarily in watercolour and ink. The images she creates are an explicit reflection of her spiritual praxis in traditional witchcraft, and embody her consecration to art and beauty. Her most recent work is a fully-illustrated deck of seventy-nine tarot cards, each painted in watercolour as part of a three-year devotional project. “I have always felt I have a powerful Muse who stands behind me, hands on my shoulders, pouring into my mind the colours and symbols that are the language of the gods”, she remarks. “Through meditation or communication with celestial, botanical, and arboreal entities, images come to light in my mind. The oneiric forces behind these ikons demand that I bring these thoughts into form”. Jessica is currently completing a book on lunar witchcraft to appear through Rubedo Press. The Pythonic Tarot Deck |
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Aaron Cheak
Hermetically Unsealed—Alchemical motifs from the Rubedo Press catalogue.
A curated selection of images from the world’s alchemical traditions, together with selected texts from the Rubedo Press catalogue. Dr. Cheak is a scholar of comparative religion, philosophy, and esotericism. Straddling the interstices between integral and Hermetic philosophy, he received his doctorate in 2011 for his thesis on nondual currents in alchemy, and served as president of the international Jean Gebser Society from 2013–2015. He has appeared in both academic and esoteric publications. He presently runs Rubedo Press from the east wing of Te Henga Studios. Rubedo Press |
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Kate Kelly
Embracing Difference—Mother Aubert.
Mother Mary Joseph Aubert was a boundary-breaking nun who ran away from her family in France at the age of twenty-five to become a Missionary. Her nunneries exist to this day on the Whanganui river and in Wellington, as does the soup kitchen she founded in the early 1900s. Mother Aubert worked with local Iwi and made herbal remedies which sold worldwide. Some utilised marijuana, whose healing properties she championed. A warrior for the rights of unwed mothers and children, she embraced difference. Kate Kelly has farmed and sword-danced. She has worked with Tainui at the Waikato Museum Te Whare Taonga and researched in Greece. Her sense of adventure is tempered with a practical need to survive, and she uses her experience and qualifications to work in mental health. She currently lives with a hunchback, many adult children, and a three-legged cat. |
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Maree Brogden
This is Written by Hand
Working drawings: charcoal, conte, chalk Maree Brogden, MA, is a registered arts therapist with training in mind-body healthcare science and visual communication design. “There is so much more to the therapeutic arts than making the pictures”, she remarks. “I have an interest in health and systems, and working with people who have an interest to take their life beyond what is necessary or immediately apparent”. PRESENTATION AND WORKSHOP: Sunday 2–3pm The Exchange: Introducing the arts in psychology and nature. In a relationship between two or more, there is something that occurs in-between that is not just you or I. Self, the arts and formulations of a more natural life may work together synergistically to synthesise and regenerate to evolve something more. A workshop will provide an introduction to the arts in psychology and nature. Come along for a short presentation and workshop, to participate in a shared experiential arts process within the beautiful natural surroundings of the environment at Te Henga. Presented by Maree Brogden, Registered Art Therapist. Maree Brogden's Website |
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Gus Simonovic
Printable Reality
Gus Simonovic is a poet, educator, creative entrepreneur, publisher, and producer. His work has been widely published, and performed, locally and internationally. He was the Auckland coordinator for the NZ Poetry Society and is the driving force behind long-standing poetic project Printable Reality. He’s worked extensively with young people to give their creativity voice as he guides them through the uncertainties of life. In his work with children he draws on the transformative power of the imagination to create something truly special and inspiring. Printable Reality exists to mainstream, or ‘mainline’, the art of spoken word and live literature into the hearts and minds of New Zealanders. It rides on a platform as old as human existence, the oral tradition that is so central to all cultures, but reflects that in a totally contemporary way through a fusion of spoken word, theatre, dance, music and multi-media technology. Printable Reality presents an eye-catching arrangement of insta-poetry and images stolen from: www.instagram.com/gussimonovic/ |
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Arihana Taiaroa
Dreamscape Exploration—Void of Silence
(Work in progress). “I am art, art I am” — Arihana Taiaroa. |
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Miriam Barr
All in Boxes
Miriam Barr uses collage, ink, watercolour, and found objects to create poetry art books inside discarded gift boxes. The featured poems in this series of book boxes are all concerned in one way or another with the social constructions that shape our relationships with self, others, and the world around us. She chooses methods and materials that call on acts of recycling and re-construction, the piecing together of things that have come before. This exhibition features The Landscape Box, The Prada Box, The Jewellery Box, The Leaf Boat Box, and The Tangle Box. Miriam Barr, Poet/Performer |
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Snoopmo0nster
Snooping the powerful
Snoopmonster (genus, Monster Monster) manifested in a cave at Te Henga and, when questioned about his five eyes, he said: “Da better to snoop da powerful with”. (Actual quote, verbatim from a 64mb floppy disk). Snooping the powerful is a collection of self-described “scrawls and scribbles” inscribed by the elusive Snoopmonster himself, composed when “lazy mortals get sissy sleep”. Any queries, complaints, or requests for further details can be sent to the “Zeropoint Electron” beyond space, time, and jurisdiction of constituted authorities. |
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Diane Ruth Rimmer
Wearable Mandalas
Diane makes free-form crochet art pieces. Each one is unique (not made from a pattern) and may be used as blankets or wearable objects. Her inspiration comes from nature, pattern, and colour. Diane Ruth Crochet |
Film Installations
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Brydee Rood
A Remedy for Hopelessness - Ritual Gorse Collection Te Henga
Early works in a new series - A Remedy for Hopelessness references the healing nature of the plant as a Bach Flower remedy for hopelessness, the Gorse state of being, meshing with one's own feelings of despair in the face of human failure, unrelenting capitalism, climate change and extinction; working through contemporary intersections of art, caretaking, landscape and ecology. A weed of national significance, it has been fought unsuccessfully for decades, burnt, sprayed with toxins - years and years of failing attempts to destroy the plague of spikes and yellow flowers from Aotearoa’s hillsides and yet, Gorse grows resilient. Slowly we are finding and perceiving its true value, growing in wastelands and poor soils Gorse is a nitrogen fixer, a nursery crop for natives, the home of our endangered giant weta, it also has an intriguing crop of culinary and medicinal promise. Brydee Rood at Blogspot |
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Jasmine Donald
Earthing in Te Henga
The seed space for Moving Rivers—a base to come back to wholeness through awareness—exhibited through film and photography, poetry and research, and experienced through a guided workshop. You are welcomed to participate in a physical incantation for the earth and to witness a movement performance offering. By earthing I feel, I hear, I receive, I respond; giving back through movement with sound and breath, we connect intentionally through exchange with earth and ourselves. Jasmine Donald is a movement research artist, performer, and facilitator. Interested in healing arts as a lifestyle—meditation, mindfulness, breath, sound, and energy work. Bridging the worlds of performance and healing, community and ritual. Participating in the balancing of the masculine and the feminine and saying no to "the rape of the world". Moving Rivers on Facebook Moving Rivers on Instagram |
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Ellory Elkayem
Larger than Life
In Larger than Life Jo (Rebecca Hobbs, star of horror tale The Ugly) discovers her new house is inhabited by an array of mutant arachnids, each larger than the last. Kiwi writer/director Ellory Elkayem cleverly melds puppetry and digital effects to give his spiders maximum yuck factor, while the violin-fuelled soundtrack pays spirited homage to the 50s monster movies (Them!, Tarantula) which inspired the whole enterprise. After the success of this spider tale, Hollywood called: Elkayem answered with bug tale They Nest, and comical spider epic Eight Legged Freaks. Christchurch-born and raised, Ellory Elkayem began making films as a teen. After his 13-minute, spider monster movie homage Larger than Life won solid international sales, Roland Emmerich (Independence Day director) invited him to expand his spider tale into $30 million Hollywood feature: Eight Legged Freaks. Since then Elkayem has specialised in horror. Future projects include films and a series of interactive e-books. Larger Than Life at NZ On Screen Eight Legged Freaks at IMDb |
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COnan Fitzpatrick
Assorted Liberatory Videography.
Conan Fitzpatrick is a documentary filmmaker who chooses to remain enigmatic until further notice. He is rumoured to have jumped into volcanoes. Conan Fitzpatrick on Vimeo |
Sound Artists
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Triple FFF
Paddock Radio
New Zealand’s very own travelling radio station, Triple FFF presents concept projects from 2019 and earlier, including operational FM transmission on the day. Travelling the country as an audio engineer and mobile, solar-powered pirate radio station (Paddock Radio), Triple FFF records podcasts and concept albums from conscious communities and gatherings, and collects content from backyard parties, beaches, and camp sites on the road. “Communication is the catalyst for all major breakthroughs and advances in understanding”, he remarks, “and my interest is in exploring and utilizing as many different mediums as possible to convey an idea or concept”. Paddock Radio website Paddock Radio YouTube channel |
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DJ Refraction
Five Element Theory
Blended selections from vintage rare groove and contemporary collections for quasar detections and metaphysical / social connections. Expect full-spectrum genre-bending mash ups from up the garden path and off the beaten trail. Exotic, quirky, and fanciful interpretations for picnicking teddy bears, boys, girls, and beings not in the box. |
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MICHAEL VINCENT SPERRING
Listening to the Earth
Auckland based artist and musician Michael Vincent Sperring revisits a performance with a notably messy experimental instrument. Breath through viscous clay where the consequential bubbles are captured with peizo transducer pick-up and effected for sonic consideration. Generative of chaotic composition, the manipulation of the tone and timbre both ambient and cathartic evocative of listening to the earth. The ambient sonic performance offering a space of contemplation of the material producing the sounds, the history of that lands soil. Recently Michael has performed with the clay from Ihumatao and the resulting sounds reflecting the encroaching tensions of historically baneful land confiscations and proposed futures that would bubble over with the determination of the SOUL (Save Our Unique Landscape movement) occupation. As the clay contact emits tone and pitch over the performance it provides signifying psycho-morphic inflections for the audience to receive as a cathartic and contemplative space. |
Workshops and Entertainment
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SATURDAY
From 10.00 am Five Element Theory with DJ Refraction (Cabana) Operational FM transmission by Triple FFF (Barn) 12.00 pm Performance and Workshop: Moving Rivers by Jasmine Donald Participate in a physical incantation for the earth and to witness a movement performance offering. (West Wing) From 2.00 pm Sporadic Poetry Open mic (Cabana) SUNDAY From 10.00 am Five Element Theory with DJ Refraction (Cabana) Operational FM transmission by Triple FFF (Barn) From 1.00 pm Ambient sonic performance by Michael Vincent Sperring (Barn) 2.00–3.00 pm Presentation and Workshop: The Exchange: Introducing the arts in psychology and nature, by Maree Brogden (Registered Art Therapist) (Foyer) |
MAP of our artists (and animals)
