TLC and TWOA carving student, Todd Sheridan is to stage an exhibition at the Waitara Arts Space Gallery, Waitara on the 11th December 2009.

The works take a look at the relationship of tangata whenua and land using a range of media, including totara, uku, glass, bronze and acrylics.

Underpinning the idea is the recent Seabed and Foreshore Act which has resulted in the Government selling leasehold opportunities to multi-national corporations like Rio-Tinto to explore the seabed for minerals and iron ore.

Come along for an enjoyable evening.

The Fifth Annual Thistle Hall $100 Art Sale
Thistle Hall is very pleased to announce their fifth $100 Art Sale on Friday 4th December at 6pm.

Last year’s sale raised around $5000 towards completing the mobile stage for the hall. The focus this year is fundraising for new furniture for the gallery and hall. As before, proceeds from each piece sold will be split 50/50 with participating artists. The art sale is cash and carry so you can take your purchase away with you. This makes for a thrilling evening, with the works disappearing from the gallery walls at a breathtaking pace.

The Thistle Hall $100 Art Sale is a great chance to start your Xmas shopping at the same time as supporting local artists and one of Wellington’s last remaining affordable quality gallery spaces.

Sale starts 6pm sharp, Friday 4th December. Open for viewing Thursday 3rd and Friday 4th 1-4pm, also open Saturday 5th 11am-5pm, for a second chance!

For more information contact jane on 3843088 or email office@thistlehall.org.nz

Organic River Festival – Levin
30 & 31st Jan 2010
http://www.ecofest.co.nz/

The Learning Connexion is going to be at the Organic River Festival in Levin this year!!
It’s a wicked weekend – with over 10,000 visitors last year, it has become a seriously enjoyable gig! There is great music, fun and a real interest in Arts & Creativity.

So we are going to share our love for the subject with a totally ‘hands on’ tent!!
We are looking for some students who are passionate about their Art and our programme to help us produce a fun experience with Art for visitors…

If you would like to be part of this – then let me know you’re keen!
We are looking for about 4 helpers each day, any time you give can be credited for independent study and you are free to enjoy the rest of the days entertainment once our display is over.

Contact: c.burke@tlc.ac.nz or j.benndorf@tlc.ac.nz
0800 ARTPOWER

Jewellery Students- Keri-mei and Rani

Monday night’s jewellery auction at The New Dowse Gallery in Lower Hutt was a great success. TLC student Natalie Halley organised the event, and with the help of other jewellery students at TLC, they managed to get many beautiful contemporary pieces of jewellery donated, organise and promote the event, and raise money for specialty jewellery equipment.

The students were fundraising for a rolling mill, a specialty jewellery tool for flattening metal. It has a number of other uses; offering jewellery students more technical options in their craft. These include printing metal by rolling an object and metal through the mill and a Japanese technique called Mokume Gane, which creates patterns that look like wood grain.

Over forty pieces were donated to the auction and the evening made over $5000, covering the rolling mill and leaving plenty more for other specialty tools to develop the TLC jewellery department.

Organiser Natalie Halley is feeling tired, but pleased. “It was really great to see everyone come out to support the auction. We got so many more pieces from the jewellery community than I ever expected, people were generous. I’m really excited about getting my hands on the new equipment and creating some pieces of my own with the rolling mill”.

TLC receptionist, Adam Koveskali Had this to say about the night:
“For those of you who missed the event, The TLC Jewellery Charity Auction at The New Dowse was a success that words cannot describe. The evening was enjoyed by all attendees, thanks in great to the professionalism and charm of TLC’s students and staff that organised the event, which appeared to go off without a hitch.

Behind the scenes, many hours of hard work went into it, the jewellery department and their team deserve a medal, but in this case it seems they will be getting a roller mill, which was estimated to cost $3000. I am pleased to inform you, that the auction raised a grand total of $5200, with a total of $4500 after expenses. The success of this event serves as inspiration to our students, all it takes is a little hard work, combined with free wine, and people will open their wallets to a good cause, which wasn’t hard with the exceptional standard of jewellery being auctioned.

It also helps if you can get your hands on a deliciously hilarious local celebrity such as Steve Gray (TV1 Good Morning co-host), who hypnotised the audience into hysterics and inspired the bid battles to get higher as the night went on. Another event that made me proud to be a part of TLC, congratulations team!

The students would like to extend their thanks to Steve Gray the auctioneer, musician Jeremy Hunter, photographer Jules Hunt and all the generous artists who donated their work.

Steve Gray- Auctioneer

“Land Where the Spirits Fly”, a painting by Robert Franken is still available for purchase for $9000 (reduced from $12000 to support the jewellery students) with $3000 available to go to the jewellery department.

Land where the spirits fly

TLC Campus, 182 Eastern Hutt Rd, Taita, Wellington
March 6th, 2010

The Learning Connexion, in conjunction with the Creative Communities fund, is proud to be hosting this celebration of all things Artistic and Creative at our beautiful campus in Taita!

It is going to be an opportunity to showcase the awesome talents that dwell in the Hutt Valley, and hopefully inspire people to see the value of their talents, and maybe find new ways to utilise their creative energy too!

It is not just the visual Arts –we are inviting all and any interested dance groups/musicians/cultural performers/ethnic food makers to get in touch and join the fun.

Crafts people/Artists – come and show us all ‘what’ you do, and ‘how’ you do it!

We will have stalls and display areas for artists, hands on activities to take part in and staging/sound system for performers.

So don’t be shy! Celebrate your talents! Mark the date in your diary, Join in and be part of this wonderful family event – keep in touch via our Facebook event - we’ll be adding news and info, or email c.burke@tlc.ac.nz or j.benndorf@tlc.ac.nz if you want to be involved, or if you have a suggestion of a group/person that might.

Carrie Burke
Events Co-ordinator
The Learning Connexion School of Art and Creativity
www.tlc.ac.nz
c.burke@tlc.ac.nz
DD 04 560 0282

MATAWHERO: BULLET HOLES AND BANDAGES
28 November 2009 – 14 March 2010

Peter Adsett has exhibited widely throughout Australia, Japan, the US and New Zealand. He has built a considerable career as an accomplished and distinctive abstract artist.

Come and hear Peter Adsett talk about his new exhibition being opened at 1pm, on 28 November at Pataka.

Peter Adsett has taken one of the most arresting events in Tairawhiti history and declined to talk about it. Instead, through his decades-long experimentation with abstraction, the Melbourne-based artist invites the viewer to “seek out the edges”, to try to make their own sense out of the 1868 Matawhero Massacre.

Not that his exhibition, Matawhero: Bullet Holes & Bandages, is about the massacre per se. What it’s about, he says, is the process of painting – about the language of abstraction, the responses of Western artists to “spaces” in indigenous art and, most importantly, how black and white are never actually black and white. In the past Adsett has, in exploring his craft, dealt with issues from decay (in the 2005 exhibition More Rot) to the potential vitriol of colour (Polychrome Poison, 2002).

Fittingly, though, there is a sense of violence in the Matawhero series. Or rather, as the artist puts it, there is “violation” in the damaged surfaces of the 25 canvases. The thick bristles that are torn from his brush as he paints are incorporated into the works. As are other pock-like contaminants that, to a wondering eye, might be interpreted as bullet holes. “What first occurs to me when I think about Matawhero is that it was a violation,” the Gisborne-born artist said. “These paintings, too, have in a way been violated. Their surfaces have been destroyed.” He says his relationship with Matawhero, and with people who live there, was the reason why it took him 30 years to offer his visual response to its history.

NOTE: The Matawhero Massacre refers to the 1868 incident when Maori prophet Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki and his followers killed around 60 people — roughly equal numbers of Maori and Pakeha. The attack was said to be vengeance for Te Kooti’s treatment after his capture at Waerenga-a-hika three years earlier (SOURCE: NZ History).

International Day of Persons with Disabilities

The Learning Connexion will have a presentation on TLC’s approach to Deaf and Hearing Impaired students.

Saturday 5 December 2009
Throughout Te Papa
10.30am–4.30pm
Free entry

An events-packed day for people of all abilities to celebrate International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Explore Te Papa through touch, sound, and detailed descriptions in a sensory tour of the Museum.

Schedule
10.30am – 12 noon & 3pm – 4.30pm: 90-minute tour
Designed especially for people with visual and mobility impairments, this 90-minute tour is sure to educate and enthral. Meet at the Information Desk on Level 2 five minutes before tour commences.

12 noon – 12.10pm: Talk by Jan Hinde
Jan Hinde, Executive Director of Arts Access Aotearoa, will talk about accessible organisations and provide examples of arts organisations in New Zealand leading the way in providing access to the arts for everyone.

12.10pm – 1pm: Love Lifted Me
Watch and sing along to Love Lifted Me, a musical about overcoming fears and extending boundaries. This is a one-off show by performers from Ace House.

1pm – 1:10pm: The Learning Connexion
Jaqueline Benndorf and Ann Eves from The Learning Connexion (TLC) will talk about their work and the unique access that TLC offers to Deaf and Hearing Impaired students. This presentation will be translated into New Zealand Sign Language.

1:10pm – 2:10pm: Art activities
Join in art activities run by tutors from Vincents Art Workshop. Watch a DVD about the work Vincents does to help people with disabilities integrate into the community, and visit the information table to view examples of art works made by people participating in Vincents art programmes. http://www.vincents.co.nz/about.html

Unique Opportunity to buy a painting by well known Wellington artist Robert Franken

Robert Franken’s painting “Land Where the Spirits fly” will be up for sale at TLC’s jewellery fundraiser auction at The New Dowse on Monday, 23rd November.

Robert is an internationally renowned painter and glass artist and also teaches at The Learning Connexion, as well as being our artist in residence.

The price for this painting is normally $12,000. Robert offers the large-scale piece (2.85m x 2.85m) for only $9,000 and would, if sold, donate $3,000 to the jewellery department.

The painting will be hanging in the auction room and can be viewed and purchased from 5:30pm on the auction night.

The AV department at the Learning Connexion are having a pre-Christmas exhibition to indulge in our non-video related art practice, and for some of us – our newly discovered love of printmaking – Thanks Marci Tackett (print-making Tutor)!

It is an exhibition of small things at the Pit Bar, which is attached to Bats theater, 1 Kent Tce in Wellington City. The opening is on Monday night and we’d love to see you there.

Its a great opportunity to see some new art-works and perhaps  do some early Christmas shopping.

If you can’t make it to the opening, the show is up until Christmas so pop in.

The AV team.

Detail By Ruth Korver

By James Brown

By Matty Warmington

TLC is nearly 21 years old.

It seems like a long time, but time is relative.  My favourite way of looking at it is a line which says ‘Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.’

Robert Genn, in his wonderful newsletter, talks about doing art work within the time of an old hour glass, which happens to take 37 minutes.  His students achieve exciting results within the shortened hour.

Einstein figured that time is bendy and it behaves differently according to your own situation.  If you’re motoring along at the speed of light then time stops, or so the theory predicts.  Subjectively time feels different depending on whether you’re enjoying what you’re doing.   When you’re with someone you love, or you’re immersed in making art, time seems to disappear.  On the other hand if you’re having root-canal surgery or you’re stuck in an extremely dull lecture, time goes very slowly.

Time Flies when you're having fun (a quarter of a second in the lives of insects flying around a bright light). Photograph By Jonathan Milne

Many cultures have the view that time goes around in circles.  The movie Ground Hog Day reduced these circles to the length of a single day, but in Hindu philosophy the cycles are millions of years long.

Fashions in art can be close to Ground Hog Day.  They go round and round fairly quickly.  The Pre-Raphaelites were revolutionary in their day.  Then the Impressionists were revolutionary.  And since then the revolutions have occurred more and more quickly until now we have a sort of continuous revolution, which is what Chairman Mao said he wanted.  But revolution has turned into a fashion.  It feels compulsory to do something new and provocative every year, regardless of whether there’s any point to it.

When I look at TLC art I see something a little different.  We see a continuing line of engaging work.  But curiously it has never been preoccupied with fashion.  Our staff and students have been engaged with a process of discovery.  TLC art shows are about exploration.

From a human point of view exploration is timeless.  It makes no difference whether we’re 21 years or 21 decades.  Malcolm Gladwell argues in ‘Blink’ that much of our most useful experience is instantaneous.  Is the history of an artist (or an organisation) the story of a number of critical instants.

I think life is a conversation (and ‘history’ consists of those things from the past which we decide to make relevant in the present) .  We do things, the world responds and we in turn respond again.  Some of the conversations turn out to last longer and maybe fly higher.  Others fall flat, or maybe need to be tried again in different circumstances.

The whole point about TLC is that it is a conversation.  We’re people engaging with people and exploring things that matter.  TLC staff and students are explorers, forever testing the boundaries in new ways.  When you’re at a show or viewing TLC work on line, you’re talking with explorers.  Welcome to a timeless conversation.