Nov 15, 2022 Metro Arts
Kia ora dear readers –
For this week’s newsletter I reached out to writer, educator, and regular Metro contributor Emil Scheffmann to hear about Paper Anniversary – a new exhibition space on Karangahape Rd that he recently co-founded. In the conversation below Emil talks about his previous project FUZZYVIBES, his views on artist run spaces, and what to expect from Paper Anniversary’s programming, including their custodianship model and forthcoming exhibitions.
As always, check out the calendar for upcoming events, and let me know if you have any thing of your own coming up!
— Tendai
Emil Scheffmann on
Paper Anniversary
What are the origins of Paper Anniversary?
When Ophelia Harradine Bayly approached me to co-found and curate the gallery, she gave me a lot of freedom to imagine the space and the model. It’s been 10 years since our last collaboration, FUZZYVIBES, and perhaps more pertinently, a co-authored exhibition in the same site with Sue Crockford Gallery.
Paper Anniversary’s window site has a long history of use by artists and galleries, with Teststrip, Sue Crockford Gallery, Rockies, and Mokopōpaki making up part of the lineage. It felt fitting to continue the work of enabling more opportunities for artists there.
Next to Paper Anniversary is Roses, a dining room founded by Ophelia, and Karl Bayly of Cooked Plates. While separate entities, we view Roses and Paper Anniversary as mutually supportive and in dialogue with one another.
How have your views on the artist run gallery changed in the intervening years since FUZZYVIBES?
FUZZYVIBES (2013 – 2015) was a formative experience for me, and it’s important to note that the project was shared with Ophelia, Liam Pram, Sam Beca and Nina Lloyd – all close friends. In some sense, it was a classic artist-run initiative (ARI), occurring in the years after art school, as a means to create collective space and representation for emergent practices (including our own). Everyone involved with Paper Anniversary came through the ARI scene, with Karl leading PILOT in Hamilton, and Ophelia later co-founding May Fair Art Fair.
I am still an advocate of the ARI model, and I see spaces like RM fulfilling an important function in the art community. ARIs often exist between arts education and public or commercial art contexts, which is a precarious moment in the journey of an artist. They are also communities and serious places of artistic enquiry, and not just a way to get somewhere else in the art world. I do fear that some of the collectivist impulses of the ARI model are under pressure, and, of course, the prohibitive cost of commercial leases doesn’t help either.
Can you tell us about the exhibition programme at Paper Anniversary.
We operate an exhibitions programme in which one work is presented each week. Over the course of the calendar month, the exhibitions are revealed through these weekly iterations, hopefully lending a sense of movement to the gallery. We should present 12 exhibitions each year.
The opening event will always coincide with First Thursdays, and be held across the road at the Thirsty Dog. They do good pints, and it’s a beautiful spot in the evening light from where you can see Paper Anniversary. Anyone is welcome to come along.
Following the opening exhibition by Thom Hinton, we will be hosting Rangi White, and then in the New Year, Sophia Laurie. You’ll have to wait and see what happens after that! Though I can say we will focus on emergent practices and artists who we feel have been under-represented.
How does your custodianship model work and what was the motivation for putting it in place?
Paper Anniversary is developing a custodianship model in its sales practices, one that will see patrons eventually gifting artworks to a public collection or collectivist ownership structure. We hope to foster a mode of arts patronage that celebrates the privilege of caring for artworks and taonga, before gifting them to communities who can realise the shared value that makes our art meaningful.
This idea is close to my heart and reflects lots of conversations towards a commercial model that feels right for us. While I am still figuring out my relationship with the art market, I do feel clear about the value of public and shared collections of art – which is not to say these entities don’t have their own problems! Still, we’re envisioning a journey for the art object at Paper Anniversary, one that begins with the artist and is enabled by the patron, before the work is given to people who can further realise its potential as something to be experienced collectively.
Thom Hinton: Spirit in the Mass is on at Paper Anniversary until 28 November.
The Art of
Black Grace 1/5
The Art of Black Grace 1/5
Black Grace has unveiled their most ambitious, exhilarating creative project yet. Coming to the city centre this November, The Art of Black Grace 1/5 is a state-of-the-art, first-of-its-kind architectural, digital and immersive dance experience suitable for the whole family!
Enter the universe of The Art of Black Grace – a portable 360 degree, 15 metre diameter by six metre high ‘cylindrical structure’ situated in Auckland’s Karanga Plaza, Wynyard Quarter. A new era for Black Grace, experience a sensory exhibition displayed on 288sqm of LED panels, using sophisticated technology to immerse you in an extraordinary world of dance, art and music.
Created by Neil Ieremia, ONZM, the world premiere is supported by Creative New Zealand.
For session times and ticketing information see here.
Calendar
North by Northwest
ASB Waterfront Theatre
25 October–19 November
The First Prime-Time Asian Sitcom
Q Theatre
3–27 November
Improv Masala
Covert Theatre
11, 12, 18, 19 November
Music Therapy Week 2022
14–20 November
Shannon Te Ao: Tiwakawaka
Coastal Signs
16 November–28 January
Aotearoa Art Fair
The Cloud
16–20 November
NZTrio present: LEGACY 3:
Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber
17 November, 7pm
Between the Gift and its Reprisal
Artspace Aotearoa
18 November 2022 –28 January 2023
The Vista Foundation 48Hours Grand Final
The Civic Theatre
18 November, 6:30pm
Curator tour and artists talk: Stella Brennan and Leafā Wilson/Olga Krause
Gus Fisher Gallery
18 November, 1pm
Tuito’a Presents: Taha
Mangere Arts Centre
Friday 18 November, 7pm; Saturday 19 November, 7pm
Georgie Hill: Venus in the Shell
Auckland Old Folks Association
Friday 18 November, 12–7pm
Saturday 19 November, 10am – 4pm
Anna Delany: Double Blessings
Mangere Arts Centre
19 November – 28 January
The Art of Black Grace 1/5
Karanga Plaza, Wynyard Quarter
20 November–10 December
Alan Carr – Regional Trinket
Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre
24 November
A Doll’s House
By Stef Smith, after Henrik Ibsen
Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre
24 November–3 December
African Film Festival
Rialto Cinema
24 November–4 December
Ko Ngā Wawata a Hina:
Heidi Brickell, Jalaina Hitchen, Te Ara Minhinnick, Neke Moa, Ming Ranginui, and Jade Townsend (a response to Wawata: Moon Dreaming, a new pukapuka by Dr Hinemoa Elder)
Season
25 November–24 December
Portage Ceramic Awards
Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery
26 November–5 March
