LAST CHANCE TO SEE 

THE CHRISTCHURCH CITY COUNCIL OFFICE AND BALLANTYNES TEAROOMS EXHIBITIONS. 

They both finish this week 1st August.

Welcome to this site if you have been visiting either of these shows

 The Big Printmaking Festival Art Show

Christchurch City Council 

July 2014

Heaton Normal Intermediate School Printmaking Exhibition, The Tearooms, Ballantynes.

Big Printmaking Festival Art Show

Migration and Identity – An exhibition of student work from the

Canterbury Art Teachers’ Association Big Printmaking Festival, 2014

Back in August 2013, Canterbury Art Teachers applied to the Christchurch City Council Creative Communities Scheme for a grant to run a week long printmaking festival ending with a ‘giant printmaking happening’ on the street in the CBD. An occasion, it was speculated, that would uplift, entertain, educate and involve Cantabrians in a visual spectacle of relief printmaking on a ‘super scale’. The theme, we postulated, would be Migration and Identity in the CBD!

At the beginning of October, we learned that our application had been successful and we set to work, with the help of the Council, finding a suitable central location for the main event in what seemed to be an ever changing and challenging CBD environment. The vacant expanse where buildings once stood, at the intersection of Cashel and High Streets, offered a stunning visual backdrop of deconstruction and construction in the heart of an earthquake battered but resilient city. But could the weather, in May, be relied on for the outdoor printing of large woodblocks using an industrial road roller? We held our collective breath…

To support the main event, and with the help of CPIT, Hagley Community College Art Department and the Council, we planned a series of inspiring artist talks, trade displays and supporting exhibitions, focused on printmaking, from May to July 2014.

INSPIRE DAY on Sunday 18 May, featuring Jason Greig, Bianca Van Leeuwen, Sandra Thomson, Michael Reed, Gayle Forster, Sam Harrison, Kate Rivers, Ken Cartwright, Susie Cox and Lizzie Moyle, attracted a large number of enthusiasts. CATA will have videos of artists talks and Jason Greig’s superb monoprint demonstration available online soon for the wider community to access as a resource.

CPIT’s phenomenal exhibition, thINK, showcased International, NZ and student printmaking and was a must see show! Grant Banbury and Micheal Reed spoke of the powerful voice of the printmaking tradition be that personal or political.  

INSPIRED TO PRINT was an exhibition held at Christchurch South Library, Colombo Street showing Canterbury student printmaking from a variety of Primary, Intermediate and Secondary Schools. The show demonstrated printmaking is flourishing in our community.

South Library Show

South Library SHow

BPF Road Roller Day dawned clear and fine on Sunday 25 May. During the morning artists and many students from Canterbury schools inked their large scale works. Participants could clearly view a huge building being demolished two blocks away. There was a great sense of collective involvement and energy. Unfortunately the event was forced to close after lunch due to severe winds. Participants and bystanders were able to check out the SCAPE Stencil Art Project in Cashel Mall near the Bridge of Remembrance. The final printing of woodblocks was achieved through the use of a road roller (thanks to Komatsu and Contract Consulting) and the use of a very large printmaking press (thanks to Little River artist Josh Bashford).

As the photographs from our BPF Road Roller Day show, our CBD is certainly not what it was; it is now a very open, much flatter environment, but it is still a place full of rich and vibrant Art. Many works are permanent but others are temporary or being hidden by new buildings.

The work on these walls, from schools across Christchurch, shows even as people, institutions and amenities migrate and put down tentative new roots, the spirit of Cantabrians, both new and old, is resilient and our identity richly diverse.

We would like to thank the superb group of passionate and dedicated people who made the Big Printmaking Festival happen. Sue Pearce, Rachel Goldstein, Karen Lange, Fiona Taylor, Gayle Forster, Anton Mogridge, Fiona Van Oyen and Robyn Webster.

Lisa Ponweiser (CATA )Secretary and Kate Rivers

Click on image above to see the show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reQJxyeZIAs

Christchurch City Council Show preparation and opening.

Music by kind permission of Helen Webby.

The theme for this show was MIGRATION AND IDENTITY

Included in the show are 7 waka prints

 These large woodcuts, by Rangi Ruru Girls’ School, Breens School, Heaton Normal Intermediate School and a combined schools group ( Beckenham School, Christchurch South Intermediate School, Thorrington School and Cashmere Primary) form a small fleet

of Waka.

The one of the artists working on the Rangi Ruru Girls' School waka was Abi Hone. A candle , poems and a photo of her form part of the exhibition in her memory.

Waka iconography.

The imagery explores the theme of Migration and Identity, and includes personal cargo that the students, or their

ancestors, might choose to pack on their journey to a new home, be that within New Zealand or from another county.

A number of students were born overseas and many have also had to cope with packing and moving within Canterbury

as a result of the earthquakes. In each case choices have to be made as to what to pack and, and indeed what to leave

behind.

Our packing inventories included:-

Cultural items - that reminded us of our cultural roots, where we come from, who we belong to.

Useful items - the tools of our trades, technology, etc.

Sentimental/Special items - e.g. the teddy bear given by a grandparent, a favourite piece of music or jewllery

Spiritual items - of religious or spiritual significance.

We also looked at the Canterbury Museum Collection and have included some pieces from there.

In one print you may see a Christening Gown; in another a mug, that one imagines would have been given to someone

as they

emigrated from England, on which is written ‘ When this you see remember me though many leagues we distant be’.

These works, and prints from other schools, also on this theme, were printed by a Road Roller as part of our

Big print Festival.

We are very grateful to these sponsors for their support of the festival.

                              

Heaton Normal Intermediate School 

Ballantynes Tearooms Show