Thursday, April 14, 2011

More Metropolis Dreaming.

From the Living Room Site: Gregory Bennett and Michael Hodgson will use digital animation at an architectural scale to re-invent the Eastern façade of Queen Street’s iconic Smith & Caughey building, built in 1927 and designed by American architect Roy Lippincott.
Situated in close proximity to the entertainment facilities of The Edge, this monolithic Metropolis-style tower provides an ideal canvas on which to project Bennett’s performing figures. These figures explore complex group dynamics, inspired in part by the Art Deco-era cinematic dance extravaganzas of Busby Berkeley. Bennett’s most recent works situate figures in architectural tableau, with each group contributing a specific function to a mysterious, greater purpose - all cogs in a big city structure.
 Developed into a site-specific outdoor presentation with Michael Hodgson, a world-specialist in large-scale projection events and renowned sound artist, together they explore the choreographic interplay between the moving figure and architecture, which structures the way we negotiate a city.


Tuesday, April 12, 2011

'Metropolis Dreaming' - Living Room.

Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries.
Living Room, Auckland Council’s annual 10-day public art event, kicks off again in April. It will feature artists from all over the world, as well as some well-known local faces. There will be a mix of installations, performances, sound art, video projections and a poster project.
In 2011 Living Room is titled Metropolis DreamingThe planned artworks will encourage us to re-imagine our day-to-day urban surroundings, rediscovering ordinary, overlooked and hidden details of the city.
Metropolis Dreaming spotlights the actual mechanics of a city’s systems, transforming its functional, everyday structures from a routine backdrop into imaginative possibilities. It is a celebration of post-industrial urban life and takes its inspiration from the excitement the Italian Futurist movement felt at the start of the 20th century for the clamour and bustle of the new, kinetic environment of the machine age.
100 years later, Living Room acknowledges that the city is both a cultural and technological hub, so will include social projects that highlight the human dynamics of urban life.
Andrew Clifford
Curator

The artists confirmed for Living Room 2011 are:
Contributing to the poster project are:
Dragon Head - Ujino Muneteru
Dragon Head - Ujino Muneteru
LIVING ROOM 2011