Monday, December 1, 2008

Taking another step to life

Friday 28th November 2008.
Whitecliffe college's Graduation day.




My four years as a student at Whitecliffe college of Arts and Design has finally ended last week, as the long awaited capping took place at the Town hall in the city of Auckland on Friday. Both feelings of freedom and sadness arose while we all bid our lecturers and fellow class mates "Bye, I will miss you.. SEE YOU ON FACEBOOK" throughout that day and into the morning.

Now the question that all graduates face, "Now what???".

But before I continue my dilemma of facing life out in the big big world, I will recap all that happened before our day on stage.


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Tuesday the 25th November 2008.
Whitecliffe college's annual graduates show, class of 2008.




The evening opened up to a crowd of art lovers that jammed corridors and spaces, filling up the entire Randolph street studios. This was an evening where not just the Fine art majors get to shine, but the entire collection of Whitecliffe's BFA degree. It was an evening where design, photography, fashion and the fine arts combine their creative ambitions and collect into this one final show.

It was surprising to see the turn out for the evening, as always the food and alcohol went as quick as lightning, but despite that many stayed to absorb the art that we generated.

Within this show, I showed three video works and occupied two spaces, exhibiting my most recent works titled Volatile Matter. I will be exhibiting these same video works and more for an up coming exhibition at Satellite Gallery located in Newton on the 27th January 2009.

While speaking to many that evening, I have received many compliments along with comments on the surprise in sudden abstract works and change of medium. Taking a step back and looking at my creative processes throughout my recent years, I understand where these comments come from. Originally I came from a painting and drawing background. But eventually it slowly shifted, painting/drawing to painting/installation, to installation and video works, to video works and performance. Before I started studying I would of never thought that I would even think of creating abstract and video works, but I surely am glad that I have come this far (with a lot of thanks to the support of the school, lecturers and friends).

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Wednesday the 18th November 2008
Whitecliffe College's Fashion show, Years 2, 3 and Graduates.


The week before our crazy deadline and preparation for end of year show, was the Whitecliffe 2008 fashion show that took place at the Alingi Yacht shed. Featured in this show are some of my fellow friends that took this day as their time to shine in the upbeat pace of New Zealand's Fashion industry.

I was privileged to be invited backstage and witness some of the fashion student's most intense hours before unveiling, and saw some of the excitement and glam in between. After spending sometime there it soon appeared that I was needed by my friend Ho-Ki Lee (featured in the image above) to help watch over her groups rehearsal and time it against the video that I offered put together.

It was interesting to finally see where they had decided to place the projection this year, although it soon dawned that the design that I had come up with intended to be projected near the entrance had been shifted to the end of the run way. But despite this change I thought it would have been better for it as the video could have been a distraction towards the fashion walk.

Following is the video for Ho-Ki Lee's 2008 cat walk, entitled Urban Experience.



The over all the talents presented at the fashion show demonstrated some amazing professionalism and sewing skills.

I look forward to seeing the fashion folk's names in stores and around the world.. I wish all of them and fellow old class mates the best of luck in fighting the creative industry.