'Guy Ngan: Public Art Hero' - Artweek 2020 Special Presentation by Bronwyn Holloway-Smith.
Screening Schedule:
Saturday 10 October
10am-5pm
Sunday 11 October
10am-5pm
Monday 12 October
10am-5pm
Tuesday 13 October - Late Night
10am-9pm
As part of Auckland Artweek 2020 you are invited to a special presentation by artist Bronwyn Holloway-Smith at Artspace Aotearoa. For the 2019 retrospective exhibition Guy Ngan: Either Possible or Necessary, Artspace Aotearoa invited Holloway-Smith to undertake a project to research and document the staggering oeuvre of Ngan's 20th Century public artworks.
Holloway-Smith will present what she has found through her research and what she plans to do with these findings. This presentation at the Artspace Aotearoa Karangahape Road Gallery space will be parallel to a special screening of the first major outcome of the project: Bledisloe Bebop, which will be screening on the Auckland Live Digital Stage in Aotea Square from Saturday 10 October until Tuesday 13 October.
Bledisloe Bebop brings an Aotea Square rooftop icon to ground level. Commissioned by the New Zealand Government in 1956, Guy Ngan’s mosaic tile frieze sits quietly on the rooftop of Bledisloe House. In 2019 the work was documented by Auckland Council commissioned drones under the instruction of Holloway-Smith. In this new work, Holloway-Smith pairs these images with a New Zealand jazz soundtrack from the era in a lively dance that highlights the extraordinary detail and playfulness of Ngan’s frieze.
This event is presented in association with Public Art Heritage Aotearoa New Zealand: a research initiative based at Toi Rauwhārangi College of Creative Arts, Massey University Wellington, that is seeking to recover Aotearoa New Zealand’s Public Art Heritage one work at a time.