‘Tape Art is easy, adaptable and fleeting – the epitome of modern times.’
– USA Today Weekend
The Aratoi school holiday has introduced children to some novel art processes with recent workshops on mould making, puppetry and stop motion animation. This month they will be venturing into the wonderful world of 'tape art', creating an adhesive installation on the foyer windows.
Tutor Tina-Rae says the inspiration came from current shows by Milan Mrkusich and Ben Buchanan which have both wrought dramatic changes on their respective spaces. “I was researching tape art for my own work and then it struck me that children would probably like to explore this process too.”
A story has already been outlined - ‘Timingila fish swallows town clock’ - and children will be tasked with visualising “an urban skyline in the deep sea.”
If that doesn’t fire the imagination, the process surely will. Tape art involves ‘drawing’ with tape onto a surface, often on a large scale. With twists and tweaks, a suprising amount of fine detail can be achieved. This is one of the hallmarks of New Zealanders Erica Duthie and Struan Ashby’s work. The pair have carved out an international reputation in the tape art scene over the past two decades, establishing Tape Art New Zealand, and their projects have taken them all over New Zealand, as well as to to South Korea, Canada and the Living Arts Festival in Bangkok last year.
"We view buildings as temporary canvases just waiting to be transformed and brought to life with our tape art stories," says Erica.
Locals may remember their whimsical mural on the north façade of Freshchoice supermarket during the Greytown Arts Festival 2012. The project took several days, with the artists working their typical stretches of 8-10 hours at the wall. Describing their work as “community engaging”, they often stopped passersbys to ask them to pose for an on the spot silhouette portrait that became part of the larger work. Eyelashes, strands of hair and unicycle spokes were teased out of thin pieces of tape, with larger sections describing massive shapes.
Erica lists other highlights as a collaborative project with writer Kate Camp at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2012, being invited to make a mural as part of the Canterbury Earthquake memorial at the University of Canterbury, and Auckland’s interACT Disability Arts Festival last October. Using 29 ft boom lifts, they embellished Te Papa for the Rugby World Cup, and have also worked on the exterior walls of the Dowse.
Although tape is used in indoor installations by artists internationally, Erica and Struan were early adopters of the outdoor form in the 90s, having been introduced to it by American Mike Townsend. The beauty of their work is fleeting however, and the public is enlisted to pull down the creation strand by strand after several days, which leads to some “interesting philosopical discussions about ownership and letting go,” muses Erica.
The pair will be appearing at Porirua’s Festival of the Elements this Waitangi Day.
Tina-Rae hopes the Aratoi school holiday programme will be just as inspiring for Wairarapa children, perhaps some fresh young tape artists of the future among them.
The workshops run over three days, from 20, 21 & 22 January,
10am-1.30pm daily. Suitable for 7-13 year olds.
Bookings essential T: 06 370 0001.
Showing at Aratoi: Zelda Bruce – Mosaics & Workshops, until 1 Feb; New Work by Dennis Handyside, until 31 Jan; Milan Mrkusich: Chromatic Investigations and Paintings from the 90s, until 31 Jan; Ben Buchanan: FOREVER(S), until 31 Jan.