Theatre & Music at Expressions presents

THE PERFORMANCE ARCADE

Thursday 8 March - Sunday 11 March 2018 | 9am - 9pm

The Performance Arcade brings part of its acclaimed live art event to Upper Hutt with an outside shipping container creating an innovative space for performance and arts presentation. This miniature festival offers new encounters between artists and public, creating vibrant experience that will activate the city and expose new ideas and cultural offerings. Sit outside, grab a bite to eat and drink and enjoy something new.

The Performance Arcade programme at Expressions Whirinaki features two interactive experiences/ installations for visitors to engage with.

9am - 3.30pm: An interactive installation by George Awatea called 'Whakarereke'.
3.30pm - 7pm: An interactive installation by Olivia Manhood and Poppy Serano called 'Sense of a Stranger'.
7pm - 9pm: An interactive installation by George Awatea called 'Whakarereke'.

Please note there will be a short 15 minute changeover between pieces.

'Whakarerekē' - (noun) altering, changing, varying, alteration, change, variation, modification, reorganisation. Digital artist George Awatea pushes the boundaries of Kōwhaiwhai design and digital storytelling to explore and evolve Māori narratives, looking at how digital technologies can be pushed and Māori kaupapa developed into an interactive audio-visual experience. Whakarerekē is a projection work featuring Māori motifs and audio visual interactions. Inside the container elements will be projected onto a wall. When visitors talk or sing into one of three microphones the work responds.

Te Aitanga-A-Hauiti, Rongowhakaata, Ngai-Te-Rangi, Ngāti Raukawa. George Awatea is a digital media artist currently based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa. His practice is primarily focused on re-imaging Māori whakapapa and tikanga. Awatea has a BFA from Canterbury University and 25 years' experience working as a designer and exhibition technician. Over the last decade he has focused on audio production and DJ performances. His recent work is realised in audio reactive visualisation and interactive media.

'Sense of a Stranger' by Olivia Manhood and Poppy Serano is a wall of many openings, where arms reach, eyes peer, or mouths whisper. By approaching this surface, audience members lean in to the touch of fingertips, gently spoken words, and the gaze of a stranger's eye. Sense of a Stranger is a participatory performance installation that offers a held space for members of the public to be courageous, to share a small moment of touch with a stranger, a moment of vulnerability, to hear another person's story whispered in their ear, to remind each other of our humanity.

Olivia is an actor and artist working out of Auckland, New Zealand. She graduated from Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School in 2015 and received the Museum Hotel Scholarship. She also spent two years training with Long Cloud Youth Theatre Company under the direction of Willem Wassenaar and Aaron Cortesi, with a focus on devised theatre and immersive promenade performance. Poppy Serano is an emerging performance designer and recent graduate of Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School, working on projects spanning live art, music videos, dance, films and most recently theatre. Within 3 years Poppy has been working with companies such as Red Leap Theatre, Touch Compass, Atamira Dance Company and Barbarian Productions.

Limelight Bar and Cafe will be open every night to 9pm and all the galleries will also be open.

Presented by Expressions Whirinaki Arts & Entertainment Centre in associationa with The Performance Arcade.

Free Entry