Community collaboration leads to challenging exhibition

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Community collaboration leads to challenging exhibition

Nelsonians will be challenged to “think beyond oil” at a new exhibition opening at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology’s g_space Gallery next month.

The Slick – Collaborative Art Exhibition, is a collaboration between NMIT tutors Colleen Plank, Adi Tait and John Irwin, environmental advocate Verena Maeder and pupils from Room 11, St Joseph’s School and Room 3, Nelson Central School. It is the first time primary schools have exhibited in the g_space Gallery in NMIT’s new Arts and Media building.

“NMIT is pleased to be able to support this community project. It’s a fantastic initiative that will enable us to connect the community through art and education,” NMIT Creative Industries programme area leader David James says.

Artist and NMIT specialist tutor in textiles, Colleen Plank, came up with the idea for the ambitious project after observing an oil rig in Tasman Bay last year. Watching the oil rig inspired her to pull together a team and create a collaborative art exhibition, with the aim of involving children and reaching out to the community.

“It is a collaborative-installation project between artists, a Greenpeace advocate, a documentary maker and local schools to create awareness of the potential hazards of drilling for oil in New Zealand waters,” she says. “By using the artistic spirit to educate and feel the critical importance of this issue we hope to create a contagion of action to change individuals’ use of petroleum based products.”

“Our children are becoming enduring consumers of petroleum-based products. It is about working with our own communities to sow seeds for the social change needed to consume less of the stuff and find alternatives,” she says.

Primary students aged nine to 11 were invited to take part by creating art works and participating in a video about oil and its alternatives, Ms Plank says.

By playing “The Oil Game” in class the children have been learning about the uses of petroleum, peak oil, oil spills and the effect of fossil fuels on climate change.

The project culminates in an exhibition at the NMIT g_space Gallery, 1-10 August 2012. Opening night will include a presentation by environmental advocate Verena Maeder, encouraging everyone “not to drown in slick, but rather to work together on slick solutions for the future”.

Mr James says the project is exactly the sort of thing NMIT is looking to support.

“NMIT is highly supportive of this exhibition. This project ticks all the boxes – it’s educational, it’s collaborative, it involves local schools and the wider community and it addresses an interesting issue that will get people thinking.”

Mr James says the g_space Gallery is an appropriate venue for this type of exhibition as the building has been built on sustainable and environmental principles.

The Slick exhibition will include a 5m long monochromatic ink drawing by Nelson multi-media artist and NMIT Drawing and Design course tutor Adi Tait, collaborative sculptures, as well as a thought-provoking film by NMIT Sound and Moving Image tutor and documentary filmmaker John Irwin

SLICK – Collaborative Art Exhibition

1-10 August 2012 9am – 5pm G-Space Gallery

Arts & Media building NMIT

ENDS

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