Innocent Bystanders

Innocent Bystanders
Julia Harvie, Kosta Bogoievski, Josie Archer, David Huggins
Curated by Khye Hitchcock

Launch/opening: Wednesday 9 May at 5.30pm
Performances: Thursday 10 – Saturday 19 May 2018

Image: Daegan Wells

before
/on site / encountered
bodies being / moving
reacting / avoiding
after

Innocent Bystanders proposes a series of experimental encounters across Ōtautahi with The Physics Room as a central axis. Blurring the boundaries between contemporary art and dance, performers Julia Harvie, Josie Archer, Kosta Bogoievski & David Huggins will set up a framework from which to examine dynamics between audience, performer, and site.

Beginning with a week’s residency at the gallery, they will tease out the interconnectivity between themselves and the ideas at play. They will determine exact sites of exploration and outline their significance. Pivotal choreographies responding to The Physics Room will also emerge during this period, to be performed at a launch event, Wednesday 9 May. The following week improvised performances in public spaces around the city will occur daily. It is hoped that these will be attended by The Physics Room’s audience, however, the encounter with innocent bystanders - those not expecting to engage with a performance - is a central premise to the work. These performances are as field research; uncontrolled arenas in which to test public reactions.

The knowledge gained through these encounters will be brought back into the gallery space, workshopped and incorporated into the existing understanding of the space. Layering. After seven days, the accumulation will be allowed to settle, before a final gallery performance which incorporates aspects of each preceding exploration on Saturday 19 May.

Artists will be in an open residency at The Physics Room from 2–19 May. During this time our hours will differ from our usual open hours.

The gallery will be open daily 10am–3pm from Wednesday 2 May–Saturday 5 May and again Tuesday 8 May ahead of the launch at 5.30pm, Wednesday 9 May.

Details of off-site performances will be released closer to the opening.

Supported by Recycle Boutique and styled by Oscar Bannan.

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David Huggins began dancing while completing his psychology degree in New Zealand at the University of Canterbury. This new direction took him to Melbourne, where he attended the National Theatre Ballet School. He then completed his degree in dance at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne University in 2010. After graduating, David was invited by New Zealand choreographer Douglas Wright to perform a soloist role in RAPT for the Auckland Arts Festival 2011. Since then, David has been working consistently with Russell Dumas’ Dance Exchange in Melbourne, touring the work both nationally and internationally. In 2015, David performed in French choreographer Xavier Le Roy’s Temporary Title, 2015 at Carriageworks, Sydney, commissioned by Kaldor Public Art Projects. At the end of 2017, David travelled to Skagaströnd, Iceland, for a 2-month research residency, supported by the Ian Potter Cultural Trust.

Khye Hitchcock is an independent curator based in Ōtautahi. As a genderqueer pākehā, their practice is informed by queer and intersectional feminisms. They are interested in collaborative and experimental modes of practice which disrupt or unsettle hegemonic systems. Khye has a MFA from Elam, University of Auckland. In 2012-13 they contributed as artist and Research Associate on the Pornography in the Public Eye project, University of Auckland. Khye was Curatorial Assistant at Artspace, Auckland 2013-14; for SCAPE 8 Biennial, Christchurch 2015; and Curator at CoCA Centre of Contemporary Art Toi Moroki 2016 - 2017.

Kosta Bogoievski has been working closely with his collaborator, Josie Archer, performing together and making their own work. They presented in the Asia Tri New Wave Festival 2016 (Seoul, South Korea) and were recent artists in residence at the Healing Hills Art Collective 2017 (Morni Hills, India). They have performed for the Busan Metropolitan Dance Company (Busan, South Korea), Jennifer Lacey & Wally Cardona (New York), The BodyCartography Project (San Francisco), and Michael Parmenter (Auckland). Kosta previously worked with Footnote NZ Dance Company (2014 - 2015) and in a co-production between Okareka Dance Company and Auckland Theatre Company (2014).

Julia Harvie graduated from UNITEC in 2003 with a BPSA in Contemporary Dance. Julia’s Practice involves multi-disciplinary collaborations, civic engagement, architecture and improvisation. She tends towards challenging dominant power structures through non-theatrical settings which led to richer consideration of audience perspective, the female body as a powerful political site. Her work has toured throughout New Zealand and has been presented in Taiwan and Australia. She has been awarded Most Outstanding Performer of the NZ Fringe, Best Dance at the Dunedin Fringe and Listener's NZ Best Female Contemporary Dancer in 2008. Julia has worked for a wide range or New Zealand's foremost choreographers. In recent years she has presented Elephant Skin with Footnote in 2016, Nesticity in FESTA 2016, Democratic Ensemble for CoCA, Xenaxis Oresteia at the Christchurch Arts Festival 2017. She was a guest artist at Dance in Vancouver in November last year and is looking forward to performing in RUSHES at the NZ International Arts Festival.

Josie Archer is a New Zealand choreographer and dancer. Her work has been shown throughout New Zealand and abroad. Her latest work ‘Josie’s Solo’ won best dance at the Auckland Fringe. Her previous work , ‘Josie and Kosta’s Dance Show’, in collaboration with partner Kosta Bogoievski has been performed in Christchurch, Wellington, Auckland (Tempo Dance Festival 2016), San Francisco, and Seoul (Asia Tri New Wave Festival 2016). Josie has been an artist in residence at SpaceVac in Seoul, South Korea, Healing Hills Art collective in Morni Hills, India, as well as joining The Body Cartography Project for their residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts in San Francisco. As a dancer Josie has worked with New Zealand choreographers Michael Paramenter, Zahra Killeen Chance, and Claire O'Neil. Internationally she has worked with Jennifer Lacey and Wally Cardona, 'The Set Up' (2016 and 2017) in New York and Christine Bonansea, 'Only Human' in Berlin (2017).

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