salt water

So I stumbled across a new summer job. My friend Tom has been working on Manawanui Ecocruz in the Bay of Islands since October last year. Turns out he couldn't work the last 2 months of the season because of University commitments and I didn't have any summer work so he gave me a call.

Ecocruz operates in the Bay of Island and provides a 3 day 2 night cruise. The focus of the cruise is to show people the amazing wildlife and areas around the Bay. We look out for pods of Dolphins, Whales, Sharks, Sea Birds and we catch fish and collect Kai Moana for dinner. At night we anchor in sheltered bays around the place and take people for bush walks, snorkelling and kayaking. I am working full time on Manawanui for the next two months so I hope to see lots of whales and exciting sea creatures, eat amazing sea food and meet some awesome people from around the world. Dream Job!!!

Shearwater

Searching for Whales

Brydes Whale

Bottle nose Dolphin

Grad Show 2010

Every year the Dunedin Gallery 'Blue Oyster' puts on a show including a selection of works from the SITE show of the previous year. The gallery committee go around SITE and select works based on a certain guidelines and concepts that fit together in a way that the guest curator has based the show on. This year my work 'World Navigation' was chosen andlong with 5 other graduates shown on the above poster. Luckily the dates worked well with my summer plans and I had time off work to make the trip down to Dunedin.


I was given the entrance corner of the Gallery which meant everyone who came into the gallery would see my work first. After a few days of setting up my work and re-printing a few images I was all ready and the gallery was looking set for a party!

The opening went really well and lots of people showed up. I got a lot of nice comments about my work and had some of good catch ups with friends.



Alex McKinnons work.

Lars Pressier's work next to mine.

Wide angle of the entrance to the Blue Oyster and my installation.


Entrance.

It was a real good experience to come down for an exhibition and it was good to get back into art mode as I hadn't given it much attention over a summer consumed by being outdoors in the warmth. The show is on for a month and then I'll have to think about what is happening with 'World Navigation' next.

SITE 09!!!!

What a party! The opening of Site was last night and it went off! There were hundreds of people and plenty of food and wine. Very fun night that I will remember for the rest of my life!

Thought I had better put some pics up for all those who couldn't make it.


Viet and I in our space a few days before opening.

Jewellery work by Jade Muirhead

Security Officer Alex broadcasting from Kansas City

Viet

Shelley Harding's installation



Our space during the opening

Me and Mum

Checking out my work

Leoni the head of the Art School opening SITE '09



It was a really good night with alot of socialising, checking out the amazing range of art works and a few too many wines.

The open day on Saturday was also great with a steady flow of visitors throughout the day. I'll post more pics shortly.

And here it is: World Navigation

update

So it has been an extreme week with a lot happening! the art school is buzzing and theres a lot of excitement mixed with stress in the air.

My Site exhibition "World Navigation" is now ready to be viewed and assessed on Tuesday. My presentation is at 1.35 and will go for 25minutes.

I have taken plenty of photos of the finished presentation but I'm holding off from posting them online to wait until the official opening. Watch this space!

more preps

Heres a bit more documentation of whats been going on in the last few days.

Our vinyl lettering worked out very nicely.

Cutting my prints took quite a while and I got a blister but its all worth it!

I mopped the whole room with an average 9-5 household mop.

Its all happening!!!

Quick update of whats been going on. The wall is done, painted sanded and ready to put stuff on. Our vinyl lettering is ready to be stuck on. Floor has been mopped. Junk has almost been moved out. Tonight will be a big night of hanging. Can't wait to have it up there the last few days have been very productive and we're getting very close to being done!

Wall construction

A lot has been achieved today with help from Viet and Colin. We have constructed the wall now and are in the process of sanding, filling and painting it.

Getting some important measurements.

MOUNT

Had a very productive morning today. Started work at 6.30am, finished at 9.30, went to design to pick up by mounting board, and then took my work with Viet to get it mounted.


Viet had his prints mounted at this place, its the Photo Gallery on George st. Tim the owner is a good dude and has a cool machine that mounted my prints onto the board with double sided sticky stuff. It took about an hour and resulted in a a very tidy job, a lot better and faster than if I had have used adhesive spray and alot less toxic. Now I just need to cut each one out individually.

Photos by Viet.

I'm helping out I swear!

We also went and got some shushi and our Vinyl lettering ordered and some sweet business card holders. boyaaa

new wall with layout mock up

So heres a bit of a mock up with each image drawn amazingly onto the 2008 polytech calanders. The highlighted white signifies where the sheets of MDF will go and they will be more white than the rest of the wall, but the contrast shouldn't be this much.

So there's 4 different clusters of images not layed out in any particular method although most of the NZ ones are in the first cluster. I want the viewers to look at each image individually and I think having them layed out similar to this would create that effect.

I'm still going to play around with layouts a bit. maybe even with the actual prints when they're mounted (which will be tomorrow yeeeea)

I'm happy with the amount of prints I'm using, they take up the wall nicely but there is still the option of taking one or 2 out.

Site Preps

Had a busy day today preparing our space for site.

• I have booked a mounting session for tomorrow at the Photo Gallery on George st at 10.30am so it will be good to have that done. DONE
  
• Then I will make my new wall with help from Colin.
• Also Viet and I need to have a quick chat to Rachel about our space.
• Gotta cut my prints out individually after they're mounted
• Order our Vinyl Lettering at Auto Art in South D.Done

Nice style Jesse, cut that shit.

Photos by Viet Tieu

Wet Paint....

So had a slight change of plans today when I discovered the wall I'm using (which is in shitty condition) can't be painted because its some special paint and a different colour than 'site white'. Colin the painting technician suggested a row of 1200x2400mm MDF sheets at the height I want to put my prints. the fact that its only 1200 high will limit me to dislpaying my work 3 prints deep which I am happy with.

Heres an MDF sheet with a few mock pieces of paper. Just testing if the height is alright. This would solve the problem I had with those crappy strips of wood. It would stick out about 40mm off the wall and be quite a different shade of white but I think that would be cool and make good use of space, not just putting it up on a plain white wall. I will have to re-think the design layout a little bit but shouldn't have to change it too much.

So the strip would go right along the end end of the wall. Need to paint the sheets and cut a few to size.

Action shot by Viet Tieu

Layout options

Heres some more layout options below.

I'm not too sure about this one, it seems to mechanisised and organised, not my style.

This one is a bit better, more random but not too random.

This ones even better I think, it will keep the viewers interested as they walk along the presentation. At the moment I have the NZ local icons mostly at the start but this may change, I don't know if its very important or if I should just scatter them randomly.