AAF 2020 Making News
As Auckland Arts Festival comes closer, many of our artists and shows feature in media. The Weekend Herald's 'Canvas' magazine featured NZ's own 'empress of electric blue witch-hop' Estère, Place Des Anges 'angel' Jane Huxley and Aboriginal artist Joel Bray.
ESTÈRE – INTO THE BELLY OF CAPRICORN
She's opened for music and fashion legend Grace Jones and performed at an underground amphitheatre in Swaziland, a building under a geyser in the Austrian Alps and a mud-drenched Glastonbury.
A vibrant and multi-talented force to be reckoned with, Estère is known as the "empress of electric blue witch-hop".
With a background in anthropology, she gave up her day job tutoring at Massey University in 2018 so she could concentrate on her music career.
Read the full feature here
PLACE DES ANGES
From 50m above ground, climber and circus artist Jane Huxley sees a beautiful world. She talks to Canvas about being an angel in Place Des Anges.
"We usually start the show just after sunset, so you have the most gorgeous colours as the night falls. You can see a sea of people underneath; you can sometimes hear the crowd starting to get excited and that puts goosebumps on you sometimes."
Read the full feature here
Aboriginal dancer and performer Joel Bray talked to Canvas about creating the intimate and revealing work Biladurang – a work which takes place within a hotel room.
"I was working in Israel, in Germany and in Melbourne – living a nomadic experience without a home and without a routine for about a year," he says. "I lived out of a suitcase and just travelled around – it was amazing, actually, and liberating."
But there was also a deep questioning of himself and without close friends and family to talk to, he started to write poetic musings without knowing where they would lead. One day, he read them aloud to himself and liked the sound of them.
"I didn't know whether I would write a book or a series of essays, I had no idea," says Bray. "But, because the words were written in hotels, it felt right to have the work set in a hotel. They are a bit like airports – somewhere that's nowhere."
Read the full feature here