Alternating Currents Chch - Kerry Ann Lee project now on website

ATTENTION MIGRANT-SETTLERS, ARTISTS, COMMUNICATORS & COMMUNITY BUILDERS,
LET’S WORK TOGETHER & BECOME THE MEDIA

You are warmly invited to participate and contribute to an 'open source platform' for creating print and online media that captures and makes visible the thoughts, feelings, ideas, fears, dreams and wishes of diverse migrant-settler communities in Christchurch and their fresh contribution to its future.

We start with a series of three presentations and talks between artists, designers and local migrant-settler communities occurring at the TEZA: Transitional Economic Zone of Aotearoa hub, 101 New Brighton Mall, New Brighton, 5.30-7pm, Tuesday 26 November to Thursday 28 November. Then 12noon on Sunday 1 December we launch a poster and publication programme born of these exchanges.

This is an opportunity for open dialogue, networking and creative exchange of ideas around themes of migration, settlement, visibility and voice in the city and their interaction with the media, both existing and to be formed.

Conversations will be captured through different collective media means during the discussions and then developed into a graphic campaign: a series of large-scale posters created and installed onsite in New Brighton (and beyond) during TEZA, and the production of a print and online publication. This project aims to establish ongoing networks and dialogues between the arts community and migrant-settler communities.

To contribute come to one or all of the following workshop discussions, all are welcomed. Email [email protected] to register your interest in contributing or enquire.

Tuesday 25 November, 5.30-7pm
Representing
How do we frame ourselves and how are we framed? How are migrants represented and visible in our media, in our art, our advertising and on our streets? We are interested in hearing from individuals and migrant organisations with views and/or experience in this.

Wednesday 26 November, 5.30-7pm
Connecting
How can we connect with each other through art and media? How can we create our own independent media voice, and also what kind of voice can we expect to have in the mainstream?

Thursday 27 November, 5.30-7pm
Creating
What stories, messages and ideas are worth sharing? What sorts of media and forms are available to us? What do we need? (Posters, artwork, zines, newspapers, radio, blogs, podcasts etc) Who are our audiences and how could we reach them?

Sunday 1 December, 12noon
TEZA Alternating Currents Poster and Publication Launch

Kerry Ann Lee is a visual artist, educator and zine-maker from Wellington. As an artist of third-generation Chinese decent in New Zealand, Lee’s work both at home and overseas has explored urban settlement and culture clash occurring in the space between private moments and public locations. With a background in graphic arts, she creates installation, print and image-based works that are expressive and socially engaged. Lee’s art work meditates on themes of home, dis/location and difference, playfully investigating issues of identity and hybrid cultural formations through a variety of media. Her recent project, The Unavailable Memory of Gold Coin Café, at Enjoy Public Art Gallery in Wellington (Sep 26 – Oct 18), explored aspects of Cantonese settlement, urban development, home, memory, loss and reconnection to the city.