The crowd-pulling exhibition of street art at the Tauranga Art Gallery, Paradox Inside, closes on the 15th of June – yes that’s next week. If you haven’t been along to have a look make sure you do. Many of the works are painted directly onto gallery wall space and (as with other exhibitions) once the exhibition closes – they’re gone.
The outdoor street art trail Paradox Outside in downtown Tauranga will of course remain as will the earlier unrelated street art in that area and in downtown Mount Maunganui. (While you’re in the Bay you can also check out the original street art town – Katikati – Mural Town)
Paradox is an exhibition of major works created specifically for the show and a collection of what I’ll call “prints” – Oi YOU! the collection of George Shaw and Shannon Webster. The wall art has been done by both international and local artists. The print collection is primarily by international artists and of course a feature is the work of the elusive Banksy.
Longtime archival photographer and ARTbop photographer Lee Switzer is responsible for the images which give you a flavour of the exhibition (and the local arts community) Lee also accompanied local author and interviewer Loretta Crawford to the Tauranga Art Gallery when she interviewed George Shaw (details below)
There’s a virtual reality opportunity within Paradox Inside – it’s supervised by a team of volunteers. I’ve only done two sessions but it’s been wonderful to see people from everywhere coming in to have a look at the exhibition. I’ve met overseas tourists, New Zealanders resident overseas making sure family members don’t miss Paradox, locals on their own or with out-of-town friends and out-of-town visitors who’ve made a special and determined trip to Tauranga to view the works.
Don’t be deterred if you’ve never done virtual reality before – it won’t bite but it will change your life. It’s technology allowing us to be in an overseas warehouse gallery space. It only takes three minutes – just do it!
I’ve loved street art for a longtime now. I appreciate that not everyone regards the unannounced public decoration as “art” and yes I’d have to take a deep breath if I found my fence covered in tags. How would I feel if my fence was suddenly decorated by Banksy or the Williams’ tui appeared on my sitting room wall – I’d be selling tickets.
I also love trains – long, snaking freight trains with carriage and container sides highly decorated passing in front of me. I’ve often wondered why we don’t have an annual competition to ensure these nationally important moving galleries are always “decorated”.
Make sure you allow yourself sufficient time to really appreciate the work – look into them – there is a booklet at the front counter and also accompanying statements with each work.
And when you’ve finished – well of course there’s Dry Dock just over the road or Little Long around the corner on Spring Street and a range of other cafes where you can sit and absorb what you’ve just seen along with cake and coffee.
The Tauranga Art Gallery has a small selection of prints, posters and lithographs for sale – a permanent reminder of a this exhibition.
Read Loretta Crawford’s article about Oi You!, George Shaw and Paradox Inside and see the images by Lee Switzer http://artbop.co.nz/paradox-street-art-festival-oiyou-exhibition-will-thrill/
uPFlash: the Tauranga Arts Strategy is available for public comment – check it out on http://www.creativebop.org.nz/arts-strategy.html
Here’s a selection of images by ARTbop photographer Lee Switzer from the opening of the Paradox Festival at the Tauranga Art Gallery March 2017
Rosemary Balu. Rosemary Balu is the founding and current editor of ARTbop. Rosemary has arts and law degrees from the University of Auckland. She has been a working lawyer and has participated in a wide variety of community activities where information gathering, submission writing, community advocacy and education have been involved. Interested in all forms of the arts since childhood Rosemary is focused on further developing and expanding multi-media ARTbop as the magazine for all the creative arts in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand.
Lee Switzer: Lee is a regular contributor to ARTbop – photo essays, articles and poetry. Lee is multi-talented producing sought-after images of local artists and exhibitions. He has been an archival photographer around Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty for some years – the details of this body of work are below. You can find examples of Lee’s contributions in our ARTbop archives.
More photos by Lee Switzer at http://tauranga.kete.net.nz/en/tauranga_city_libraries_history/topics/show/2538-article-index-lee-switzer
Loretta Crawford Loretta is a writer, reviewer and arts enthusiast. Her first book The Horse & the Hurricane King is a story for primary school aged children on how to manage anger through breathing and meditation. You can follow Loretta on her Twitter page @clumsydolly or email fourseasbooks@gmail.com
If you would like to submit a contribution to ARTbop you can forward your submission to info@artbop.co.nz as a text document. Images are to be forwarded as low resolution jpgs (about 750 kb maximum) not included in the body of the article. However, please indicate in your text where each image is to appear and indicate the image you would prefer as the featured slider header.
ARTbop’s policy is to publish original content. If your contribution has been published elsewhere please indicate the publication and the date of publication. If your submission contains the work of others please provide accurate attributions.
ARTbop is aware of its obligation to maintain freedom of speech and creativity but ARTbop retains the right not to publish any submission and to edit where content is perceived by ARTbop to be factually wrong, unnecessarily malicious, defamatory or hate speech.
uPFlash: the Tauranga Arts Strategy is available for public comment – check it out on http://www.creativebop.org.nz/arts-strategy.html
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