The Vernacularist, Issue Two: True Community? by DEPOT

THE VERNACULARIST True Community? PART ONE

The Vernacularist ISSUE TWO True Community? PART ONE First published in 2014 by Depot Artspace 28 Clarence St Devonport Auckland 0624 New Zealand Phone: (09) 963-2331 www.depotartspace.co.nz/depot-press ISSN 2350-3343 Proofing/creative development: Linda Blincko Art direction/editing: Erin Forsyth Volume copyright © Depot Artspace, 2014 Individual texts copyright © the authors, 2014 Individual images copyright © the artists as attributed, 2014. Apart from any fair dealing, as provided by the Copyright Act 1994, no part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the prior permission of the copyright holders. Cover image: I am the Son and Heir, Joshua Solomon, ink on paper, 2014. The Vernacularist issue three ‘The Environmental Issue’ is currently in production. Interested in contributing? Email: erin.forsyth@depotartspace.co.nz for guidelines and information

Depot Press Identity Series

The Identity Series represents the titles from Depot Press that represent an ongoing exploration of Aotearoa, New Zealands evolving cultural identity and vernacular culture. The work published in the Identity Series represents multiple contributors from creative backgrounds in visual arts, poetry, literary pursuits and more culminating in a unique social and cultural commentary.

The Vernacularist would like to thank The Suburbs for the license to use their font ‘Otama’ for this issue as well as future issues. Isn’t it lovely?!

About The Suburbs:

The Suburbs is a boutique multidisciplinary Design studio specialising in Branding and Web Design. Alongside fonts, we have also produced a range of furniture and handmade ceramics as well as our very own organic tea brand, Informal Tea Co. www.thesuburbs.co.nz www.informaltea.co.nz About the font: Otama was named after a beach of the same name. I spent the summer of 2011-12 working on the font family in the Coromandel and Otama was my favourite beach to gather with friends. I once swam with wild Dolphins there and I hear the surf delivers epic barrels once or twice a year on a Northerly Swell. - Tim Donaldson www.otamatypeface.com The Vernacularist would also like to thank Spicers paper for providing buttery eco-friendly paper stock for your pleasure. Thanks Spicers!

About Spicers:

“At Spicers we believe not only in the power of ideas, but in bringing ideas to life. We are inspired to make ideas happen, and to grow them into practical and impactful solutions. You can trust Spicers to help you source the products your creations deserve.” www.spicersnz.co.nz

THE VERNACULARIST True Community? CONTRIBUTORS:

Afakasi Baby Cleo Barnett Guy Bellerby Linda Blincko Nigel Brown Frances Carter Simon ‘Shine’ Darlington Anna Forsyth Dominic ‘Tourettes’ Hoey Victoria McIntosh Jeff Pickering Ruby Piddington Marie E. Potter Gaynor Revill Maree Scarlett Joshua ‘Rhatklor’ Solomon Denys Trussell

Welcome to issue two of The Vernacularist! This special two-part edition is dedicated to investigating the essence of community. What makes a group of people a true community in today’s cultural climate and how have communities developed over time? In many ways every edition of The Vernacularist is dedicated to community and definitely would not, could not, exist without it. The Vernacularist is a platform for expression and discussion for and of individuals, groups, practices, subjects, and beliefs etc. increasingly reliant on community support for encouragement, wisdom and sustainability. This issue alone has over 27 grass roots contributors from around the country all speaking honestly about their personal experiences of community. We received so much content it had to be split into two parts. Part one is comprised of artwork, unique articles, poetry and photography that contributors have chosen or created specifically for this issue. Examples include Dominic ‘Tourettes’ Hoey’s enthralling, poetic description of the precipices of community in a two part poetic piece and Frances Carter’s giddying photographic essay, each questioning interaction and togetherness Part two of this issue is dedicated to individual responses to an eight question questionnaire focussed on what community means today. Every response is unique underlining the significance of the individual within and the diversity of, community within Aotearoa, New Zealand today. It is overly evident from this issue, as in life, that it is community (ies) providing the sustenance necessary for social and personal development, as well as engagement with and participation in the creation of art and culture. What then supplies community with the same? he tangata he tangata he tangata it is people it is people it is people – Erin Forsyth

CONTENTS

Life in Rawene Gaynor Revill

Community I Dominic ‘Tourettes’ Hoey

The year is 2014 Cleo Barnett

9 – 14

I am Human and I need to be Loved Joshua ‘Rhatklor’ Solomon

Two Types of Chains Anna Forsyth

16 – 18

A Blazing Bird Denys Trussell

19 – 20

29 – 32

Linda Blincko The Shop Down the Lane

33 – 36

An Interview with Guy Bellerby by Ruby Piddington

A Pillar of Her Community

37 – 39

Marie E. Potter Let’s Get Coffee

Community and the Artist as a 23 – 27 Conversation of Energies Nigel Brown 28

40 – 46

Frances Carter Brave New World

The Other Side of Community 21 – 22 Afakasi Baby

The Spoon Collection Victoria McIntosh

The Conscious Community

47 – 54

Jeff Pickering The Gathering

Simon ‘Shine’ Darlington Community II

Dominic ‘Tourettes’ Hoey

Image above: Life in Rawene I, Gaynor Revill, 2014.

COMMUNITY I On a cliff faces sits a shanty town. a community of dreams stitched together by threads of geography and common interest the view is magic, the inevitable fall less so. Once realised it all dissipates – but that comes later. First the village of corrugated iron and bedroom masterpieces grows. Strangers become names become collaborators, walking streets at uneven hours, picking the refuse of spare time from gutters, stuffing them into plastic supermarket bags. Back home they are made into catapults. Aiming for the sun or stars or gods or the abyss. there will be failure after failure, It is half the fun. Success is a whore. The village will grow until it reaches city limits. Soon everyone has catapults and star maps and second hand bibles. Your face is on a magazine, is on a poster, is on a screen. Your mother rings and says: “well done” and you smile for cameras, or the idea of cameras or the eye of death or for no real reason. Soon the village is embraced by the city. but no-one has yet reached the sun, stars, gods, or the abyss. You find yourself on an empty page one Saturday, drunk, talking about yesterday like it was a different life. You, the zombie version of yourself, You, broken reincarnation of the artist you went to sleep as. Your dreams become cliches. The collaborators change names, born again strangers. No one talks of gods or stars or suns anymore. You have finally reached the abyss. – Dominic Hoey (Tourettes) 8

The Year is 2014 – Cleo Barnett

Community, a self created product of this world, is on a journey of constant evolution. Mutation. As wireless internet floods our streets. Migraines grow in frequency. What remains from ancient civilisations softens my dreams. As I look through x-ray telescopes towards distant galaxies, my mind wanders to the future. What you eat is what you are; everything a vibration. Believing in that which cannot be seen is a way of life. Learning to trust. Living on a planet that continues to amaze, muscle memories build up conditioning for an unexpected future. Staying rooted in this moment, our eyes capture glimpses of our surroundings. In each moment so much beauty, it is impossible to take it all in, but we try. An ocean so dark and wild, a lighthouse perched way up on top of the hill, communications far out to sea. A fascination for the living and breathing, it’s your smell that drew me to you. As the years of this life add up one on top of the other, these memories are collected and stored, creating this character I am growing to love. Ideas become lovers soon to live only in the stories we choose to hold on to and share. “A fascination for the living and breathing, it’s your smell that drew me to you.“

Images top to bottom: Nepal, Strawberry Galaxies installation

What remains is me, floating through the deep blue abyss. Alone. Never alone. Slowly slipping into the corners of my mind. Hiding inside myself, as the world produces and consumes in a cycle of constant constipation. As fantasy becomes reality, all that I see around me, my community is a reflection of a projection. Feeling the repercussions of actions, thoughts and words in all of their severity, this life pulses through my veins. Collective action sets the tone as we walk out the door. I’m told about the olden days, a time when you knew all your neighbours by name and didn’t have to lock your doors. Now these words read like history, soon to become stories that slowly melt into myth. Today I walked past my neighbour in our small, intimate hallway. During the three months we have shared this space, we’ve still never said hello. Anxiety and nervousness distorting bodies, the avoidance of eye contact becoming a norm to be expected within the expanding concrete metropolis. As communities multiply through time travel on Facebook, real-world communities slowly fade, each slipping into their own daydream. Climbing cliff tops to reach deep within the thickest forest, distractions from the cityscape removed, momentarily connecting to mysteries pre-dating the Modern Man. A time when magic was real. Acknowledged or not, something changes here. Looking up at the stars, the temporary nature of our planet is truly felt, allowing me to see with new eyes.

“I’m told about the olden days, a time when you knew all your neighbors by name and didn’t have to lock your doors. Now these words read like history,”

Images top to bottom: Chronophonium Festival 2014, Backstage at Splore, featuring Double Dipp

We all die. It’s a fact. Stardust. How are you living? What are you doing with this momentary slice of life? This one moment in New Zealand we all share – one microscopic piece of luscious paradise in this universe of gas and collisions. As each generation learning to manoeuvre through a terrain laid out from the past. We uncover new mysteries, discover new ways to move the body and indulge the senses. We walk, bright-eyed into the future and a little broken. A new kind of reality emerges when intention and presence meet in the modern age. It’s not easy. In 2014, my community is fragmented, global, borderless. It is split between countries, never feeling entirely understood. Home is anywhere I lay my feet and rest my bags. Huge chunks of life are completely hidden, not by choice but by geography. My body constantly adjusts, to new foods, new time zones, climates, languages. I am searching for my grounding while my mind drifts up to the clouds. Relationships cut short by a flight to catch in the morning. I wish we could pick back up where we left off, but something tells me the next time we meet, nothing will be the same.

Since 2009 Cleo has been producing, curating and taking part as an artist in events and festivals around the world including the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Samoa and Thailand. Her work is often showcased in the public domain, or situated within non-traditional art spaces. Cleo has a passion for bringing together like minded creatives to produce unique events that aim to take you into a world of fantasy and imagination, a place where you can forget the mundane and explore the world around you with new eyes. She loves all things analog and print, has been exploring her environment through installation art and hopes to continue to travel and create.

Image: Deep within the bush, West Auckland All images featured in this article are unedited and were taken by Cleo Barnett using various analog cameras.

Image: I Am Human and I need to be Loved, Josh Solomon, ink on watercolour paper, 2014.

Commonly seen as a symbol for oppression, a chain can also be a symbol of our interconnectedness, or community.

Two Types of Chains – Anna Forsyth

Chains represent the interplay of autonomy and freedom essential to creating a strong, authentic vernacular. I want to touch on the two uses for chains that best represent the use and misuse of our shared cultural connections: ‘Transferring Power’ and ‘Lifting’. The difference between these two uses, I call the vernacular and the ‘hijacked’ vernacular. If a chain is defined as a series of connected links, then vernacularity itself can be used for the purposes of oppression or as a means of connectivity, strength and progress.

Transferring Power

we ourselves become one with the very system that oppresses us. We are not on a treadmill; our own appetites inextricably link us to one. If we view creating in this way, rather than building a shared cultural community, we actually work against community, even destroying others (literally and metaphorically) in the process.

In our society today, human beings are often pitched against each other in competitive environments. Even in the arts, and perhaps even more so, there is a constant jostling for position, or funding, for an audience. The current iteration of capitalism, modulated by the commodification of culture, creates an artificial scarcity. Through this, we learn that one of the main reasons we create is to compete. Quite often, we hijack our own vernacular (or allow it to be hijacked), in order to gain a modicum of power (real or imagined). I like the Wikipedia definition above of the type of chain designed for transferring power. They are ‘designed to mesh with the teeth of the sprockets of the machine’. It is no coincidence that these chains are also called ‘block’ chains.

Lifting

“Those (chains) designed for transferring power in machines have links designed to mesh with the teeth of the sprockets of the machine, and are flexible in only one dimension. They are known as roller chains, though there are also non-roller chains such as the block chain.”¹

Let’s examine that metaphor further. If we think of capitalism and globalisation as the machine, some cultural connections or products are designed specifically to mesh with this machine (and keep the cogs turning). I like that the word ‘teeth’ is used. It is often our hungers, our deepest cravings and desires, like the need for power, or envy of our fellow humans, that drives capitalism as a system (or machine). We see it in advertising all the time, coming away from magazines with a sense that we are not enough and incomplete or even just plain hungry. Once we start to link (read/buy in to) these artifices,

“Those (chains) designed for lifting, such as when used with a hoist; for pulling; or for securing, such as with a bicycle lock, have links that are torus shaped, which make the chain flexible in two dimensions (The fixed third dimension being a chain’s length.)”¹ In the second type of chain mentioned on Wikipedia, we see that the links are ‘torus’ shaped. The word torus comes from Latin, meaning cushion. It is strange to think of a chain in those terms, but as a metaphor, this is very interesting to me. Even as it pulls and lifts, the parts in these types of chains cushion each other. Cushioning provides comfort, support and a buffer against various types of friction. Viewed this way, creating a shared cultural community can be achieved through supporting and lifting one another. It is about creating flexible connections that enhance security, that pull us up to become better people through challenging and inspiring us. These types of chains bind us together, lifting us beyond our mundane individualism to see beyond the horizon of our own eyelids and celebrate our diversity. Each link supports the other, creating a synergistic and mutually beneficial forward motion.

¹ Chain. n.d. In Wikipedia. January 29, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain

Images from top: Roll-chain. Scan from (1911) Mechanical Transport, HMSO, pp. p. 148,fig. 117. Human Pyramid, etching, one of a series of five prints with the human pyramid as the theme created by artist Juste de Juste c.1545, 1540’s. Typical ‘Torus’ chain links.

A Blazing Bird â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Denys Trussell

I sing to walls and a blazing bird dances as colour on the grey, the concrete surface burning. The building, brute weight, its mass of desolation, lightens in the eye, and just a little floats above a street it overwhelms no further.

A common genre in community art, the mural, can ignite and transform the eye; can lift feelings out of a field of bitumen and give them the iridescent wings of the bird afire in the flight of its renewal. Murals also remind us that the city is a complex array of surfaces, many of which wait naked for the touch of thought, the shaping by paint of life as possible forms, with vision materialising where blankness had been. We can now have walls of birds, of plants; forests of human meaning and words; words constructed out of alphabets that had waited within, abandoned as silence. There has been a triangle locked in our collective psyche. One of its apexes is art, another, community and the third is property. At times that triangle is a rigid structure holding apart the arts and community in the interests of property. This showed pitifully and dramatically a few years ago in South Auckland, when a teenage tagger was killed by an enraged property owner. The tagging of the ownerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fence had so enraged him that he stabbed the youth who was carrying it out. He was lightly sentenced by our court system and life moved on, burying another incomprehensible death. Surely this tells us something about the problem we have in accepting outbreaks of anarchic, albeit, harmless expression. Tags are of varying quality, some random to the point of incoherence, some building up impressively to images on a monumental scale. None, surely, should earn the death sentence. We have to hope this can never happen here again; that this disaster has sent out enough of a message to cause even the worst bigots to not pick up a knife when he feels his fence-line is being threatened by art. Infuriating, incompetent, brilliant or infantile, art remains a gift, and we must remain free to love and criticise it by non-lethal means. We trust that now the third apex of the triangle, community, is sufficiently activated to prevent further fatal clashes between art and property, or art and authority. Community as art, art

Image: Charles Williams, 2014. See pages 6 - 7 in True Community? Part Two for more information.

as community: the equations are one and the same. They enable the informal and the spontaneous in the arts to spread through the social texture. They create the possibility that the rigorous triangle of alienation will dissolve and that society will be suffused with the freedom and the necessity of art at every level. They make for the realisation that art is not just a minority activity – a tiny group of cognoscenti holding the line against a sea of aggressive philistines. It is rather a behaviour intrinsic to us all. It is intentional making, and making well, or as well as may be. And community? That is as old as nature. We say the Homo sapien is a social animal, but I can think of no animal species that is not. Ecology is this universal interconnection within and among living species, and community is ecology. The human dilemma is to keep community – this virtually biological necessity – from becoming what has been called a “carnivorous flower”. That is when community runs amok as in Cambodia, Rwanda or Nazi Germany and destroys all but a narrow range of its arts, killing all variation in its people. The communities featured in this issue of The Vernacularist are small, co-operative, non-violent, exploratory, spontaneous, and eclectic. For instance, ‘Manky Chops Gallery’ in central Wellington – a gallery whose existence contradicts the current economics. It generates colour, imagery and renovates old buildings, keeping alive the margins that are essential in giving new energy to society as a whole. Then there’s ‘Coco’s Cantina’ in Auckland’s K’Rd. It’s a restaurant. Food is its core art. It shows that the art of food is part of the art of sociality. Its staff maintains contact with the highly varied social fauna of ‘the strip’. “Everyone at Coco’s is a socialist” says its founder, Damaris Coulter, ‘and we believe in

trying to iron out the shit things in the world through our presence and ethos.’ The concept of art here is generalised – a positive doing, that, along with food artifacts, produces open-ness, conversation, fluency. The art behaviour here is not the specifics that enable a virtuoso violinist to perform; not the stylistic detail of a novel or an intricate sculpture, but it is the ground of such things. It is the milieu that gives time, tolerance and empathy. Community as art pre-dates modernity of course. It was the symbolism holding together Maori society. It was invocation: the shadow of the taniwha drawn onto the pale rock of caves in the South Island foothills. For what? To make community with nature herself. To cover the rock with human consciousness. To negotiate with powerful forces in geology, weather and altitude that lay in the alpine passes ahead. And to come to an understanding about living and dying. We live mainly in cities. The stakes don’t seem so high now as we make our ceramics, our food, poems, jazz, films, installations; as we do sport or dance, learning the Zen of martial art, the grace and power of the articulate body. But the stakes are high. They are still about critical engagement with meanings that lie all about us – meanings we must interpret for our psychic and even at times, our physical, survival. Community is not stupor. It is attentiveness. To keep it free and strong we cannot afford to be indifferent. It’s a long conversation – community – with one another, with self, with actuality, limitless in nature and mind.

The Other Side of Community – Afakasi Baby

We were brought up in a tight-knit religious group that embodied particular ideals of “community.” People helped each other, knew and cared about each other; and shared a set of cultural values. While this kind of community - based on strictly defined rules and expectations – was able to provide a great deal of support for its members, this support came with a downside. The group discouraged certain types of difference, stigmatised any break from communal norms, and stifled independent thought. Thus when thinking about community it remains important to appreciate the place of independence, anonymity and individuality. A religious group might provide an easy illustration of this point, but it is worth asking if this doesn’t happen to some extent with communities of all kinds. Sometimes one’s ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and/or any subcultural identity can be invoked to ask, “What are you doing for your community?” Here ‘community’ can be a ransom held against you.

For example, the African American writer Octavia Butler was questioned by some of her community as to why she worked in the genre of Science Fiction, since this was considered ‘irrelevant’ to more pressing problems facing African Americans in the 1970s, when she was starting out. Only later did people recognise the importance of her contribution as an African American woman working in a genre predominantly practiced by white men. Putting everyone under pressure to pursue ‘community interests’ all the time, especially when those interests are narrowly defined, actually runs the risk of short-changing the community on things that might enrich it. By definition something new will not automatically be recognisable as belonging to the community. Sometimes breaking away from what’s expected of the group might turn out to be a form of ‘community service’ in the long-term. Our point here is not that we are against the value of community; we simply aim to signal that ‘community’ is a complex idea that needs to be thought about carefully. Afakasi Baby is an art collective made up of brothers Caleb Satele and Daniel Michael Satele. Caleb has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) degree from Elam School of Fine Arts. Daniel is a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Auckland with recent writing published in ArtAsiaPacific, Art New Zealand and The Listener. www.facebook.com/AfakasiBaby

Community and the Artist as a Conversation of Energies – Images and text, Nigel Brown, 2013, Cosy Nook

WHETHER CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS IN NEW ZEALAND REFLECT THEIR COMMUNITY OR NOT? LINE THEM ALL UP AND ASK THEM ABOUT THEIR BELIEFS AND LOYALTIES? ASK THE PUBLIC IF THEY KNOW THEM OR VALUE THEM? OH FOR GOD’S SAKE JUST LET ARTISTS DO THEIR THING AND DON’T GET TOO PROFOUND ABOUT IT. LEAVE THEM TO THEIR PRIVACY.

Burnt umber, totara, Fabriano, stainless steel, child poverty. Artists are harmless enough. Leave them alone. Meanwhile society grinds on. What could be life changing in a sculpture, a print, a painting, craft, video, installation? Get a real job. Art is the bit on the side, the rich man’s toy, amusement, fun. BUT WHAT ABOUT INDIGENOUS ARTISTS? AREN’T THEY PART OF THE MARKET NOW? ON MARAE, DON’T THEY DISCUSS WHAT IT ALL MEANS IN RELATION TO THEIR IDENTITY? WHAT ABOUT THE INDIGENOUS ARTISTS IN DEALER GALLERIES? SURELY THEY BRING THEIR CULTURE TO THE MAINSTREAM. COULD THEY CHANGE THE MAINSTREAM? Whether communities are tribal, smug, angry, diverse, or melting pots; artists can play a role in revival, politics and identity, or just be themselves lost in the art process as if it had no consequences or obligations whatsoever. Identity can be bought and sold. Identity can end up as half-truths and merely decorative. Art can appear to be its own community as a parallel world floating above. LOTS OF ARTISTS BRING AN IDENTITY TO THE REST OF US. SCOTTISH, IRISH, ENGLISH, ASIAN, DUTCH, AMERICAN, AUSTRALIAN, PACIFIC ISLANDER, INDIAN OR WHATEVER. FOR MANY NOW, IDENTITY IS MEANINGLESS OR BECOMES CYBERSPACE. IDENTITY MIGHT BE TOO DIFFICULT. THE MIX IS CONSTANTLY CHANGING NOW ANYWAY. WHO REALLY CARES WHEN THEY ARE ENGROSSED IN SPECIAL EFFECTS IN A MOVIE OR LOST IN A MEGA STORE?

THE NEW HUMAN WILL BE NON-DERIVATIVE – TOTALLY FREE BUT CONTROLLABLE. Yellow ochre, Manuka, arches, concrete, social welfare. Artists are harmless enough. Leave them alone. Meanwhile society grinds on. What could be life changing in a sculpture, a print, a painting, craft, video, an installation? Get a real job. Art is the bit on the side, the rich man’s toy, amusement, fun. THE NEW ZEALAND COMMUNITY IS A DIVERSE CONGLOMERATE. PEOPLE HAVE THEIR INTERESTS BE IT SPORT, CARS, COLLECTABLES, ASTRONOMY, FASHION, PLANTS, RARE BREEDS, BOOZE, DRUGS, THEIR JOBS, THEIR LEISURE, THEIR KIDS, PETS, SEX, MOTORBIKES, TELEVISION, WALKING IN PARKS, JOGGING, SHOPPING, BOATS, ART, HOUSES, FISHING, MINERALS, INVESTMENT, CRIME, SWIMMING, FILM, GETTING OVERSEAS, POLITICS, THE ENVIRONMENT, THE INTERNET, SEWING, CLIMBING MOUNTAINS, LITERATURE, RELIGION, MEDICINE, TECHNOLOGY, DANCE, DOING NOTHING. COMMUNITY WORK, COINS, JUST GETTING BY, MUSIC, FARMS, BEING DIFFERENT, BEING SAFE, BEING IMPORTANT. Titanium white, kauri, laser cut, silicon, low decile schools COMMUNITY COMMUNITY community community What an old fashioned word! Are you some kind of Socialist? It’s all fast, cyber, sleek, in one day out the next, me me me, marketing, win win, motivate, too much, too bad, lies, past your use by date, pleasure pleasure, take up an artist, consume, spit out, on to the next. Oh come on. lighten up this is progress. But surely there is memory? We all still sit on toilets, breathe, think, have opinions, cry and bleed real red blood. All of us. Young and old, gay, straight, kind, indifferent, mad. The human community? NAH IT’S ALL IN CONTROL OF THE ONE PER CENT! Oil and arms dealers, mega business, surveillance, techno power beyond borders. In time the whole planet will be sterilised. Children will be selected and implanted with silicon chips. Maybe a transgender population will calm us all down. No old people for a start. We can delete irritants like culture and protest, just as with weed control. Society will be art free and better for it. The controllers become God. No debate will be tolerated in the new system. ART IS JUST ANOTHER COMMERCIAL PRODUCT FOR CONSUMPTION. But surely...can you hear me…my tiny artistic voice Searching for the lost community? Lamp black, rimu, digital print, carbon fibre, global warming

THERE ARE SOME BIG ISSUES FACING THE WORLD NOW Like what? ARTISTS NEED TO REFLECT THE BIG ISSUES LIKE CLIMATE CHANGE, POLLUTION, OVERPOPULATION, SPECIES WIPE OUT, SOULLESSNESS, INEQUALITY, TECHNOLOGY OVERWHELMING THE ORGANIC, CYNICISM, MONETARISM, RACISM, ALL OF IT. OH FOR GOD SAKE DO ME A FAVOUR WILL YOU! GET OUT OF MY ART SCHOOL. GET OUT OF MY DEALER GALLERY. GET OUT OF OUR PUBLIC GALLERY. GET OUT OF MY COMMUNITY. WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? ARTISTS JUST DO WHAT THEY DO. DON’T PUT ALL THESE BURDENS ON THEM. ITS OVER TO THE COMMUNITY, THE WORLD COMMUNITY TO DEAL WITH ALL THAT! I’M JUST AN ARTIST. Nothing lasts. Nothing will be recognisable as it is now. Artists do deal with the issues in their own ways. They deal with being different and they deal with being part of a community. They provide relief and distraction. Some handle ideas like bombs but they are a minority. Art has its own ends and has its own values. Meanwhile society grinds on but let’s be POSITIVE. Think of the life changing moments: seeing a baby’s smile, enjoying friends and family, clear bright skies, ferns, music, sea breezes, city lights, a lover’s kiss. Gum Arabic, pohutukawa, download, aluminium, invest in the future Art can be a spiritual quest. EXCUSE ME WE HAVE AN IMPORTANT COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENT! The world ended today and so did art with a small rather pathetic function in a busy world. Relax… There is a slight time delay so grab a wine and enjoy the show! Nothing too demanding. … Artists are harmless enough. It’s the manipulators of communities and predators upon communities who are the really dangerous.

The Spoon Collection - Victoria McIntosh “You can always find me in a second hand shop by listening out for the sound of cutlery being rifled through. My fascination with this humble utensil began in the autumn of 2002, when as a second year student I hand forged a square sterling silver rod into a spoon. Never again would I look upon the spoon as a mere utilitarian object but as an endless and magical combination of handle and bowl, and so the collecting began...” – Victoria McIntosh on the Spoon Collection (exhibited 2013 at Masterworks Gallery, Auckland) pictured above right and on the previous page in the collection of Nigel Brown at his home in Cosy Nook, Southland.

29 31

THE CONSCIOUS COMMUNITY â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Linda Blincko

It is a truism in order to grow and thrive, every living thing must be nurtured. Yet we fail to attend to some of the most precious things in life, with the likelihood that (to our detriment)once gone, we are unable to retrieve them. Extinct animals and dying flora are often testimony to neglect, if not willful disposal or destruction.

30 32

1. The Taken-For-Granted: More vigilance and concern is required for the things we take for granted. These can be the most important things; the values we live by, the places we live in and the people we live with. How can we question, sustain or protect what we have ceased to pay attention to? In an environment subject to accelerated change, it is likely we could actually lose the things that underpin our lives. One such component is community. 2. The Endangered Community: A community whose components are neither recognised nor valued is always under threat of extinction. An abstract or uncommitted appreciation is ineffectual in sustaining or protecting a precious resource. External threats do not initially endanger a community – they can in fact further galvanise it; rather those threats from within (at its heart), such as apathy or inaction, are more likely to be its downfall. 3. The Importance of Community in Contemporary Society: Traditional or tribal communities were a naturally occurring phenomenon and continued to adapt to and thus occupy an unassailable place in a changing environment. The community withstood population growth, diversification and division of labour, migration, industrialisation

and urbanism. Community continued to provide the necessities for a meaningful life, close affinitive relationships and shared experiences, among other things. In a society where individualism, ambition, competition and materialism proliferate, these qualities are no longer perceived (consciously at least) as priorities. 4. The Evolution of Meaningful Communities: The traditional community, with its focus on geography and a fixed population (a ‘true community member’ is born into the community or has lived there for years), a common history and shared experience is a declining phenomenon in urban environments. However, the concept of community has evolved to include a diversity of structures that share fundamental ‘communitybuilding’ components. These communities include those built on interest, belief, concern or passion; communities of identity, often drawn together through minority representation or discrimination or intentional communities, formed by any of those previously mentioned, which recognises itself as a community and works to uphold community values.

Image previous page: Life in Rawene II, Gaynor Revill, 2014.

5. The Common Denominators of Communities. Each form of community has characteristics in common that define it as a community: a) Something shared that members relate to such as geography; experience; a belief or value system; history; identity. b) A level of affinitive interaction, as opposed to functional transactions or business relationships. c) Common expectations, of behaviour, action, responsibility, knowledge, commitment or values. d) Interdependence; recognition that mutual support and exchange are as natural to human beings as the ecology and achieve greater sustainability for the group. The recognition of mutuality or interdependence provides the pivotal characteristic of community, something the Dalai Lama refers to as Big We, Small I.

George Orwell two decades earlier, predicted a society that would self-destruct

through

human

predilection for individualised power and self-gratification. Yet, as John Donne most famously asserts, “no man is an island, entire unto itself…..” To live in isolation, a life dominated by conflict and competition, is contradictory to the natural law of human being. Communities allow us to integrate and articulate our being. Without community, with which to identify, to be identified with, to develop meaningful relationships within, we are lost, merely scratching the surface of true self. We continue to live in and create a society where the architectural nightmare of facadism also becomes

6. Big We, Small I: “Community is vital and unifying, selfsufficient and harmonious, an antidote to a fragmented, commercialised society that is fatally and contagiously diseased.”

a social malaise, social facadism, the

- Robert Houriet, Getting Back Together, 1971.

A community, in sublimating the

Strong words penned in the ‘60’s by a committed communitarian, who, like

We, ironically, maintains wholeness

deep and rich interior of our lives is neglected, and thus remains thin, dry and insubstantial.

individuated self as a part of the big and fulfillment for its inhabitants..

Linda Blincko studied her BA and MA in Sociology, Philosophy and Social Anthropology at the University of Auckland. Linda now works at Depot Artspace initiating projects based on identified needs within the arts community, working alongside arts project initiators, and supporting projects to become sustainable.

The Shop Down the Lane â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Interview with Guy Bellerby by Ruby Piddington

Guy Bellerby has been a skate-boarder since way back when. He is a talented artist, self-taught fashion designer and maker. Guy set up The Shop Down the Lane† a hidden gem behind the main street in his hometown of Devonport, where he produces and stocks his own range of youth orientated street-wear called Bellerby. Guy discusses life, work, community and philosophy with The Vernacularist. Thinking local I was born in Sumner in Christchurch and moved to Devonport when I was ten. I have been based here for 20 years now. I still miss Christchurch heaps and I plan to go back one day. But Devonport is awesome. A lot of people ask me why haven’t I left yet. I come straight back at them asking ‘why would I?’. In summer I love being able to jump off a wharf at the end of the day. I am trying to get away from using imported T-shirts. When you buy imported T-shirts you are encouraging factories that pay people less than a dollar a day. We are feeding and fuelling this third world epidemic. People are all like ‘oh there is nothing we can do about it here’ but what you can do is vote with your dollar. How are we letting the world get so bad? I hope I can make that change in my business, I like to think global, act local. The Shop Down the Lane Initially I was working out of home, but then I needed somewhere to store my equipment. I figured if I was going to do that I may as well have a little shop front as well. I used to hang around here when I was a kid, it was a dingy alleyway where we could go and hang out. Ever since seeing this space I have wanted to do something with it. Its got a character that suits me; it is as scraggy as I am. Originally I had planned to move over to town and do what I am doing here, there…but I really like living around the corner, I can just roll out of bed on to my skateboard and roll to work.

Bellerby Bellerby has been running officially since 2004. The range includes hats, sweatshirts t-shirts button up shirts, that kind of thing. We are currently working on a women’s range, which is exciting. At one stage the label was stocked in 21 stores around New Zealand, but in 2008 I decided to pull that all in. In terms of business, the biggest success is a contract with Air New Zealand, making their airhostess hats. I worked with Trelise Cooper on the initial design…playing with the big kids! It was a huge learning experience. If I get to give the product to someone else and they’re stoked on it, that makes it a success for me. I had a guy come in the other day who said he wanted a sweatshirt with an inner pocket on his chest. It wasn’t much of a challenge but it was so good to just do it and give it to him, he was like ‘awe this is perfect I love it!’. Inspiration I need a muse, but not necessarily a pretty girl muse… someone/something that is inspiring me to make things happen, if I am making it for myself, chances are nothing will happen. Even just having a vision of what the product is going to look like on somebody or picturing the look on their face as you give it to them. Music is the other big inspiration. I consistently have 95bFM on. There is amazing music bubbling up at the moment. I just printed some record sleeves for a band called the X-ray Fiends and I have been listening to their album quite a bit and a whole crate of punk-rock records at the shop. Art With a newborn baby, business has definitely taken priority, the art that I create isn’t really commercial. I still draw and I would love to sit back and paint one day. But that is the end goal when I am 60 or 70 (if I can do it any sooner that would be awesome). I also realised that art wasn’t going to change the world in the way I thought it would. I used to be all about ‘art should be for ordinary people not just for the rich, art-crowd.’ It should be more accessible. There is art in the everyday. I still love it and if I had been born three centuries earlier I would have had a profession in art.

The future I don’t think about the future much, I live in the now. The next year or two will be focused on being a parent as top priority. I also want to expand the store and make it as much for the community as possible. I feel like Devonport has been crying out for something like this for a long time and if I can, I will do it – Be something the kids can feel involved with. Introducing the local kids to good music, letting them know it’s not all about money. Trying to get people more community minded. Keep ticking things off the list…

†The Shop Down the Lane has changed format and locations since these photos were taken and you can now find Guy at The Yard studios located on Wynyard St, Devonport.

A PILLAR OF HER COMMUNITY – Marie E. Potter

In the 1950s the New Zealand government initiated a multicultural migration scheme, offering financial support to post World War 11 emigrants, who were seeking new opportunities and a better life in a British colony called New Zealand. Significantly this scheme assisted in boosting, enriching and growing the New Zealand population, as well as its workforce and associated skills. The effect of this new population growth was particularly evident in our community where the neighbourhood initially consisted of 50 New Zealand families. Gradually our village became a multicultural environment made up of Italian, British, Dutch, Greek and Polish migrant families, each bringing their own rich culture with them. Many of these new cultures and traditions were unknown to our village and significantly unknown to my mother, who held the position of sole charge infant mistress at the local primary school, teaching children aged from five to ten years of age. Interestingly, in this role she was seen by all as a pillar of her community. I vividly remember as a young girl with a very enquiring mind, being excited about the new families and children in our small village. However, I was confused that in my home environment, discussion about the new migrants and any cultural changes did not occur, because my father in his role as ‘head of the house’ had strong opinions about those he considered ‘foreigners’. This biased attitude was not held by my mother – a broad minded professional woman.

Image: Our Village, 1950, (Marie E Potter’s) original vintage photograph

In this context, she was challenged and touched by the inability of many migrant children (and their mothers), to speak or understand the English language. As a result of my mother’s compassionate nature, she warmly embraced and welcomed them all to her school. As an educated woman, she may have had comprehensive geographic and historic knowledge about different countries, but on a personal level these social changes were a totally new experience for her. She soon recognised that the new migrants were also socially challenged as the majority knew very little about the New Zealand way of life. My mother also recognised that some of the migrant mothers seemed overwhelmed and understandably frightened at the enormous social and cultural change they faced in this new land. This same fear was also evident in the classroom as the migrant pupils experienced a new educational and social environment. The difficult, but fascinating communication (often only consisting of emotional responses and gesticulations) between her and the new pupils I witnessed firsthand as one of my mother’s pupils. I remember a little Dutch girl sitting at the front of the class all morning clinging to my mother’s skirt and calling her ‘mama’. It was quite evident that this dear little girl was quite terrified. The apprehensive migrant women also turned to my mother for support, as they also saw her as a pillar of their new community. My mother stood out in our village for not just being the only woman who worked, but for being a female headmistress at a time when this role was traditionally held by a male.

continued...

At this time it was still customary in N.Z. for women to stay at home and be devoted wives and mothers and play a role in maintaining a vital, friendly and supportive neighbourhood, thus keeping the values and traditions established by their female ancestors alive. As a mature adult, I now admire my mother for her professionalism, strong principles and values as a working woman, wife, mother and village resident.

As a neighbourly resident, my mother also carried on this cultural tradition. She voluntarily spent time with the female migrants and their daughters outside of school hours. She shared stories about the early N.Z. settler women who had come from the other side of the world to a new land and supposedly better life. She spoke about the challenging roles these women faced in establishing a new life and new communities, setting social standards and uniting the colonists. My mother emphasised how the early settler women had relied solely on the cultural skills they brought, their personal possessions and self-belief to embrace change. My mother also spoke of the invisible bond and camaraderie between Kiwi women. She acted as an intermediary, encouraging and supporting the migrant women to collectively accept the beliefs and ideologies that each nationality brought. She believed in the worth of women and felt strongly about the self – empowerment gained through education and knowledge. My mother taught many migrants how to master the English language and to cook local foods sharing different recipes, as a result the women found common interests and shared needs that helped them bond as new neighbours and significantly as women. They gradually adapted to their new lives, and most accepted the New Zealand or ‘Kiwi way’ of doing things. They realised that with the right attitude they could adjust to and cope with displacement and cultural and social change. They took comfort from being accepted as part of a ‘Kiwi’ community. As the years passed, an evolving hybridisation of traditions and cultures not only enriched our neighbourhood, but New Zealand society in general. My mother remained a much-loved pillar of her community for many decades, teaching the children, of many of whom she had assisted in adapting to a new life in New Zealand so many years ago. An auto-ethnographic methodology has recently assisted Marie to recognise the lasting influence of generational cultural slippage she experienced while growing up in post-World War 11 N.Z., especially as a result of having an English born grandmother, and a Kiwi born grandmother. Marie’s latest solo exhibition at the Pah Homestead TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre, was inspired by a recent short term residency at New Pacific Studio Kaiparoro, Wairarapa. As a result Marie gained further insight into her continuing re-evaluation of New Zealand cultural and social history including rituals and traditions that were established by early N.Z. settlers.

Image above: Cultural Unity, Marie E. Potter, mixed-assemblage, 2014.

Let’s Get Coffee – Frances Carter

All images taken by Frances Carter between 2011 and 2013. Frances Carter takes photos.

“Community. Identity. Stability.” – Was of course the motto of Huxley’s ‘World State’, a seemingly positive and forward thinking mission statement, but perhaps a reminder of the illusory nature that statism can take. I should say (at risk of bragging), I’m writing these words lying next to a palm tree in Guyana (so far North of most places in South America to be the Caribbean), having just finished Huxley’s brilliantly erroneous Brave New World. When someone says the word ‘community’ to you, the connotations are inevitably positive. However community as a concept isn’t necessarily defined as anthro-positive (a community of dub-step enthusiasts is still a community after all..). All bad jokes accounted for, it’s a point worth remembering. For the sake of this article I’ll be using the term community in the context of it’s common definition – a group of individuals with similar interests, normally living nearby. I guess I use it in the way people use the term ‘community mindedness’. But with that throat clearing aside... I have always been a holistic thinker, so keeping true to form I’m going to talk about the topic of ‘global community’ and how I’ve been lucky enough to be positively involved in the ‘developing¹’ of a country through the UN-REDD progam. I watched an interview the other day with Stic.Man of ‘Dead Prez’ (- Dead Prez, a hiphop duo from the United States), in which he says, that it’s going to take two things to change the world. 1. Social Justice & 2. Self development. This is what community means to me: A social structure where there is true justice and fairness for humans, animals and the environment. An environment where one is truly free. Education, healthy food and clean water should have never been the dominion of any Walmart-like monopoly. We are slaves to the supermarkets and it would appear many of us are glad of our chains. The easy way out for every dreadlock-laden, hacky sack playing rich kid in disguise is to bleat on about how capitalism is the problem. Some years ago, I sympathised with this train of thought. But is capitalism inherently an enemy of community?

BRAVE NEW WORLD – Jeff Pickering

There are significant problems with capitalism as an economic system and the social framework that underpins it. If you were alive in the last few years, then you or someone you know, will likely have some first-hand evidence of these problems. But maybe it’s the model of capitalism that we employ. We need a full and complete evolution of capitalism, towards something highly regulated, de-centralised and fully accountable at triple bottom line. There should be positive economic outcomes, but only when there are positive social and environmental outcomes. Pay the extra few bucks and shop at the store that your uncle’s friend owns. Franchise is only a modern euphemism for empire.

Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana,[ is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America. Although Guyana is part of the Anglophone Caribbean, it is one of the few Caribbean countries that is not an island. The Caribbean Community (CARICOM), of which Guyana is a member, has its secretariatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s headquarters in Guyanaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s capital, Georgetown. -Wikipedia

Image: Guyana rainforest with rainbow, captured by Jeff on one of his regular work visits

Along with the serious impending impacts of climate change, the divide between rich and poor in this world is the largest enemy of community. Various reports, studies and UN resolutions have stated what seems obvious to a lot of us. Poor countries cannot simply follow the green brick road of development that was laid down by Western or Northern societies. New Zealand should be covered in forest. We cut down nearly all of it, and have destroyed nearly all of our natural wetlands which is especially worrying given the levels of biodiversity found in freshwater wetlands. We’ve then created cities like Auckland, which I think was described best by aucklandfuckingcity.com as a ‘glorified truck-stop’. But what of countries that are still ‘pre-industrial’? If Guyana, with an 85% coverage in old-growth ancient tropical rainforest, arguably the highest levels of terrestrial biodiversity anywhere and forming the top edge of the lungs of the world were to follow this path, the gold mined from the interior of the country would provide definition to the term ‘development’, but would destroy this habitat-riddled oxygen machine in doing so. We need to redefine development, along with the term community. Just to break my earlier promise and define community differently – a community of tropical rainforest converting tons of CO² into O² is perhaps one of the most important communities on earth.

¹ The word ‘developing/development’ is marked here because I don’t feel the historical definition of the term ‘development’ is socially positive – a country full of sick rich people keeps a healthy pharmaceutical empire in business ahem, USA.

Unregulated mono-cultural capitalism, unfettered with minor worries like environmental destruction and poverty should belong now only to the history pages of this human adventure. In recognising this the United Nations has enacted the UN-REDD program. This acronym stands for – Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation. The basic premise is one where a donor country (in this case Norway) would partner with a relatively poor developing country to provide economic assistance in the form of a PES or Payment for Ecosystem Services. Essentially, Norway is paying Guyana around 40-50 million USD per year, to keep their chunk of the Amazon standing. The level of remuneration scales with the percentage deforestation that is mapped each year, so if 0.06% of Guyana’s forest is lost one year, it receives more money than if that figure was higher. I’ve been the in-country project manager of this agreement, which is in fact the first of its kind anywhere. Guyana must map its forest cover, and then temporally monitor changes within it. I don’t intend to go into the rights and wrongs of the REDD initiative. There are many issues that any serious discussion of this should mention, namely the rights of indigenous people and their participation. Enacting high level policy agreements at ground level always encounters these types of issues, with good reason. The vertical connection between the intention of policy and how it plays out on the ground can be unintentionally diametrically opposed. Above: Jeff in action (left to right) talking geography with youth in Berbice, Guyana and using natural resources to play Tarzan in Dadanawa, Guyana. Following page: Also in Berbice, Guyana, after class.

My intention here is to highlight and emphasise the shift in philosophy that we see with an initiative like this. This shift is placing an economic value on biodiversity and simultaneously providing an environment in which development can occur within a capitalistic framework. It incorporates biodiversity into capitalism, for better or worse. The Stern Report from 2006 is an interesting read in that it calls climate change a ‘market failure’. By using economic terminology to describe an environmental issue, it reminds us that our economic system is entirely dependent upon the environment, furthermore I would argue that long term economic sustainability is entirely community dependent. How much more powerful is an economic enterprise if it has the support of the local community, for instance? These sorts of initiatives which value biodiversity, carbon sinks, and oxygen factories, are the future of capitalism. In the same way, it seems thunderously obvious, that the future of energy is in renewable energy. I hope Guyana can be a model for a truly different type of development. It is, after all the absolute definition of hypocrisy for Western countries to live a comfortable lifestyle after cutting down all their forests. Now we are this far down the road of industrialisation, telling developing countries they can’t do the same (because now we’ve realised the value of forests) ‘We did it first so it didn’t matter that it was wrong then’ – type thinking. They must be allowed to develop but using a ‘low carbon’ philosophy. Congratulations here must be heaped on Norway as a donor country, that has put their money where their mouth is. They might still kill whales, but they’re doing something positive here. Being involved in this first hand has furthered my thinking about what I can do. It’s all very well talking about how we are slaves to supermarkets, but so am I.

Let’s bring community back to the local. What can I do? Well, this is what I’m doing, in my opinion, the ultimate rebellion and the ultimate freedom. I’m in the process of buying ~35 acres of land North of Auckland (where it costs about the same as a concrete box of a studio in the city). I’m going to build my own house. Using all the failure stories I find online as a guide. I’m going to start

growing my own food, I’m going to collect water from the river and sky and use this. I’m likely going to fail over and over again, but those failures will be learning experiences. Not a fucking commune. I would like to start an initiative where children from the surrounding areas can come and undertake the proverbial school camp. But instead of doing ‘team building’ exercises. They’ll be assisting in harvesting food, cooking healthy meals and finding happiness. Imagine how much better off New Zealand would be if we forgot about our ‘defence’ services. Instead of people learning about guns and how wearing a uniform overinflates your ego, they learn about being self-sufficient for example. So many of our problems would be positively influenced poverty, the gap between rich and poor, obesity and the lack of social cohesion we see all too often. I’m going to be a part of the next greatest revolution that humanity must undertake, it is the move to non-reliance on capitalism for the essentials of survival and the redefining of community. You really do only have one life and Bill Mollison was right when he talked about the “futility of revolutionaries who have no gardens, who depend on the very system they attack, and who produce words and bullets, not food and shelter.” Jeff is a deforestation mapping and climate change consultant who works in developing countries, wants to change the world and appreciates doom metal, hip hop and single malt scotch.

Image above The Gathering, Simon â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Shineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Darlington, ink and acrylic, 2014.

COMMUNITY II

– Dominic Hoey (Tourettes) Sacrifice the ‘I’. Remove the heart with bread knife, hacksaw, bare hands, budgie teeth etc. Be part of something bigger than the self you have created. (the above was a slogan for a governmental department that dealt with existential crises. funding was cut and channeled into building motorways through wild life sanctuaries) Fundamentally all great movements begin with ‘I’s but soon lose them Footnote – for further reading see Louis IX’ Autobiography “If you liked the plague you’ll love the crusades” To speak figuratively a community is like a child; born of a union, it requires food, shelter and television. at a certain age it will develop a mind of its own. At this point the child usually ends up compromising the ideals of the parents to sell phone credit or sugar water. As Dr Crippin used to say – “children are all psychopaths” The challenge of any crew/mob/gang/community is maintaining the illusion of a whole as long as possible. To this end have common goals. this can not be over EMPHASISED. There is no shame in collective fantasies To maintain them follow these 3 simple rules: -do not read between the party lines -become adept at turning blind eyes to glaring truths -stock up on opiates and rat poison

Remember there is no ‘I’ in cult but there is one in loneliness

Dominic Hoey aka Tourettes is a writer of prose, rap songs and poetry. He has just released an EP called Dead Dogs Dance and finished his first novel. See him talking about his feelings at a dive near you. www.filthyandbeautiful.net www.tourettesone.bandcamp.com/album/dead-dogs-dance

THE VERNACULARIST True Community? PART TWO

Q& A

The Vernacularist ISSUE TWO True Community? PART TWO Q&A First published in 2014 by Depot Artspace 28 Clarence St Devonport Auckland 0624 New Zealand Phone: (09) 963-2331 www.depotartspace.co.nz/depot-press ISSN 2350-3343 Proofing/creative development: Linda Blincko Art direction/editing: Erin Forsyth Volume copyright © Depot Artspace, 2014 Individual texts copyright © the authors, 2014 Individual images copyright © the artists as attributed, 2014 Apart from any fair dealing, as provided by the Copyright Act 1994, no part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the prior permission of the copyright holders. The Vernacularist issue three ‘The Environmental Issue’, is currently in production. Interested in contributing? For guidelines and information email: erin.forsyth@depotartspace.co.nz From the Depot Press Identity Series

THE VERNACULARIST True Community? Q & A with:

Damaris Coulter Laura Forest Xoe Hall Richie Hardcore MF Joyce Sue Lorimer Felicity Moore Ephraim Russell Danielle Street Regan Tamanui (HAHA) Deborah White Charles and Janine Williams

INTRODUCTION The Vernacularist ISSUE TWO - True Community? PART TWO is comprised of 12 individual reponses to an eight question questionnaire about community.

Each contributor was asked to supply images to accompany their responses resulting in this eclectic illustration of community in Aotearoa, New Zealand. For more information please read the introduction in The Vernacularist ISSUE TWO - True Community? PART ONE.

CONTENTS Content:

Page Number:

Title

Introduction

Table of Contents

Charles and Janine Williams

4-7

Mf Joyce

8-9

Deborah White

10 - 11

Ephraim Russell

12 - 15

Laura Forest

16 - 17

Danielle Street

18 - 23

Sue Lorimer

24 - 25

Regan Tamanui

26 - 27

Xoe Hall

28 - 31

Felicity Moore

32 - 33

Richie Hardcore

34 - 37

Damaris Coulter

38 - 41 3

CHARLES AND JANINE WILLIAMS Artists, TMD Crew Image facing page: Charles Williams, Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Time, New Zealand Saddleback.

What comes to mind when you think about community? People, fun, food! Community – dead or alive? Why? ALIVE! Because we are part of it lol. If that wasn’t the case we would work hard to bring community back to life because it is something we value. What is the name and focus of your community; is it a place, a shared interest, a cultural connection or something else? Please describe: Art collective/graffiti crew TMD. The focus firstly is family/friendship (which many don’t understand yet as first thoughts would be that we are all just about the art itself). Our focus is on the person even before talent is brought into the decision of inviting someone to be part of that close knit community & those are decisions we make as a crew together.

Image above: Chali 2na of Jurassic 5, Janine and Charles Williams in front of their collaborative wall... everybody’s happy! Image opposite: Janine and Charles collaborating on a wall.

What/who keeps your community together? Relationships keep us together. Not one person, but all of us contributing in our own way, bringing our love, thoughts and experiences etc. together strengthening the bonds that already exist. What are some of the challenges facing your community? Trying to come together more due to everyones different schedules/ time constraints. What things do (did) you celebrate as a community? Memories, laughter, supporting each other in our different ventures, friendships, and also the painting/ projects/photography etc. What does your community give to you and what do you give to it? It gives us a sense of pride and belonging. We bring joy, children (lol) and stability/direction at times. What do you value about your community? Diversity and a collective attitude of honour for each other as people.

MF JOYCE Musician and illustrator Auckland What comes to mind when you think about community? People. Community – dead or alive? Why? Definitely alive – as long as there are groups of people living together with shared interests, you will have communities. What is the name and focus of your community; is it a place, a shared interest, a cultural connection or something else? Please describe: The series that this particular artwork belongs to is celebrating a specific musical community I am interested in and feel a part of. What/who keeps your community together? Well, for a start Rohan Evans of the Whammy Bar/Wine Cellar deserves a huge shout-out and praise for all of his contributions and support. Both his venues have been spring boards for many new bands and artists alike over the last eight years in Auckland City. Having an accessible stage to perform can quite often be a very big hurdle for a lot of new bands and luckily in AK (Auckland) we have had Rohan to help groups get over that hurdle and on to the stage. This along with continued interest from local audiences is what keeps it all going. What things do you celebrate as a community? Various annual musical festivals, shows and other events. What does your community give to you and what do you give to it? Ongoing support and camaraderie. What do you value about your community? All of the above.

MF Joyce is a New Zealand born Artist & Musician. In the past decade he has worked in The Drab Doo-Riffs, The Demiwhores, The Bloody Souls, & The Boxcar Guitars. He has contributed comic strips & poster art to various New Zealand publications, most notably, the ‘I agree 49%’ strip in the Fix magazine. In recent years he has kept busy producing a number of animated videos & record-art for; The Drab Doo-Riffs, The Demiwhores & Bachelorette. He currently resides in Auckland City N.Z.

DEBORAH WHITE Whitespace Gallery/Auckland Artfair/Artweek Auckland What comes to mind when you think about community? We all belong to a number of communities of interest, whether itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the dog walking community or business colleagues or social groups. The biggest community I belong to and participate in, is the visual arts community. Community â&#x20AC;&#x201C; dead or alive? Why? Communities are very much alive, not always recognised until a challenge comes along. At their best they achieve remarkable results. What is the name and focus of your community; is it a place, a shared interest, a cultural connection or something else? Please describe: The NZ Contemporary Art Trust is the name of one of my communities, it was founded in 2005 to promote and support artists and galleries in the primary sector. What/who keeps (kept) your community together? The Trust helps keep the community together through the events it organises, it is the only organisation that pulls together the public and private sector of the visual arts.

Images clockwise from far right: Performance by the NOP Orchestra with images by Kim Newall and “DOT” by Drew McMillan and Sean Kerr at Gus Fisher Gallery. McCahon House Museum & Artists’ Residency - Exhibition/Silent Auction/Panel Discussion: Contemporary Art, Does Audience Matter? moderated by journalist Josie McNaught, with artists Tiffany Singh, Nicola Farquhar and Dieneke Jansen. Love Your City. Lorne St. All images courtesy of Sait Akkiram, Artweek 2013.

What are some of the challenges facing your community? The visual arts community is a disparate group and used to operating independently. We do not have a collective body to lobby institutions, councils or government about artists, artists’ rights or promoting New Zealand work locally or internationally. As a result the visual arts have fallen under the radar and lack representation at local body and national level. The lack of professionalism in the visual arts community is also a challenge – no other creative industry accepts such poor standards of professional practice as is evident in some parts of the community here. It is a sector that faces many challenges, not least collectors purchasing work from auction as a resale, or artists who are continually asked to contribute their work for charity auctions and fundraisers - this does nothing to sustain the artists and no other sector is expected to donate so much in this way. What things do you celebrate as a community? The extraordinary talent that we have in New Zealand. What does your community give to you and what do you give to it? Collectively we are able to promote and build interest in the visual arts – to make a bigger splash, which then attracts media attention and a wider audience. I am incredibly proud of what the Trust has achieved and have a sense of satisfaction from that, but recognise that in New Zealand I am part of a community that does not willingly offer positive feedback and tends to be critical and insular, so there is no expectation of receiving anything in return – I participate because I enjoy the challenge. Deborah White is co director of Whitespace in Ponsonby, she has an MFA in arts management from RMIT University. Deborah has been an active art worker for many years and is a founding trustee of NZ Contemporary Art Trust which delivers the Auckland Art fair and Artweek Auckland. In 2014 Artweek Auckland takes place 10 - 19 October www.artweekauckland.co.nz

EPHRAIM RUSSELL Artist (ta moko tattoo/aerosol/mixed-media) My name is Ephraim Russell and I was born and raised in Gissy (Gisborne) on the east coast of the North Island and I'm of Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki, Rongowhakata, Ngai Tamanuhiri, Rongomaiwahine, Ngati Kahungunu, Ngai Tahu, English and Irish descent. What comes to mind when you think about community? I think about my local community which I am living in at present in Palmerston North. But I also think about different community groups I am affiliated with i.e. the arts community, Māori community, e-sports gaming community, hip-hop community and tattooing community – which are just a few I feel I am currently participating in. Community – dead or alive? Why? During my time at Massey University (Palmerston North) I made many new friends, all who share the same passion for the arts. The Masters in Māori Visual Arts program opened the doors to networks and relationships with some of the countries leading contemporary visual artists. The arts community here in Palmerston North is well and truly alive. What is the name and focus of your community? I see a connection throughout all these different forms of expression. Whether it is hip-hop, tattoo or Māori culture we all gain inspiration and influence through past and present artists. We all strive to better ourselves as artists. This is what we all seek to achieve. Networking and creating relationships with others in your particular field of interest can only widen your sense of community.

What/who keeps your community together? As visual artists it is up to us to push ourselves to create the best work we can. But like anything else a solid research base is needed to move forward. You can say government funding helps artists i.e. councils, CCNZ, scholarships but also galleries, studios, mentors, commissions and institutions. What are some of the challenges facing your community? Non-active interest and participation could kill anything. What things do you celebrate as a community? Mostly exhibitions, conventions, fairs and floor talks. We also tend to have small gatherings around whiskey and national rugby and league games lol. What does your community give to you and what do you give to it? When I first started writing graffiti I did work for the Palmerston North City Council painting pieces for free paint... as you do. I felt it was a give and take type of relationship. Although I felt I was being ripped off by the council I knew the cost of influencing a new generation of street artists in my local area was priceless. What do you value about your community? It is what I am passionate about in life, creating art, but I do value the many friendships and creative connections I have made throughout my journey as an artist. Images left to right: Omahu Marae Project with George Nuku â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Carved Polystyrene. Patu Aroha Collective at the Sydney Biennale, in front of Peter Robinsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Polystyrene Chains, left 2 right: Jermaine Reihana, Asher Newbery, Israel Birch, Me (Ephraim). Life & Death 3.0 - Acrylic on Canvas Image previous page: Uhi Pou Tangata - Carbon fiber, Chrome, Steel Tattoo Machine

LAURA FOREST Photographer and artist Johannesburg - Wellington - Auckland What comes to mind when you think about community? Diverse people coming together through shared experience, values or hopes. I think community is more than place; it’s about a collective definition of social and cultural spaces. Community – dead or alive? Why? More alive than ever. Because we have choice: I feel society has the agency and resources to be creative and intentional. Combining choice with intention and understanding can result in really positive, engaging communities. What is the name and focus of your community? Please describe: ‘Public and accessible art practitioners’. That’s not really a name, and Google won’t serve up a Facebook page for this. Its the only way I can describe the group of people creating art in public spaces, with minimal barriers to engage with and view the work. It’s a shared interest and a cultural connection and the more places it happens, the better. There are sub-cultures within this; I’m talking about something quite broad here. What/who keeps your community together? People who care more about expanding the cultural landscape and challenging assumptions about how art should be made and viewed. People who walk along the street and notice murals, and permanent or transient installations. People who fund these artworks, people who preserve these artworks, and people who celebrate these artworks and advocate for more of them.

“trying to capture the intangible: the conversation between art and a social landscape” What are some of the challenges facing your community? Grey walls, grey attitudes, apathy and people who view cultural diversity and well-being as insignificant. What things do you celebrate as a community? Accessibility, cultural expression, innovation and conversation. What does your community give to you and what do you give to it? I’m a documentarian of public art: I photograph the artworks themselves, the people who make it, and the space public artworks occupy (permanent or otherwise). Part of my role is trying to capture the intangible: the conversation between art and a social landscape. I am constantly inspired by the positive impact of public art in our communities – a mural on a bus stop, an architectural installation by a bridge, poetry carved into stone... I hope I can honour the people that make it through my own visual narratives. What do you value about your community? I value that people want to make work for everyone to enjoy. Sure, there’s a difference between established artists commissioned for a large-scale sculptural work and walls that regularly change tones under different street artists. But watching children play on sculptures in parks, or how someone might stop in their tracks to ponder a new mural, or appreciating the integration of artwork into architecture... that’s priceless to me. Above left: Elliot Francis Stewart paints All Fresco. Above right: Oobes, Jules Turner, Art in the Dark. Both photographs were taken by Laura Forest in Auckland in 2013. Laura Forest is a professional photographer and emerging artist. She takes a lot of images of plants, food, other people’s artworks and sometimes makes her own artworks (mostly using plants and food) . www.lauraforest.com

DANIELLE STREET Writer, editor and photographer Auckland I was raised in a Wellington suburb called Naenae, which translates from MÄ ori to mosquito. In primary school the teacher told us a taniwha lived in a swamp there and he was bitten by the mosquito, which made him pretty angry I guess. Now itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mostly occupied by state housing. These days I live in Auckland city with my 8-year-old daughter Lola (pictured above interacting with an installation by Tiffany Singh at Artspace gallery).

What comes to mind when you think about community? It is a word which is really hard to replace with another word. I don’t think any other term encompasses the same meaning quite as well. I’m sure I’ve written it more than 100,000 times over the last couple of years, all the while striving to find another that does the same job. Community – dead or alive? It’s very much alive, but it’s evolved from what we may traditionally think of as community. Thanks to modern conveniences, ‘community’ extends past the people you share a neighbourhood with – it could be a group who play video games together, friends who only know each other on Twitter, the families who attend kohanga reo, or some people who share a vegan lifestyle. The list is endless.

Image above: We are lucky enough to live nearby to this unbelievable artwork recently painted by Elliot Francis Stewart on the wall of Lot23 in Eden Terrace. Murals like this really serve to enhance the feeling of community.

What is the name and focus of your community? I don’t identify with one community in particular. I have this kind of Venn diagram made of different circles of community and because we live in a small city, in a small country, on a small planet, the circles crossover in several places. What keeps your community together? As much as I am loath to admit it, probably the internet. I fall in the gap between the ‘X’ and ‘Y’ generations so my laptop is part of my daily lifestyle. I write for a living so I am always connected to the web and it is generally how people contact me and keep in touch. I guess it’s symptomatic of the way our culture has changed over the decades, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing, the internet can be a real life-line for a lot of people. What are some of the challenges facing your community? In terms of the physical community I identify with (when I can pry myself away from my computer) there are many challenges, but one observation based on an article I recently read is that heavy car usage has really taken the people off the streets. It would be cool to see more people walking and bicycling around K’ Road and the inner city (in Auckland), which is where I hang out. I think that would have lots of positive knock-on effects too, like more small businesses being able to be financially viable due to increased foot traffic. That area (the inner city) is suffering from a lot of empty shop fronts. When I moved here from Wellington I was really surprised at the distinct lack of social space in the inner city, it’s slowly improving with the redevelopment of Aotea Square and the waterfront, but there is a long way to go. What does your community give to you and what do you give to it? It sounds a bit trite, but it provides a sense of belonging. I recently worked for a community newspaper and I often felt in that job that I was helping people with all sorts of things, by acting as a mouthpiece for their concerns, or spreading a message about an event someone was organising. A small story could make a big difference to somebody’s effort – it was a really nice reciprocal relationship with the surrounding community in that way. Plus you get lots of great local gossip. What do you value about your community? The struggle for social justice I see happening all around. Online and on the streets. What things do you celebrate as a community? Our children’s successes, our political wins, our freedoms and our friendships. Images, clockwise from left, this page: In October 2011 more than 2000 people marched up Queen Street as part of the global Occupy movement. It was incredibly potent to see so many from our own community rally together for a international cause. The embellished view from our old apartment on K’Road. Auckland is the most ethnically diverse city in the country and we love to celebrate that fact. Haha, what can I say, school is probably one of the first places you develop your own sense of community as a young individual. There are probably scenes like this all over the country right now.

SUE LORIMER Potter and curator Auckland What comes to mind when you think about community? Community is made up of a group of individuals who come together through mutual interests. Community - dead or alive? Why? Some communities in large cities are becoming less friendly because they are too big and people travel long distances to work, which prevents them from mixing with their neighbours. To mitigate this suburban sprawl, Neighbourhood support groups have developed to help to bring back the feeling of friendliness and support, because they break down into smaller and more manageable communities, where people interact and get to know others, sharing information for safety and welfare. The Internet can be a boon or a danger to a community. It can be a way of connecting with friends and relatives living far away, but also can isolate people from physical contact and the realities of everyday life. What is the name and focus of your community; is it a place, a shared interest, a cultural connection or something else? Please describe: One of the communities I belong to is the Devonport Probus Group, which meets once a month at The Rose Centre. As it is a daytime meeting, our members are usually retired and our main aim is to have fun and make new friends. Often older members live alone and it serves as a place to socialise, listen to a variety of interesting speakers, have lunch together, support live theatre and go on combined outings. What/who keeps your community together? There is a committee elected each year. Apart from the President presiding over the meetings, other committee members have specific jobs that contribute to the running of the group. There is a Vice President, Secretary, Speaker finder, Newsletter compiler, Treasurer, Membership co-ordinator, Welfare personnel, Theatre organiser, Gold Card Outings person and Outings co-ordinators. Members participate in decision making and offer humour and suggestions. Our members often have health challenges, which make some outings difficult for them. Keeping costs of our trips low, because they have escalated over the years. Our Christmas dinner is a celebration of the coming together of fun loving people, determined to have a good time, whatever their age. I have made new friends, been energised by some wonderful speakers and visited places I may not have gone to otherwise. My friend and I have the fun of organising outings and hopefully giving people some new experiences and enjoyment. I value the spirit of members who are determined to enjoy life, whatever their situation and their gift of friendship and support.

Sue was born in Sydney and came to NZ with her family in 1956. She trained in Auckland as a primary teacher and began potting in the 60s, while on a two year working holiday in England. On her return, she continued part-time potting in Gisborne. In the 70s, Sue, husband Richard and their two children moved to live in Devonport, Auckland. Richard and a friend built her a studio and she became a full time potter and a founding member of the co-operative Pots of Ponsonby. She also taught pottery at High School night classes for many years and during the day at The Clay Store. These days Sue is a (much loved) volunteer at Depot Artspace, has had several childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stories published and is back painting and dabbling in clay.

REGAN TAMANUI AKA HAHA Hamilton, NZ, Earth - Melbourne, Australia, Earth What comes to mind when you think about community? Conspiracy film nights, astronomy observation nights, artist discussions about aliens making the human race or that we evolved from bacteria, and weekend BBQ’s watching the footy. Community – dead or alive? Why? I think community is totally alive and kicking, a community for me is like-minded people hanging out sharing idea’s and expanding on them, or the enjoyment of the community/ies. For example, you can go to a football game dressed in multinational corporate advertising and become totally engulfed in the game by means of tribalism for say 2 hours with 20,000 other fans. Then return home, jump on the internet enter cyber space (which is an alternative reality) log on to Facebook & see how many likes you received from friends of the ‘fine dining group’ of a photo you posted from last night’s dinner. Then log onto an online gaming site and shoot dead other gamers from the gaming community (in cyber space), go to sleep wake up & do it all again. Now that’s community! What is the name and focus of your community; is it a place, a shared interest, a cultural connection or something else? Please describe: I belong to a lot of community groups. One is called the “CULT OF THE INTERNET”, it is both a place and a connection that exists everywhere for everyone. The focus of the cult of the internet is that we are all one and the same/a fractal of the same thing, you could say “we are all facets of the universe trying to understand itself as you or I” What/who keeps your community together? All strong communities need a leader or a body of people to guide or offer knowledgeable advice. Without guidance or advice a community ceases to exist (unless that is the philosophy of the community). Our cyber-spiritual leader (of the CULT OF THE INTERNET) is called Cyber Human (which just happens to be me). What are some of the challenges facing your community? Multinational corporations are like wolves in sheep’s clothing, trying to corrupt the mind of innocent people like myself with McDonalds (which belongs to the chemical foods community). The challenge is to resist the temptation of the corporate mind and body control. What things do you celebrate as a community? We celebrate the experience of ourselves as individuals and as a community, the Internet is a celebration of possibility and potential in understanding who we are as individuals and communities or archetypes in the game of life. We exist in this reality and in cyber space we are present in 2 worlds (3 worlds when you bring in the use of magical mushrooms etc). We also celebrate the ability to manifest what we desire through EBay etc. and also the fact the Internet is god that answers all your questions, gives a multi choice answer and you can choose the answer that suits you best – unlike religion which is all about an answer that cannot be questioned.

“god the Internet gives and we receive”

What does your community give to you and what do you give to it? We give our community life in the moment as we exist in the moment, so does god the Internet give back to us the knowledge of all that has been and all that will be etc. Facebook events let me know good art shows to check out, or what’s new, Instagram keeps me informed on what people are currently doing right this moment through imagery, Skype enables me to talk to my parents in the moment, god the Internet gives and we receive. What do you value about your community? I value a multi-dimensional existence. The life & times of HAHA aka Regan Tamanui aka Cyber Human is a lifetime exploration of art, cyber philosophy, gardening, comics and a good cup of Milo. Praise the Internet. Tiled image of Tama Iti, is a multi-layered stencil created by HAHA. www.regantamanui.wordpress.com

XOE HALL Artist, muralist and curator Wellington, NZ Community – dead or alive? Why? It’s undead, half of both. Think circle of life and laws of dormancy in nature. Communities start with a purpose, the purpose attracts like-minded people, helps them to blossom, find their place, know themselves better, meet people, who plant the seeds of future interests, using their recognised skills they contribute to their community, cities, industries, life in general, and so on. But nothing lasts forever, usually due to money, or lack thereof, or times just changing. So things come to an end in some way shape or form, but memories and lessons learnt live on and inspire future projects. What is (was) the name and focus of your community; is it a place, a shared interest, a cultural connection or something else? Please describe: ‘Manky Chops’ (Mankys) was co-founded in 2008 by myself and Dave Smith simply because there were no art galleries in Wellington I wanted display my large kinky big eyed femme fatale paintings. Other artist friends of ours were looking for somewhere more suited to display their work also, somewhere a bit grimy and underground. We weren’t physically underground, but situated on the second floor of one of the oldest buildings on our block. The people who ventured up the graffiti covered stairwell, past the old book binder into the gallery/studio found themselves in a space that was REAL. Paint on the floor, ciggies in the ashtray (much to my eye rolling dismay) and kick arse art from our favourite NZ emerging and established artists. With every sponsored beer, at every exhibition opening, every couple of weeks, the artists met, friendships formed and collectives collected. Live music was a key ingredient to a good time at Mankys, and with every band that played a new fan base was made. And what’s a party without your local good time skate-boarding community?? Exactly! And so, a creative, crazy, talented community formed, and spread.

Above left: Manky Chops Patrons outside an exhibition opening. Above: interior view of Manky Chops

What/who keeps (kept) your community together? Helping each other out. It didn’t take long at all to figure that one out. Instead of everyone helping themselves, a lonely artist trying to get themselves out there, people and artists started helping each other and as soon as we realised life was much easier that way, it became the unspoken golden rule to everyone’s success. What (were) are some of the challenges facing your community? The first three years at Mankys we were voluntarily running the art space, it was all unpaid, full time. Luckily Dave also had a solid business he ran from the gallery space which helped with rent costs and I could be a full time artist from there so it all worked out perfectly. In the beginning art sales were booming, but over the years, once we had sold rad art to nearly every one of our loyal friends, Wellington belts tightened, with prices going up left right and centre. $3 for a friggen tomato I recall at one stage. It was no longer feasible to run a community space from our own pockets. We could have applied for funding, but the idea didn’t really appeal to us. Also, due to our interest in graffiti and the Manky youth trying their hand at it, we did attract a lot of unwanted harassment from “rival” graff gangs and what not. It sometimes got out of hand and although it was not what I signed up for, it definitely opened my eyes!

Above and above right: Wall facing Manky Chops on Cuba St Wellington. All images in this article appear courtesy of Xoe Hall.

What things do (did) you celebrate as a community? Art, music, surf and skate culture and good times. What does (did) your community give to you and what do you give to it? Running the gallery opened a whole new world for me. A naive 21 year old girl, who knew nothing about the art world but what pleased her eye, coming from a small town where I was the only one interested in what I was interested in. It was more than a pleasant surprise to watch and meet all the artists coming out of the city woodwork in the months we were setting up the space. I met people I had looked up to for years, met heaps of artists emerging like myself, I made like-minded friends for life, I learnt a hell of a lot about how to run a gallery, curate shows, create events, publicise others and myself. I also learnt a lot from my artist friends on how to broaden my self-taught painting skills. All the while along for the ride with everyone else. It was a treasured experience with no regrets. Xoe Hall is a full time artist and muralist living in Wellington, New Zealand. Xoe works from her art studio out the back of punk coffee shop/gallery/music store Black Coffee in Newtown, and is currently saving for Europe art adventures later in the year. Xoe aspires to get rich enough to live in a little house/studio in the country, own pygmy goats and make art always.

FELICITY MOORE Artist and photographer England - Auckland What comes to mind when you think about community? A community is a group of people who take care of each other either in a wide capacity like a village. For example through communal feeding initiatives (veggie plots) or in a smaller support role for example, a group of like-minded people who share common ground on a single or on many issues. Community – dead or alive? Why? Alive. Capitalism and the cult of the individual continually attempt to destroy communities through fear (media coverage of wars, crime, what may be about to happen), materialism, fashion, industrialisation, and money. However, people see through this fake creation and create their own communities. It is in our nature to do this. Communities are a government’s biggest fear – people talking to one another, especially face to face where their digital spying cannot reach. What is the name and focus of your community? The name of a community I belong to is the Auckland Women’s Centre. It is a place for shared concerns, for discussions, for action, for planning, for support. What/who keeps your community together? Hope, determination, the sense of community. What are some of the challenges facing your community? A monotheistic, paternalistic, capitalist society which attempts to trip people up at every opportunity; to push women to the back and to the bottom of the pile. What things do you celebrate as a community? All women. What does your community give to you and what do you give to it? Community gives me hope and energy. It gives me a place to explore ideas and discuss face to face with other people. I’m not sure what I give! What do you value about your community? That community is not dead and nothing will stop us talking to each other.

RICHIE HARDCORE 95bFM Radio Host, Muay Thai boxer/trainer, Community Facilitator for Community Action Youth and Drugs (CAYAD) What is your name and where are you from? My name is Richie Hardcore. I grew up in Glen Eden, West Auckland, but I’ve lived in Grey Lynn for the last 8 years. What comes to mind when you think about community? The first word that springs to mind is connection. Communities don’t have to be about physical locations, it can be about shared interests, beliefs and values. I’d say I’m part of several communities, both geographic ones, like Grey Lynn and ones of interest, like Muay Thai and Hardcore (music).

Community – dead or alive? Why? Despite the best attempts of the Neo-Liberal flag wavers, I’d say community is still alive. As both a radio host, and in my role as a community facilitator working to reduce alcohol and drug harm, I meet a mountain of empathetic people who volunteer and work super hard for the greater good, often for people they may have never met. I hear from and encounter so many people who feel connected to all sorts of different subgroups in Auckland, and it’s really heartening. What is the name and focus of your community; is it a place, a shared interest, a cultural connection or something else? Please describe: One community I feel super connected to is the New Zealand and World Wide Muay Thai community. From Thailand to Germany to The United States and Australia, I know and stay in touch with so many people from all walks of life through the sport. Despite differences in lifestyles from patched gang members to office workers and actors, the shared love and values of the sport, and the traditions that accompany it, bring us together with mutual respect. It’s pretty amazing when I stop and think about it. A simple passion for the sport, an understanding of the good it’s created in our lives and the lives of those around us, as well as a constant desire to see it grow, improve and be part of something that feels larger than us, is unifying. What/who keeps your community together? The Hardcore music scene is also another community that is global and I’m part of. There are real shared cultural understandings which keep the community together. Ideas around the crappy nature of mainstream society, a shared rejection of it, small day-to-day things we do to set ourselves outside of it, they all link us. These messages in the music link people from around the world. It’s uplifting to know that kids feel as disaffected in Germany and Buenos Aires as they do in Auckland, and we all sing along to the same songs, just sometimes in different languages. That sense of connection through a mutual disaffection, as oxymoronic as that seems, helps to keep the Hardcore community alive. What things do you celebrate as a community? My geographic community of Grey Lynn, in Central Auckland, celebrates its alternative nature every year at the Grey Lynn Festival. Despite increasing gentrification, which I suppose I’m a part of, it’s still a place of different cultures and alternative ideas. It’s pretty lefty and counter culture, which I guess is why I feel so at home here. I think the Grey Lynn festival and even the weekly markets celebrate and reinforce that. What does your community give to you and what do you give to it? The Hardcore scene, while I’m somewhat more removed from it now, gave me a real sense of belonging as a disaffected young dude. I gave a talk recently on being a rebel, and in preparing for it, I realized that Hardcore had taught me so many values, values that were truly rebellious and that have shaped my life and led me to academic study. I’d like to think I’ve taken the music and message of Hardcore and shared it with plenty of other people so they’ve gotten all the awesome things out of it I have. What do you value about your community? I value the diversity of my Muay Thai Community. People from all walks of life, ethnicity, religions, cultures and creeds come together in the sport. Interacting with them all enriches me as a person. So often we get stuck in bubbles of people similar to ourselves if we aren’t careful. That never happens in Muay Thai in my experience.

Image: Richie embracing Brad â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Quakeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Ridell, after Brad wins his world title fight for the World Kick Boxing Federation, Middle Weight, K-1 Rules division. Photo appears courtesy of and with a big thank you to, designer, photographer and martial artist William Luu. www.williamluu.com.au

DAMARIS COULTER Proprietor Cocos Cantina Karangahape Rd, Auckland What is your name and where are you from? My name is Damaris Jeanne Coulter. I was born in Kaitaia and brought up just outside of the Mangamuka gorge. I spent my teenage years in Auckland, then moved to Italy and again to England. I now live in the Freemans Bay park area and work on Karangahape Rd in Auckland. What comes to mind when you think about community? For me the first thing would be where I grew up, which was a small settlement called Victoria Valley in the far north – everyone knew everyone else. It was in the days when all the kids shared bikes, clothes and lunch. It was when a kid probably only a few months older than you was the babysitter and when you all went camping for 6 weeks over summer you were with your whole neighbourhood who weren’t your family but were all called cousins, aunties, uncles and it was when people actually did borrow a cup of sugar from each other and dropped off home kill and crayfish if there was any extra. My mother’s family were bought up in a very isolated part of Northland where everyone was poor and you relied heavily on your community, neighbours, family and Marae. My father’s parents were heavily involved in their community as well. They were in rural Northland also and if they weren’t doing something for their own families, then they were usually involved in the local hall, local community centre or church, the old folks home or charity shop. Both sets of grandparents were very giving and it was part of their everyday life to be of service to those around them in need, not for any other reason than to be helpful and that’s how things got done. For me today my community is my restaurant Cocos Cantina that I work in with my sister. Not only is this where I express my love for my craft of hospitality but my sister and I use it as a platform. We believe you are the change you want to see so we try and do that in and around Cocos. We believe that you can only start with yourself and so we try and create a community within Cocos that is inclusive to everyone. We have a very close tie with our direct family that work with us, we have a strong tie with our neighbouring businesses and residents, we have ongoing, growing relationships with the rough sleepers and hungry in our area, we have a growing working relationship with the prostitutes collective and we continue to get to know our community everyday. The word community to me means to be of service or to be part of, knowing others and being involved with the people around you at work, home and in your life.

“when people actually did borrow a cup of sugar”

Community – dead or alive? Why? Alive and kicking. Why? Because people are searching to be part of something, something with meaning and worth. I think people understand that true happiness and fulfilment comes from equality. People want to contribute and add value to their lives and other people’s lives.

What is the name and focus of your community; is it a place, a shared interest, a cultural connection or something else? Please describe: I don’t know if it has a name but I suppose for me it’s on and around Karangahape Rd. I suppose the focus that we try and have at Cocos is to try our very best to equalise the inequalities in the world through the restaurant starting on K’rd. I know that sounds idealistic however everyone at Cocos is a socialist and we believe in trying to iron out the shit things in the world through our presence and ethos. Whether that be through someone having dinner at our establishment or a conversation with someone walking past, or someone who is hungry and needs something to eat that we have noticed, or maybe just someone in need of a cuppa tea and a sit down. What/who keeps your community together? I think one only works with the other. My main community consists of my lover, my sister and her partner Steve, my ‘brother’ (Renee’s ex husband), my parents, my Cocos family and the people that come into contact with Cocos in some way or another, whether they are dining or around the area. We find that sometimes one part of the community needs more attention or glue than the other parts so everyone else just steps up to the bit that’s needs more love. What are some of the challenges facing your community? Safety. Poverty. Homelessness. Equality. Mental health. Addiction. Cultural affairs. Auckland City Council (they are my biggest challenge!). What things do you celebrate as a community? Acceptance of everyone and all walks of life, diversity, cultural diversity, art, free thinking, equality, history,community, hospitality, music, craft. What does your community give to you and what do you give to it? My community gives me perspective everyday, it gives me gratitude, it gives me variety and inclusiveness, it gives me relationships with people, it also feeds me when I’m hungry (especially Sri Panang and Hare Krishna) it gives me beautiful coffee, it gives me creative shopping, it gives me hidden treasures and it confronts me everyday. I don’t know what I give it but I work in my restaurant everyday so I suppose I give it a regular face and I try to support K’rd when I’m buying coffee, food, clothes, knick-knacks for the restaurant and groceries for the kitchen. You can visit Cocos Cantina, Tuesday-Saturday, 5pm-late 376–378 Karangahape Rd Auckland, New Zealand

What do you value about your community? I value the people in my community! I feel so lucky to be surrounded by intelligent, forward thinking, generous and creative people everywhere I look. I value my sister, she is amazing, she is fair, kind & level headed and shares a similar outlook on our community ( also she keeps my taniwha calm). I value the prostitutes collective for all of their amazing work they do in our community, I value the Kâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;rd Business Association for dealing with difficult situations for business owners, I value the artists and creatives who continue to support the area and what Krd stands for, and I value the camaraderie and kindness that people show one another in the area whether they flat, work or have a business here. In the Kâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;rd area, there is a shared respect for one another.