Tuatara Open Late: Anthonie Tonnon, Fresh Perspectives on From Scratch, Can Music be Political?

Overview

Have you been patiently waiting for your favourite ever-changing art event to return? Well, we've got fantastic news Wellington, Tuatara Open Late returns for 2019 on the first Thursday of February. This month, the room will be filled with the aroma of Mexican food while you wander through these summer exhibitions after hours:

555 Moons by From Scratch, New Zealand's best-known art/music ensemble. From Scratch is known for its invented instruments, utopian egalitarian politics, and engagement with the sounds and rhythms of the Pacific. Live performance at 6pm.

In Transit by Yona Lee, the Auckland-based, New Zealand–Korean artist. Yona Lee makes large, maze-like installations. Hundreds of metres of stainless-steel pipe are cut and welded to form elaborate linear structures, bisecting and transforming gallery spaces and the activities that take place there. By incorporating a miscellany of surprising urban and domestic fixtures, Lee infuses her pipe structures with everyday surrealism.

#18 by Cao Fei, one of China's leading contemporary artists. Cao Fei dragged the art world into the virtual world with RMB City (2007–11), a virtual metropolis built and hosted on the online platform Second Life. Her work continues to explore the fluid boundaries between physical and virtual existence, especially as mediated by art, industry, and technology.

From 5pm the galleries will be open, while the cash bar is churning and La Boca Loca and Boquita serve supper treats. Later, a panel of speakers will ask 'Can Music be Political?' chaired by Nick Bollinger; composer and professor Eve de Castro-Robinson, composer and percussionist Gareth Farr, and sound artist and academic Dugal McKinnon will look at fresh perspectives on From Scratch; plus Anthonie Tonnon will take centre stage for a live performance.

Image: Mark Tantrum/City Gallery.