Public Programme October-December 2022

Exhibition Opening & Reception
Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery 
6.00pm, Friday 21 October
Join us to celebrate the opening of the final exhibitions for 2022, Megan Dunn: The Mermaid Chronicles and Lucien Rizos: Everything

Exhibition Tour 
Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery 
12.00pm, Saturday 29 October 
Join curator Robert Leonard and artist Lucien Rizos for a tour of the current exhibition Lucien Rizos: Everything 

Exhibition Tour 
Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery 
2.00pm, Saturday 29 October   
Join Megan Dunn writer and curator of The Mermaid Chronicles for a tour of her exhibition. 

Sirens of the Silver Screen FILM SERIES
Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery
Free, no booking required

Over the course of Megan Dunn: The Mermaid Chronicles we are screening a selection of films that celebrate, play with and reference the mermaid in popular culture and mythology. Each film will be prefaced by a conversation conducted between Megan Dunn and a special guest. Films screened with thanks to Aro Video.

Splash, 1984 dir. Ron Howard, 1h 51m, PG (Coarse language & sexual references) with mermaid tail-maker Robert Short
6.00pm, Wednesday 2 November
A young man is reunited with a mermaid who saved him from drowning as a boy. He falls in love with her, not knowing who or what she is.

Million Dollar Mermaid, 1952 dir. Mervyn Le Roy, 1h 55m, Gwith Dr Jennifer Kokai
6.00pm, Wednesday 16 November

Biopic of Australian swimming champ and entertainer Annette Kellerman. After overcoming polio, Kellerman achieves fame and creates a scandal when her one-piece bathing suit is considered indecent.

I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing, 1987 dir. Patricia Rozema, 1h 21m, PG (Adult themes) with director Patricia Rozema
6.00pm, Wednesday 30 November

Scatter-brained Polly who has frequent whimsical fantasies involving mermaids, gets a job as a secretary in Gabrielle’s art gallery. Polly aspires to be a professional photographer and idolises Gabrielle for her sophistication. When Gabrielle rekindles an old romantic relationship with the younger painter Mary, Polly becomes jealous, and discovers Gabrielle is not who she claims to be.

Bridging Worlds LUNCHTIME TALK SERIES
Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery
Free, no booking required
Alongside Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery’s current exhibitions we are hosting a series of lunchtime talks exploring private obsessions in real world contexts and the ways imaginative personas enable slippage between identity categories.

Exploring ‘Everything’
12.00pm, Thursday 17 November

Gerald O’Brien was like a father to Lucien Rizos, yet throughout their time together O’Brien never mentioned his lifelong creative project which is featured in Rizos’s exhibition, Everything. Join Rizos in conversation with Wellington artist and writer Gregory O’Brien (no relation to Gerald, incidentally) as they discuss and try to make sense of O’Brien’s life and the fantasy world he kept secret.

Life & Times of Gerald O’Brien
12.00pm, Thursday 1st December

O’Brien held many roles during his long life – he had been a radar operator in the airforce, a businessman, a city councillor, and eventually the president of the World Peace Council. As a prominent politician he was elected during a time of change within both the Labour Party and within Aotearoa as a whole. In this lunchtime talk political historian, Jim McAloon, offers compelling insights into the social and political context in which Gerald O’Brien lived and worked.

Mermaid Metaphors & Other Tales
12.00pm, Thursday 8 December

Join us to explore some recent poems by trans and indigenous writers who identify with or respond to the mermaid as a figure who slips between categories.

Reading Environments
GROUP DISCUSSION
Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery 
4.30pm – 6.30pm, Tuesdays, 25 October & 29 November

Reading Environments is a small gesture in reading together. Hosted by Associate Professor Susan Ballard (Art History), Dr Bonnie Etherington, and
Dr Adam Grener (English Literatures and Creative Communication) Reading Environments is a collaborative foray into the world of reading across
environments, literatures and the arts. The aim is to bring together academics, students and interested members of the public to delve into and discuss current work in the Environmental Humanities as we consider how to navigate our changing environmental contexts. Spaces are limited, and there are readings to prepare. To find out more, please visit https://
readingenvironments.wordpress.com/
To register your interest, please email susan.ballard@vuw.ac.nz.

Lana Lopesi: Moana Cosmopolitan Imaginaries
The 20th Gordon H. Brown Lecture (2022)

6.00pm, Thursday 10 November
City Gallery, Wellington
Free, registration essential
. Register here
In the last decade, a digital native generation of Moana artists have positioned themselves away from the narratives of displacement and non-belonging featured in the Moana art of previous generations, imagining
their subjectivity in globally routed, yet locally rooted, ways. Premised on the diasporic, interconnected, and cosmopolitan character of Moana life today, this lecture examines the way this generation of Moana artists imagine their subjectivities, their cultures, and their places in the world through contemporary art. A well-known author, art critic and editor, Dr Lana Lopesi is Assistant Professor of Pacific Islander Studies
at the University of Oregon. She will be speaking to us
via live-stream.
The 20th Gordon H. Brown Lecture is hosted by Art History Tāhuhu Korero Toi and Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington in partnership with City Gallery Wellington.

D&D&Kaputī
Half-day workshop with Lisa Blakie
Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery
12.00pm – 4.00pm, Rātapu Sunday 20 November
Utukore (free) or koha (donation) – places limited, registration essential. Register here
.
Nau mai, haere mai! Explore the storytelling potential of Dungeons & Dragons in a half-day workshop, welcoming all newbies along with more seasoned players who want to learn how Māori perspectives can be woven into the game. This workshop is led by Ōtepoti/Dunedin-based Narrative Director and a Co-Director of Atawhai Interactive, Lisa Blakie (Ngāi Tahu, Waitaha). Drawing on the D&D campaign set in pre-colonial Aotearoa she designed, Lisa will guide participants in developing characters and their
immersive worlds imagined from te taiao (the natural realm). This workshop has been instigated by Curatorial Assistant Louie Zalk-Neale as the culminating event associated with their time at Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art
Gallery. Kaputī and snacks provided!