Building (Under the Volcano)

About the Exhibition:

Building (Under the Volcano) is a collaboration between artist Richard Reddaway (Massey University College of Creative Arts), designer and architectural historian Kate Linzey (The Architectural Centre), and architect Matt Liggins and architecture students from University of Auckland’s Bachelor of Architectural Studies. It explores suburban built environments and the genealogy of forms that constitute Te Hau Kapua-Devonport to ponder relationships to the whenua, how we choose to create our homes and how different cultural understandings and expressions of home shape our suburban environment.

They will work for a week in residence at DEPOT’s Te Whare Toi, the Kerr Street artspace, a mid-century community hall with a long history of supporting creative experimentation and skills development. They will build structures imagining forms/structures in response to the Te Hau Kapua environment. These will be made using recycled cardboard (through support from Resource Recovery Devonport) and slathered in recycled paint – sourced from Te Hau Kapua Garden sheds and garages through community donations. The structures have evolved through a drawing/making workshop over Easter.

The water-based paints sourced from the neighbourhood will form a partial index of recent (and not-so-recent) choices about what colours folk have painted their houses, fences and sheds. What colours will be offered up – will there be an extensive range of beige, oatmeal, off-white and pale grey, or will more vibrant colours be in the mix? Will they reveal how we think about houses as spaces for creative expression, or will the donated spectrum be dominated by pressures to decorate for potential future buyers?

Building (Under the Volcano) draws from the genealogy of forms that constitute Te Hau Kapua – Devonport: from the traces of pā in the landscape and remnants of early colonial farming settlement, the predominant Victorian tract housing of the early 20th Century, experiments with Modernism in the post-war era and proliferation of Navy housing. Since the 1980s land prices have skyrocketed, dilapidated Victorian villas have been renovated and in-filled with Post- then Neo-Modernist dreams.

The project wonders about a plurality of relationships to land, to whenua and how we choose to create our homes. How might this exploration connect into the sensual and remembered histories of place, the green grass of Mt. Victoria and toys on the beach? How do different cultural understandings and expressions of home shape our suburban environment? Is there “[a]n inherent tension within Pākehā attitudes towards landscape […] between appreciation on one hand, and entitlement to resource extraction and modification on the other”1 as Jade Kake says?

Public Programmes

Panel Discussion – Provoking Architecture Devonport

Saturday 19 July, 4:30-6:30pm
Devonport RSA, Level 1 Devonia House, 61 Victoria Rd, Devonport

A thought-provoking evening exploring the evolving character and future of Te Hau Kapua – Devonport as village, suburb, and living ecosystem informed by both exhibitions Urban Adaptations – Te Hau Kapua Mō Apōpō / Devonport Tomorrow and Building (Under the Volcano). Each panellist will be asked to talk for about 5 minutes to each or one of the propositions:

• How can the future development of Devonport Village be a model of sustainable intensification while reflecting the mana of our bi-cultural and built heritage? 
• Why so beige? are the aesthetics of our built environment homogenising our vision of community? Is a normative use of ‘natural’ paint reflecting that ‘home’ and ‘community’ have been reduced to an economics of ownership, of purchase and resale? If the future is anything it will be diverse – how can aesthetics in our built environment make room for everyone?

The panel will be chaired by author, satirist, public speaker, broadcaster and Devonport local David Slack. 

The panel includes: Jade Kake: Architect, Writer, Housing advocate, Teacher/AUT, Ngāpuhi (Ngāti Hau me Te Parawhau), Te Whakatōhea, Te Arawa; Rau Hoskins: Director Design Tribe, Teacher/Unitec, Ngāti Hau, Ngāpuhi, BArch, MArch(Hons), Pae Matua Ngā Aho; Duncan Ecob: Urban Designer at Auckland Council and Devonport local; Mike Thomas: Landscape Architect and Devonport local; Joanna Theodore: Heritage Architect and Devonport local; Kate Linzey: Graduate Architect, Independent Researcher, architectural advocate, Wellington Architectural Centre and former Devonport local; Mike Sweetman: Development Manager, Precinct Properties and Devonport local.

Provoking Architecture Devonport

Saturday 19 July, 4:30-6:30pm

Devonport RSA, Level 1 Devonia House, 61 Victoria Rd, Devonport.

A thought-provoking evening exploring the evolving character and future of Te Hau Kapua – Devonport as village, suburb, and living ecosystem.

Lectures:

George Street Upgrade , Dunedin – lessons for Devonport	Wednesday 23 July, 7pm	Harmony Hall, 4 Wynyard Street, Devonport	Devonport Landscape Architect Mike Thomas talks about the recently completed urban upgrade of the public spaces along Dunedin’s George Street, when he led the project team at Jasmax and the lessons and opportunities this project might reveal for Devonport.
Heritage and Adaptive Re-Use	Saturday 26 July, 10am	Harmony Hall, 4 Wynyard Street, Devonport	Architectural Historian Julia Gatley of Auckland University and Heritage Architect Joanna Theodore, both from Devonport will talk about built heritage and adaptive re-use
Density and Liveability: What this means and how to deliver it	Wednesday 13 August, 7pm	Harmony Hall, 4 Wynyard Street, Devonport	Density, in terms of New Zealand’s built environment, is often perceived as the antithesis to the Kiwi Dream. But what about places, both overseas and in New Zealand, that use density to *increase* quality of life? Join planner and urban designer George Weeks for a world tour of best practice. Learn what dense liveability means and what is needed to make it happen consistently.

Movies:

Citizen Jane  – Battle for the City	Thursday 17 July, 8pm	The Vic Theatre, 48 Victoria Rd, Devonport.	This fascinating documentary about urban planning considers the continuing relevance of the showdown, half a century ago, between the activist Jane Jacobs and the Trumpian Robert Moses: a fight for the future of New York. Jane Jacobs, a housewife and activist, challenged modern city planning and rebuilding, advocating for the importance of people in cities.	Get Tickets
Maurice and I	Monday 21 July, 8pm	The Vic Theatre, 48 Victoria Rd, Devonport	“Maurice and I” is a New Zealand, feature-length documentary that celebrates the transformative architectural partnership of Sir Miles Warren and Maurice Mahoney, whose innovative brutalist; designs redefined Christchurch in the 1960s and 70s, enhancing the community’s cultural and social fabric. Their work, including the iconic Christchurch Town Hall, was nearly erased by the 2011 earthquakes. Through rare archival footage and exclusive interviews, including their final conversation together, the film reflects on their remarkable legacy, the community impact of their bold architectural vision, and the enduring importance of architecture in shaping and enriching our lives	Get Tickets

About the Artists

Richard Reddaway

Richard Reddaway is an artist and Associate Professor at the Massey University Whiti o Rehua School of Art in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. His art makes photography an object, an active sculpture, has filled space and made noise. His latest obsession is making art “work” to find a way out of neo-liberalism into the social, perhaps through a contemporary understanding of the baroque.

His recent projects include the curation of El Barroco de Aotearoa (MUCA Roma, Mexico City 2011), and his art has been included in Kiss Me Hardy (but not like that) 9th Suter Contemporary Art Project, Suter Art Gallery (2021), ISLAS (Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas, The Canary Islands, 1997), Distance Looks Our Way: Ten Artists From New Zealand (various venues the Netherlands and Spain 1993); Art Now: The First Biennial Review of Contemporary Art (Museum of New Zealand, 1992), Limited Sedition (ARX ’87, Perth, Australia, 1987), and numerous solo and collaborative projects internationally and in New Zealand.

@richardreddaway | richardreddaway.net

Kate Linzey

Kate Linzey is an independent scholar. Raised in Devonport she has many childhood memories of the lovely suburb – her family still lives in the area and she visits regularly. After completing degrees in Architecture at the University of Auckland, in 2019 Kate completed a PhD at the University of Queensland. This thesis was an exploration of the nexus of art and architecture in the work of kinetic artist and film-make Len Lye (1901-1980). She has written on local architectural practices and organises the Wellington community group, the Architectural Centre.

@kate.linzey

Matt Liggins

Matt Liggins (Ngati Ruanui) is a Professional Teaching Fellow and director of Matt Liggins Studio is a cross discipline practice which engages with a diverse field of creative pursuits. The architectural projects range from new residential houses to alterations and additions in both New Zealand and Australia. Matt departed Aotearoa soon after receiving an honors degree in Architecture from the University of Auckland, School of Architecture & Planning. After 13 years in practice in New Zealand at Denis Pocock Architects, in London working for the Girls Day School Trust and Sydney for Renato D’Ettorre Architects, he returned to the School in 2015 to take up a position as a Professional Teaching Fellow. Matt has successfully exhibited his paintings and sculptures works both individually and collectively in Australia and New Zealand. He is a regular contributor to Auckland Artweek and recently won a Gold Pin at the 2017 Best Awards for his Real Pyramid Schemer installation, which has toured the country for various festivals. His work ‘The House of 9,783 plastic bags / house for the homeless 2’ featured a tiny house lined with coloured plastic bags with a queen sized bed inside which Matt slept in down at the waterfront for Artweek 2018.‘The Vitruvian Tunnel’ for Brightnights 2019 was is a finalist for the best awards 2019, provided the public to be part of a 500 year old architectural history, and has been installed at various light festivals and museums around the North Island. Matt is currently building the ‘Eucildean tower’ for Splore music festival 2023. The tower interprets point line plane geometry from the outside of the tower to the interior.

@matt_liggins

Building (Under the Volcano) is supported by Resource Recovery Devonport, Massey University, and University of Auckland