a place for local making
XIN CHENG & ADAM BEN-DROR WITH SUPPORT FROM GRACE RYDER
Property Partner: Readings Cinema
Location: 104 Courtenay Place, Te Whanganui-a-Tara.
Dates: February - May 2022
Websites:
A Place for Local Making is a co-creative hub for open-source making, where artists Xin Cheng (Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland) and Adam Ben-Dror (Te Awakairangi Lower Hutt) will welcome anyone to join them in an exploration of resourcefulness. Aiming to inspire imaginative and caring ways of making and living, A Place for Local Making invites inquisitive collaborators to bring in surplus materials and electronics, and to play, make and think with the materials, transforming them into useful or enjoyable things. Wishing to celebrate the local community of maker-carer-user-hackers, they also welcome anyone who makes, repairs and repurposes to share and showcase their invaluable creations.
“In a climate of overflowing landfills and businesses striving for circularity, we see an opportunity for local and creative making which gives ‘waste’ new lives, while fostering convivial and resilient communities. We want to share the joy of playing and creating, make friends with like-minded people, and to grow public places in the city where anyone could imagine and plant new stories and values around how we want to live and care for our material and ecological surroundings, together.”
A public programme will commence in March, with a series of collaborative events, including hands-on workshops, reading groups and open discussions with political leaders, advocates, community leaders and contributors, innovators, researchers, designers and friends.
The activation will go forward under strict COVID-19 protocols based on guidance from the Government and MoH.
About the artists:
Adam Ben-Dror is an artist-inventor who has taught design at Victoria University Wellington for the past few years. He recently turned a toy Lamborghini into a tele-presence robot which roamed around the city making friends. Collaborating with Xin they made two films on inter-species kinship within Te Whanganui-a-tara and Te Awa Kairangi for the Dowse Art Museum. Adam studied fine arts at the University of Auckland, design at Victoria University Wellington and robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA.
Xin Cheng is an artist and researcher and sometimes design teacher. She has been researching everyday resourcefulness around the earth since 2007. Recently she has been recording the sound of the dance between wind and trees. Previously she was a co-director of the artist-run space RM in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Xin studied social design at Hamburg University of Fine Arts, Germany, and ecology, psychology and fine arts at The University of Auckland.
Originally from Ōkakea West Melton, Grace Ryder (Pākehā, Polish and British) is an independent curator based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington. She is currently researching the late rug-maker and designer, Beatrice Cross, while also expanding her research and interests on care in a variety of practices, processes and outcomes, including this one.
A Place for Local Making is one outcome of A Laboratory for the Richness of Nothing, a ten-week period of research and development between the three practitioners and their local and international networks of peers. A Laboratory is generously funded by Creative New Zealand Toi Aotearoa. A Place for Local Making is funded by Wellington City Council with support from various non-profit organizations, including The Sustainability Trust, Earthlink and Activities and Research in Environments for Creativity Trust.
