Between Earth and Sky is a two day event held at a range of locations throughout Wellington City. Over the two days participants will have the opportunity to hear from artists and makers from across the south as they explore and debate issues dealing with the creation of local identity in an increasingly global society.

The South Project October 20-21

South Project in Wellington

Image: Lonnie Hutchinson's Carbon Star 2003Between Earth and Sky is a two day event held at a range of locations throughout Wellington City. Over the two days participants will have the opportunity to hear from artists and makers from across the south as they explore and debate issues dealing with the creation of local identity in an increasingly global society.

The South Project October 20-21

South Project in Wellington

Image: Lonnie Hutchinson's Carbon Star 2003There will be further creative responses to the histories of colonisation, Internet, Free Trade Agreements, migration, tourism, and global spectacle.

To compliment the forum day on the 20th October a series of workshops will he held on the 21 October to provide makers and artists, as well as the general public, with the opportunity to practically engage with the visiting facilitators, to collaborate, learn new skills, and further explore issues confronting the populations of the south, and in particular the artists, makers and cultural workers who choose to call the south home.

Terror Tour artist crew heads to Wellington armed with a stockpile of umbrellas.

West-Australian based artist collective pvi made quite an impact in Australia in 2004 with the controversial artist action the TTS:Australia tour. This politically engaged art action held in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide over the course of a six month period was in part an attempt by the collective to explore the culture of fear that has proliferated in the Australian media in recent years. Escorting a paying audience to the main attractions of each centre; the Sydney opera house, the Crown Casino in Melbourne, in a purposefully fitted mini-bus fully laden with visual and audio devices to keep the audiences attention, the pvi group in true military fashion would dictate to an unwitting audience 'useful facts' about each attraction - facts that would indicate the potential of each attraction as a 'target'. Met with rave reviews in each centre the tts:Australia tour successfully bought contemporary art action face to face with a main stream audience, and people were literally queuing up to participate.

Heading to Wellington, New Zealand, in October of this year as part of the South Project Gathering pvi collective will depart from the TTS to introduce another of their on going public intervention artworks: Panopticon.

As with tts, Panopticon is an artwork that attempts to question the various forms of social control that we live under in an increasingly anxious cultural climate. Encapsulated by the Panopticon, made entirely of used umbrellas, a member of the public is asked to put themselves at the mercy of the artists as they are directed through a public space with absolutely no sight, their only direction the sound of the one of the pvi's voices delivering instructions. Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art curator Vivienne Web explains: "instead of protection from natural elements, the umbrella is utilised as a barrier against invasive technology. Patently inadequate to the task, its very failure poetically highlights the extensive use of technologies of control within our public spaces - "

Following an intensive workshop for the South Project Gathering, pvi will bring the Panopticon out to face the elements. In a city notorious for its tumultuous weather it will remain to be seen whether pvi's Panoptican can offer some sort of protection. Pvi will be escorting the Panopticon down Cuba Street on the 21st of October. Starting at the newly opened Wellington Arts Centre the action will finish at the Wellington City Gallery and mark the end of the South Project's two day Gathering in Wellington.

All are welcome to view the spectacle but pvi are going to need willing subjects to guide. For more information on how to participate visit the South Project website. www.southproject.org or contact Nicola Harvey nharvey@craftvic.asn.au