The Thrum of the Tide
The Thrum of the Tide
The thrum of the tide by Jenny Gillam and Eugene Hansen (Maniapoto) AKA vjRex.
Exhibited at Te Uru Gallery 20/2/21 -6/6/21.
The thrum of the tide is about the early 20th century story of Te Ana Ru, a sea cave known as ‘the ballroom cave’. It has been said that early settlers held Saturday night dances in the cave until the 1920s on a re-purposed kauri floor installed by local timber mill workers. It would be hoisted to the ceiling of the cave to protect it from high tides. The dances are a well-known folklore in Huia and Whatipū and it is thought the floor might still be in the cave, buried deep under sand.
A re-creation of the moveable floor presented in the gallery, accompanied by a soundscape of subterranean seismic vibrations and taonga pūoro by Riki Bennett (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue, Te Arawa, Ngāti Porou) captured in Te Ana Ru during the artists’ tenure on the Auckland Regional Parks Artist Residency in 2019.
The exhibition is accompanied by a risograph publication."Te Ana Ru" Limited copies are available from Te Uru's shop.
Radio New Zealand interview with Lynn Freeman
Related Events:
Saturday 27 March 2021 Musician, Kingsley Spargo responds to The thrum of the tide, in association with Titirangi Festival of Music.
Friday 9 April at 6.30pm 2021 New Moon Folk Ball in association with Auckland Arts Festival.
Saturday 10 April at 4.30pm 2021 in association with Auckland Arts Festival, contemporary dancers Michael Parmenter and Claire O’Neil perform on the dancefloor. Pita Turei (Ngai Tai Ki Tamaki, Ngāti Pāoa, Ngā Rauru Kiitahi) told the story of dancer, Rangimārie, and Sir Bob Harvey spoke of his recollections of Te Ana Ru.
Bellow is the 6 hour and 15 minute soundscape of subterranean seismic vibrations and taonga pūoro by Riki Bennett (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue, Te Arawa, Ngāti Porou)which can be heard and felt emanating from under the Kauri Dance Floor. The Seismic recording and taona puoro were both captured in Te Ana RU using 5.1 surround sound and are in that format bellow. Most of the Recording is inaudible if listened to in stereo.
Te Ana Ru
"Te Ana Ru" is a Risograph Publication produced by the Artists and published by Te Uru. The book is a partial contextualization of the History of Te Ana Ru (the ballroom cave) and the Kauri dance floor it once contained. It contains Historical materials, Photographs by Jenny Gillam and texts by Gillam and Hansen which reflect on the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial histories of Te Ana Ru. Hansen's text is written in collaboration with 4AI trained using the GPT-2 algorithm.
Related Events:
Kingsley Spargo
Michael Parmenter and Claire O’Neil
Pita Turei (Ngai Tai Ki Tamaki, Ngāti Pāoa, Ngā Rauru Kiitahi) and Sir Bob Harvey
