Media Release - 20th February 2008

The Junk to Funk Art Awards which take place as part of Wastebusters WasteFest (Ashburton) will now be hosted by the Ashburton Art Gallery. Ashburton Art Gallery Manager/Curator Kathryn Mitchell has, in the past, been invited to judge the awards. "We feel that we can be a valuable partner to Wastebusters in developing and growing the Junk to Funk Art Awards. We see the Waste Fest and the Awards as a uniquely Ashburton Event which promotes Ashburton as a district of innovation and opportunity." The 2008 Junk toFunk Art Awards will be hosted by the Ashburton Art Gallery from the 19th July to the 17th August. The focus of the awards is on the use of recycled materials to create artworks. The first prize is $3000 and merit awards maybe awarded at the judge's discretion (judge still to be confirmed).

Entries close on the 13th June. Entry forms and conditions of entry are available from the Ashburton Art Gallery.

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14 February 2008

MEDIA RELEASE

SIGNIFY: A FASHION/ART COLLABORATION

Exhibition at Ashburton Art Gallery: 16th February - 15th March 2008

Signify: A Fashion Art Collaboration is an exhibition/event which draws together the New Zealand fashion and fine art sectors. New Zealand designers/companies have donated garments which have been painted by selected New Zealand artists (washable fabric paints). The exhibition/event takes place every two years and is also a fundraising event for the Gallery. The Ashburton Art Gallery committee fund raises annually towards the development of services - particularly education programmes and collection based services. The Signify exhibition is made up of the painted garmentsand a selected number of artworks by contributing artists - allowing visitors to see the relationship between the artist's work and their contribution to the garment. (Artworks will be for sale but will not be part of the auction). An auction evening is being held on Saturday the 15th of March 2008 with Mr. Chris Finlayson (MP National Party: Spokesman for Arts,Culture and Heritage) as the official guest speaker. Haunted Love will alsobe performing. Some of the contributors taking part to date are as follows: Liz Mitchell, Trelise Cooper, Vamp, Bobby's, Doosh, Helen Talbot, PetrenaMiller, Sabatini, The Sander Tie Company, Silkbody, Ewan McDougall, DianaSmillie, Mark Braunias, Margaret Digby, Michael Armstrong, Lyn Plummer, David Elliot, Janet de Wagt, Bing Dawe, Debbie Lambert, Peter Cleverley and more.

HAUNTED LOVE

In 2005 Rainy and Geva met on their first day at work for Dunedin CityMuseums. They discovered that they shared a love of pop music, the macabre,and teen angst. The Haunted Love duo was formed, and performed for the firsttime on Halloween that year.

Geva provides a classic gothic sound and electronic beats via herliving-room organ, The Zachary Enchanter, while Rainy adds a sprinkling ofcountry with a vintage acoustic guitar handed down from her mother.

The girls' complementary, though very different, voices create a sound thatis a blend of innocence and doom, perfectly suited to their preferredsubject matter. Libraries, museum ghosts, werewolves in love, computer lust,and ponies that just won't go feature among their stories of mystery andlove, the condemned resurrected, heartache and hauntings of all kinds. Theirsound has been affectionately described as being like "two teenage girlslocked in their grandmother's lounge, trying to play 80's pop hits theyheard once on the radio". The band's name is derived from the girls'collection of 60's and 70's Charlton gothic-romance comic book series. Theseare an endless inspiration for their songs. Other sources of inspirationinclude; Teenage crushes, abandoned computer graveyards, oversizedspectacles, robots, Edgar Allen Poe, Joan of Arc and zombies trying to makeit in the modern world.

In 2006 Haunted Love produced their first music video, for the song"Librarian". This film noir/horror parody was filmed in the basement of theDunedin City Library and featured Haunted Love in full librarian garbdishing out otherworldly comeuppance to a boy committing library sins. Thevideo became a hit with librarians all over the world when it was posted onYoutube where it netted an average of a thousand views per day for manyweeks. Haunted Love continues to receive mail from librarians everywhere.Haunted Love are currently recording their first EP.

Images : Haunted Love and Sander Company Tie painted by David Elliot. Additional images available on request

Contact: Kathryn Mitchell
Ashburton Art Gallery
03 308 1133
info@ashburtonartgallery.org.nz

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