Artist blew up Chch red zone
British artist Tom Dale put up a drone above the Christchurch red zone and then set off smoke bombs in the name of art.
The resulting short art film, called The Red Zone, was shot above the residential red zone in October last year and shown on British television.
It features narration over eerie aerial shots of the empty red zone streets, including burnout marks, abandoned cars and deserted backyards.
In one shot, white smoke bombs are set off in what were once suburbs. Dale said the film, which will be shown at the Centre of Contemporary Art (CoCA) as part of the Scape Public Art festival, is about dealing with loss or traumatic change.
‘‘When you look at it from the air, it is like all the houses have just been lifted away,’’ he said.
‘‘The explosions are not about blowing up the red zone, but about a shift or a change in how you understand things.’’
He said the smoke bombs mark a turning point in the film.
‘‘The smoke comes up and breaks the rigid grid of the floor plan of the city. Once the smoke goes off the film completely changes.’’
‘‘Before then it is about loss and falling away. After the explosions, the voice over talks about the fact that buried in dust are these diamonds that await you.
‘‘Everybody, as you go through life, experiences loss or big changes. This is about how we navigate that, whether it is something on a large scale like an earthquake or direct personal loss.
‘‘At a certain point, you have to decide how to use this sudden change to your advantage.’’
A new sculpture by Dale will be installed on the corner of Chester St West and Durham St for the Scape Public Art festival. The artwork, called Monument to the Present ,isa large orange ball of silhouetted arms pointing in different directions.
The arms are drawn from photographs of politicians, rocks stars and sporting heroes taken from New Zealand newspapers. The arms include those of Jacinda Ardern, Bill English and the drummer from Kiss.
‘‘I am interested in monuments being about focus. It is a bit like demonstrating power somehow,’’ he said.
‘‘I wanted a monument that spoke in that monumental language, but pointed out the fallibility of monuments and saying one definite fixed thing.’’
Instead of one single, fixed idea, the sculpture is a chaos of arms, pointing into the infinite like politicians at the podium.
‘‘Politicians are always pointing to this infinite space just beyond the everyday and saying this is where we are going and what we are going to do.
‘‘We have to tolerate the incompetence of these people. We are always the one mopping up the mess and recovering from their preposterous claims and promises.’’
The Scape Public Art festival runs from October 6 to November 17. EntX Christchurch Entertainment Central is open! With a huge array of food, seven cinemas and a Treat City, this place is hands-down the country’s coolest cinema experience. Did I mention all the seats are recliners? And the luxury cinema has aeroplane-style call buttons for mid-movie snacks? Get out of town, love it. Worth a visit, a meal and a movie.