Art arcade returns to Wellington
A three-kilometre pink line is wending its way down Wellington’s waterfront.
Running from Oriental Bay to the railway station, before long, the line will be dotted with arts, music, food and shipping containers in this year’s Performance Arcade, launching on February 21.
As a child, Performance Arcade director and founder Sam Trubridge would walk along the beach. He’d explore the high tide mark, where the waves had washed up bits and pieces from the sea – things from across the ocean. ‘‘That line that hugs the coast is a great space to find things and I think that’s a big part of this [pink] line. This is exactly that really.’’
The annual festival along the waterfront brings together artists, performances – and this year food designers – to showcase their works in a public space. This year, about 20 shipping containers close to Te Papa will host artists and installations, while others will spread out along the pink line.
Trubridge said he was particularly interested in seeing a series of 16 installations along the line from Italian artists Le Jetee, looking at bylaws around the world that govern public spaces. Diagrams will be spaced along the line: from one looking at children’s playgrounds in Rome to inspiration from Iceland and its bylaws.
Other performances include Wanaka artist Ivan Lupi. As part of his performance, X, he will be inviting members of the audience to enter a polling booth and tattoo an ‘‘x’’ on the back of his hand.
‘‘What we’re doing within the arcade this year is just pushing and testing and developing strategies to bring the audience and art together,’’ Trubridge said. ‘‘There are so many layers that have been added to the event that it just has this sort of complexity to it.’’
This is the first year the pink line has been added to the event.
‘‘It connects a very diverse programme of experiences – we created a very rich programme along that whole space as a pathway that people can follow and explore.’’
The Performance Arcade will launch on February 21 and will run until March 3.
Most events will be free and open to the public. For details, visit theperformancearcade.com.