The Tauranga Fringe 2022, a one day extravaganza showcasing all forms of art with a particular focus on the weird and wonderful, will be held at the Historic Village on 17th Avenue from 10am to 5pm, on Saturday 15 January.
The festival will have something for all the family – from a hula hoop party to pop up theatre, street performers, art, fashion shows, poetry, music, films, market stalls and food.
“The Tauranga Fringe 2022 has a focus on bringing stimulating art experiences to the community,” said Simone Anderson, Director of The Incubator Creative Hub, “It’s a one-day, arts-blast spectacular as hundreds of Tauranga’s creatives parade, produce, present and perform. It is about handing the microphone to our artistic community and creating a platform for our arts sector to connect with audience and spectators.”
The inaugural Tauranga Fringe was held in 2019 and saw more than 5,000 attend over the day with hundreds more working behind the scene. This year’s festival is also set to be another manifestation of creativity.
“Our vision for 2022 has been to create a one day spectacular full of the strange and bizarre, the beautiful, and the provocative. It’s only a tenner gate charge for people to attend for a whole day of events, music and markets, and under 14 year-olds are free,” Simone said.
The festival includes a popular open studio aspect to give Tauranga a glimpse of the busy creative village life, where the public are able to visit the working studios of artists who are based in The Incubator Creative Hub.
A festival of micro exhibitions
Festival Director Ayesha Kee has been delighted by the number of pop-up exhibitions that have been submitted for this year’s event.
“We’ve had amazing entries including several micro exhibitions which we’re really excited about,” Ayesha said. “Ivy Anderson Podmore is an emerging teenage artist whose exhibition The Dollhouse features an extraordinary display of miniature paintings. The work is reminiscent of ephemera, human anatomy, and nature journals of Victorian times and we are thrilled to be able to show this in The Incubator Gallery,”
Also on display are Anne Dugmore’s micro exhibition of Dark Gothic altered art, along with ‘Pseudo Science’, An inconsiderable exhibition by Rolph Hediger and Bobbi Summers, which peeks at false observations, and physical experiments.”
“There’ll be so much happening on the day,” said Ayesha. “We’re all looking forward to an amazing day out for Tauranga”.
Under the traffic light system, COVID-19 vaccination certificates will be checked on entry into the Village.
Dark and moody fashion
Dark and metal are the themes for a fashion art fusion between silversmith Ruth O’Connell and fashion designer Kerry Funnell for the Tauranga Fringe 2022. The look will be presented as part of a series of fashion shows featuring the creations of both artists.
Both creators are resident artists at The Satellite Studio’s at The Incubator Creative Hub. While Kerry has worked out of her studio since 2018, Ruth moved to Tauranga with her partner and daughter in 2021.
Kerry described their fashion catwalk look as ‘broody and sinister’ with lots of black, metallic and mesh fabrics contrasted with whites. “The music is dark, heavy – and sometimes gets it’s shriek on,” she said. After a career including designing for film sets, teaching, and having her work purchased for the WOW collection, Kerry knows how to create a mood.
Ruth’s background is in textiles and fashion which eventually led her to jewellery through costuming on a movie set, after which she worked for 10 years at the Bead Gallery in Nelson.
“The Bead Gallery nurtured my interest in history and costume. Taking what I learned from so many amazing crafters I had worked with, I developed my own style and a desire to seek out new methods of creation, becoming a self-taught smith,” she said.
Most of her pieces are one of a kind and even favourite designs evolve into unique variations. Ruth’s aim is to create unique adornments which become cherished heirlooms.
“I have a strong fondness for antique austerity, vintage hues, as well as bold contrasts in both colour and texture,” she said. “My work reflects moods and styles that are symbolic of the retro music I love and the culture that lives within it. So, I do a lot of time travelling through my crafts. I encourage slow fashion by creating jewellery that lasts and will hopefully be cherished as an antique one day!”
Ruth also teaches others to make their own bespoke jewellery making workshops which she runs at The Artery.
“I encourage my ideas in my courses in which we repair, repurpose and recycle existing jewellery and other materials”.
Live art demonstrations
Another artist who will be showcasing his creativity live at Fringe 2022 is painter and muralist Sam Allen who is a resident artist at The Incubator Creative Hub. Sam is currently working to restore the damaged Humpty Dumpty at the Memorial Park playground.
Sam will be working alongside fellow painter Ally Drury, mural painting onto board while Ally spray paints onto a van.
Inspired by the people, legends, environment and creatures of Tauranga, Sam’s primary medium is acrylic paint but he also enjoys watercolours and ink.
“The paintings that I create aren’t confined to canvas,” said Sam. “ They live on everything from cardboard to brick walls. Anything can be made into art if you’re create enough”.
Over the past 12 months, Sam has painted several large scale murals throughout Tauranga, as well as being involved with several group exhibitions, and working alongside a number of schools including Otumoetai Primary School and Gate Pa School, to create community murals.
