Powersound at Te Tuhi

Te Tuhi's foyer space reverberated with drones, clattering sticks, and plucked tones on Friday as it played host to a sound and dance performance for James McCarthy's Powersound+. A "sonic wall drawing", Powersound takes the form of a bridge of wires at various tensions, with pickups for amplification. Joining him was members from Auckland's experimental music community Vitamin S, including: Kristian Larsen, Zoe Drayton, Paul Buckton, and Andrew McMillan. The group successfully flowed through a number of phases, from Drew's initial harplike 'activation' of the instrument, through harsh guitar scraping, Dada-like play, and a rich harmonic tone on the verge of feedback to close.


Kristian throws sticks at James in some sort of fishing-baseball hybrid.


Zoe provides noise and soundscapes via a laptop.


James sets up a made instrument of wooden posts at various lengths.

Gina Tornatore at MIC

The insuperable phenomena of hidden behaviour by London-based Australian artist Gina Tornatore consists of a trio of synchronised projected video, filmed at 300 fps and then dramatically slowed, rewound, and repeated. A friend commented that it was so simple, yet effective, and I have to agree. Tornatore takes the formal rigour and cinematic aesthetic of 16mm film shot at high speed and digitises it, opening up the flexible sampling and playback control inherent in digital video. The dance content of the piece added a visceral, physical quality which curator Louise Garrett aludes to with her description of "action to produce intense psychological moments," and which, in Tornatore's hands, manages to steer a course through the pitfalls of both the dance and video art mediums. Closed now but highly recommended future viewing.