Sound Canvas adding art and sculpture to Opera House shows in Whanganui

Brass Whanganui's coming Sound Canvas shows are set to feature three New Zealand artists' work along with the music.

The artworks will be on and around the Royal Wanganui Opera House stage during the band's 75-minute "sound landscape" show that will also feature projections of local artists' work throughout the performance.

Band leader Bruce Jellyman said the three artists - painters Dan Mills and Scott de Latour and sculptor Jack Marsden Mayer - produced large works that "fitted in" to what the band was doing.

"The Opera House is a tremendously interesting space," Jellyman said.

"There are big show posters on the wall, and there are ropes and pipes, and a bloody band or something will be walking around in there too, so to get the art to be seen I've been looking for artists who paint at [large] scale.

"That means that no matter where you are in the room you can actually see, with clarity, the artworks. It's going to work out very nicely I think."

Mills is a Whanganui-based painter who produces "expressive, abstract canvases" in aerosols and oil paints, while de Lautour "paints from the heart" to extract an "eclectic fusion of movements in modern art".

"I've seen Dan Mills' wider portfolio, and it's really neat. I can emote to that quite strongly," Jellyman said.

"The sculptor, Jack Marsden Mayer, will have a three metre long driftwood sculpture in there as well.

"I'm having a little bit of bother trying to figure out where I'm going to put it in the space, but you get that when you ask for more than you desire and you win."

Jellyman said the music that would accompany the art was wide ranging, from Queen's "Innuendo" to Eastern Bloc Balkan dance music to "Black Bottom Stomp", which was "out and out ragtime".

"A piece I really like is 'The Pohutukawa Stands', which was originally written about the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquakes. It is in a part of the programme where we use waiata and Māori instruments, and that whole moment is really poignant."

Along with the music and artworks, Sound Canvas will also feature poetry written by Airini Beautrais, Sam Hunt and James K Baxter, as well as readings of lyrics from the pieces of music.

The Sound Canvas shows are at 3pm and 7pm on Saturday, October 31, and 2pm on Sunday, November 1. Tickets are available at the Royal Wanganui Opera House box office, 69 St Hill St.

Whanganui High School students Luke Squire (playing the cornet) and Jonathan Stolk (playing percussion) will be playing with Brass Whanganui's surround sound art and music event, Sound Canvas.

Mike Tweed
Whanganui Chronicle 22/10/20