Holger Regenbrecht with 4:33 - Still Recording. Photo by
Peter McIntosh.
Bondage and discipline in the dark will be examined in
the Fringe today. Dunedin's ''That Blind Woman'' Julie Woods
will put a dotty spin on erotica in 50 Shades of Braille at the
Community Gallery.
''Last year, everyone was reading the Fifty Shades of
Grey book, except me. So I rang the Foundation of the
Blind to ask for a Braille copy and they sent me one,'' she
said yesterday.
''But the hard copy Braille version of Fifty Shades of
Grey came in eight volumes and filled up two shopping
bags.''
Ms Woods will use icing on biscuits to recreate a
join-the-dots Braille version of the risque read.
''I thought it would be fun to use a sentence from the book
to highlight how blind people access information about
erotica and the world of bondage and discipline. And, in the
process, hopefully dispel the myth that blind people are
asexual,'' she added, with a smile.
Dunedin artist Shem Fitiao works on 'Graf the Box' in the
Octagon yesterday. Underground artists will create a new
graffiti work every day of the festival. Photo by Nigel
Benson.
''Louis Braille [who invented Braille in 1824] was hot on
blind people accessing information in order to acquire
knowledge, so I am very sure that he would approve.''
Fifty Shades of Braille is on in the Community Gallery
today and tomorrow. Also at the Community Gallery until
Thursday is the thought-provoking 4:33 - Still
Recording, which is a four minute and 33-second recording
of ... silence.
Dunedin academic Holger Regenbrecht responds to the John Cage
recording with three photographs which have the same length
exposures as the three movements in the soundless scape.
''What is the artist? What is music? What is the space and
the void?'' he asked me yesterday, when I asked him about the
work.
The ever-popular ''Song Sale'' is on at The Church for the
final time at 7 tonight, while Footnote Dance puts its best
foot forward at Allen Hall at 8pm.
I saw the remarkable Entomo at the Temple Gallery last
night. The three contemporary Spanish dance works are only
just over half an hour in length and consist of
Antipodas (15 minutes), Longfade (10 minutes)
and Entomo (10 minutes).
The latter work was extraordinary, using a magnifying glass
to illustrate the similarity and fragility of the insect and
human worlds.
Entomo is on again at the Temple Gallery at 8pm today,
tomorrow and Thursday.
The Fringe has been reaching out to some unusual venues
around Dunedin.
The FireBugs' steampunk fire fable, Mr Faust and Dr
Jabberwocky, was a big hit at the Gasworks Museum.
''We sold out seven of our eight shows. It was a fantastic
venue. We'll definitely be back,'' chief firebug Keir Russell
said yesterday.
However, the Fringe frayed for the Long Board Poetry Studio,
after some of its ''Wild Lines'' of poetry installation was
removed from the Otago Museum Reserve.
''The poems are all about community and generosity, so we're
really pleased people like them,'' co-ordinator Loveday Why
said.
''But it would be nice to have them back, so we can all walk
through the poems in our own time.''
- nigel.benson@odt.co.nz
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