Cath Cocker has spent the past year working with local artists and businesses to organise the latest in Dunedin’s long lineage of community-driven public art projects.
It’s called Nocturnal Projections and Other Small Happenings, referencing ’80s New Plymouth post-punk band Nocturnal Projections. Since July 11, running through to August 11, seven art installations by local artists have been occupying public spaces around Dunedin.
I spoke to Cath in her sunny living room on a Saturday afternoon.
"I would describe it as an interaction, directly with the public, of sound and light art works," she says.
Cath is a fierce advocate for public art. Supported by a variety of local businesses, helpful members of the community, and not much funding, she came up with the idea and drove it to fruition.
"It’s not that people don’t support art, it’s that they don’t understand that it’s not apart from them, they’re part of it, that it’s just an expression of something.
"People are scared of galleries and I do understand because sometimes I am too. I kind of like the idea of art being more of a public thing, and not just art that’s like a statue of Robert Burns or whatever."
The public nature of the installations means it’s quite hard to gauge success, but so far Cath says there has been no complaints. Someone did cut the speaker wires for Jed Town’s piece on Filluel St, but I think that was probably motivated by something other than disdain for public art.
And fans of noises will be happy to hear it’s not just visual art. One of the "strange happenings" was a performance by local experimental musician William Henry Meung in the remnants of an old bridge on Wharf St, a performance I greatly regret missing, especially after hearing Cath’s recollection.
"It’s right in the middle of nowhere ... So he was playing all this sound stuff and people would be walking past and they’d be looking over to see what’s going on and it was really cool.
"I just like it, I like this idea of things being really out in the open and not kind of hidden. There’s always a danger of exclusivity, that’s the thing that I’m concerned about."
The festival culminates tonight at the Crown Hotel where Jed Town (formerly of art-punk band Fetus Productions), The Ladder is Part of the Pit, Ov Pain and Nick McMullan will be performing. I spoke to William Henry Meung, a founding member of The Ladder is Part of the Pit, about what to expect.
"I have no idea what to expect from someone like Jed Town ... So that’s going to be an exciting mystery.
"Nick McMullan is a sort of purist noise guy. There’s no guitar, there’s no keyboard or computer or anything, it’s just a lot of effects units feeding back ...
"Ov Pain are our most recent international export. They’re underground pop-rock, drone pop rock.
"And The Ladder is Part of the Pit ... What to say about The Ladder is Part of the Pit? There’s a kind of neo-classical element there with a pretty firm line of violin and cello. Kerian and I have used a lot of repurposed older technology, building our own electro-acoustic instruments and now Kerian’s getting into computer music with computer based synthesisers."
Cath thinks part of what makes the Dunedin "scene" so rich is the way communities intersect. Geeks, musicians, artists all collaborate to create interesting new works. As Cath points out, the size of Dunedin enables interactions which otherwise might not happen.
- Fraser Thompson
The gig
• Tonight’s Crown Hotel gig costs $10. Doors 8pm.
• Find out more about Nocturnal Projections and Other Small Happenings here: https://cathcocker.wixsite.com/nocturnal.
• For extended interviews with Cath Cocker and William Henry Meung go to dunedinsound.com.
