Janet Lilo was in the right place at the right time to record team dancing in Japan. Sharu Delilkan writes
Janet Lilo believes she has found a perfect fit with Whitespace and Art Week in which to reveal her experimental documentary of a trip to Japan.
The Avondale artist has taken great
care to find the appropriate space for her pop culture work. "Because of the nature of my work, which is about pop culture, I was very careful about showing it in the right space."
Lilo was in the city of Sapporo when she filmed The Tanuki Koji Dance Project which features a group of young dancers who would perform at night outside closed stores in the Tanuki Koji Arcade.
She made the documentary on an exchange visit last year arranged by the Japan East Asia Network of Exchange of Students and Youths residency scheme.
Her work is on the programme for Art Week - an event this month that takes artistic licence by being spread over 10 days rather than seven.
It will feature 80 exhibitions in more than 40 galleries and venues in three inner-city neighbourhoods.
Lilo is an AUT University masters graduate of art and design in visual arts in video and installation, and is on the board of Tautai Contemporary Art Trust. She says finding her documentary's theme at Tanuki Koji Arcade "was almost perfect - exactly what I had gone there to do".
"Finding people dancing in a big long public space spanning 7-8m along eight blocks of the arcade, making it a private space, was an amazing sight."
She is delighted with the parallel of showing the piece in the gallery window and with the people dancing in shop windows.
"Taken out of context, I know this special piece can easily lose its charm. When the Whitespace showing was suggested I realised it was the right fit. It's the closest it's going to get to the original documentation."
The Tanuki Koji Dance Project, Art Week, Whitespace, 12 Crummer Rd, Ponsonby, Nov 9 to 27, 6pm to midnight. Ph 361 6331. Details: www.artweekauckland.co.nz
