Birds of a feather

By HANNA SCOTT

Auckland's visual arts community is rustling with something new: the opening of Canary Gallery on K Rd. There's expectation aplenty from this trio of self-starter artists, all graduates from Auckland University of Technology.

The new artist-run space takes its name from the birds that were used in mines.

"Canaries are so weak and fragile, they're the first thing to go if the air turns bad," says Canary trustee and artist James Wallace. "The birds were the first to recognise something, but also the first to be sacrificed. So the birds are a metaphor, an indicator of what's good and what's not."

Fellow trustee Paula Booker agrees. "It's putting something on the line. Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

With Gretchen Geraets, the third Canary trustee, they have initiated an exhibition venue. Booker talks about the need for new spaces in Auckland - "there was a real dearth of informal places to have a small show, only a window space and one gallery".

Moreover, those spaces are booked up more than a year in advance.

Says Wallace, "I am not working at the moment, so rather than just crying about it we decided to do something ourselves."

Artist-run spaces are not typically part of mainstream gallery culture. However, they are the place to find emerging artists. Nationwide there is a strong network of initiatives, linking Auckland galleries with Enjoy and Show in Wellington, the High Street Project, Gridlocked and Kiosk in Christchurch, and Blue Oyster in Dunedin.

At Canary, an artist selected for a show pays the rent or a fee that covers the rent. "At that rate, you wouldn't expect the venue to take a commission from sales that might result. Basically we have a low cost space, 12 sqm. So, when we haven't got artists in, it doesn't break the bank."

Argues Booker, "The way young artists are being picked up by dealer galleries, I find divisive in a way. Because it's exclusive and the spaces have an air about them which is quite exclusive anyway. What we want to do is provide other alternatives, alternatives that have nothing to do with dealing and nothing to do with commodity-based art work. That's the kind of art we're all into making.

"We want to keep audiences growing and being stimulated. We're all practitioners, and things can get so dead. We want to have artists and audiences interacting as much as possible."

To that end, Canary will run a programme of artist talks, discussion groups and publications.

The strong community aspect of artist-run-spaces is echoed by another collective operating around Auckland, Cuckoo. Run by artists and writers, the collective is a bird with no nest, a mobile network that temporarily occupies other venues. Why build a nest when there are good ones already vacant?

Spokesperson for the group, writer and curator Gwynneth Porter, says, "If people don't get together, the whole discourse of art stalls a little bit. That's one of the reasons I was keen to see Cuckoo set up."

Artist Judy Darragh, also part of the collective, says, "You don't typically get your support from dealers, you get support from your peers, your community of artists, the people you went to art school with, the people who think like you. That commercial layer isn't where art happens, that's where art sells."

The stronghold of the Cuckoo nest is Porter and Darragh, with Daniel Malone, Jonathan Bywater, Judy Darragh, Ani O'Neill and Warren Olds. The group is not entirely based in Auckland. "The website is really important, all our invitations are done through that," Darragh explains.

"We don't have mail-outs or any of that kind of infrastructure. The self-organising collective was a bit of an experiment. We decided we didn't want real estate, didn't want to deal with money."

Porter adds, "We started out thinking let's not have any of those things and see if it works. And it did work."

Cuckoo has they have established a strong network around contemporary art. The group has an innovative way of using resources and has forged links with international collectives and galleries through that.

Perhaps the longest-running artist-run space in Auckland is Room 103, based downtown in Achilles House on the corner of Commerce and Customs Sts. The collective has moved through at least four venues during half a decade.

The Achilles House space enables them to have three exhibitions at once and artists and audiences can have a multilayered experience.

The converted office spaces run to different time frames, from two-week shows through to six-week projects.

"We also have a small shop where we sell multiples, catalogues and art souvenirs from days gone by. We like to mess with the duration of things," says one of the four Room 103 trustees, Lauren Winstone.

The full complement is Kylie Duncan, Nick Spratt, Fleur Sandbrook and Winstone. "The good thing about the collective is that we all have different skills."

When asked about the opening of Canary, Winstone generously says, "At Room 103 we've more interest than we've been able to show, even though we have something like 42 shows a year.

"I think Canary is really great. I'd love to show there myself."

On show

* What: Canary Gallery

* Where: Carpark Arcade, 214 K Rd

* What: Cuckoo

* Where: Itinerant, Cuckoo

* What: Room 103

* Where: First Floor, Achilles House, Commerce St