Winsome Wild: I know that this is the first year the Festival has had a dedicated Visual Arts Coordinator. As this is the case, how does this year's Visual Arts programme differ from that of previous years?

Natasha Beckman: In the past, as we didn't have a dedicated coordinator, it tended to be that the programme was organised a little later, and people who were working more in the performing arts arena with limited resources had to pull that together. Considering that situation I think that they did a really great job, but it makes things a lot easier for us now to put a bit more time into selecting something more carefully. We've been able to approach key institutions to work with and to also curate a few of our own exhibitions, instead of only selecting pre-existing events that were happening in the Auckland region.

WW: Can you tell me a bit about the programme - are there any events you are particularly excited about?

NB: When I started I used as a basis the Festival aims, objectives and criteria to decide what we might select for the Visual Arts programme in particular. Our vision is to be the premier festival in New Zealand and the Pacific, and from that spring three important goals; to develop New Zealand art and artists; to engage with Aucklanders, and to reflect what is unique about Auckland. Then also we had to take into consideration more practical issues such as budgets and logistics.

In terms of engaging with Aucklanders, we are trying to organise a lot of projects on the streets, which people who wouldn't necessarily go into a gallery might come across. These projects include Sky, which is a projection event in Vulcan Lane; Len Lye, which is an outdoor film screening in Tahaki Reserve at the base of Mt Eden; Eric Orr, who is doing some graffiti work around the Sky Tower and also out in different Auckland regions, and also Windows, which places ten contemporary artists in shop windows for a week.

In terms of reflecting what is unique about Auckland, one of those aspects is geographic, which is why we wanted to put something in Tahaki Reserve at the base of Mt Eden. In all of the Festival branding you will see fiery images that relate back to the idea of volcanic activity being unique to Auckland, but also to reflect the creativity bubbling beneath the surface. Auckland is also such a culturally diverse city. This is reflected in exhibitions like Rare View, which is an introduction to Hamilton's Somali community, to be viewed in Auckland for the first time. There is also Urban Pacific and Restless, which are both exhibitions of Maori and Pacific artists, and Mirror Worlds, which is coming from Australia but is a show presenting the work of eight contemporary video artists across Asia, including Korea, Thailand and China.

Finally, in terms of developing art and artists we are bringing several international artists to Auckland. We wanted to encourage them to engage with local practitioners as well while they were here instead of just flying in and flying out and doing an exhibition. So Eric Orr for example is facilitating workshops for young people across Auckland including the North Shore, Otara and at Corbans Estate. Micheline Néporon and Ito Waia are coming as part of the Contemporary Visual Art of New Caledonia exhibition. They are only here for a week, but they will also be facilitating workshops and spending time at AUT with the students there. Ito is also doing a carving collaboration with Fatu Feu'u and John Ioane and some local carvers at Corbans Estate.

In addition to those main goals, we really wanted to spread the programme throughout Auckland, not just in Auckland City. So even though there is a lot of activity going on in the CBD, many parts of the programme are taken out to different regions. We also aim to present a good spread across mediums, and across a spectrum of artists. So not only established artists and iconic artists like Len Lye are featured, but also emerging artists, such as the young artists in Urban Pacific.

WW: How did you go about selecting the artists and the exhibitions?

NB: I had a really short time to put the programme together because I started in April and the programme had to be ready in August. Basically I went and talked to different people in the sector, including artists, arts organizations and patrons. I asked people what they would do if they had this position and what did they think would make a good visual arts program for the first time. So I tried in that limited time to get some ideas and then went through them - seeing which ones were feasible and which ones may not be feasible this year, but that hopefully we could look at undertaking in the future when we are better resourced.

WW: How would you like to see the Visual Arts Program grow in the future?

NB: For the first time this year we have produced a separate Visual Arts brochure, and I think that would be a really good thing to do again. We are going to be seeing how it works this year. I don't think that we will necessarily be looking at expanding the programme, not decreasing it either, but it has been a really big programme, considering that our resources are limited in this area, though that will hopefully improve in the future. I would like to look at doing perhaps a few smaller, bigger budget shows. I would love to look at bringing a major international exhibition to Auckland, that kind of thing, which we just haven't been able to realise ourselves this year, though we are working with other institutions such as Two Rooms, who are bringing over Mirror Worlds. I really hope that what we have done is a start and that we can take things like the brochure, and all the documentation - the photographs and videos of the different workshops and exhibitions and use them to build upon some of our relationships with sponsors and funding agencies to produce an even better programme.

WW: And how do you see the Visual Arts Programme fitting in with the rest of the Festival programme which includes dance, music and theatre?

NB: Well I think it is important that it was recognised that Visual Arts is a really strong art form and I think it's interesting that there isn't really another (from my knowledge - apart from maybe Christchurch) dedicated Visual Arts Coordinator for a festival in New Zealand. So it is something Auckland is really going to play as a strength, which I think is fantastic as a point of difference but which is also reflecting what is happening in Auckland, and the wealth of the visual arts here. In terms of how it fits in with the rest of the programme, some shows are a really beautiful synthesis like BLOW, where you have Tracey Collins and Sue Gallagher co-curating an exhibition that showcases theatre design, somewhere between the Visual Arts and theatre. I suppose one of the real challenges in this role has been introducing art into a festival format where it didn't really exist. Hopefully the result is a really fantastic showcase of all the arts, from music to dance to theatre to Visual Arts. I think another exciting thing is that we hope people who may privilege one art form could be enticed into experiencing another and I guess BLOW is a wonderful opportunity because that exhibition is actually in the BNZ Foyer, at the Edge, so it will be theatre goers who happen upon it and may think - what's this? They might want to go to a gallery sometime later.

WW: One of the exhibitions I particularly wanted to ask about is Windows, which features artists in shop windows and I wanted to ask how you came up with that idea and whether there are many precedents for it?

NB: One of the main ideas behind Windows is that of engagement with Aucklanders, especially those who may not look at any art form, particularly Visual Arts. It also came from a discussion with the Chartwell Trust, who are working with us on the project, about the difference between theatre and visual arts and how, with visual arts you don't often get the opportunity to see something live or to see the process, and that that might be quite interesting for the general public to witness. Historically, it seems as if Andy Warhol did work in windows and so did Marcel Duchamp. More recently, there have been a few similar projects including one at the Brisbane Festival. As such, there have been a few different models for us to look at but from my knowledge it hasn't really been staged on this scale before in New Zealand, so it's been quite an exciting experimental process. We have also offered an opportunity for the public to engage with the artwork by encouraging them to respond by text or website - in some of the shops there is a touch poll, just talking about what they think about the artwork. So it is about getting people talking about art who may normally feel intimidated about doing that in a gallery setting.

Hiromi Tango Raw Space Galleries Project, 2007

WW: And so how is it going to work? Are the artists going to be in the windows all the time?

NB: We couldn't really ask them to do that because different artists have different commitments. We have asked them to do a minimum of seven hours during that week (9th-16th March) but we are hoping that a lot of them will do more. Some artists like Hiromi Tango who is in Urban Loft are very enthusiastic and she would have liked to have slept in her shop and be there 24/7. She can't unfortunately, though I think she will be there as much as possible and when she's not there she is looking at setting up satellite projects in that area, which relate to that site as well.

WW: So are they all New Zealand artists?

NB: There are five artists from Auckland; John Lyall and Christina Read, who are in Whitcoulls; Harvey Benge, who is in World Man; Jim Hong, who is in Telecom and Jessica Pearless, who is in Pierrucci. Then there is Andrea Du Chatenier, who is a Wanganui based artist and Angela Singer, who is from Dunedin. There are three Australian artists. One of these, Hayden Fowler, is actually a Kiwi but is currently resident in Sydney. Jenny Fraser is an Aboriginal artist who lives in Brisbane, and Hiromi Tango is a Japanese-born artist who also lives in Brisbane. It has been really nice in terms of the response we got to our quite targeted call for submissions. We have a fantastic array of shops and also of artists with very different projects so it should be really exciting.

WW: Are you able to tell us a bit about some of the projects?

NB: Hiromi Tango is already here and you may well see her around! She is busy collecting things from the Auckland public. She says she is creating a portrait of Auckland. Some of the things she collects are physical objects; some are recordings or videos, that kind of thing, which will actually be displayed in her window. Hayden Fowler is working with local tattoo artists and is having an extinct Huia bird tattooed on his back and torso. Jenny Fraser is building an installation in Westpac in homage to her grandfather. Harvey Benge is setting up his studio in World Man which will be great because it's really about the process of watching an artist work in his studio, one of the initial aims for this project. Angela Singer is creating one of her bejeweled taxidermy dioramas in the windows of Scotties, and Jin Hong is creating a multimedia piece, which is a discussion about how people feel about their cultural identity in Auckland. Jessica Pearless is doing an architectural piece where she uses vinyl cutouts and adheres them to the windows and maybe walls of Pierrucci, responding to the space. John Lyall and Christina Read are both in Whitcoulls, though they have separate projects. John is replicating the experience of bird watching in his mother's backyard in Sydney, bringing in taxidermied birds in a fibonacci series, and Christina Read, (who recently won the National Drawing Award) is creating an absurd sculptural piece which is called 'The Tragedy of Dr Simms'. Finally Andrea du Chatenier, is going to be in Mardell, and is creating a felt tree over the week, which is a response to the Tree of Life.

Hayden Fowler Nursling II, 2006 Mounted digital photograph 85 x 125 cm. Photo credit: Michael Randall

WW: Were the shops receptive to the idea of having artists work in their windows?

NB: Yes. It took a little while to warm them up and I think now they are, the possibilities are quite exciting. I hope that they might be able to learn a little more about visual art and visual artists, and be inspired by them and perhaps do some more work of this ilk in the future.

WW: How do you think the public will react?

NB: I hope the public gets really excited by it and I hope that's a very wide public, not just, as I was saying before, a gallery public. I'd like them to have their curiousity piqued, and to think about engaging with the works, especially with the enticement of winning a thousand dollar cash prize. I'd just like people to be talking about it, and for it to become a conversation piece. Another of our aims is to change Auckland as a space during the time of the festival, and hopefully Windows can help to do that. I would love it if people were walking past a shop that they might walk past every day, but suddenly there's something happening in it that's different, and it makes them experience that space in a different way.

Visit www.aucklandfestival.co.nz to find out more about the Auckland Festival, AK07.