Colony- the works of Canterbury based painter and sculptor Maja Klassens is opening on the night of October 17th, 5:30pm in the basement (Nibleheim) space of the SOFA Gallery, Christchurch Arts Centre.

The exhibition runs until the 25th of October and will be open for veiwing between 10am and 5pm daily.

Board Members (photographs by Maurice Lye)

Never leave a bag of sea tulips in the lounge. The full bodied odour of decaying marine organism can put a severe strain on family harmony.

After such an incident I decided to photograph the carcasses of these magnificent creatures on location. The specimens displayed here were gathered at Riverton, in Southland. Sometimes many thousands of these creatures are washed up on the eastern beaches of the South Island.

I imagine they are called sea tulips because of the way they generally grow in huge colonies, all swaying in the current like a field of tulips. Intriguingly they are more closely related to you and me than they are to terrestrial tulips.

They are part of the Phylum Chordata which also includes mammals and birds. This connection with us drew me to take a closer look. On closer inspection I found many that resembled, in a slightly cartoonish way, older rock stars. The lives of these sea tulips (Pyura pachydermatina) are not as frenetic or famous. They start out as tadpole like larvae, swimming about trying to find a suitable location to take up residence for the rest of their lives. A prime spot could be a rock, wharf pile or any piece of solid sea bed. Once found, this location will have to provide “the right” conditions that will allow the filter feeding siphons of the animals access to an abundance of planktonic food in the surrounding water. To secure the position the larva adheres itself to the spot and starts to transform into an adult. During their one - two year life span they can grow up to 50cm, most of this is stalk. The ‘flower’ heads are about 20 - 80mm.

I exhibited the ‘Rock Stars’ at CoCA gallery in Christchurch earlier this year.

This grouping is called ‘Board Members’. The names have been generalised from many companies boards of directors, any likes to anyone living or dead is purely accidental!

- Maurice Lye

The exhibition of Board Members is currently showing online until September 7th

Sarawut Chutiwongpeti - http://www.chutiwongpeti.info

GILT is honoured to have been host to the work of international photographer, sculptor, painter and film-maker Sarawut Chutiwongpeti during our One Night Stand exhibition ‘Between the Eyes’ (June 12^th 2009).

We are really interested in the unique perspective that various media and cultural influences can bring to otherwise familiar themes-such as the ever evasive landscape of the subconscious, and the mechanics of ‘the dream’, as seen in Chutiwongpeti’s filmic triptych ‘Untitled’ (wishes, Lies and Dreams)

Born in Bangkok, Thailand, Sarawut Chutiwongpeti received his BFA, with a photography major, from The Department of Fine and Applied Arts at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, in 1996.

Since Graduation Chutiwongpeti has been the recipient of multiple international awards and prizes for his work, and has received a vast number of international artist’s grants that have allowed him to continue the development of his artistic practice and research worldwide.

Chutiwongpeti’s exhibition history spans multiple continental and cultural territory. In 1999 the artist was invited, by the Japan Foundation Fellowship Program, to undertake 6 months of artistic research and practise within Japan. Since this residency Chutiwongpeti has exhibited extensively, in both solo and group shows, in countries such as Canada, the United States of America, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Austria, Italy, Germany, Egypt, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea and Japan.

Chutiwongpeti currently lives and works in his home land, Bangkok, Thailand, though wishes to continue to travel as an artist, with plans to work this year in the United States of America, Spain and Norway.

While ‘Between the Eyes’ is the first exhibition of Chutiwongpeti’s work in Christchurch, the artist has previously exhibited in Dunedin at Blue Oyster Art Project Space, and plans to visit and exhibit in New Zealand again in the near future.

The artist can be contacted via email at utopia1998@gmail.com

The online version of 'Between the Eyes' is now scheduled to open on Monday June 29th.

Filmic triptych 'Dreams, Wishes and Lies' along with Gigantic insects and ethereal figures, lurking in the bowels of the Christchurch Art Centre's SOFA Gallery- Nibelheims