Christmas shopping with a difference
The end of year is usually marked by moments of gifting desperation brought on by the Christmas season. AUT’s ST PAUL St Gallery aims to alleviate the burden by hosting an End of Year Fair mixing art, craft, design and performance – a fair where some things are for sale and some things aren’t, and most things are under $100.
The fair is this Friday, 2 December from 5 to 8pm and on Saturday 3 December from 11am to 4pm.
Stall holders
Books and works on paper, ranging from artists selling small works such as printmaker Paul Chapman; limited edition letterpress publications printed by Pear Tree Press; photography zines by Andrew McLeod; and art and design publications including a stall held by NZ Post 2011 Books Awards winning publishers Rim Books and many more.
Contemporary art, object design and craft including a return of Tautai Trust’s successful Pacific Arts Village that wowed visitors and locals during the Rugby World Cup; ceramics by Black Winter; jewellery from the Manukau School of Visual Arts programmes; and fashion by Elise Cox.
Projects and conversation opportunities spanning a stall dispensing advice run by the Artists Alliance; an opportunity to help plan the speakers line-up and workshops for We Can Create Two 2012, led by The Church; and a chill out space created by Parlour offering lemonade and massage.
Entertainment
D.A.N.C.E. Art Club, Amber Pearson and Melissa Durbin will create entertainment at the fair. On Friday evening visitors will encounter all the usual trimmings you would expect at a fair including candy floss and music as well as some added extras such as experimental face painting.
On Saturday, fairground entertainment will be provided by Durbin again, who will be working with visitors at the fair to create fortune cookies, and Amber Pearson who will perform in her Extension Suits. Atomic Coffee will be available for all attending the fair.
“We are interested in how practices of gifting and exchange are appearing in art and design and society at the moment. We thought that a fair is a perfect event to explore this, where creators with art and design works for sale can operate right beside people giving things away, making exchanges or having conversations,” says Vera Mey, assistant director, St Paul Street Gallery.
The fair is at ST PAUL St Gallery, 40 St Paul Street, CBD, AUT University.
http://www.stpaulst.aut.ac.nz/