PAH: Hidden Histories and Forgotten Secrets

MEDIA RELEASE: For Immediate Release

Leading New Zealand Female Artists Feature in Multi-Arts Performance As Part of Auckland Arts Festival 2015

Hidden Histories and Forgotten Secrets

WEAVING TOGETHER ART, LIVE MUSIC AND DANCE, multi-art performance PAH explores hidden histories and forgotten secrets at one of Auckland’s best-known historic houses.

Pā Collective presents PAH as part of Auckland Arts Festival from 10-15 March at Wallace Arts Trust Centre, Pah Homestead. A unique collaboration between leading New Zealand female artists – choreographer Carol Brown, composer Gillian Whitehead and painter Star Gossage – PAH evokes the lives of people who have lived at Pah Homestead in Monte Cecilia Park during times of transition and change.

Choreographer Carol Brown says the performance reflects the homestead’s pre-colonial existence as a seasonal Pa, to its reinvention as a colonial farm and mansion; and its role as an orphanage, boarding school and refuge for the homeless during the residency of the Sisters of Mercy and the Monte Cecilia Housing Trust.

PAH involves a specially curated exhibition of artworks by painter Star Gossage, commissioned photographs by Solomon Mortimer and works from the Wallace Arts Trust Collection, while Carol Brown directs outstanding dancers Kelly Nash, Nancy Wijohn, Zahra Killeen-Chance, Emilia Rubio and Haanz Fa’avae Jackson.

The original score is composed by New Zealand Arts Foundation Artist Laureate Gillian Whitehead and will be played by musicians Katherine Hebley, Andrew Uren and Luca Manghi. Its danceable rhythms and haunting textures create a world of shifting forces and energies for the dancers to inhabit.

The audience experiences the music and dance as they are led through the house and gardens amidst the artworks – as they search for home.

Inspired by the stories of the house and its inhabitants, Whitehead and Brown conceived the idea for PAHwhile Whitehead was the University of Otago Wallace Resident at the Arts Centre in 2013.

As part of its work for the Auckland Arts Festival, Pā Collective is collaborating with the Monte Cecilia Housing Trust to create a series of photographic portraits of people whose lives have been affected by the current Auckland housing crisis. While Pah Homestead was originally designed as a grand residence for one family in 1879, it has subsequently been a place of refuge and shelter for many through the work of the Trust which was founded there in 1982 and is now based in Mangere.

PAH comes alive for six evenings during Auckland Arts Festival from 10-15 March. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster www.ticketmaster 0800 111 999

www.aaf.co.nz

PAH is supported by the Wallace Arts Trust, University of Otago, University of Auckland, Puketepapa Local Board, Auckland Council and Creative New Zealand.

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SEASON DETAILS

Show PAH
Where Pah Homestead, 72 Hillsborough Rd

Hillsborough
When 10-15 March 2015 - Tues 10, Thurs 12 & Fri 13 March7.00pm; Wed 11 March 6.00pm; Sat 14 & Sun 15 March 5.00pm
Duration 1 hr, no interval
Price Adults $45

GA Friend/Conc/Group $39

Bookings Book at Ticketmaster: www.ticketmaster.co.nz/ 0800 111 999

Information www.aaf.co.nz / www.carolbrowndances.com

Social Media facebook.com/pahcollective

facebook.com/Aklfestival

Twitter: @Aklfestival

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