Jane Zusters

Haere mai and welcome to my August update of what I have been up to in my art practice.

I have been having a flat out time since I got back from my Murray River photographic trip in Australia with digital montage artist Ramonda te Maiharoa. The good news is the show Murray River Matters will be opening at The University of Newcastle Gallery, Australia 30 march 2011.

I am also one of the artists at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wellington as part of the Artists as Political Activists 21st August till 12th September

We are not islands
Think of a world
without bumblebees,
without whitebait,
without frogs.
without tuna,
without mutton birds
no kotare, heron or bittern

we are not islands for
we breathe each other’s breath

The work Crown and the video for love of the Mackenzie Country are my’ response to proposed water extractions to intensively farm 27,000 acres of land in the Mackenzie country. The letters are real and from politicians who were sent the video that plays along with the painting.Our pursuit of gross national product at the expense of the environment is not leading to gross national happiness for our rivers and lakes and the birds and the fish. We promote economic activity on the presumption that the social benefits outweigh whatever damage it might cause. However the resulting ecological damage is surpassing our ability to assimilate damage and degrading the ecological integrity of our environment. I believe we need to implement a wholly different structure for environmental decision-making that prioritizes sustainability and maintains the integrity of the ecological systems that we depend on rather than economic growth.
“Artists as Activists”, the Academy’s showcase for 2010 are: Brian Turner, Sam Mahon, Grahame Sydney, Dean Buchanan, Michael Smither, Nick Dryden, Ian Hamlin, Don Binney and Jane Zusters
NZ Academy of Fine Arts
1 Queens Wharf
Wellington
Ph 04 383 584
Forest & Bird will be launching their ‘Save the McKenzie’ campaign at a
lunchtime opening also on 20 August
The show opens to the public at 10 am on the 21st with an artists discussion (over coffee) about their activism and art.

http://www.nzafa.com/web/artists-activists-21st-august-12th-september

On the 10th August Visions of Utopia : A Group Exhibition of a perfect World will be opening at COCA Gallery, Christchurch, 10 August to 2 September. This is held in association with the Anglican Cathedral and all the work will be offered for auction at a special collaborative function to be held Thursday 2 September for supporters of the Cathedral and COCA. I am exhibiting a hinged construction on rimu entitled we are not islands

http://www.coca.org.nz/

You are invited to attend: my solo show of recent painting at Quikcorp Gallery The return of the Moa where I take a wry look at the future.
we cloned that moa DNA
they’re running round again
the oils all gone
life’s rather raw
we get our tucker
from those moa
dairy cows have killed the plains
there aint much water
but we’ve got moa

Opening Wednesday 5.30, 11 August, Quiqcorp Art Space, 155 High St, Christchurch
11 August to 3 September 2010
http://quiqcorp.com/Art-Space

Recently Jane Zusters left the comfort of the studio above and went on a journey with her artist mate Ramonda te Maiharoa following the Murray River in Australia as a cautionary tale for what is in store for our Canterbury rivers. Watch this space to see where the results will be shown.

On the 21 st June she will be guest artist at the Ashburtion Society of Arts.

From the 8th to 10th of July she will be teaching her popular Painter’s Studio For the University Of Canterbury’s Continuing Education.

In August Tearaway will be opening at Quikcorp in High st, Christchurch. Watch this space for more details.

On the 20th August she will be showing at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wellington in Artists as Activists along withBrian Turner, Sam Mahon, Grahame Sydney, Dean Buchanan, Michael Smither, Nick Dreyden and Don Binney.

I am about to be one of the 12 artists in this exhibition and will be exhibiting a painting called our rivers our lives, some photographs taken on our artists’ Waimakariri journey in March this year and a seven  minute DVD called Waikakariri River Blues

he awa reo river talk
artists for save our water
Tuesday 24th November 2009
Saturday 12th December 2009

art celebrating our rivers
Opening 5.30 Tuesday November 24th, 2009
This is the second artists for save our water project comprising Mark Adams, Nigel Brown, Linda James,
Sally Hope, Sam Mahon, Albi McCathy, Margaret Ryley, Ramonda Te Maiharoa, Irene Schroder, Becky
Turrell, Ben Woollcombe and Jane Zusters. Sponsored by The Malvern Hills Protection Society and Alpine
Jets the artists journeyed the Waimakariri River seeking inspiration for this exhibition. The artists celebrate through their art this magnificent braided river threatened by the proposed Central Plains Water Scheme.
water show
2-4 pm Saturday, December 12th, 2009 entry by donation
Featuring Murray Rodgers author of Canterbury’s Wicked Water.
Starring singers Malcolm McNeill and Rima Te Wiata formerly known as the kelp bags, the runoff,
and paua patties

Tuesday – Friday: 10am – 5pm
Saturday – Sunday: 12pm – 4pm
COCA 66 Gloucester St. Christchurch. New Zealand. Ph: +64 (03) 366 7261
he awa reo /river talk / artists for save our water

Thursday, 1 October 2009
Tues – Fri 10am – 4pm Weekends 12noon-4pm. Closed Mondays

Jane Zusters was born in Christchurch and has been exhibiting throughout New Zealand since 1975. She studied painting at the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts and graduated in 2003 with an MFA (First Class Honours) in photography from Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design, Auckland. Her practice includes painting, photography, installation involving found objects and short-looped video pieces. In 2005 she returned to live and work in Christchurch after twenty years based at her studio house on Waiheke Island. Zusters is represented in major public collections in New Zealand.

Zusters’ work explores one of the central issues of our time; that uneasy ecological edge where natural worlds are threatened when human beings channel the whole eco system into themselves. She is especially passionate about endangered New Zealand birds and water issues and co-founded with Sally Hope (granddaughter of Mackenzie Country painter Esther Hope) artists for save our water whose art projects draw attention to water conservation.

Venue: Aigantighe Art Gallery

Contact Name: Fiona Ciaran
Contact Phone: 036884424
Email Address: gallery@timdc.govt.nz