3 July 2024
Shannon Brosnahan Inglis is a co-founder of The Grid, a new immersive art space coming to the heart of Wellington for two months this winter. The opening exhibition, Rivers of Wind, has been created by The Grid’s other co-founder, Delainy Jamahl, and opens on 5 July.
I sat down with Shannon to ask her about the space, the opening exhibition, and long term plans for The Grid.
What can audiences expect from this exhibition?
Audiences will walk into a space with wrap-around moving image and surround sound where they are invited to experience art a bit differently. Rivers of Wind is a mesmerising digital artwork that visualises the wild and chaotic weather here in Wellington, based on eight years of weather data from the Wellington Airport weather station. Delainy has transformed that data into a 48-minute-long experience, where every second of the artwork represents a day of weather in Wellington. The work features original music from renowned composer Rhian Sheehan with Ed Zuccollo, so it’s a real Wellington creation.
What was the draw of the weather data?
Delainy was searching for the narrative that he wanted to share with his work, and he found that in data. Living in Wellington where the wind is such a feature of our daily life, that particular dataset really spoke to him and inspired the story he wanted to tell, so it’s very exciting to be sharing this work at scale with Wellington.
How does this exhibition differ from other work you’ve done?
This is the first time that we're bringing The Grid to Wellington in a dedicated space, and the first time we’re presenting a programme of Aotearoa-made immersive exhibitions. With our other hats on we have the privilege of working with some incredible creative practitioners, including the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts, to produce and deliver a whole range of artistic works. That experience all feeds into our vision for The Grid, one that we believe Wellington is calling out for and will really resonate with people.
Does the space you’re exhibiting in affect the work?
Absolutely, the exhibition space is very much a site-specific design. The fit out of our temporary home on Haining Street has been designed for Rivers of Wind and that contributes to it being a truly immersive experience, where the work really belongs in the space we’re inhabiting. When our exhibition programme changes over we also switch things up in the space to best house the other works we’re presenting.
What inspires you as a creative?
What inspires me about this art form is the connection it has with people, that look of glee and awe and wonder on people's faces when they get to experience something that is so wholly different from their everyday lives. Whatever they have been doing with their day, be it work or study or just getting by, they walk in here and there is no space for anything else anymore. You get transported into a whole new world that has been created for you and it is a truly special experience.
What’s next for you?
We shall see! Our dream is to open The Grid as a permanent immersive art space in Wellington, and this is our opportunity to invite people to come and check out what we’re all about. We need a dedicated home for digital art in Aotearoa, and if there’s enough demand from Wellingtonians, we’ll be able to make it happen.
Anything else you'd like to tell me?
I’d just like to encourage people to come and discover something new in their backyard this winter. Our programme is online at thegridartspace.co.nz.
Rivers of Wind is the first of three exhibitions we’re presenting, running between 5 and 28 July. The next work is The Art of Black Grace from renowned dance company Black Grace, and brings two of their immersive dance experiences to Wellington for the first time. The third is a new work called Nowadeus which is a collaboration between The Grid and local artist Tim Christie, looking at the personification of our modern obsessions and devotions as larger than life deities. These works are all captivating immersive experiences distinctly different from one another, and I hope you’ll come down to see what it's all about!
Rivers of Wind opens at The Grid, 18 Haining Street, Te Aro, on Friday 5 July. The Grid invites ARTicle readers to be among the first to experience Rivers of Wind. Book your tickets this week with the code FIRSTINART for a 20% discount.
