Lunar New Year screening: DRAGON

12 - 18 February 2024

Open daily 10am to 5pm

Free entry

The new dance-theatre film "DRAGON" features artists from Japan and Aotearoa to observe the incoming Lunar New Year of the Dragon.

This 13-minute film will be playing on loop in Gallery 13 next to Wharenui Harikoa.

A stellar creative team is lead by Daniel Belton, Te Tumu Toi New Zealand Arts Foundation Laureate. Soul-jazz pioneer Mark de Clive-Lowe’s new music is interwoven with taonga pūoro from Mahina-Ina Kingi-Kaui and Alistair Fraser. The elevated sonic textures inspire dynamic screen performances from Idiot Savant Theater Company (Tokyo), and Airu Matsuda with Samara Reweti (Aotearoa). The virtuosic dance-theatre presence of Nao Akao, Yasuhiro Kondo and Chikako Arai, channels energies of the Dragon. Acclaimed wordsmith, Katherine Lyall-Watson (Belloo Creative, Australia) adds a poetic script, igniting sonic and visual spaces in this brand new work.

In Eastern mythology the magical Dragon represents courage, wisdom and power. Sometimes known as a shape-shifter, the Dragon is a playful, powerful totem. Dragons are symbols of celestial mobility with sweeping abilities - breathing clouds, moving seasons and controlling waters. Asian traditions use a set of elements called the "five great". These are air, water, earth, fire and void. Within this there is a timeless philosophy used to describe the vital relationship and interdependence between all living things.

The appearance of the celestial Dragon invokes an ancient connection to the multiverse. Dragon is a tohu signalling higher dimensions. Our game-like cinema opens alternative pathways, expanding geometries of the cube and hexagon, morphing spatial portals through the fusion of dance, music and digital arts.

Image credit: Daniel Belton and Good Company Arts, Still from DRAGON