LOT23 celebrates second birthday with installation and group exhibition

On 13 November Eden Terrace’s hidden gem, LOT23, will celebrate its second birthday as Auckland’s most exciting artistic venue and venture.

The brainchild of artist Natalie Tozer, her husband Sam (Brownstreet Productions) and his father Steve Tozer, LOT23 opened in 2013. While searching for a commercial studio space, they stumbled upon 23 Minnie St. The 600m2 block at the end of a dead-end street was transformed in a dynamic complex comprising a photographic and film studio, gallery – curated by Tozer – office spaces and an excellent cafe.

To celebrate the milestone, Tozer has joined forces with musician/producer James Pinker (in Pursuit of Venus [infected]) in creating a large video installation titled If this then that which will exhibit in LOT23’s studio for just one night.
 
The duo have devised “a portal to the fluid and private dream space” of the viewer. 
 
Says Tozer of the work, “If this then that presents a sonic and visual expression of poetry which the visitor experiences in a listening space surrounded by scaled up imagery of fluid and pigment projected on to large perspex shards. The once-whole images become shattered in a celebration of what is left behind: shadow, stains and half forms that, as they are installed, become new forms.
 
“Because our day-to-day landscapes are so ‘media rich’, we wanted to create an alternative, to offer retreat, escape and respite from everyday life – essentially an experience that is commercially void.”

Natalie Tozer is an Auckland-based visual artist, producer and curator. She completed her fine arts degree at Elam, University of Auckland and has worked in Auckland, Melbourne, Atlanta, Saint Louis, Chicago and New York City. She exhibited in Art in the Dark 2012, was an invited artist at the 2013 Headland Sculpture on the Gulf and was selected for the 2014 Te Atatu Harbourview Sculpture Trail and 2015 Wharepuke Sculpture Awards exhibition.
 
James Pinker is a highly regarded producer, percussionist, sound engineer and curator. He was drummer with Jed Town in The Features, one of the first bands to record on Simon Grigg’s Propeller Records label, about three decades back. This set James on an eclectic musical trail that included time in Australia and a lengthy stint in the UK where he worked and toured with a number of bands including The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Pogues, Dead Can Dance, two albums with Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn and with Michael Brook on Peter Gabriel’s Realworld label.
 
James’ most recent artistic collaboration was with Sean Cooper on the soundtrack for Lisa Reihana’s spectacular in Pursuit of Venus [infected] which premiered at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki earlier this year. The highly-celebrated work was shot, edited and composited at Lot23.

If this then that will sit alongside an exhibition of work by LOT23 artists, including Philippa Blair, Stephen Langdon, Edward McKenzie, Delena Nathuran, I Am Creature, Antoinette Ratcliffe, Esther Deans, Vanessa Green, Louise Keen, Lyle Adams, Coco Campbell and Kezia Barnett.

The group exhibition will run 13 November to 2 December.

Website: www.lot23.co.nz