About walking: Richard Orjis: cruising, lazing, leaning

Drawing on queer histories of cruising for intimate encounters in parks, artist Richard Orjis invites you to gather by the Waters of the Eel, Te Wai Orea / Western Springs Park for a night time cruise featuring original music by Marika Pratley.

Please bring your phones, head-phones, a torch and a blanket. Meet at Te Wai Orea / Western Springs Park at the bottom of Stadium Road.

Set against a background of queer ecological thought, and bttm_ methodology, Orjis will lead a walk driven by principles of connectivity, pleasure and subversion. It will be made up of a list of fluid provocations and ethical explorations as a soft testing of the notion of being ‘passively active’ that prioritises openness, slowness and empathy. Together we will explore how passive, promiscuous, temporary and transient modes may lead to meaningful alliances and intimacies between humans and the more-than-human.

In the last ten years, artist Richard Orjis has focused on creating participatory and experiential work. He has created hau ora gardens with AD Schierning, enabled people to walk through the treetops in Albert Park and explored the queer ecologies of our city. He bases his current practice on bttm methodology, an approach to art-making, pedagogy and kinship driven by the tenets of connectivity, pleasure and sub-version. Orjis has exhibited extensively in New Zealand and internationally, in private galleries and public institutions.

Marika Pratley is a composer, sonic artist, improviser and performer The diversity of her work reflects the eclectic influences of her musical and cultural upbringing. Her compositions use found objects, Indonesian gamelan, Greek folk instruments, synthesizers and field recordings. Marika’s work explores radical relaxation, the phenomenology of space-time, trauma recovery and intersectional identity politics.

Photo: Ralph Brown

21 November, 9-9pm

Meet at Te Wai Orea / Western Springs Park at the bottom of Stadium Road