DrTuTu presentation

DrTuTu/ Guilty of ART!//
by Weston Frizzell
Artists - Weston Frizzell (Mike Weston & Otis Frizzell) / Jos Wheeler

Executive Producer & Creative Director - Mike Weston
Technical Director & Curator - JoFF Rae / ARTIVIST : Creative | Management - The Area |

Saturday, 4 August 2012 1


✤ exhibition & confabulation of thought & deed with a Weston Frizzell
translation

✤ it is personal. about idiosyncratic relationships & familiar imagery

✤ a concept that incorporates & elaborates on a body of work from
Weston Frizzell & led by Mike Weston with ARTIVIST : creative,
selected artists & creatives as a media installation & series of actions
that together make a symposium surrounding an exhibition event

✤ is an interactive media installation / exhibition / study


content & images

✤ “Yeah Right” is a satirical adaptation of the popular Tui Beer advertising campaign that
uses sarcasm in a humorous social commentary. In this artwork Mike Weston and Otis
Frizzell present their version of Tui’s iconic ad, substituting an AK47 assault rifle for the
usual perch branch. In Yeah Right, Tutu replaces both the Tui Beer branding, and also
the social statement that is usually featured in the Tui beer billboard.

Dr Tutu is the name Tame Iti adopted when DJing on his various alternative radio slots. It
features in the title of works Tututables, and Tututime 2004, and the logo featured on the
painted canvas works exhibited. In Maori, (and most if not all Polynesian languages also)
Tutu has a multiplicity of meanings such as ‘revolution’, ‘to meddle’, ‘arson’ and ‘sedition’.
Tutu and the glyphic logo formed by the inverted numerals 22 have been recurring motifs
in Weston Frizzell’s work since 2004. The message it conveys relates directly to the arrest
of Tame Iti and other Tuhoe members under the terrorism suppression act. If it were
spelled out it might read: “A terrorist revolution? Yeah, right.” Yeah Right is a fine art
archival inkjet print on Hahnemule 100% cotton rag paper, edition of 180.


Pa Ke Ha Ke

✤ “I fully support the redesign of the flag,” Otis Frizzell told Wellington's Capital Times
after Iti desecrated the NZ flag with a shotgun blast before the Waitangi Tribunal in
2005. “Whether it was right or wrong [Iti] was redesigning it in his own special way.
The bullet holes in this work represent what Tame did to the flag." Edition of 180 prints,
handprinted then signed and numbered.

✤ The term Pakehake contains two possible meanings. In Maori the addition of the sufﬁx
ke transforms Pakeha into an expletive, a curse , an insult. Additionally Pake means
ﬂag and Hake means torn, thus the title ‘Torn Flag’. Pa Ke Ha Ke is Weston Frizzell's
new version of the New Zealand ensign complete with bullet holes.

✤ This is indicative of the approach & direction that Weston Frizzell has taken with


process & method
"Of the many meanings Tutu can have, depending on pronunciation, revolution is one. And I
noticed that the number 22 revolved 180 deg created a glyphic logo that evoked a double Manaia, a
Maori influenced Hindu Arabic form that in an abstract sense embodied many of the ideas of
bicultural collaboration we were working with."

Mike Weston speaking on the images of the 'DrTuTu'
exhibition
"We conceived of an imaginary contemporary scenario where no colonisation had occurred, and
devised a number of graphic motifs and symbols such as you might find on road markings or signs
or perhaps corporate branding responding to this notion, and we started putting that symbol on
works that spoke of those issues, beginning with the 88 canvasses in the Dr Tutu show and a
number of other works since including 'Yeah Right', 'Behave', 'U22' (from the We Are series of
letters), 'Four Seasons Winter'. I figured it would stick in peoples minds because they would be
wondering why it was upside down."


people & personal

"This content is exciting to work & the background & story
to the artists & others involved is motivated by pure
intentions" says JoFF Rae aka ARTIVIST
"Tame is being positively identified internationally as a
'revolutionary' in a context of world terrorism, conflict &
recognised struggle of indigenous people... in New Zealand
there is a context of protest, claim, entitlement & personal
opinion. With a frame of DrTuTu / Guilty of ART!// the
exhibition introduces a defined scene to contemplate the issue
of guilt & perception with peripheral events & installation to
enhance the process & create depth & perspective"


Mike Weston - Executive Producer & Creative Director
How did you meet Tame Iti et al?
"In 2001 I was very active in the dance music and club scene, producing techno, managing DJs and parties. I was hired to produce
a music project Tame was involved in but not leading. He’d been a regular around K rd on and off for years, and I’d had a presence
on K Rd from 1987 so I’d seen him around regularly but not been introduced. He came to my studio one afternoon, with two very
big guys, who it appeared were his minders, all with facial moko and in army fatigues, to record a haka section for the track.

They were a pretty intimidating sight. The other two guys said pretty much nothing at all for the entire time they were there, exchanging only a
few words in Maori, and mostly just sleeping in the armchairs at the back of the room, and when Tame wasn’t busy recording or writing lyrics,
he joined them for a snooze, so there was often quite a chorus of snoring coming from the back of the studio. On more than one occasion I
needed to nudge them to get them to be quiet.

Tame came back in a few more times, again with company, and did some singing (he was very good) and had quite a bit of input, clearly enjoying the whole process and the way it was
headed. The track arrangement got quite epic in a pumping tech-trance vibe, with a big vocal chorus and thumping haka. It took us a few sessions to get it all done, and after putting in a lot
of hours and nearing completion it became apparent to me that the guy driving the project didn’t want to pay or couldn’t. I realised I might have to apply some encouragement to get paid,
even though I’d done a very good job on it given the tiny budget and technical constraints.

So at the final session I was having some strong words with the exec producer who wasn’t happy, and Tame and co. were asleep in the studio armchairs snoring, but woke up, then the EP
called me “just the pakeha button pusher”, which really pissed me off, but I was thinking to myself, “Fuck this could end badly”. I was pretty worried, but I dug my heels in and insisted that
our deal was honored, and I refused to hand over the master, standing there with my arms folded shaking my head going, nope, no way, and Tame and the two other guys had woken up
now looking at me from the armchairs, half asleep wondering what happened. My heart was in my throat. I had no idea what was going to happen next but thought perhaps this was the part
where my studio got emptied of it’s equipment!

So I looked at Tame and he looked at me and there was a long long pause, and then he nodded, and said “it’s all good Mike” offered some words of encouragement, thanked me for my
time, and said he would talk sort it out (which he did), then he and his guys helped me rearrange the studio and did the dishes and we went down stairs to the café for a chat. It was a bit
unexpected i guess, but we just hit it off, and I discovered he had a real interest in electronic dance music. I think it had made an impression on him that I’d stood my ground and not freaked
out when things got a bit hot.

Some months passed and I was looking for some new off-the-wall projects to move onto . The dance music scene was getting tired, even though what I was doing was still successful, and
busy, I had this idea to produce a kind of DJ mix anti=statement album, kind of a piss-take I saw Tame at the time as being a NZ parallel outlaw type character in the same way Ronnie Biggs
was in his collaboration with the Sex Pistols that Malcolm McLaren put together. I’ve been very influenced by Malcolm McLaren. That year a new radio started on K’Rd, KFM, which is still
going, and I was brought in at the start to DJ a few times a week and consult, and as it happened my show started directly after Tame’s who did the very early morning spot.

Tame DJed calling himself Dr. Tutu. His show was really eclectic. He’d play a John Rowles, Kiri te Kanawa, Patea Maori club, Hone Tuwhare, then nek minnit a Ministry of Sound trance
epic, a lot of Maori material with theses club trance tracks popped in here and there, just all over the place, a totally off the wall mix of music, with his quirky speaking style and political spiel
all on top. It was great! I just loved it. So he would finish his show and then I would start mine, which was an energetic mix of electronic dance, and I’d frequently get messages to the
studio from him and his wife from home saying that they were doing the housework and loving the show.

I did some ambient remixes of the earlier mentioned project which made it onto the club LOVELY summer of love album I did with DJ OB1, and I continued to play with that material while out
on tour.

Over time we became friends, and we started to talk about doing another music project that crossed over art and music, and ultimately this became the Dr Tutu featuring Tame Iti project.


I figured it wasn’t going to be a big seller, but had some potential to go the distance if it was leaned more in an art direction so i started jamming ideas for a special package CD
which ultimately ended up being an art exhibition concept, with a CD attached to each artwork.

I had an idea of illustrating Tame’s face in the style of the 4 square man, in a nod to Dick Frizzells Grocer with Moko, so I called my good mate Otis Frizzell, who I’d been managing
on and off for a few years, to do the illustration of that and he nailed it so well that I asked Otis to collaborate on the art side of it 50:50 with me. We found ourselves enthusiastically
throwing paint around all over the place, jamming a lot of ideas, running them past Tame to make sure he was alright with it, and mostly he was and we made four series of
canvasses each in editions of 22, presenting visual representations of each of the musical works on the CD.

I utilise a lot of chance techniques in my creative process, influenced by John Cage, and Eno and I used the I Ching regularly as a kind of metaphysical guide and mirror during this
time, repeatedly finding myself at the 22nd hexagram passage, Pi (or Grace). The sentiment expressed in the Wilhelm translation “things should not unite abruptly or ruthlessly”
seemed to fit the bicultural nature of the musical collaboration very well, and the coincident 22, resonated with the Dr Tutu name of the project. Of course there’s the additional
Catch 22 reference. It stuck.

Of the many meanings Tutu can have, depending on pronunciation, revolution is one. And I noticed that the number 22 revolved 180 deg created a glyphic logo that
evoked a double Manaia, a Maori influenced Hindu Arabic form that in an abstract sense embodied many of the ideas of bicultural collaboration we were working with. We
conceived of an imaginary contemporary scenario where no colonisation had occurred, and devised a number of graphic motifs and symbols such as you might find on road
markings or signs or perhaps corporate branding responding to this notion, and we started putting that symbol on works that spoke of those issues, beginning with the 88
canvasses in the Dr Tutu show and a number of other works since including Yeah Right, Behave, U22 (from the We are series of letters), Four Seasons Winter. I figured it would
stick in peoples minds because they would be wondering why it was upside down.

At the outset of the project I was pragmatically aware that Tame was likely to keep coming up with new ways to have his own Tuhoe agenda remain in public discussion.

He’s definitively activist in that respect, and masterful at it, a real innovator, and he didn’t disappoint. The flag shooting incident of 2005 put him back in the headlines and caused
an immediate surge in interest in the painting sales, and the weight of the political association opened a few doors for us in the dealer gallery world.

The print Pakeha ke (in Maori, ke suffixed adds an expletive tone to a noun) responded to the flag shooting incident and subsequent trial lead up.

The name Pake (torn or damaged) hake (flag) is a word play.

I started playing with Maori words at the Dr Tutu show. Thinking that it would encourage questions discussion and debate, and it also helped me learn more Maori language so I
thought it would have the same effect for others.

After the flag shooting, we got some press, and the music was used in a very good documentary “The Man Behind the Moko” and started getting used here and there on TV. Tame
seemed happy with it all, which really delighted me because I thought we’d really subverted a lot of the material we were working with to make it a bit more ambivalent and thought
provoking rather than just radical and prescriptive, but he was pretty stoked with it I think, and that motivated me to put more effort into getting acquainted with the Tuhoe story.

I believe it began in an attempt by the NZ to government kowtow to corrupt US government pressure by making some stupid, immoral and ultimately useless laws and now it’s just
continuing while they try to save face.

Its an embarrassment to them. "


format & space
DrTuTu/ Guilty of ART!// is designed for 2 spaces with several experiences & interactive
media installations in a complex format designed to engage in a 5 week installation...
“We have designed & developed this to the speciﬁcation & brief from Mike Weston & deﬁned an interpersonal relationship that will
encourage the audience to participate” explains JoFF Rae “Mike developed this format to emulate a DJ set & has carefully crafted
an environment with an hour of produced audio & video - the duration perfect to format the requirement of engagement through 3
environments or perceived measures; we have created 2 spaces from 2 bodies of work & 4 in the exhibition that collectively engage &
retain the interest of the audience & eventually & inevitably allow themselves to explore the subject beyond any opinion they walked
in with... the familiarity of the images & the humor involved with the quality of the work is motivating yet comfortable”
The spaces involve :
•DrTuTu / space #1 / this area is exclusively Weston Frizzell works; 4 x tuku tuku installations
(each 22 canvas’ installed); 16 x print pieces framed; 4 x installations (mirror piece, other) or
“special” installation;
•Jos Wheeler / space #2 / 8 x large format photographic works from a catalog of 32 as a study;
•projection installation / space #2 / using documentary video & produced audio* with images
from DrTuTu & the catalog of Jos Wheeler / a media installation involving projection & screens;
•audio* / space #1 & #2 / produced CD that determines the content & format of the spaces.


DrTuTu/ Guilty of ART!// is essentially providing a platform with specific artists & creatives to make & demonstrate a reference; Weston has developed
a frame that questions the statement of intent in the Weston Frizzell Dr TuTu exhibition.

Weston Frizzell importune the genre of Pop Art & Culture in a classic fashion of youth rebellion, skateboarding & surf culture, urban art & graffiti,
hip hop & punk against a background of protest, conflict, politics & social commentary, wit & humour.

The genre & content is suitable for guerilla marketing & street advertising & is both pertinent in subject & fashionable... the success of the event is
based on the quality & celebrity of Weston Frizzell with prominent & consummate collaborators...

Jos Wheeler is such a collaborator in his ability to compile & provide personally created content, documentation & documentary. His moving & still
images span an understanding of the DrTuTu subject that is moving & intimate.

The plan & content involved in Dr TuTu/ Guilty of ART!// build on a concept developed organically, purposefully & historically...
with current & pertinent messages to convey:

• 'Who Are The Real Terrorists' was a track laid down in 2003 & other audio & media of Dr TuTu have been recorded, produced &
developed over several years;
• Mike Weston has been an associate of Tame Iti since 2001 & Otis Frizzell has known Tame for several years;
• Dr TuTu is developed content with a context that has exhibited previously;
• relevent content & media exist in Weston Frizzell & other private & public archive;

• ARTIVIST has had an association with Tame & others in the Urewera group for 20 years in protest action & art;
• ARTIVIST : creative by any means necessary! with Melbourne based street artist HaHa started to attribute street art works with a
theme of 'watch that space/ Guilty of ART!//'
• ARTIVIST has proposed a brief to various selected potential artistic & creative contributors with positive response;
• the works & issues have been in development for several years through the Urewera raids & before;
• Jos Wheller (DOP & photographer) has been visually documenting action & event around Tame for several years;
• street art by Ha Ha depicting Tame Iti has been installed as paste up & stencil graffiti in Auckland, Hamilton, Taupo, Wellington,
Sydney, Melbourne, London, Paris, Lyon & other locations;
• the exhibition involves a street element that has an ethic developed in illegal action; the Weston Frizzell installation is the "legal"
aspect that states the intent;
• 'Street Art' is now the largest genre of art in the world & suits a pop up lead to an exhibition;
• the 'Weston Frizzell' fan movement has a broad demographic & relates well to the intended audience of 'Dr TuTu/ Guilty of
ART!//'.

COMING SOON/ AN EVENT/ AN EXHIBITION/ A POP UP ARTS FESTIVAL/ STREET ART/ POP
ART/ GUERRILLA CINEMA/ MUSIC & PERFORMANCE/ watch that space/ Dr TuTu/ Guilty of ART!//


costs/
DrTuTu / Guilty of ART!//
+ the costs associated with design & build of this exhibition are
indicative of an involved installation with a staff roster of over 12
including artists, technical & administrative staff in both
installation & the development process; over 50 suppliers from
gilcee photographic printers, screen printers, framers & other
specialists to the studios & engineers involved in the production &
edit of media;

+ the required quality of the works is cause for production &
exhibition costs of investment & are budgeted with a collective
requirement of one hundred thousand dollars of commercially
generated revenues or funding from 3 public gallery exhibitions &
a fee charge to each gallery for site specific costs;

+ the requirement on the public galleries is a fee of seven
thousand & five hundred dollars to deliver DrTuTu/ Guilty of
ART!// with attendance of the artists, opening & some
production requirements;

Ch'ien by Mike Weston + technical requirement involves specifics of projection & audio;
Giclee Print
other requirements of the gallery involves specific administration
350mm x 270mm
in preparation & during exhibition with regard to independent
Edition of 40 signed and numbered prints
commercial activity;

The title of the work is taken from the ancient Chinese written oracle, the I Ching. The arrangement of
- delivered with sponsorship & private funding with an
three horizontal unbroken lines is the first of eight trigrams that, when combined in pairs, form a set of 64
independent commercial element;
hexagrams that index the entire work. Both the trigram, and the hexagram formed when paired with itself,

are called Ch’ien /the creative. It represents heaven. Its essence is primal power and energy, associated

with the father; light-giving, strong, and of the spirit.The trigram represented by the arrangement of the
- the AREA artists management with Weston Frizzell has a
rubber bands is Li. Li means “to depend or rest on something” and also “brightness” or “nature in its nationwide network of press & media & has a campaign of public
radiance”. street art to publicise the event;
This artwork by Mike Weston involves NZ $15,000 in $20 notes, arranged in three $5000 bricks.
- is designed & planned for international travel & installation.


contact & resources
Management & Administration
- for press releases & interviews, sales & distribution including media
- schedules, planning & administration
- resources include media, print material

JoFF Rae | ARTIVIST : creative by any means necessary!
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR & CURATOR
021 2146169 | joff@artivist.co.nz | www.artivist.co.nz

The Area artist management
MANAGEMENT
Unit 4 / 26 Bancroft Cresent, Glendene, Auckand, New Zealand
+64 9 813 9709 | info@thearea.co.nz | www.thearea.co.nz

th’ink media media | serigraphics | art
ADMINISTRATION
9 Beachman Grove, Hilltop, Taupo 3330 | PO Box 279 Taupo 3351, New Zealand
021 182 5588 | +64 7 3783253 | sum@think.net.nz | www.think.net.nz

Electronic Press Kit - DrTuTu/ Guilty of ART!//
make.artivist.co.nz/pages/drtutu-guilty-of-art-epk


JosWheeler DoP


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