Pelenakeke Brown Explained

Pelenakeke Brown is a multi-disciplinary New Zealand artist. In 2019 she was awarded the Disability Dance Artistry Award by Dance/NYC, and was recognised for her work through Creative NZ's Arts Pasifika Awards with the Pacific Toa award in 2020.[1] [2] [3]

Career

Brown was 9 years old when she became a founding member and company dancer for Touch Compass. Her involvement lasted from 1997 to 2000, when she left to focus on her schooling.[4] After secondary school, Brown studied at the University of Auckland (2007–2010), completing a bachelor of arts in Pacific studies and English literature.[5] In 2011, she undertook the Be Leadership programme with Be Lab, a New Zealand accessibility organisation.[6] About the programme, Brown stated “Everyone has the potential to be a great leader and the Be.Leadership programme has helped me realize that I could be one too.”

After completing her undergraduate study and spending some time in the work force, Brown left New Zealand to continue studies in New York, moving in 2013 and studying at the National Academy School of Fine Arts completing the Studio Intensive Programme in 2016.[7]

Brown's work is embedded in the Samoan concept Vā'.

Vā centers spatial relationships as a way to understand and move in the world. In my art practice, this translates to interrogating relationships, how we relate to ourselves, each other. I am fascinated with the in-between spaces and how our in-between spaces inform the way we navigate the world. (Brown)[8]
Brown has exhibited work across the United States of America, in California, New York and San Francisco and in Germany, London, and New Zealand. She has been published in the James Franco Review, Apogee Journal, Movement Research Performance Journal and the Hawai'i Review.[9] [10]

Brown spent six and a half years based in New York, where she engaged in choreography, movement, dance, curation, visual arts, writing, and storytelling. She has collaborated with The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Public Library, Goethe Institute and Gibney Dance Centre for projects. She has held art residencies in New York, Vermont and New Zealand. She returned to Auckland, New Zealand in mid-2019 and took up the role of artistic director at Touch Compass the following year, becoming the first disabled artist to lead the company in its twenty four years of operation.[11]

In 2020, Brown collaborated with artist Yo Yo Lin and co-founded Rotations, "a dance collaborative movement working towards deepening and challenging our understanding of artistry, disability, and access".[12]

Brown was the keynote speaker for the Ōtautahi Tiny Fest in 2021; writer Kosta Bogoievski described Brown's talk as an emotional opening, as festivals can be but Tiny Fest happens to be, in 2021, one of the last live performance festivals standing in the country'.[13]

In March 2022, Brown was part of an online panel discussion for Te Tairāwhiti Arts Festival wānanga series Te Ara i te Matihiko Toi, to discuss access, inclusion and participation within the performing arts.[14]

In 2022 Brown is one of the panel members evaluating proposals to the Innovation Fund at the New Zealand Ministry of Culture and Heritage. Other panel members are W. Gary Nicholas and Ian Barrs.[15]

Performances

!Year!Show/Company!Role!Location!Ref.
1997- 2000Touch Compass Dance TrustCompany DancerNZ   [16]
2017A Remedy for a Constitutional Crisis (Abrons Art Center)PerformerNYC. NY[17]
2017Boogie on the Boulevard (Bronx Museum of the Arts)PerformerBronx, NY [18]
2018Excavātion (Denniston Hill Open House)PerformerWoodridge, NY[19]
2018Sunshower (Yuko Uchida, Ideal Glass Studio)PerformerNYC, NY[20]
2019Down In The River Judson Memorial ChurchPerformerNY[21]
2019Excavātion: An Archival Process (Gibney Dance Center)PerformerNY[22]
2020WITH (Tanzplattform supported by the Goethe Institute)PerformerMunich, Germany
2022Vā Moana Conference (Auckland University of Technology, online) Artist actiVAtorAuckland, NZ[23]

Solo exhibitions

!Year!Title !Organisation!Location!Ref.
2017Reasoning on Paper: The Myth Of Herself ORA GalleryNYC, NY[24]
2017In Conversation with LineSonia Gechtoff GalleryNYC, NY[25]

Group exhibitions

!Year!Title!Organisation!Location!Ref.
2015Experiments in Self PortraitureSonia Gechtoff GalleryManhattan,NY
2015FACE IT: The Face in Contemporary ArtOnsite:BrooklynBrooklyn, NY[26]
2016Urban Indigenous XAsian Pacific Islander Cultural CenterSan Francisco, CA[27]
2016Creative MischiefNational Academy MuseumNYC, NY
2016Black and White Perspectives: Works on PaperSonia Gechtoff GalleryNYC, NY
2017Trash CapsulesNew Women SpaceBrooklyn, NY [28]
2017Creative MischiefNational Academy MuseumNYC, NY
2017Ka OraORA GalleryNYC, NY[29]
2018Rendering LikenessLa Bodega GalleryBrooklyn, NY
2019Mana Moana, Mana Wāhine,Raven Row GalleryLondon, UK[30]
2019Talk Back (Curated by Lexy Ho Tai and Moira Williams)Flux FactoryQueens, NY [31]
2020Here To LoungeNook GalleryCA[32]
2021All That You Touch You ChangeHelmhaus (Stadt Zurich)Zurich, Germany[33]

Residencies

!Year!Residency!Organisation!Location!Ref.
2016ResidencyVermont Studio Center, Johnson, VTNYC,NY[34]
2016Immigrant Artists Programme:Social PracticeNew York Foundation For The ArtsNY [35]
2018Artist in Residence: Ana Pekapeka StudioCorbans Art EstateAK, NZ
2018Create Change FellowLaundromat ProjectNYC, NY
2018Performance Art Seminar with Xaviera SimmonsDenniston Hill NY [36]
2019Artist in ResidenceDenniston Hill/Laundromat ProjectNY[37]
2019Disability Dance Artistry ResidencyDANCE/NYCNY
2020Artist in ResidenceEyebeamNY

Scholarships and awards

!Year!Scholarship/Award!Organisation!Location!Ref.
2006Bursary ScholarshipASBAK, NZ[38]
2007Vice-Chanellor's Award for Top Māori and Pacific ScholarsUniversity of AucklandNZ
2013Future New Zealand Charitable Trust ScholarshipFuture New ZealandNZ
2014National Academy School ScholarshipNational AcademyNY,USA
2019Disability Dance Artistry AwardDance/NYCNY, USA
2020Creative New ZealandWGN, NZ
PAK’nSAVE Artistic Achievement Award - Te Putanga Toi Arts Access AwardsArts Access AotearoaNZ[39]

Personal life

Brown has Samoan and Palagi (non-Samoan) heritage.

References

  1. Web site: About. 2022-02-18. PELENAKEKE BROWN. en-US.
  2. Web site: Pelenakeke Brown. 2022-02-18. Meeting Place. en-US.
  3. Web site: Pelenakeke (Keke) Brown . 2022-03-09 . The Center for the Humanities . en-US.
  4. Web site: 2020-05-12 . Pelenakeke Brown: Access all areas the aim for new dance leader . 2022-03-09 . Rangitoto Observer . en-US.
  5. Web site: Speakers . 2022-03-20 . www.dance.nyc . en.
  6. Web site: Be. Leadership Alumni News: Interdisciplinary Artist Pelenakeke Brown . 2022-03-01 . www.belab.co.nz . en.
  7. Web site: 2016-09-07 . Nonfiction by Pelenakeke Brown . 2022-03-20 . The James Franco Review . en.
  8. Web site: 2020-10-01 . Pelenakeke Brown . 2022-03-09 . The Gallatin Galleries . en-US.
  9. Web site: Pelenakeke Brown . 2022-03-19 . ORA Gallery . en-US.
  10. Web site: Studio . Familiar . 2022-03-18 . Pelenakeke (Keke) Brown . 2022-03-19 . Movement Research . en.
  11. Web site: PRESENTS – Pelenakeke Brown . 2022-03-09 . vitalcapacities.com.
  12. Web site: Anderson . Vicki . 2021-11-25 . What's on: Event highlights in Ōtautahi Christchurch . 2022-03-15 . Stuff . en.
  13. Web site: Tiny Fest - Things morph, amplify, distort in delightfully unexpected ways . 2022-03-19 . www.theatreview.org.nz.
  14. Web site: 2022-03-09 . Online Wānanga on Access & Inclusion in the Performing Arts ⋆ Te Tairawhiti Arts Festival 2021 . 2022-03-19 . Te Tairawhiti Arts Festival 2021 . en-US.
  15. Web site: Innovation Fund . 2022-04-29 . Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
  16. Web site: Magazine . Viva . Get To Know Interdisciplinary Artist Pelenakeke Brown - Viva . 2022-03-14 . www.viva.co.nz . en-US.
  17. Web site: Maya Ciarrocchi A Remedy for a Constitutional Crisis David Hamilton Thomson . 2022-03-15 . davidhamiltonthomson.com.
  18. Web site: 2017-09-06 . Artist News Immigrant Artists Collective at "Boogie on the Boulevard" . 2022-03-15 . NYFA . en-US.
  19. Web site: lutte collective . 2022-03-15 . luttecollective.com.
  20. Web site: Ideal Glass Studio . Press Release for Sunshower . 1.
  21. Web site: movementresearch . 2019-10-10 . Movement Research at the Judson Church — September 16, 2019 . 2022-03-15 . Medium . en.
  22. Web site: 2020-05-14 . Making Art Accessible . 2022-03-14 . The Big Idea . en.
  23. Book: Vā Moana: Space and Relationality in Pacific Thought and Identity . Auckland University of Technology . 2021 . 119 . English.
  24. Web site: 2017-01-12 . Reasoning On Paper: The Myth Of Herself Ora Gallery, NY . 2022-03-14 . TAUTAI - GUIDING PACIFIC ARTS . en-US.
  25. Web site: CV . 2022-03-14 . PELENAKEKE BROWN . en-US.
  26. Web site: FACE IT: The Face in Contemporary Art . 2022-03-14 . Site:Brooklyn Gallery . en-US.
  27. Web site: URBAN x INDIGENOUS . 2022-03-14 . Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center.
  28. Web site: Trash Capsules: Archives of Illness, Food, and Diaspora . 2022-03-14 . www.facebook.com . en.
  29. Web site: ARTISTS . 2022-03-14 . ORA Gallery . en-US.
  30. Web site: Watlington . Emily . 2021-03-09 . Cripping Choreography . 2022-03-15 . ARTnews.com . en-US.
  31. Web site: Talk Back – Flux Factory . 2022-03-14 . en-US.
  32. Web site: Here to Lounge . 2022-03-14 . Shannon Finnegan . en-US.
  33. Web site: All That You Touch, You Change . 2022-03-14 . allthatyoutouch.ch . en.
  34. Web site: Studio . Familiar . 2022-03-13 . Pelenakeke (Keke) Brown . 2022-03-14 . Movement Research . en.
  35. Web site: 2020 Resident Artists in Conversation Part Two: Pelenakeke Brown and Elissa Moorehead with Jeff Kasper and Tina Campt . 2022-03-14 . Eyebeam . en-us.
  36. Web site: Brown . Pelenakeke . She Returns . 2022-03-14 . Pantograph Punch.
  37. Web site: Alumni . 2022-03-14 . Denniston Hill . en-US.
  38. Web site: CV . 2022-03-01 . PELENAKEKE BROWN . en-US.
  39. Web site: Te Putanga Toi Arts Access Awards 2020 celebrate diversity and the arts . 2022-03-29 . Creative New Zealand . en-NZ.

External References

Gender/Power Composition IV Performance https://vimeo.com/188065481

Pelenakeke Brown Movement Research at the Judson Church https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArMqVHODgcM&t=15s

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