Throughout July, Stoddart Cottage resounds with its first-ever sound-themed festival, Whakarongo Whakaraupō, which encourages listening in and from its Whakaraupō/Lyttelton Harbour location. This free festival revolves around a month-long group sonic art exhibition featuring work by Jake Kīanō Skinner, Motoko Kikkawa, Eves, Nicolas Woollaston, Helen Greenfield and Blair Parkes. 

In Whakarongo Whakaraupō skilled Ōtautahi-based taonga pūoro player and musician, Jake Kīanō Skinner (Ngāti Rangitihi) presents an immersive sound installation. Using traditional Māori instruments and drawing inspiration from his Ngāti Rangitihi whakapapa, his multi-speaker work invites us to connect with the essence of Māori culture and the natural world.

Japanese-born and Ōtepoti Dunedin-resident painter and musician, Motoko Kikkawa has transformed the vibrations of her improvised music practice into a series of watercolours employing a similarly improvisational method.

Beneath seemingly simple patterns of electronic sounds, deeper connections and detail emerge in Nicolas Woollaston’s interactive sound sculpture. In this hanging work created from electronic circuits, the Ōtautahi  artist uses transistors to create rhythms and patterns that evoke the waves of Whakaraupō and the multigenerational memories held in the harbour.

Connecting with local history, in The Women of Lyttelton Gaol, Ōhinehou Lyttelton sound artist, Helen Greenfield, assisted by Ōtautahi musician, Blair Parkes, presents an audio work reflecting the flux of women incarcerated in Lyttelton Gaol. 

The events:

  • Listening to Landscapes (Sound walk).
  • Voices of Whakaraupō (Poetry/spoken word).
  • Improvisations on Margaret (Live music/sound performances).