Dreary Modern Life

Fraser Chatham is an Auckland based artist, who primarily works in a series photographic strategies. Chatham is a third year Fine arts student at the Elam school of fine arts. His work explores notions of chromophobia, commercial modes of display and the hyperreality of modern life. Chatham is also apart of the Kerosene comic book collective. Fraserchatham.com

Biophilia

No & Co photos by Andrei Blidarean. Styling & Art department by Oliver Gilbert and Oliver Guyan. Model Juliet Carpenter

Appearing like the intricately carved crystals gleaned from caves; Alissa Gilbert’s artisan soap line No & Co is a multi sensory experience. Gilbert is a Christchurch based artist who works in variety of different mediums. Gilbert graduated with a BFA from Ilam school of fine arts at Canterbury University in 2011.

Gilbert began making soaps during art school and still uses some of the same silicon moulds to create her luxury soaps. Unlike many commercially made soaps No & Co follows a sustainable business model and even the materials used to create the soaps are all ethically sourced and plant based. Gilbert is interested in transformative nature of artisan craft processes like ceramics and pottery. As a sculptor she enjoys the process of casting. Gilbert recently undertook a project with fellow Ilam alumni Ana Iti and sound artist/audio engineer Sarah Ann Kelleher called A brief history of a corner, through artist collective The Social. This project involved them asking a psychic to do a reading of a corner in the CBD in Christchurch. Viewers could then engage with the work by grabbing an ipod with the recording on it from the Christchurch art gallery off site space (above the Physics room and C1 espresso) and engaging with the space. Alissa Gilbert’s work speaks volumes about the transformative, biophilic nature of our environments, which is extremely evident in both her collaborative site specific work and her soap making process.

Making cold press soaps is a time consuming process, as it takes up to four weeks for it to cure. Each soap is hand made through traditional means and seemingly pays homage to those whose labour would otherwise go unnoticed. The cold press process used to make No & Co soaps involves using soda ash, natural oils and ethically sourced and inexpensive palm oil and olive oil. Most commercial soaps remove glycerine and contain a endless amount of chemicals. This makes little sense given that soaps can be made using only one chemical product, soda ash. Gilbert previously sourced soda ash from tree bark, but now uses the chemical compound. Basically the soaps are made by combining oils, soda ash and stable thick fat (palm or olive oil), which then causes a chemical reaction between the water (soda ash) and oils. This chemical disappears after twenty-four hours and the residue is left to cure over four weeks. The soaps themselves last for months and when used give the user such a sense of euphoria and luxury.

Alissa’s work can be found by contacting her through No & Co’s websitehttp://www.noandcostudios.com/

Poems by Golda Matthias

Being born in NZ, I never felt at home in the pines, Where the sun don’t often shine (but when it is does the whole state comes alive bears leave their caves, arms leave their sleeves and everyone goes camping when the fish, birds and butterflies all come rushing back like there’s a 50% off fresh air and clean living sale in the woods)Or at least I thought I didn’tThen when I floated on back and found myself surrounded by prehistoric fernsThreatening the sidewalks, bursting through the yardworksI saw hills on the scale of mountainsGiant, impossibly ridiculously shaped treesWhere Oregon is dense and lush, inspiring in its tiny complexity,Aotearoa is big, chaotic and untameable No seasons, no rhythm, no reasonMy children will grow like this, know it to be their ownBut summertime Christmas will always sit uneasily with me

Photographs by Matthew George Richard Ward

Oh Oregon!My natural StateYour macroscope like the world under the microscopeYour evergreens ever pumping chlorophyll into the ever-misty airOur flag should be your deep green, your dark brown, your smoky greyLike my complexionCould I belong to you more?The smell of bark underfoot as I charge through rows of firs, past rabbits and raccoons and squirrels and skunks and deer and just once, a bearThe screeching blue jays, the poison oakIf you looked in my heart you’d see a beaver dam Blocking all other loyalties from getting in

Woodhaugh Gardens Ross Creek Reservoir Walk: Home Away from Home (Away from Home)Every seasonEvery new personWhen I feel inspiration or its lack I take to youI try to get lostBut I’ve been lost here so often it’s impossible nowI feel reverent in your quarryResplendent on your hillsOil pastel declarations of love lasting years on your landmarksIf only these joggers would fuck off

xXxbiophilia amiritexXx.

i lov sushi but whaling brekas my heart

whale is yum but whaling breaks my heart

ie grenpece is racist

no 1 liked my typo no1 like my selfy

making whaling dinghys and inflatable rafts look like blood watchd a gr8wite shark slash up a dingy w its face. raking.

ql that it can do that j face liek wepon.

athiest: 1, chappys: 0.

#naturalsystems

Bam and the vintage fur or leather boots that Rigger won't wear because he doesn't want to promote the use of animal products that would make xx complicit in the animal cruelty industry. Like he doesn't want animal products to "look good", he doesn't want to do them service he has a

warped sense of himself and his power because most of the time he's alone in Antarctica NO 1 WATCHNG

~just wear the fucking seal skin it's better than plastic/petrol~ ;) ;) ;) :3 duh

“w8 wer thos fuqn dank emoji we made lmao” #naturalsystems

Sea shepherd chefs get twisted huh??! #misogyny #naturalsystems

“idk i j know 2 dif sex shepherd shefs who had to get let off in galapagos ilsnads with like severe digestiv tract isseusx, diahorreah"

Water fa(e)ces

open sturts/spurts

holy dad/glad guna put banana on climbing plant 2 feed it; cn eat liek persen

x carnivorous plants eat rats x flies x

banana design by God. © God circa idk 2352362BC

climb plant eat oxygn slip on banan perl what happen next will make u die ov lonliness

spoiler alert: the pig dies <insert picture>

#bennysvideo

michal haneke spoilalert er1 dying

take snapchat that's either pink or blue with green speckles and has the logo of the

Snapchat phone messaging application

pressed on it.

spoiler alert if u turn iphone sideways it look like a car

black fish aka captiv kiler waels aka america is racist… i mean…. racist against whales? black slave wahles x seaworld cruelty

agens animal.

“if i dn evn know wher seawerld is, idk nethg.”

There was place n canada called sealand lmao /that wat new zealand cald except nu, lmao,

prety fkn stupid name, sea land fuqn oxymoron amirite: sea x land.

Bratty Roger richy Rich kids going down on daddy's money x igby goes down

#naturalculkins

flash bang grenades throw’n pussy

captain shot at: cum x throw’n bows + bombs on board

on the run, Costa Rica

“shark fin mafia have the most power in prison etc”

Japan x Costa Rica secretes political

interference pig/ment business

dolphin slaughter x blood in water

rainbow kiss x rainbow boats wearing tea cosys on they heads, faces

~~cup ov tea~~~ ther drug called snapchat ~~~~~

operation hate u operation 1337

operation zero tolerance operation zero2hero

old whaling shxp operation captainxplanet

4xmonths fuel supply/pregnant

roads in perspective com from my mouth - - - feeding x issuing frm mouth. first person perspective.corn.

j had realisation im on the ground extra real watchign frm 7xfloor window the leafs look v real

honey moon everyone trips individualy coded objxcts

interfere when i peripherally see the sky looks like swarms who can keep up

hot dog

"this dog in the park cafe is literaly fukqcd

wat hapen nex wol maek u shxt" #naturalsystems no :’( :’( u on u phon or someihtg

i j saw u lose control of u cursor

yeh i think acidently tap trakpadthery u go partriarhcy at it’s finest

thery u go man up no cryig in the patrairchy

"saw a dog in grey lynn that like wheezing so hard liek sum slapstik comedy shxt also acidently disd it/the owner by going 'uuuuhhmmmmm'"

also … “do u know fuckn this buzy big new zealands’ seaweed that try to eat u? drag u in and eat u like a milion arms and legs” #naturalsystems

a million alt lit girls fingers trying to kill me

“k guna delet [somthing] bc publish in nz lol.”

“oi” im dying “#biophilia” yolo

ery1 out here dying in the werld

“uhhh “blakfish” what indigenous aermicans call orca”.. actualy The Tlingit word for killer whale is kéet. In Kwakiutl it is max'inux, from the verb max'i = to hunt In Haida it is ska'ana. In Inuit it is aaxlu or arluq. In

Nootka it is qaqawun. In Chugach it is takxukuak. harmony, travel and protection.

rebecca giggs, go get her #googel.

“gr9 white shark liek buuuuuuzy face liek such difren reality frm human complacent intelectual bs. difren comtempl8ns.”

this guy in highschool was telling my friend to think this ugly dog was cute. he was saying “u only think it ugly cos u r thinking ov the face in terms of human face, but it a dog. the dog is veeeery attractive in a dog way, for, to and as a god. dog. good. whatever fuck u. whatevrr this bit prob redundant.” he had a dog face.

#mansplaining #naturalsystems

liek also bc shark minimal facial expresion x liek not v facialy oriented but liek stil fascinating. lot going on.

face that stab u tho so gangstr #efficient

leonardo dicarpiccio stab snkae in hte eyes ehwn it about ti eat him in THe Beach

“thast IRONIC pc snake dont even EYES!~~~~~~~~~”

expresion not facial:

ie com acros unintelectual ie shark liv in another dimension. n we c j pale fascimile in spatiotemporal lyf. fka twig masculity. model off non masc … j flesh tunnel in the water.

if i made a facebook group e-where i sold everything i own would u join ther is no place e-personal e-risk

but interpretign in taht register j 517

~BASTERDISE ~ the

capacities-values ov teh whael newai.

whaelxxxxxx i maen shark. desert peace x ther_no_whaeling_on_the_sand x make snake cry. puncture budgies eye. make swan cry. wen doev cry. prince is a psycho? ql. make natalie bortman cry. pro life. riverdance. river phoexnix. pro-choice. swan lake. RxIxP skin from u fingers. eating disorder. scared ov vomit. mor abstract eting disorder get less media attention. can’t tell what is “food” can’t tell difernt betwen sticks and food. eat n e thing. eat ppl. bathsalts (again lol #adiction). #naturalsystems

“this new chapeter in our book. arbitrary page numbers. tol sorawit that the contents page for Magasine was the contents page for our book and hes like “ “ <that quot maark the wrong way around]”

lmao always moving that image

wipe your baby up #bathwater

hi holly lol my body lol a system amirite <<< do u know waht i didtn ther x trying to put images in x x x

but fukn up “Creating images…” duh hmm

i stiuck chewing cum on front ov my phone

lol us chewing gum today ~accents~ eeermmmm liek punctuating our othr interactions “ ” im gna delet this ok

choc mint cum lol fuckn janky um

“I j seen the bjokr attenborug docomentary, i cried when they met up in the museum. then he

mansplained to her why her voice is prety then they loked at

crystals. Liek talking making out etc lmao”

whaels. fukn. dying;

~HAVIG A WHAEL OV A TIEM~~~

partiulcayr intrst in kiler whael emotional capacity tbh (pictured right) liek telepathic powers f talking

hm

trying again

“aqnb: That’s the problem, isn’t it? Deactivating resistance by discrediting it.

Kari Altmann: Well you can’t control mistranslations though. You can just re-aggregate them, put them back in your own context.”

telepathic powers like slep in same dream :’( idk we both video gmes last night but p diff yh

*free tilikum*

had these dehydrated dreams // wher // well // kats dom made this glue // literaly sik ov fukn chocl8 anxiety draems // x grandiosity liek literaly alter progresion ov tiem y am i so powerful :’( // first it was in a seaworld sized vat ov chocl8 (glue) // weak flu // stil want to slep with u // then // much smaller // a lil jewelery box but not glued together that well lol // then an are // like justin timberxspit // ugh // emily hassel // da steeart (just telete) // a feild a level of a game that i had to get thru // this is so broing // delete and change // violent

A selection from the essay blak fish white shark blank face carparkz #ikeaby Holly Childs and Hella Trol Buzy. We will be publishing the whole essay on drearymodernlifezine.tumblr.com

Photographs by Motoko Kikkawa

Liv Worsnop is a Christchurch based artist. Over the last few weeks we have been conducting an ongoing series of skype interviews with Worsnop about both biophilia, Christchurch and Plant Gang.

Hana: So… After we talked last week, I started thinking about the performative nature of some of your projects. Because when you garden or when you work with plants, you’re kind of digging, you’re using the soil and you’re like making, it’s a series of actions, and there’s always that, like the remnants of a performative action.Liv: Just before you called, I was thinking about that as well. (laughs). We just had plant vibes. (laughs). I guess to me that aspect of it, I’m kind of behaving like a plant would. It’s as though they exist on the periphery, they don’t always grab your attention, especially the plants that are in Christchurch at the moment, which are mostly ‘weeds’. They’re not a spectacle. I was especially drawn towards that idea yesterday when the Old Council Chambers was coming down. Its been coming down over the last month, but they’ve only just started demolition and it’s in one of the most busiest parts of town. Yesterday was this dramatic day, there were storm clouds everywhere, but the sun was shining, and I was just going past Columbo Zach: It was just complete, like sharp edges, like really blank. Wasn’t it a white building?Liv: Oh, it was so gorgeous… But, yeah. It’s like the city is full of either tourists, or construction workers, or business people. And then there are a few locals,

Photographs by Liv Worsnop

but, everyone’s really normal, you know. Everyone does real normal things and then I like jump fences, and throw seeds in, and I get so many looks all the time. I really like the fact that I’m doing something that kind of stops people, makes them look, not only the work, but what that work does. I think seeing me there does that. I really like to think of my work as a gesture. It’s not so much that I’m making a thing and I’m putting a thing in a space and youknow a structure exists but it’s more that’s I’ve cleaned something. I moved through that space and then I did these things... You know?Hana: Yeah I was thinking earlier about how plants are like this series of organisms that kind of exist without a curatorial role but it’s kind of like the gardener is a curator of a space, but then you are just leaving plants to their own devices.Zach: Yeah, I don’t want to say coincidental but it’s like it’s not intended or somethingHana: Yeah, it’s not intentionalLiv: Do you think that like the plants growing are not intentional? Or the way that they occupy a space?Hana, Zach: YeahLiv: Yeah, but if you leave a place for long enough it’s going to form into a forest with different strata and different plants occupying different spaces. It’s something that’s quite difficult for me at the moment because I want to you know plant some gardens that are going to stick around. I’m not sure what kind of design to make it, because I have to present this whole concept and design. But, it’s just doesn’t seem natural and it doesn’t seem right. I think that say if I go and talk to the council I feel as though I wouldn’t be given the time and the space to let the garden occur naturally. It feels like I’d just have one day just to be able to chuck it all in there. It’s something that I’ve observed. There’s this garden at C1 that Sam from C1 uses it, but every once and a while when the garden is not looking as good - this is an edible garden - the council go and rip the plants out and just chuck them out. That’s not how plants exist. That’s not how gardens exist. Gardens go through some sort of living, dying and going to seed. I feel that there’s a structure that I might have to conform to or I might have to present my projects within, to make them understandable to the council or to the general public. If you look at the work that I’ve been doing which is making people aware of the sights as they are, why would I then go and just like build a pretty garden?Zach: What are your thoughts on all the carparks? It frustrates me how certain companies are given monopolies over so much public space, especially Wilson’s car parks. I mean they have these trees but they’re trees and then it’s concrete for just ages and ages. It’s like they’re little islands, it’s quite skimpy and really weird...It reminds me of Riccarton mall, especially because the new city centre is just like a big - in terms of how they use the space and use gardens - it’s like this mall where it’s this token gesture.

Liv: Yeah, and it’s all just made to look vibrant, you know, just to beautify the city. The car parking thing is so painful... I have planted so many plants in places that six weeks later become car parks. Oh my god. These plants are for the bees it’s not just, you know me doing something funny... This is actually important. Zach: But there’s no-one parking in the car parks because there’s nowhere to go (laughs), it’s this really non-gesture it’s such a statement rather than being practicalLiv: And it’s weird. Lots of people do park in the car parks as well but they’re absolutely fucked. I had to drive over a big lump of soil next to a puddle and my car tire had to go over it, so I was just stuck in a car park one wet day. They’re absolute quagmires, it’s ridiculous. And somehow there’s like a loophole that means they don’t have to do any maintenance on it. But, I just don’t understand it, well I do understand why people drive, because there’s just no consistent public transport infrastructure, but, you just get worried that that’s all it is now, and that’s all it’s going to be. Do you know about the Avon river project? It’s this grand plan, it’s always talked about... Apparently they were going to have just green space from the buildings that were on the edge of the river down to the river bank but now they’re wanting to put car parks in. It’s just so disappointing as well because, there’s so much you want do but I just get so depressed for the plants. Zach: whaaaat?Liv: Crazy ae...Zach: It’s so different to those things that they drew up, which is essentially a PR campaign of all the new city and their plans for it and all the green spaces, and it was like fully green... but, in reality..it’s a bit differentHana: It reminds me of a paper I did a few years ago on town planning.There were these two planning movements that came about after the industrial revolution. One was the City Beautiful movement by an American architect, Daniel Burnham and then there’s another one, the Garden City movement by Ebenezer Howard. They essentially held the belief that if you introduced elements of garden parks and recreational areas, that it would be of benefit to all people and bring about a new kind of, social order. It’s interesting looking at the many different strategies for planning Christchurch post-Earthquake. The way Christchurch was originally planted was really anglicised, so is Dunedin. I’d like to see the re-introduction of natives, as ecological imperialism is something that really messed up a lot of New Zealand’s environment, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

A few months ago my mum began sending me pictures of her growing collection of African Violets. The small house plants come in a variety of colours and sizes (from micro to mini) and only require occasional grooming and feeding, so are relatively easy to care for. At the time I was underemployed with little to no responsibilities – I decide I wanted my own houseplant. Unable to find any African Violets in Dunedin, I bought a small Ponytail Palm on sale for $1.29.

The attraction to have plants and living things in our environment is a natural desire – there is much literature to be found on the instinctual nature of biophilia. My plant would soon become a central part of my day-to-day life as my girlfriend christened him Tony; Tony became our plant son.

It is suggested by the biophilia hypothesis that the positive emotional response adult mammals have towards baby mammals across species help increase survival rates of all mammals. The same hypothesis is used to explain why people keep pets and houseplants.

Since purchasing Tony 3 months ago, my girlfriend and I have repotted him twice as he has almost quadrupled in size. I feel anxious at the thought of Tony getting sick, and take pleasure in his healthy growth. My mother now regularly checks in on how Tony is growing and advises my girlfriend and I on his care.

Ponytail Palms can grow up to a metre in height indoors, and several metres higher when planted in the right outdoor environment. I one-day picture Tony being planted in a garden up north, where it is warmer and drier and more suited for him. Until then, I have purchased a second small indoor plant, Dorian, for $2.50.

Bio-Familia by Samantha McKegg

Dreary Modern Life | ISSUE 2 | @dmlzine | drearymodernlife.tumblr.com

Curated by H P A Gd4bb and Zach WilliamsDesign by Alessandra Banal

FeaturingCover by Alessandra BanalPhoto by Fraser ChathamNo & Co by Alissa Gilbert, with a text by Hana AoakeNo & Co Photos by Andrei BlidareanPhotographs by Matthew George Richard WardPoetry by Golda Mathiasblak fish white shark blank face carparkz #ikea by Holly Childs and Hella Trol BuzyPhotographs by Motoko KikkawaA conversation with Liv Worsnop, Hana Aoake and Zach WilliamsPhotographs by Liv WorsnopBio-Familia by Samantha McKegg

Fresh n FruityFeaturingVeeta OrinkoLiv WorsnopHana AoakeZach WilliamsMatthew George Richard Ward