Ziggy Lever

Opening tomorrow - Saturday! AUT Toi Ataata whānau lecturers and artists Lucy Meyle & Ziggy Lever’s newly commissioned Open Window project, If cows didn’t like mustard, is part of “Pause, act, void, event” at the Govett-Brewster Gallery in Ngāmotu New Plymouth! - Curated by Simon Gennard and Taarati Taiaroa. Govett-Brewster Art Gallery 42 Queen Street, New Plymouth. Open Mon-Sun 10-5. 28 Feb - 19 Jul 2026 - /exhibitions/2026/if-cows-didn-t-like-mustard Image: Ziggy Lever and Lucy Meyle, If cows didn’t like mustard, 2026, 16mm Kodak film: Vision 3 200T 7213; Ektachrome 7294 (cross-processed ECN-2 and E6); Double-X 7222. HD scan to digital video, stereo sound, production still. @autvisualart @autspatialdesign @autartanddesign @autuni @ziggylever @lucymeyle #auttoiataatawhānau #autartists #analoguematerialities #yellowmustard

If cows didn’t like mustard, 2026 is a 16mm film @lucymeyle and @ziggylever made for Open Window alongside Pause, act, void, event, opening at the Govett-Brewster next Saturday 28th Feb! Our work considers the competing agency of humans, plants, animals and technology in the production of images and meaning. Pause, act, void, event has been curated by @simongennard_ & @taarati_taiaroa Ngā mihi nui to Ian Powell who processed, scanned, and advised on If cows didn’t like mustard. @reversalcine The development of this work has been supported in part by Te Kura Toi a Hoahoa (School of Art and Design), Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau (Auckland University of Technology). Ziggy Lever and Lucy Meyle, If cows didn’t like mustard, 2026, 16mm Kodak film: Vision 3 200T 7213; Ektachrome 7294 (cross-processed ECN-2 and E6); Double-X 7222. HD scan to digital video, stereo sound. @govettbrewster

So marks the end of our Arsbioarctica residency at Kilpisjärvi Biological Station in Gilbbesjávri / Kilpisjärvi, Sápmi. A massive ngā mihi, kiitos, and thank you to the staff at Kilpisjärvi Biological Station for being so welcoming and generous with your hosting, time and knowledge. To the Bioart Society crew (Milla, Yvonne, Eliisa, and Leena) for the opportunity of this residency and to participate in the Field_Notes - Living Methodologies field laboratory. We loved the conversations, workshops and talks we had throughout our time here. Thank you to the field researchers who took us out to observe and join in on their research — this was a highlight of the trip and we will be processing what we learnt for some time to come (a long term study). Special thanks to Anu Ruohomäki for facilitating our stay at the station: digging out interesting equipment for us to explore, trusting us in the lab, and for tea on the tundra together. Pictured: Kilpisjärvi Impractical Take-off Experiment (KITE) [photo by Vera Lleshaj], berry eating on the tundra with researchers Lea and Gangotri, a Microfiche used to observe fish scales (Fiche-Finder), Field_Notes Soil Chromatography workshop led by Sam Nightingale (reindeer bone), cheese on toast and late night vege sausages in the Kota, and the tri-weekly tick survey (no ticks recorded so far!). @kilpisjarvibiologicalstation @bioartsociety

Opening next Thursday 7 August! AUT Toi Ataata Ziggy Lever and Eamon Edmundson-Wells’ The Observatory Project with Fernando Cremades project “Cloud Above, Cloud Below” at Audio Foundation at 5.30pm. + Special event: Saturday 16th August, 2pm. Public observation. The show is on until 30 August 2025. Audio Foundation 4 Poynton Terrace Sub-basement of Parisian Tie Factory Tāmaki Makaurau Tue-Sat, 12–4 _ The Observatory Project with Fernando Cremades For CLOUD ABOVE, CLOUD BELOW, The Observatory Project (NZ) and Fernando Cremades (ES) have observed two clouds inside glass chambers at the antipodes of the Earth: drawing a line between Tāmaki Makaurau in Aotearoa and Madrid in Spain. In order to observe the trace of a radioactive particle moving through the immediate environment, we had our head in the clouds, under a blanket. Our eyes were each fixed on the local atmosphere inside a fish tank as the cloud started to form. Observations began, and we noted when we thought we saw something. The conditions had to be right: calm (no wind), gentle precipitation, and supersaturation. In a cloud of isopropyl alcohol, temporary trails reminiscent of those left in the sky by jets appeared, as radioactive particles zipped through the chamber and our bodies. Identifying different shapes as they materialised in the vapour, we called out to each other cloud above, cloud below. .nz/programmes/exhibitions/the-observatory-project-with-fernando-cremades @autvisualart @autartanddesign @the_observatory_project @ziggylever

Opening next Thursday! 7 - 30 August Cloud Above, Cloud Below The Observatory Project with Fernando Cremades For CLOUD ABOVE, CLOUD BELOW, The Observatory Project (NZ) and Fernando Cremades (ES) have observed two clouds inside glass chambers at the antipodes of the Earth: drawing a line between Tāmaki Makaurau in Aotearoa and Madrid in Spain. In order to observe the trace of a radioactive particle moving through the immediate environment, we had our head in the clouds, under a blanket. Our eyes were each fixed on the local atmosphere inside a fish tank as the cloud started to form. Observations began, and we noted when we thought we saw something. The conditions had to be right: calm (no wind), gentle precipitation, and supersaturation. In a cloud of isopropyl alcohol, temporary trails reminiscent of those left in the sky by jets appeared, as radioactive particles zipped through the chamber and our bodies. Identifying different shapes as they materialised in the vapour, we called out to each other cloud above, cloud below. @audio.foundation @fernando.cremades @ziggylever @poachedeggmon

This Thursday you are welcome to join our next L*A*S*E*R panel (Leonardo Art-Science Evening Rendezvous): "Knowing our Living Volcanic Field" and screening of Nat Tozer’s film "Erotic Geologies" (2024) (see still). Nat and Sam Tozer, scientist and researcher Sylvia Tapuke, and volcanologist Kate Lewis (Auckland Council) are on the panel. The event is happening this coming Thursday 29th May at 6:30pm at WG404, The Paul Reeves Building, AUT City Campus (90 minutes approximately). About: The memory and prescience of future volcanic events are inscribed into the names of our maunga in Tāmaki Makaurau, existing and excavated, the subject of scientist and researcher Sylvia Tapuke’s Kaupapa Māori approach to toponymic research. Volcanologist Kate Lewis (Auckland Council) recounts the fiery formation of the lava caves and the intermingling of geological and cultural heritage. She works to transform imminent threats of development into opportunities to get to know our volcanic relations. In resonance with the process of connecting cultural narratives, artist and film-maker Nat Tozer explores the underground as a site of human meaning-making drawing on science fiction, catastrophe and mythic journeys to the underworld. Her moving image artwork "Erotic Geologies", which presents cyclical time and highly mobile geology as main characters, will be shown during the panel. Moving image innovator Sam Tozer will discuss his work on compositing an emergent whenua from geo-data in this imagined world. The panel will be hosted by Janine Randerson and Ziggy Lever.

The Observatory Project is doing a project at the Acoustics and Vibration Research Centre this coming weekend! The Acoustics and Vibration Research Centre is composed of three reverb chambers and an anechoic chamber that is used to study acoustics – the field of science associated with the generation, propagation and effects of sound and vibration. This highly specialised space is not normally open to the public, and this new collaboration is an exciting opportunity for our community to experience acoustics research first-hand through the lens of our project. The Observatory Project (Eamon Edmundson-Wells and Ziggy Lever) will be based at the centre from Wednesday next week, working in the space to install the Adaptable Sound Interferometry Equipment A SINE, making towards new sound and video artworks, and conducting research towards our concept of “not-measuring events”. There are two public events for this project. They are: Saturday 30th November 1-2pm Sunday 1st December 1-2pm Each of these sessions will include a tour of the facilities hosted by leading acoustics researcher Dr. Andrew Hall, and the opportunity to experience a world-class technical laboratory, reverberation and anechoic chambers first hand. The Observatory Project will be activating their installation during these times also. Please RSVP by emailing [email protected] with the time slot you would like to attend, spaces are limited to 16 people per slot, so get in quick! Massive mihi to the Acoustics and Vibration Research Centre and to the Audio Foundation for supporting this event! @the_observatory_project @audio.foundation @autvisualart

RELAY AUT TOI ATAATA VISUAL ARTS Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery 17 August - 15 September @autvisualart @re.layy @te_uru_gallery

There’s been a lot of measuring for RELAY! Thanks @ziggylever #ephemeratable #steelcablestructure #alittlebitlike @the_observatory_project

So excited to be a collaborator on Bonus Play, a project by Layne Waerea with Joe Jowitt, Deborah Rundle, and Charlie Stringer! “Bonus Play locates itself in the contested public spaces of inner city Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. In particular, Auckland Council’s ‘bonus floor scheme’ which, since the 1970s, has encouraged private developers to increase the floor space of high-rise buildings by providing public access or a ‘public benefit’ as a result of the changed built-up environment. These usually take the form of pedestrian access-ways through buildings, escalators, widened footpaths, and privately-owned artworks accessible to the general public. This work acknowledges and explores these public spaces and benefits and offers an alternative and playful map that at times sits alongside, intersects, and even overlays existing routes, paths and junctures of inner-city Tāmaki Makaurau.” Layne Waerea (Ngati Wahiao, Ngati Kahungunu, Pakeha) is an artist based in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland whose practice involves carrying out performance art interventions that question and challenge preferred social and legal behaviours in the public sphere. Wild Wild Life is commissioned by Auckland Council @aklcouncil @publicartakl in association with CIRCUIT @circuitartistmovingimage , presented by Te Ahurei Toi o Tamaki Auckland Arts Festival. @chasing_fog_club @deborah.rundle @charliestringerart

Aerodynamicas today!! Go along if you are in Ōtautahi:-) 1pm today 22nd April 43°29'15.0"S 172°43'29.0"E WAIMAIRI BEACH ŌTAUTAHI @_aerodynamicas_