Waiporoporo, Te Rewa Rewa
In The Purple, Te Rewa Rewa bridge

90 min performance co-ordinated by Sonja van Kerkhoff, 18 April 2023
Ngāmotu / New Plymouth, Aotearoa / New Zealand

performance by Sonja van Kerkhoff    
Performers: Cle Tukuitonga, Pasha Clothier and John Harris

performance by Sonja van Kerkhoff
performance by Sonja van Kerkhoff
performance by Sonja van Kerkhoff
performance by Sonja van Kerkhoff

  performance by Sonja van Kerkhoff

performance by Sonja van Kerkhoff

A performative walk - as a director / choreographer, I instructed each person to be in the purple, giving instructions to feel the colour throughout this intervention along a path, over a bridge and towards the sea, encountering walkers and cyclists on the way.

These -coloured walks- began with red as the first intervention at the 2011/12 Tahora folk festival on a sheep farm in high country Taranaki, Aotearoa | New Zealand.

Inspired by this experience we set about work on "Blue". This was filmed in 2014 during a small festival KHAMA (Kaipara Hills Acoustic Music Assn) Autumn Equinox Gathering against the backdrop of the Kaipara hills.
The video "Being Blue" is still in production.

Come 2015 and it is time for "yellow" and this time the main character is the awa (river) during the inaugural GOmanawa in 2014 near Tauranga. Link to the video The Yellows

Three green walks in 2015 and 2016 in Rotorua, the Bay of Plenty, and Kumeu were filmed, and so far I have only found time to make the 1 min: "Last call for green" (watch it on youtube).
The video "19 gay men and the throne of God," is a deviation, the men walk in matching blue, red and black.

In the meantime, Waiporoporo, a walk in purple from the top of Cuba Street, to the sea, happened on Nov 14th 2021, in Wellington, the capital of Aotearoa / New Zealand as part of Performance Art Week Aotearoa (PAWA) and this 4 minute video is a surrealist interpetation of this.

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