« Sophie on 141 | Main | New Zealand Temporary Art Projects »
Saturday
May082010

Mark farewells 141 Willis Street

DateSaturday, May 8, 2010 at 07:36PM

I write on the last day of Dugal McKinnon’s Popular Archeology. There’s sadness about having shipped into this Willis Street neighbourhood only now to ship out  - whilst there’s also excitement at the new neighbourhood Letting Space has already started making friends with at 39 Ghuznee Street.

Being here for three weeks has underlined a feeling that to be in an inner-city location is to be part of a community of local businesses, workers and daily passersby.

It was ‘Record Store Day’ the day we opened at 141 Willis Street on April 17. A day, we are told that celebrates and supports the resilience of the independent record store. Up against the tide of chain stores, illegal downloads, online sales portals and The Warehouse.

Four doors up from our space at 141 Willis Street (past the dairy, the jewellery store and another vacant store) is Samurai record store. On Record Store Day they are sizzling sausages on a barbecue, while on an adjacent deck a DJ plays records to a small appreciative number. Its part celebration, part marketing ploy. Inside, heads down, a few flip through the vinyl, like grazing sheep happy in their selected pen. We meanwhile are spinning cassette tape loops and welcoming people’s cassette tape collections to the temporary archive

Across the road is Sound Expression, a stereo system store, where up front in the window the penultimate sleekly designed home multi-CD player consoles are on display.  Dugal meanwhile is showing - lit at the back of his bare retail space - shelves of cassette players through the 1970s and into the new century.

Our position as interlopers felt confirmed every night by our need to leave the key for the space with neighbours. Our thanks to Starfish - an outstanding example of a locally grown independent business – and Trinity hotel on the corner of Willis and Dixon. I muse on an art project where things are left for pick up at hotel receptions across the CBD.

I can think of no retail trade that has been more affected by our move to digital in recent years than the record business. It has offered an early case study for all producers and marketeers of what will increasingly develop online, but equally it has forecast what is increasingly likely to happen in our urban spaces.

In our urban environments we’re still going to need a sense of community and neighbourhoods that retailers are an important part of providing.  As major retailers move out to industrial parks and go online, one would hope more fledgling independent businesses get to move back into the city.

At 141 Willis we don’t get as much time to interact with neighbours as we would have liked, but at the same the report from other sitters of the space was also that some of the happiest visitors are those who work in the building we occupy. Even the elevator repair man comes in and tells me about some strange instrument he loves built by the Swiss. 141 became a community archive on a number of different levels.

Clearly, we could have been far more effectively ‘the watercooler’ at the bottom of the building by taking a leaf out of Samurai’s book, selling coffee, and frying sausages outside at the weekend. Perhaps this is what all artists running temporary CBD spaces should do to put out the welcome mat? This is where rethinking retail models comes in. As it is Mojo, five doors up (thanks for the meeting space Mojo!) offer Reusuable Carry Bag’s for coffees, with all proceeds going to the neonatal trust.  We could do with the proceeds of all those coffee and bangers sales to fund some more art projects.

Our tenure at 141 Willis Street was the time when Letting Space itself became a community. Our particular thanks are due to our community of some 18 sitters keeping the space open (they are listed on the Dugal McKinnon page on this website) and those who contributed cassette players and tapes; a group of artists and composers who played at having an office in the centre of Wellington for three weeks. 

So long 141, it’s been good to know you. Hello 39 Ghuznee Street.

 

 

AuthorMarkandSophie | Comment2 Comments |

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.

My response is on my own website »
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>

Notify me of follow-up comments via email.