Call Back
A film project spearheaded by Scott Eady recalls the history of cooperative music venue Chippendale House.
Chippendale House is a fairly ordinary building located at 24A Stafford Street, Ōtepoti Dunedin. From 1985 to 1987 the site is remembered as a well-established performance and arts venue operated by the Chippendale House Collective. People of all colours, all shapes and all types were welcomed into this creative space started by artists for artists. All bands, now well established and recognised for their contribution to the Dunedin music scene, played at Chippendale House.
Rescued from vandals on more than one occasion, an upright Brasted piano was moved to a private residence after closure of the venue January 1988. Thirty years later the piano was retired - its days of performing over. Rescued one final time in 2020, the piano's provenance contributed to the object's transition from piano into the Chippendale Suite - a handcrafted rendition of a pair of park benches. The iron harp has been re-cast into the ends of the benches, with the seats and backs constructed from the piano's timbers. The plaque on the reverse suggests that the bench is a site to take pause, asking those approaching to please 'call back'. This instruction signals an intention that the benches become a site for contemplation, commemoration, connection and creation.
An off-shoot of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery's 2020 Ōtepoti Dunedin artists in residence, Call Back was conceived as a free live event scheduled for 10 September 2021 at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Ōtepoti, Aotearoa New Zealand. After several Covid push-backs it was decided to record the performances and distribute the document to a global audience.