If you visit 24 Tawariki Street in Ponsonby, Auckland - which you are being invited to do this month - you'll find a stream reemerging in the front garden of a vacant house badly damaged during the 2023 Auckland Anniversary floods That house is currently populated by strange comic figures.
Adjacent to Cox's Creek, this house and is the site for artist Simon Endres' art installation, First Person (Hard-Boiled), featuring sculptural figures, objects, and strange sounds. They represent, Simon says, "a menagerie of anxious misfits".
Simon Endres is a graduate of the Ilam School of Fine Arts whose work featured across Aotearoa in the 1990s. He went on to pivot to a design career and spend 21 years in New York in design and branding. Endres cofounded one of America's most sought-after branding company's Red Antler. Focussed on launching startups, they've been described as a phenomenon who business magazine Inc. once named the second most influential entrepreneur in a decade, second only to Elon Musk. Among their brands, are New Zealand shoes Allbirds.
Simon Endres returned home in 2020 to restart his art practice. He joined Culture 101 on Friday.
His installation First Person (Hard-Boiled), is at 24 Tawariki Street in Ponsonby until Saturday 27 September. Wednesday-Friday 11 to 6, and at the weekends 10 till 3.
