Dr. Grordbort's Exhibiton in Wellington!

What a crazy rushed few weeks it's been for me.
I arrived back from a trip a couple weeks ago and as soon as I got into the workshop Richard, Tania and I were discussing the reality of putting on my Dr. Grordbort's show here in Wellington while it was back for refurbishment.
It's been all over the globe, most recently Dusseldorf and it next turns towards Dubai and the USA, but it seemed crazy to not show it for a short stint in Wellington where it was conceived while we had it here.
It also seemed crazy to put on a last minute show within a week in an unfinished impromptu location...
Luckily Richard is crazy, and Tania must have a little of that too, so with Richard's push we jumped in and set it up.
Or I should say a small army of Weta Workshop ninjas put it up, driven along by Richard's relentless energy.
Much kudos to Eric Heath and Brad Cunningham and their team for putting in the long hours to get it ready and looking incredible, and to Midori Willoughby for coordinating.

The exhibtion has been updated with an incredible Venusian Vista Viewer (you'll have to see it to understand) that was Richard's pet project and with new work from Jamie Beswarick - two of my favourite sculptures that we've ever made.

If you're in Wellington, or able to make it to Wellington before the end of January, I hope you can get to see it!

Dr. Grordbort's Exceptional Exhibtion in Wellington on Eventfinder

Dr Grordbort's Exceptional Exhibition moves to Shanghai

After Sichuan and Hong Kong, it's time for Dr Grordbort's Exceptional Exhibition to travel to Shanghai.

This was announced at a press conference with actor Jackie Chan, director Stanley Tong and Richard Taylor. The exhibition will open in Shanghai on 8 August, during the World Expo that's currently taking place in Shanghai.

I just copied and pasted that from our Weta newsletter. What a lazy cunnagle I turned out to be.

Yes, you read it right - Jackie Chan! The proceeds of the exhibition go to his charity.

I can't tell you how spacked out I am by this.

His films ruled by pre-teens. I think I ruined the Whakatane video stores VHS copy of Project A when I was a kid, by watching Jackie fall down that clock tower again and again.Pow! Right on his head! Maniac.

Anyway, geek out aside, it should be a great exhibition. This time I will be alongside some incredible artists and hopefully these will be publicly revealed soon.

On top of that, some previously unseen Weta movie props will be showcased, and my good friend and fellow District 9 designer, David Meng will be coming and exhibiting his sculptures.

Looking forward to it already.

Grordbort's Exhibition in Chengdu, China

This is my first post about the Exceptional Exhibition that we put on in Chengdu, China at the Sichuan Provincial Museum
Chengdu is the first city in the world to see this exhibition, that in it's Grordbort's form will continue to tour the world over the next several years.
I would have written about it sooner, but it was a crazy whirlwind of action just putting the thing together, and shipping it to China, all in a ridiculously short amount of time.

The exhibition, entitled this time round, the Exceptional Exhibition: Weta Workshop presents the World of Dr. Grordbort holds around 150 of my Grordbort's paintings and roughly 30 sculptural and model made pieces - the Rayguns themselves as well as mounted Venusian heads, Venusian bugs by Jamie Beswarick some incredible Grordbort character sculptures by Max Patte.

Many of the Grordbort's illustrative pieces are over 3 metres in length and almost 2 metres high.




On top of this, and just for the purposes of this first exhibition, we took a multitude of Lord of the Rings, Kong and Narnia props as well as, for the first time in China, Richard Taylors 5 Oscar awards.

In the rush to put it all together, I only took Iphone photos (very blurry unfortunately), and very few of them, so here are a few of the photos taken by Jacek Irzykowski at the event.
It gives you an idea of the exhibition, but barely scratches the surface.


Richard and I did several talks to universities and schools while in Chengdu and that was a really great experience. We were treated like kings where ever we went. Red carpet, bouquets, the works.
I really found Chengdu to be an incredibly welcoming place and everyone we met was incredibly warm to us.
There seems to me to be a massive and burgeoning enthusiasm there in the younger generations for science fiction and fantasy and that was really cool to see.


The exhibition will continue to tour the world, and perhaps grow a little with a few more Grordbort's pieces as it goes and is set to go to India, Switzerland, and France amongst many others.
I would personally love to bring it to the US and back to New Zealand where I have had such great support from fans as Grordbort's has grown.



Massive thanks go to Sarah Morris and Andrew Gillespie for their tireless efforts bringing this all together in such short order.
And on the IDF and Greenleaf side (who worked relentlessly over in Chengdu to make this all happen) a monumental thanks to Xiaomei Liu, Gavin Crombie and their team, pushed on by the brilliant Hai Dong Liu.

All proceeds from the exhibition in Chendgu go towards the Sichuan Earthquake Relief effort.

Raygun Princess Deuce

This is the final version of the design that I did for Richard's stylish Citroen Coupe.
It's more Deco than the other design and although I prefer the other design, I would choose this too for a car like his.
A friend, Mike Norman, is sculpting the final piece and I can't wait to see how it turns out.
It'll be cast in metal, chrome plated and then screwed to the bonnet to make the car go faster.
Sexy and aerodynamic.