art all artists alliance magazine issue 105 / summer 2011
artists alliance
Artists Alliance is a non-profit organisation established in 1991 to represent and advance the professional interests of the visual artists of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Features
Staff Executive Director and Managing Editor: Maggie Gresson
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Administrator: Amberleigh Carson Education Programmes Manager: Jude Nye
In situ The first artist-in-residence discusses the impact of place and situation on her painting
Board John Eaden, Matt Blomeley, Juliet Monaghan, Naomi McCleary, Justin Morgan
Acknowledgements Artists Alliance acknowledges the support of: Artstation, Studio Art Supplies and Auckland City Council
Address
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1 Ponsonby Road, Newton, Auckland Ph (09) 376 7285, Fax (09) 307 7645 admin@artistsalliance.org.nz
White Night in Brighton Branwen Lorigan was at the annual Brighton and Hove White Night
www.artistsalliance.org.nz www.watchthisspace.org.nz This issue and more at: www.artistsalliance.org.nz The opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the Editor or the Artists Alliance Board. Artists Alliance recommends that our members join www.thebigidea.co.nz
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ISSN 1177-2964 Design: Verso Visual Communications
Feature Gallery Utopian Slumps, Melbourne
Printing: Soar Print, Auckland Artists Alliance receives significant funding from Creative New Zealand and ASB Community Trust.
Cover: Folder: a limited edition multiple for Artists Alliance, 2011 Folder is a multi-faceted limited edition artwork made exclusively for Artists Alliance members by Jessica Pearless. Open it out or fold it, you have the option of composing a monochrome, a grid, a freestanding paper sculpture or a folded abstraction artwork.
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artists alliance magazine issue 105 / summer 2011
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In every issue
Professional development
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Five Questions Laura Howard, Programme Coordinator, Objectspace
What precisely is copyright infringement? Part two David McLaughlin
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Editorial
5 First up
9 Opportunities Awards, residencies and exhibitions
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No ten easy steps to a career in the arts Artists Alliance launches After Art School
Dr Paynt Grab the brush by the tail …
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Of late – in short
28 Bill Cooke Rugby and art
30 Postcard from Seville The garden of the Moorish king
22 Review Dandini Comes Clean: Paintings by Robert McLeod and Julian Dashper: This is not writing
Regional arts worker Mark Amery – arts writer, curator and developer
Contributions
Advertising rates 2012
Publishing schedule 2012
Artists Alliance welcomes written and visual contributions on topics of interest to the visual arts community and information about exhibitions and other art events.
Art All All four issues Casual Full page $220 $264 Half page $132 $160 Quarter page $100 $120 Banner/column $68 $78 Insert $278 $330
#106 Autumn Booking deadline: January 27 Pasifika issue Copy deadline: February 10 Distribution week: February 27 #107 Winter
Booking deadline: April 27 Copy deadline: May 11 Distribution week: May 28
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#108 Spring Tertiary issue
Booking deadline: July 13 Copy deadline: July 27 Distribution week: August 13
Contributions should ideally be received by email [maggie@artistsalliance.org.nz] and with the author’s name and contact details. The Editor reserves the right to select and edit material for publication.
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#109 Summer Booking deadline: October 26 Copy deadline: November 9 Distribution week: November 26
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From the editor Auckland Art Fair, Wallace Arts Trust, McCahon House Trust, Rm, Audio Foundation and Art News, giving recent graduates real work experience in the wider visual arts sector. We were also able to place ten recent graduates in a Mentoring Programme. Because of the ASB funding requirements we were only able to offer these opportunities in the Auckland region. We are very keen to be able to operate this programme in other parts of the country, and are investigating the options available. At Artists Alliance we were able to have two interns. Besides Luke we had Michelle Beattie join us – you will have noticed Michelle’s column of late in short (on page 15). Michelle has also been producing recent issues of Appliance, the latest (#113) profiles the ten mentees from this year’s Mentoring Programme. Contact the office if you
would like a copy of Appliance. Michelle will be taking over as Administrator during 2012 when Amberleigh goes on maternity leave. Jude will be leaving us to travel the world – so it is all change in the Artists Alliance office. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our contributors to Art All – writers as well as advertisers. I would also like to acknowledge our members and subscribers to this magazine. Thank you for your 20 years of support; it is very much appreciated, and we look forward to working with you all in the future. We wish all our readers a happy and safe festive season. Let’s make 2012 even better than 2011! Maggie Gresson
First up Raglan Art Trail Guide 2012 This Christmas sees the launch of the 2012 Raglan Art Trail Guide by the Raglan Community Arts Council, following the huge success of its first full year in 2011. The well produced, quality guide is a handy size to keep with you while exploring Raglan and the wider Whaingaroa area. It provides details of 38 artists working in a range of media from painting, sculpture and photography, to bone carving, mosaics and wearable art. The highlight of the Guide launch is a three day Open Studio Weekend over Auckland Anniversary weekend (January 28–30, 2012), where artists open their studios to the public. Included within the Raglan Art Trail Guide are maps of Raglan and its surrounding area, showing the locations of the various artists involved in this event, making it easy to plan your visits for each day. The artists will have a range of their work on display, available for purchase, and will be happy to discuss their thoughts and processes. It’s an ideal time
Also within the Guide are details of galleries and designer stores, accommodation, cafés and a range of alternative activities that would suit all the family – making Raglan an ideal destination for a weekend or holiday, or even just for a day visit! Copies of the Guide can be found at the Raglan i-Site, the Raglan Old School Arts Centre in Stewart Street, at Raglan cafés and galleries and at many other outlets throughout the Waikato and Auckland areas. You can also check on upcoming events and access the Guide on-line via the Raglan Old School Arts Centre website www.raglanartscentre.co.nz
Jettte Jesperson.
to explore a wide variety of art forms, meet your favourite artist(s) or discover new ones. Outside of this weekend, artists can be contacted directly to arrange a visit. You can find their contact details under their listing in the Raglan Art Trail Guide.
Open Studio Weekend details: Auckland Anniversary weekend January 28–30, 2012 studios open 10.00am – 4.00pm. Contact: Jacqueline Anderson, Arts Administrator, Raglan Community Arts Council. 07 825 0023 info@raglanartscentre.co.nz
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2011 has been quite a year for Artists Alliance as we celebrated our 20th birthday. In September we welcomed our inaugural artist in residence Jessica Pearless. My office became the studio and I moved into the broom cupboard upstairs for the duration of the residency. [Only kidding about the broom cupboard.] I have to say it was very nice having an artist working in our midst. I would encourage you all to consider how an artist in residence could enrich your workplace. Jess has produced the cover for this issue of Art All as part of our 20th birthday celebrations. Thank you, Jess. On page 16 Jess talks to Luke Willis Thompson who was one of our interns – another first for Artists Alliance, and made possible with the inspired support of ASB Community Trust. During 2011 we were able to broker internships with
A commission for Government House
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Marilyn Rea-Menzies, artist / tapestry weaver, tells us about the effect the Christchurch earthquake had on her tapestry commission with Government House this year… ‘In November 2010 I received an email from Athfield Architects Ltd asking if I was interested in submitting a design concept for a tapestry screen. Lady Susan Satyanand was interested in commissioning such a screen as her gift to the house on the retirement of her husband the Governor General Sir Anand Satyanand. I responded immediately and three weeks later a brief arrived; the design concept was to be sent within ten days, and the work completed by March 2011. So it was all go! On reading the brief I realised that the whole refurbishment of Government House was inspired by the flora and fauna of New Zealand. In particular, the Drawing Room (the Blundell Room) was inspired by the tui and the curtains inspired by the kowhai flower. My almost instant decision was to use the kowhai as my inspiration for the whole concept, and as I had been painting a series of New Zealand native flowers for some time this concept was very appropriate. I often walk around the city of Christchurch with my camera in my hand and had many photographs of the kowhai flower. I took one of these, and developed two concepts – simplifying and abstracting the image and pixelating the background areas. I then worked on the submission showing the design concepts, made a cartoon to the size of one of the finished panels and wove a small section of the design as a sample. In my submission I emphasised that it would not be possible to weave such a large tapestry (4 panels 170 x 37cm) in the time frame requested. I said that two weavers could weave the first two panels by mid-March, and the other two by early June if we started to weave in early January. I was informed before Christmas that Lady Susan Satyanand has accepted my submission and I was asked to start the weaving and allowed the extended time frame. That was
artists alliance
The screen in Government House. Image courtesy of the artist.
an exciting day for me. I asked Diane Ammar, one of my former students, if she would be interested in working with me on the tapestries and was really happy when she agreed. We started weaving in early January in my studio in the Arts Centre of Christchurch with the work progressing very well. On that fateful day of February 22, when the 6.3 earthquake struck Christchurch, I was chatting to Sue Walker who had just walked up the stairs to visit. Sue had been the director of the Australian Tapestry Workshop in Melbourne since its inception. She had only been in the studio for about five minutes when everything started to violently shake. I do not think she will forget that visit for a long time. We were only one week away from finishing the weaving of the first two panels. Little did we know that we would not be able to continue working on the looms in the Arts Centre and that it would be over six weeks before we would be able to weave again. The looms were rescued from the Arts Centre Studio in March and were stored in my brother’s workshop for two weeks. Those few weeks between the earthquake and the looms coming out of the studio were very stressful as I did not know if the tapestries were damaged in any way. Fortunately, though they were covered in quantities of dust, they had sustained no other damage, and we were able to take the looms to my small spare bedroom and
set them up there in early April. Unfortunately, there were not enough yarns rescued to enable us to continue weaving, until we were allowed to go into the studio ourselves for half an hour on April 6. We managed to rescue most of the yarns, all my tapestries, paintings and the important ‘stuff’ that day. All the heavy shelving, the lightbox table and about $5000 worth of yarns are still in the studio and will not be rescued for a long time; possibly a couple of years. The weaving of the tapestries started again and the first two panels were cut from the looms by late April. It was a day of celebration when we hung those two pieces together for the first time and saw how well they looked together. Diane and I worked very hard on the last two tapestries from the end of April until mid-June, as we knew they needed to be presented by Lady Susan Satyanand before she and Sir Anand left Government House in mid-August. The completed screen was presented to Government House by Her Excellency Lady Susan Satyanand on Wednesday August 17.’ Marilyn has published a booklet about the Government House tapestry project which is available for purchase at $27 (includes postage). Please contact Marilyn to order your copy: Marilyn Rea-Menzies marilyn@tapestry.co.nz www.tapestry.co.nz www.tapestry.co.nz/blog
Do we have your current email address? To continue to receive news and information from Artists Alliance please remember to update us: Email your contact details to admin@artistsalliance.org.nz
Workplace
Fringe Festival A fierce, feisty, fabulous, Fringe Festival is ready to roll out some colourful mayhem in the Cultural Capital, February 10 until March 3, 2012. Fringe is three weeks of celebrating weird and wonderful expressions of art – over 60 visual, music, dance and theatre performances will be found in 30 sites around the city featuring hundreds of participants! It is exciting to see that 20 of these performances are free or koha! The Fringe Festival 2012 will be a joyous symphony of rap comedy, classical poetry, stunt comedy, rock opera, alternative fashion show, puppetry, circus, choir, and much, much more! The Fringe Festival programme will be launched on January 26. For more info check out www.fringe.co.nz
Wave after Dick Frizzell
‘I want to come back as a wave’ the artist wrote. I would rather come back as a chip. Not just any chip, a triple cooked chip; a champion chip. A chip to die for. Then come back as another chip. Then this triple cooked chip would be thrown to a seagull who would eat this chip and fly for miles over the sea to a little uninhabited island where it would land, rest its wings then deposit the digested chip on a rock with whatever else it had eaten in the last few hours or days, depending on how long it takes digestion to take place in a seagull’s system. Then this diluted chip and its extended poop family would get washed off the rocks, become part of the sea and come back as a wave. Jim McGregor
Top Five arts literature recommendations Peter Shand is a Senior Lecturer in Fine Arts at Elam School of Fine Arts, The University of Auckland, and Associate Dean (Academic) at the National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries.
Patrick White: The Vivesector (Jonathan Cape, 1970) An astonishing, searching novel that grapples with the arc of a prodigious artist’s life; explores the heightened clarity, curiosity, insight and, as the title suggests, necessary cruelty that might characterise such an artist’s engagement with the world. Georges Perec: A Gallery Portrait (1979; trans. Harvill, 1996) A novella characteristically marked by tremendous play (with language and structure as much as with the reader’s knowledge and expectations) until the whole piece is revealed as … ah, but that would be telling. Kuzuo Ishiguro: Never Let Me Go (Faber & Faber, 2005) Less of a novel about art than one where art’s role in the narrative serves
Photo: Nikau Gabrielle
as a crucial pivot that all-but-undoes how we might understand the essential characteristics of humanity; delivered with aching emotional precision. Sarah Hall: How to Paint a Dead Man (Faber & Faber, 2009) A taut, delicate novel in which the interwoven narratives of four people (three of them artists) serve as means by which to offer a perceptive and intense view of loss, grief, intimacy and the importance of creativity in our lives. Michel Houellebecq: The Map and the Territory (2010; trans. Heinemann, 2011) A remarkably lyrical and insightful novel (though not without moments of gentle, if penetrating, satire and one bizarre and discombobulating incident of extreme violence) that considers artistic creation and its place in the world.
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Kate Montgomery rounds off her time as Senior Curator at City Gallery with the opening of Prospect on November 26. She will then take up her new role as Visual Arts Advisor at Creative New Zealand. Annie Bradley has left her longstanding role at ARTSPACE for the position of Gallery Coordinator at Mangere Arts Centre Lisa Rogers has left Corban Estate Arts Centre for her new role at Te Manawa in Palmerston North Michelle Beattie will be taking over the role of Administrator at Artists Alliance as Amberleigh Carson goes on maternity leave for 2012. Artists Alliance board member Justin Morgan has announced he will be leaving his post as Director of the NZ Academy of Fine Arts in Wellington to take up the role of Gallery Manager at The Depot Artspace in Auckland in January.
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Opportunities Awards, residencies and exhibitions
Molly Morpeth Canaday Art Award for painting and drawing Application deadline: Jan 17, 2012
Criteria: awards are given for painting and drawing in any medium on a surface suitable for wall display. The work (or works) must be the original creation of the artist entering and not infringe upon NZ copyright laws. All works to be created after February 2011 and the longest side of each work must not exceed 1500mm. Entered works must not have been exhibited in a public exhibition prior to this exhibition. Entry form deadline: January 17, 2012 Receiving artwork: January 23 and 24. Gala Opening Friday January 27, 2012. 7pm preview / 8pm presentation of awards. Exhibition open daily Saturday January 28 to February 5, 10am – 5pm (On the final day, Monday February 6, 10am – 3pm). This year the exhibition is running for an extended period and, along with the award, there will be floor talks, an art appreciation lecture, and an art debate. Judge for 2012 award – Dr Marilynn Webb. Check the website for updates and information: http://www.mollymorpethcanaday.co.nz/ or email co-ordinator: hghourigan@gmail.com
Entries to the Adam Portraiture Award and Exhibition 2012 for Painted Portraits Application deadline: December 9, 2011 The New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pukenga Whakaata invites entries to the Adam Portraiture Award and Exhibition 2012 for Painted Portraits. February 22 – April 10, 2012.
Changing Threads – National Contemporary Fibre Art Awards 2012
Contact: www.portraitgallery.nzl.org (04) 472 8874
Application deadline: February 17, 2012
Call for proposals for temporary artworks, Auckland Application deadline: February 28, 2012 This is your chance to change the city! Auckland Council invites submissions of proposals for temporary artworks in Auckland. Proposals can be high level creative ideas that outline your concept for oneoff, temporary, ephemeral performances, installations, digital, sound or sculptural works. Proposals can be submitted individually or in collaboration with other creatives. The proposals need to be exciting, surprising, unexpected and engaging with the public. If your concept is intended for a specific site in Auckland, or for a specific time of the year, please indicate that in your proposal. We welcome all extraordinary ideas, that fulfil the public art’s objective to enhance and at times transform public places in Auckland through art introductions and interventions. All proposals will be considered by the Manager Public Art and selected based on the criteria stated in the proposal form. If your proposal is selected you will be contracted to take your project to the next stage of developed design. You will work closely with the council’s public art team and other relevant stakeholders on feasibility and proposed budget requirements. The value of this contract will be up to the maximum of $2,000 paid upon the delivery of developed concept and acceptance by Auckland Council. The production costs for the execution of the project will be covered by Auckland Council. To submit a proposal, or for more information, go to: http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/ EN/ParksLeisureCulture/Arts/Pages/ callforproposals.aspx#temporary
Arts Council Nelson has announced details for the 2012 event which encourages fibre and textile artists to produce creations which challenge the public perceptions of work that is traditionally associated with these media. This year there is a cash prize pool of over $5,000. Arts Council Nelson look forward once again to attracting work from the cream of NZ contemporary practitioners and hosting another outstanding showcase at the Refinery Gallery in March 2012. Entries close February 17. Full terms and conditions and application forms available at: www.acn.org.nz
JEMposium A 4-day International Jewellery Symposium taking place in Wellington Application deadline: February 2012 JEMposium brings together contemporary jewellers, collectors, curators, critics, and jewellery enthusiasts from New Zealand and abroad to discuss and celebrate the art of jewellery. February 10 – 13, 2012. Keynote speakers Ted Noten (NL); Manon van Kouswijk (NL / AUS); Karl Fritsch (FRG / NZ); Fabrizio Tridenti (IT); Liesbeth den Besten (NL). Events Premiere opening: two days of themed presentations; panel-led discussions; PechaKucha 20x20; Masterclass sessions; Pin Swap. Topics Ideas into materials; Materials into ideas; Distribution. For registration details visit: www.jemposium.co.nz
For a full list of opportunities visit: www.artistsalliance.org.nz
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Major award – $10,000 Highly commended – $2,000 Six Merit awards – $500
$17,000 cash prizes and the winning entry will become part of the New Zealand Portrait Gallery collection.
Art New Zealand
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covers New Zealand Art Subscribe today at art-newzealand.com/subscribe
Special offer to Artists Alliance members from NZAFA
Show with us Become a member today and enjoy membership to April 1, 2013 Friend $85.00 Practising Artist $85.00 Student $50.00 Membership offers the chance to be included in five group exhibitions a year as well as the opportunity to show your work year round in Gallery One, the Academy’s members-only exhibition space in central Wellington. To become a part of the Academy community visit our galleries (open seven days a week 10am – 5pm) or join online at www.nzafa.com
Since 1882, The New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts has been a non-profit organisation dedicated to the promotion, creation, understanding and enjoyment of the visual arts. New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts Wharf Office Apartments, 1 Queens Wharf, Wellington 6011 Ph: (04) 499 8807 Fax: (04) 499 2612 Email: info@nzafacom Website: www.nzafa.com
Five questions Laura Howard, Programme Coordinator, Objectspace, Auckland
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You’ve recently taken on the role of Programme Coordinator at Objectspace, what work were you doing prior that led to this role? I moved back to Auckland in April this year, after spending the past few years living in Melbourne where I completed a Master of Art Curatorship at the University of Melbourne. I co–curated the inaugural Victorian College of the Arts School of Art Masters exhibition, and was the Sculpture Survey Coordinator and Assistant Curator at McClelland Gallery+Sculpture Park, a stunning 40 acre sculpture park and regional art gallery one hour’s drive from central Melbourne, down the Mornington Peninsula.
In what ways has the change in context (from the arts in Australia to New Zealand) been beneficial and / or problematic for you? For me this year has been marked by a number of changes, shifting from a city with the population of New Zealand, and from a larger gallery – McClelland Gallery+Sculpture Park – to Objectspace where I am one of 2.2 staff. Australia, and Victoria particularly, both have a large network of public galleries and a strong historical base of regional galleries. I enjoyed the high level of integration of the arts into Melbourne daily life, including the plethora of public art, street art and arts festivals, and found this a stimulating environment to work in. Returning home to the challenges of working in a small public gallery, I’ve enjoyed the wide array of projects that I am involved with, though this can be slightly problematic at times for the perfectionist in me!
There seems to be a strong emphasis and interest in craft and object right now – is there a change going on in the sector? That probably depends on who you speak to and what their area of interest is! Objectspace opened its doors seven years ago in response to the need for a public gallery solely dedicated to innovation and excellence in the fields of craft and design, and it remains the only public gallery with this singular focus in New Zealand. With the increased proliferation of craftdedicated markets, events and websites in the last few years, and a return to the handmade as a gesture of resistance to the mass-produced world we live in, there is certainly an increased ‘mainstream’ awareness of craft. There also seems to be a recent slight shift in the public gallery sector to be more inclusive of craft, object and design as art forms, but there is room for more sustained change in this area. While there is some evidence of less resistance, there is not currently in most public institutions an active engagement with the sector, demonstrated by collecting, exhibiting and staffing policies.
No doubt you will hear this one a lot: what is your stance on the position of craft / object as contemporary art? Yes, this question comes up quite frequently! I think this issue comes back to a definition or view of what art is. I grew up in a context of craft, object and design as occupying space within the contemporary arts equally with what are often viewed as the more traditional media of painting, sculpture and photography. I did not realise quite how large an issue this can be for some until working in a gallery which is dedicated to these art forms. Some seem to imbibe, perhaps unconsciously, a narrower and historically-based view of what art is, which dates back to the hierarchy of art developed in the Renaissance when scholarly concepts of art divided the ‘fine arts’ from the ‘decorative arts’. Outstanding craft and object practitioners are integral to the future of contemporary art.
Who are the craft practitioners you find most interesting at the moment? Out of the work that Objectspace has shown recently, I and many others have been engaged by Jane Dodd’s jewellery which is captivatingly intricate and unnerving, as well as Katharina Jaeger’s disquieting goblet-based creatures and Tim Main’s sumptuous pine and ceramic botanical wall-mounted works. Hannah Bremner’s contemporary Wunderkammer installations offer an intriguing exploration of issues of identity and transformation, ideas also investigated by Kennedy Brown in his furniture design practice.
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White Night in Brighton Branwen Lorigan was at the annual Brighton and Hove White Night 2011 This year’s festival (October 29 – 30) was themed around utopias and included over seventy separate events where artists, programmers, thinkers and do-ers reclaimed Saturday night in the city and did something different in the middle of the night. The festival celebrates the cultural DNA of Brighton and Hove and gives a glimpse into the year round offer of the city from the grandest of venues, Brighton Dome, to the smallest of community spaces, a laundrette. The sister festival is Nuit Blanche Amiens in France a collaboration made possible by the EU Interreg 1VA France England programme.
Metahub: Camera crews roam the festival videoing the events. The footage is streamed live to VJ’s who remix the sound and images before projecting their interpretation of the festival onto sculpture in the city square.
Clay City.
Corporeal: A night of drawing from the figure at St Paul’s Church.
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Dance meets utopia at St Bartholomew’s Church.
Utopian sounds and visuals at the laundrette.
No Place: An immersive animation performance installed on the roof terrace of an iconic seafront apartment block.
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Want to know how to make money from your ORIGINAL ART? Its Easy!! 1. Supply me the original. 2. I’ll photograph the art and reproduce onto stretched canvas 3. Sell the limited editions and keep the original!
COMPETITIVE PRICING WITH NO COMPROMISE ON QUALITY
a4 bw ad1.indd 1
8/07/2008 12:16:02 p.m.
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New artist run spaces and projects are popping up all over the country. Here are some notable ones of late. Second Storey is another new artist run space on the K’Road block; the space operates as studios for the founding group and is cleared out intermittently for exhibitions. Their grand opening exhibition – Laura Marsh NOW, has since been followed up by two cracker exhibitions, one during September called Daylight Robbery, and another in October called Paper Towns. Daylight Robbery was an impressive exhibition put on by a group of AUT second year students, who shook off any whiff of ‘student-show-ness’. Look forward to seeing who exhibits next at Second Storey. Also new in Auckland is Snake Pit. This huge space on High St seemed to pop up out of nowhere with a great line up of contemporary exhibitions, a highlight being Kirsten Scott Thomas and the work of Matt Beamish. One thing to keep in mind, it can be hard to see the art through all the people who turn up to the opening nights. So if you’re keen to have a really good look at the art, head along the next day. The Wellington Zinefest is gearing up to start as this issue goes to print. It’s great to see the original Zinefest is in its fifth year and still going strong. Zines are such a great medium for artists’ projects, there’s bound to be some gems to be found at Mighty Mighty in Wellington. If you’re not keen to start your own personal zine collection get along to the Wellington City Library and start borrowing from their brand spanking new zine library. ABC has launched a reading room! And, an additional 2D exhibition space called ‘D Space’, which is a noticeboard style rectangular site on the outside of their Addington premises. ABC proudly hosted The Physics Room publication launch of the 2010 Physics Room Annual, which is available now through www.physicsroom. org.nz. The Physics Room has been busy with an itinerant programme involving hosts
Matt Whitwell’s stall Wellington Zinefest 2010.
such as Dunedin School of Art at Otago Polytechnic hosting Light Wave and St Paul St Gallery hosting Measure the city with the body. It’s great to see that the Christchurch earthquakes have not put a stop to the programme of one of New Zealand’s more established artist run spaces. A pop up exhibition, Field Essays opened during October to a packed out crowd of over 500 and ran for two and a half weeks. This project looked at art making as a form of research observation and investigation, which I of course think is great… but I am involved, so you’ll have to look at www.fieldessays.com and decide for yourself. Another interesting project sees simultaneous exhibitions between The Russian Frost Farmers (Wellington, NZ) with the exhibition Two Sides of the Same Coin and g39 (Cardiff, Wales) showing GOLDENROD: Adorned Log. The programme focuses upon cultural exchange and developing collaborative relationships between artist organised communities. The Russian Frost Farmers are up to interesting things as they aim ‘to keep on the pulse of contemporary themes in all aspects of art through research, selective analysis and online gleaning’. Can’t wait to see
what kind of projects germinate from the soil of this globally aware collective. A little something from Australian shores. We Are Here (WAH) was an inaugural symposium for artist run initiatives, orchestrated by the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) and Firstdraft (an established artist run space in Australia). Held in September, WAH took a look at the artist run culture in Australia, both in a critical and celebratory manner. Soon to be released is a manifesto documenting this event, which could be a great resource for anyone involved or looking to be involved in artist run spaces. To pre-register your interest in this document email registration@visualarts.net.au. Also on the topic of things happening in Australia, the October / November edition of Appliance, issue #112 features a small survey of some great artist run initiatives operating out of Australia. For a FREE copy, email admin@artistsalliance.org.nz. Until next time. Michelle Beattie Artists Alliance Intern This is a new column in Art All. We like to be in the know, so send us a line if something new is happening in your area or you have any feedback. admin@artistsalliance.org.nz
In situ The first artist-in-residence discusses the impact of place and situation on her painting
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As well as the internship programme that Artists Alliance piloted this year, and of which I am one of the recipients, the organisation also launched a two-month residency in an adjacent studio to its office. Jessica Pearless completed this last month and having both studied in the same Masters programme, we decided to formalise some of the discussions we had in the work-place, as a way to reflect on Jessica’s artwork and the residency itself. Luke Willis Thompson: In a recent e-mail you sent, you referred to the work of Carmen Herrera, the New York painter born in Cuba, who sold her first work seven years ago at age 89 and has since gone on to have shows in galleries such as Ikon, Birmingham, and to enter the collections of Tate Modern, London and MoMA, New York. The story of this artist’s almost complete obscurity for the sixty years since her early exhibitions offers a very real example of the way a canon can exclude and ignore any aberrations to its ‘logic’. I’ve been looking into works of hers, and finding myself enamoured by the kinds of language she surrounds the paintings with and the anecdotal stories of lived experience that read so unexpectedly against this hardedged abstract painting. In your email you attached the subject heading: ‘we have all the time in the world’, and while this was meant as a joke between us, it seems to speak to the richness in both her work and her story; it’s passed a test of time, or it’s caught up with time, or the times have caught up with her. Perhaps this mythology qualifies her as a kind of ‘artist’s artist’ so I wanted to ask what does Carmen mean to you? Jessica Pearless: Since returning to making work within the Master of Fine Arts programme at Elam and completing the programme, I’ve been thinking a lot about why I make work
Studio, Artists Alliance Residency, 2011.
Pearler, acrylic on stretched canvas, 2011.
and have been through a kind of cycle of convincing myself that it is for myself. What fascinates me about Carmen Herrera is her approach. As an artist there is a lot to be learned from her story, in terms of the perseverance, commitment and faith she shows in her own work. She illustrates the idea of slow cooking or private painting, which also reminds me of the methodology of Agnes Martin, wherein the works slowly reveal themselves. I believe that as a viewer, the wholeness of her practice offers up a valuable contribution for us to consider, and perhaps a key towards a deeper understanding of reductive art and the artist’s process. The anecdotal stories of lived experience possibly come from a place that we are not so used to hearing about, forming a link to a feminine discourse alongside or about Geometric Abstraction. While not undiscussed, general descriptors of hardedged abstraction tend to hedge on masculine terrain. I often consider the notion of timelessness, what constitutes a timeless work of art, and is this approach a relevant contribution to contemporary discourse? You propose that Herrera’s work possibly offers up a valuable contribution to the genre of geometric painting on these grounds. If we consider this idea as a test, I think that Herrera passes, and the audience probably fails.
It seems that as artists we are required to always be looking for something, to do something new or different, or for some sort of opportunity to showcase ourselves or our work. This is often exhausting. The residency at Artist’s Alliance served as a window through which I could counteract this symptom by looking at the sky. LWT: An artist’s prolonged engagement with labour over time offers a pretty fierce challenge to the audience doesn’t it? To me, it asks us to hold off making judgments or drawing conclusions from a single artwork. It also creates a strange pressure on how to remember a work. For example, I often hear of the ultra-slow release of joy that some owners find in artworks they live or work with, the way meaning is extracted or constructed over the years of being with the work. Of course, there are some pretty obvious problems with this generally but it could be useful in thinking about how we might store artworks, to return to over and over.
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JP: Drawing out the making of a work does potentially put up a roadblock to a more in depth understanding of the work by the audience. In each case, you make a decision whether you make work for the wider world or yourself. As we know, layers of meaning can be constructed into a piece in multiple ways; through the making, the physicality of a work can be enjoyed immediately, a condition that contemporary work possibly demands. I like the idea that a viewer who lives with the work potentially engages with the work on a storage level, in terms of the person retaining a visual reference point. This ties in to my relationship with nostalgia.
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Sketches for Paintings, 2011.
LWT: I’m thinking about your more recent architectural compositions which use metallics. They do seem to be steeped in a kind of nostalgia. Do you think this comes via your interest in Gordon Walters? JP: The connection that I have with nostalgia is less romantic, more archival, an exercise in categorisation. I am interested in the history of abstraction in the form of a timeline, and the layers or streams that diverge off the main line, the most fascinating things appear to happen at the crossroads. My connection to the geometric works of New Zealand Abstractionists, including Gordon Walters, is not so much a desire to own or reproduce or replicate the work, but to unpick or attempt to reorganise the physical aspects of each work in a search to understand the logic inherent in the painting, almost akin to the way a techno geek takes the guts out of computers. I am not convinced of this as redress, as I don’t think of my work as attempting to better what has come before, but more of an attempt to acknowledge and understand the dynamics of reductive art. Nostalgia without romance could be a place in which the rose tinted glasses are left on the dash but we keep driving down that familiar road, still looking for a turn off. LWT: That question you raised around making either work for yourself or others is a good one. Personally, I find the making of work so frustrating and painful itself, that it is only once I step back and become a part of the audience that I think, ‘Ok, I’m glad I did this’ or ‘I’m glad this happened’. However, I think there’s another suggestion in your response that suggests a third alternative, which is the making of work for other work. If this is the case in your practice, does it correspond to why
Sketches for ZETA Triptych 2011.
there isn’t usually much of a hierarchy between your works in their presentations? When I watch you work I enjoy seeing all the little paper scraps and mathematical diagrams that go into composing the paintings, like tests being constantly re-run. Is this an aspect of how you unpick the logic to a painting: always shuffling the numbers, margins, widths? JP: Interesting observations. I am a fan of the work generates work mentality, perhaps an illustration of this in a recent piece is The Field, my Masters show at Elam, in which the Void (1.01 –
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1.10) series was made in response to a Master Painting, a tilted black square positioned within a fluorescent red field. In a way the series became an exercise in process, deconstruction and replication in order to attempt to understand the why-ness of the Master Painting. This methodology has always been inherent in my practice, an on going experimentation with perception, memory, action and play. I view the decisions we make as artists in relation to installation and display as vital. I consider the history of displaying paintings constantly. This results in experiments with configurations of works in the studio daily. There is a huge difference between hanging a two-dimensional work on the wall at eye level, laying it on the floor, or leaning it on a shelf. This shuffling or analysis through rearrangement occurs within the site-specific works that I undertake in adhesive vinyl. A body of work has developed over the last ten years, the _site works engage directly with architectural space, and offer up a type of reframing, or activation of the site which they inhabit. The directness of these works, in terms of the experience of viewing them, is of on going interest to me, much in the way that the fluorescent paint offers a bit of a visual punch. I see these works as largely diagrammatic or sketch like, elevations for an experience of space and integral to my experimentation with geometric form. Perhaps my approach to the presentation of object or painting based work is too subversive? LWT: In this instance isn’t subversion on a kind of a circular track; it has an upmost point, a point of total opposition,
Void (Series 2.01 – 2.10), acrylic on ten stretched canvases, 2010 – 2011.
OSB_site, site specific adhesive vinyl installation, Old South British Building, Auckland City, 2009 – 2010.
then all other points moving towards or away from that, their corresponding co-ordinates somewhere else on the edge of the circumference. If we take the painting on the floor idea it doesn’t necessary subvert a painting on a wall but maybe opposes something else – another presentation value. This way we can subvert the values we know, but we can also subvert ones we don’t, revealing them through opposition. Having said this, I guess I got it wrong when I offered that you were presenting works without hierarchies. The Field, for example, clearly has the masterwork, but I suppose a compelling part of the process for me is that the definition of master is based on a fairly arbitrary nomination. I get the sense that these other works are attempts to plot points as close to the master as possible, however, there’s nothing stopping you at some point to decide that one of the attempts, say with a slightly off-set square, is more perfect than the master and it can subsume the master position.
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JP: It seems that we might be searching for ways to express thoughts about the unknown? If we look at the practice as an on going exploration, then process could be the place between each point, each point a work or idea, the constellation is suspended in the void of time. Time itself is an essential aspect in making work, one that an artist’s residency allows. All images courtesy of the artist. Master Painting, acrylic on linen, 2010.
The Artists Alliance Inaugural Residency Programme 2011 Jessica Pearless was welcomed into the recently re-configured Artists Alliance offices for a seven week residency period spanning September 1 – October 23. The aim of the residency was to provide an artist with the opportunity to dedicate time to their practice with no fixed outcome. This means that there were no expectations placed upon the artist in terms of making a complete body of work or producing an exhibition at the end. Rather, the artist is free to develop new areas of research in their practice or to experiment in response to a new environment. Over the short term of the residency Pearless concentrated intensively on exploring new strands of research in her painting practice. Generously opening her studio door to the public for Art Week Auckland, Pearless offered people the opportunity to see a practice in progress. Jessica says of the residency ‘The Inaugural Artists Alliance residency offers a vital resource to practitioners, the luxury of time and space within a supportive environment in which to create’. While the residency has now come to an end, Pearless’ focus moves to her upcoming projects, including a site specific installation for Arthouse Architecture in Nelson. Constellation Drawing, graphite and adhesive stickers on card, ongoing series.
No ten easy steps to a career in the arts Artists Alliance launches After Art School
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One goes to art school to learn about art, about ideas, about how to make art and the context for it. After investing so much time and money in this education it’s reasonable to expect to make a living from it – isn’t it? Consider the equivalent time spent studying other disciplines like medicine, or commerce for example, or training to be a teacher and one could reasonably expect there would be job opportunities with a salary attached. But unfortunately for arts graduates the situation is a lot less clear and the first years prove to be a tough and anxious time for many. Few leave their institutions knowing how the art world works and what it is they have to do to establish themselves. Unlike other professions a career in the arts doesn’t lend itself to the ‘how to in ten easy steps’, or ‘one size fits all’ approach. In fact it begs the very question – is being an artist ‘a profession’ at all? Time and time again we see young arts graduates forced by economic pressures to take up unskilled non-arts related jobs in order to survive. It takes commitment and focus to keep motivated and sustain an art practice under these conditions. So who, if anyone, is responsible for preparing arts students to survive after art school? Should art schools be leading the charge? It’s an often debated topic. Is it their role to become involved in the ‘horrors of professionalism’ as Auckland based writer, editor and publisher Gwynneth Porter puts it in ‘Responses’ to the New Zealand Potter magazine, Vol. 1, Issue 1. Should the institutions be teaching about the survival aspects of being an artist? Some schools will deny that it is their role and strong advocates appear to be in the minority. It’s the elephant in the room that no one wants to acknowledge. Today, getting an education seems to be about getting a qualification; universities have become qualification factories delivering hundreds of graduates into an uncertain job market. Gone are the halcyon days when students went to university, as Porter recalls ‘to become more interesting people… now it’s like you’re trying to line yourself up with some work outcome.’ If this is the case, that the goal of a university education is a work outcome, then are art schools doing enough? To further complicate the issue, it appears there is a narrow definition of what being an ‘artist’ means in the institutions. Tracey Williams, artist, art educator, and curator of Papakura Gallery says:
not enough to prepare them for the realities of the art market / world. As Williams goes on to say: Many graduates exit tertiary institutions feeling failed if there’s no promise of a career built on putting ‘things’ in (certain) galleries and being reified for it. I have nothing against those who succeed in that context. Those people and their practices are socially and culturally vital. But there are so many aspects to practice, strings to the bow of someone trained in a contemporary academic environment based in creativity. Right now there’s a lack of language for, or value placed on, those other aspects.
However the difficulty of sustaining a practice beyond art school while making enough money to survive on is a problem all artists face not just new graduates. As Tim Melville, Director of Tim Melville Gallery says: Unless you’re rich or you have a patron you’ll need to be working two jobs (your day job plus your art job) for a very long time. Eventually the balance shifts.
Most graduates have hefty loans to pay back and woe betide if they leave our fair shores – the interest rates on the loan (6.6 percent) are on a par with current mortgage rates, and
L ately I have been reflecting on how conservative art school training is in many ways. On one hand criticality and creative self-examination are encouraged, but these are back dropped by a narrow definition of what an artist is, or does. This seems to be built on a mirror of contemporary Western culture: the fetishisation of objects, celebrity and individualism.
While institutions may introduce students to the formal gallery / dealer system and show their work to dealers and collectors, it’s
To Do List Visual Diary, November 2011.
Showing Making Building Community Thinking. This resource is a live document which we suggest be read as an exercise in thinking around problems, and should be seen as part of a greater project by Artists Alliance to support artists and to articulate the experience of being a young artist. It is a document in progress, meaning we will be continually updating, changing, building and evolving each of the segments. We welcome your feedback, so please get on board and help support our arts graduates. You can contribute ideas, advice or respond critically by sending your responses to admin@artistsalliance.org.nz Jude Nye
Wharepuke Print Studio non-toxic printmaking workshop www.nontoxic-printmaking.co.nz Art at Wharepuke Gallery national and international exhibitions www.art-at-wharepuke.co.nz Subtropical Accommodation artist friendly eco cottages www.wharepuke.co.nz Set within 2 hectares of award-winning subtropical gardens 190 Kerikeri Road, Kerikeri 0230 Bay of Islands (09) 4078933
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penalty rates of 18 percent per annum incurred for overdue payments make the head spin. The upshot of this is arts graduates basically have to make it on their own initiative. Over the years Artists Alliance has had a lot of contact with students and graduates. We are very aware of the situation, noting that it is particularly difficult in the current political and economic environment. In addition to the mentoring and paid internship programmes for graduates introduced this year (thanks to the generous support of ASB Community Trust), Artists Alliance has now added a new resource for graduates on our website called After Art School. (You can visit it here at http://www.artistsalliance.org.nz/html/after_art_school.php). Designed to offer some strategies for survival, the resource is divided into four assemblages of ideas:
Review
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Dandini Comes Clean: Paintings by Robert McLeod This limited edition (of 500) book is an artwork in its own right. Dandini Comes Clean was first launched in Wellington by gallery director Matthew Nache (of PAULNACHE gallery, Gisborne) in May. Nache then presented it alongside his Proud to Commit Commercial Suicide stand featuring McLeod’s latest works at the Auckland Art Fair in August. The book is beautifully designed by Tim Hansen – check it out online:
http://www.behance.net/gallery/DandiniComes-Clean-a-Paintings-by-RobertMcLeod/1472743\) and includes several pieces of writing on the artist, with texts by Aaron Lister, Tim Bollinger, Ian Wedde and Christine Whybrew. Also featured are several written statements from the artist himself. The imagery throughout is a nice mix of installation shots (including Campbell’s Return – an installation surrounding Fiona Campbell’s indoor pool and gymnasium), cartoons and cut-outs. Also tucked in the middle is Pages from the Dirty Mickey Book which can be pulled out of the main book. Dandini Comes Clean is a fantastic testament to a long established artist and its quirky style is befitting of the artist’s oeuvre. Get a copy before there aren’t any left! Available from: PAULNACHE Upstairs 89 Grey Street Gisborne 4010 now@paulnache.com http://www.paulnache.com/ +64 6 867 9721 Amberliegh Carson Published in 2011 by PAULNACHE Publishing ISBN: 978-0-473-18553-4 NZD$40
Robert McLeod in his Wellington Studio. Photo: Tom Teutenberg, c/o PAULNACHE Gallery.
Julian Dashper:This is not writing A recommendation This is not writing is the artist book I’ve always wanted. It encourages a leisurely flick in and out to read tidbits and pieces; whether one has an hour or only a few minutes to fit in a little reading. The writing is refreshingly devoid of any pretention or overthought
academic prose. It is instead a curated stroll through Dashper’s thoughts and contemplations by looking back through his artist statements, catalogue essays and other texts. I feel that in a matter of days I have grown to know Dashper as a friend, when in reality I would have been unlikely to recognise him in a crowd.
This is an ideal contemplative holiday read. Michelle Beattie Published by Clouds and Michael Lett, June 2011 ISBN: 978-0-9582981-9-3 NZD$39.95
feature gallery
Utopian Slumps Director: Melissa Loughnan
As I studied art history and curatorship at university, my original motivations for opening Utopian Slumps were to create opportunities to curate exhibitions myself, as well as to provide a platform for emerging curators and artists. That is to say, to be curatorially driven is to be driven foremost by specific ideas, aesthetics and materialities, rather than financial or more directly pragmatic concerns. That this ‘curatorial vision’ included a large focus on solo exhibitions by artists indicates that the aggregated programming of the gallery (over the last five years) adheres to a totalistic and personal curatorial vision: the individual exhibitions make up a larger curatorial whole. When I moved from a curator-run not-for-profit initiative to a dealer gallery in 2010, I was committed to maintaining a varied and interesting program of curated exhibitions as well as solos from represented artists, hence the curator-run prefix. Whether an exhibition is curated by myself and / or someone else, it is always conceived and executed with a curatorial eye.
Who is involved in running the gallery? Although we’ve been operating for five years the gallery is still relatively young, therefore I take care of most of the operations, from programming, curating, public relations, installation, manning and deinstallation, to finances and business planning. My assistant curator Helen Hughes helps me with much of my writing including essays and media releases, she has also co-curated a number of exhibitions with me and has been working with me since 2007. I have a collection management intern, Justin Hinder, who helps me with cataloguing and record keeping, among other things.
I represent eleven early-to mid-career Australian and New Zealand artists. These are Steven Asquith, Lauren Berkowitz, Fergus Binns, Starlie Geikie, Nathan Gray, Misha Hollenbach, William Mackinnon, Dylan Martorell, Mark Rodda, Jake Walker and Amber Wallis. My programme also includes curated group and projectbased exhibitions, where I work with artists represented by other galleries and unrepresented artists, as well as artists from my stable.
You attended this year’s Auckland Art Fair as an exhibitor – what prompted you to take part in the fair and what were your impressions of the New Zealand art scene? I decided to exhibit at Auckland Art Fair this year as it is a relatively short distance from Melbourne, and I have developed an interest in the New Zealand art scene through many New Zealand-born artists based in Melbourne. These include Jake Walker, who I represent and exhibited at the fair, and other artists who I have worked with including Daniel du Bern and Ash Kilmartin. During my limited time in Auckland, I witnessed a greater public engagement with, understanding of and appreciation for conceptual, experimental and largely academic artistic practices than in Melbourne (broadly speaking), which I think is testament to the strength of the educational and exhibiting institutions in New Zealand. There seems to be a rigor, depth and commitment to these practices in the New Zealand art scene that is very unique. This is supported by the rich independent (and institutional) art publishing agenda in New Zealand, considering Natural Selection, Reading Room, The National Grid and Clouds amongst many more exemplary initiatives. There are also some talented younger gallerists that are supporting challenging practices in a commercial environment, particularly Hopkinson Cundy, supported by a strong legacy of conceptually and academically engaged established and important gallerists such as Michael Lett, Ivan Anthony and Hamish McKay.
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Utopian Slumps describes itself as a curator-run dealer space, could you tell us what it means to be ‘curator-driven’?
Do you have a stable of artists represented there or is it an evolving programme of changing artists?
What’s the best thing about being a Melbourne-based gallery? The best thing about being in Melbourne is the incredible amount of creation happening here — there are so many artists, architects, designers, performers and creative people working here, and so many cultural festivals taking place that I find it impossible to attend every exhibition and opening that I would like to. I also find the help and support of small Melbourne-based arts institutions such as Gertrude Contemporary invaluable – they enable me to access international curators and artists without the necessity of constant travel, which is difficult in the early years of the gallery.
If you could impart one piece of knowledge you have gained through your experience in running Utopian Slumps what would it be? I went into Utopian Slumps without a business plan and without funding. Although I learnt some very valuable lessons as I felt my way along, and I probably wouldn’t change anything if I did it again, I would advise anyone planning to open a gallery to plan, plan, plan, and start teeing up meetings with funding bodies in the very early stages of planning. Utopian Slumps Ground floor, 33 Guildford Lane Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia utopianslumps.com
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What precisely is copyright infringement? Part two
occurred. However, in situations where only certain parts of a copyright work appear to have been copied, then making a determination as to whether there has been substantial copying is not so straightforward. When considering whether there has been substantial copying, the test courts have adopted relates to the quality of that portion of the original work that appears to have been copied, as opposed to solely the actual amount. Although, as noted above, if you take an exceedingly large proportion of one copyright work then it will be easy to show there has been substantial copying, it could equally be possible to show there has been copyright infringement where only a small but very important part of the original copyright work has been copied. In trying to determine this issue of substantiality, the courts will look at whether that portion copied actually represents a significant investment of the original creator’s skill, time and effort. The more it can be seen that the copied portion did involve a great investment along such lines when created by the original copyright holder, then the greater the chances that this test of substantial copying will be met. The legal approach to determining if copyright infringement has occurred is designed to be as precise and fair as possible when balancing all competing factors. It has evolved over a long period of time but there is still by no means a straightforward test to apply in every case. Consequently, the following are a few more practical pointers that can help in keeping you safe from copyright infringement: Where you want to use commonly reproduced subjects (e.g. landmarks) in your artwork, then despite similar art works which may have been made before, you will have a much better chance of not running afoul of copyright infringement. Creating artwork with a similar look or feel to another artist, as opposed to copying the content of their work, is not likely to see you run into copyright infringement issues. However, it may lead to claims that you are attempting to pass your work off as that of the other artist, particularly if they are better known. It is fine to be inspired by another copyright work in creating artwork as long as this inspiration doesn’t lead you to reproduce portions of the original work. Because copyright infringement is not concerned with whether you knew what you were doing was wrong or not, or whether you had good intentions in doing what you did, when it comes to avoiding copyright infringement, using your own original ideas is by far the easiest way to ensure you stay safe. David McLaughlin is a specialist arts lawyer with Auckland law firm McLaughlin Law (www.mclaughlinlaw.co.nz). He can be contacted by email at david@mclaughlinlaw.co.nz or on 09 282 4599. Disclaimer: This article is intended to provide a general outline of the law on the subject matter. Further professional advice should be sought before any action is taken in relation to the matters described in the article.
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In the previous edition of Art All we began to look at key elements of what precisely comprises copyright infringement. In particular, we considered the first step of the three-part test that is used from a legal perspective to determine if copyright infringement has occurred. In this edition of Art All we’ll be looking at the remaining two steps of the legal test for copyright infringement, as well as considering some other useful pointers when it comes to determining what is required for copyright infringement. By way of recap, when talking about copyright infringement the first part of the test is whether there is sufficient similarity between the two works in question. This does not require that the works are overall the same, it may be that some elements or aspects to the supposed infringing work bear a striking resemblance to elements or aspects of the original work. As discussed last time, this has to be a lot more specific than just similar ideas or themes being contained in both works, as copyright does not protect ‘ideas’ but only the specific expression of those ideas. When considering if there can legally be seen to have been copyright infringement, the second step of the three-step process is concerned with something known as ‘causal connection’. Essentially, causal connection is aimed at determining if there is some way it could have been possible for the supposedly infringing work to copy the original. At a high level this might involve determining if the person accused of copyright infringement had access to the original copyright work (or sufficient details in respect of the original copyright work) in order to have copied the original work. If the original copyright work is widely known then it will be easy to prove this causal connection could exist. The idea of ‘subconscious copying’ can also apply here if it is possible that the accused copyright infringer could have had knowledge of the original copyright work, even if it does not appear they intended to specifically copy it – this too can be enough on which to base a claim of copyright infringement. However, even if sufficient causal connection between the original copyright work and new work can be proved, if the creator of the new work can show convincing evidence of how they created the new work independently of influence from the original copyright work then this can serve as a defence to a claim that they copied the original work. The third step of the test for copyright infringement is whether (once it has been established that there has been copying between the original work and the new work) there has been copying of a substantial amount of the original work. Without this concept of ‘substantial copying’ being satisfied, it is not possible to base a claim of copyright infringement. Where an entire work or the overwhelming majority of a work has been copied, then it may be easy to say that substantial copying has
Grab the brush by the tail…
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A sack of sable tails in the vault.
Red sable is noticeably shorter than Kolinsky sable hair.
In September I visited Germany with my partner, thanks to funds from the Molly Morpeth Canaday Award, for a concentrated injection of art galleries and museums, and to visit my friends at Schmincke, the artists’ colour makers, and da Vinci Defet, who make brushes for artists – both the fine and make-up varieties. As well as touring the factories and interviewing the staff, we made some instructional videos at Schmincke, which will soon show on their website, and put some experimental brushes through their paces at da Vinci. With so much to tell, I have to choose a particular tale or, as it so happens, tail…(groan). Natural hair, by definition hair up to a diameter of 0.15mm, is used for watercolour and some oil painting brushes, and includes sable and squirrel. Although synthetic technology since the 1960s has supplied reliable and inexpensive brushes for most applications, sable and squirrel brushes still out-perform them and remain important tools for the maestro. These hairs have been used in Western painting at least since the Renaissance, and come from Siberia and northern China, where the extreme winters produce sturdy hair in the sables (a type of ferret) and black squirrels. Yes – the animals are killed. Those of us who eschew meat, leather, and other animal products presumably use synthetic brushes, made from oil – Gulf of Mexico, Exxon Valdez, Iraq, cancer, etc. – so please, no moral high ground! It is thrifty that the brush-maker only wants the part of the pelt the fur trade, for whom the animals are trapped, does not want – the tail. The European trade in these furs are limited by CITES, and with the small amount available and the high price demanded, the resource is not about to be plundered, though no one really knows what happens behind the Chinese / Siberian curtain. There are different qualities of
natural hair. The most expensive and valuable soft brush hair comes from the male winter tail of the mustela sibirica and is called Tobolsky or Kolinsky after the Siberian river valleys. Hair of other species of sable, such as Asiatic weasel, or the female animals, is not as fine and springy so sells for about half the price. Unfortunately, the purity regulations are abused more and more, and some call this second-grade hair ‘Kolinsky’, but the difference is soon realised by the artist!
Hair bundles are sorted through to remove short hairs, then portioned, before being shaped in their ferrules.
How does one sort hairs that are mixed up-side down and round-about? Lay them out, rub them with a stick of wood…this very simple method separates the hair into right-side-up and up-side-down piles because the sable hair has a ‘belly’ near the middle of the hair.
27 studying for a MFA. These natural hairs are getting very difficult to obtain, not because of a decline in the animal population, but due to pressure on the fur trade, of which the tails are a by-product, which results in lower prices paid to the trappers for each pelt, making it more attractive to seek other employment. Even high quality hog bristles are getting more difficult to get – the Chinese are eating their pigs younger, so the hair doesn’t have time to grow long enough (long hair was bred out of European pigs many years ago), and the rising economy there means less people willing to do the smelly and low-paid work of preparing hides.
Regional arts worker Mark Amery – arts writer, curator and developer What is the daily reality of your work? Cleaning, cooking and childrearing three days a week as a househubby sees art projects and writing being majorly juggled day and night. But it’s all for love.
What are you working on currently? Endless reporting on 15 months of exciting Letting Space projects (www.lettingspace. org.nz), developing a new series with artists, plus my weekly gallery reviews, and essays on Ans Westra’s Washday at the Pa and the work of film artist Gray Nicol. Fundraising for the redevelopment of Mahara Gallery Waikanae. Oh, and the washing...
Is there a local artist you’re excited about? In my hood Paekakariki, local artist Vanessa Crowe just pulled off a very exciting photocollage installation of her living room
at Toi Poneke Gallery, Wellington. I wrote about it at eyecontactsite.com. She also curated a great Gabby O’Connor work for the window at Mahara.
How does your area influence what you do? It gives me space and critical distance to think, strong community to inspire and give me strength and an ever changing landscape to rub up against.
Limitless funds – which artwork would you buy? I’m not interested in buying art, I don’t need more stuff. Rather I’d commission on whims, temporary participatory worldchanging public artworks which are properly resourced and supported. With help Letting Space are working on it. Why bother decorating your home when you can do that?
This has forced da Vinci Defet to develop special synthetic fibres that mimic as close as possible the natural hairs. I tried a couple of prototype brushes there, one of which completely fooled me, but I needn’t feel bad – it had also fooled a brush-maker of 20 years experience! Another was so fresh, they hurriedly fixed a handle to it so I could take it away to try in my studio back home. I am happy to report, especially to my vegan friends, that it works really, really well. Dr Paynt Studio Art Supplies
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Sable and squirrel hair brushes need to be made by hand, as the fibre is so fine, and because of the static build-up. The shapes demanded by the artist – a tapered point, dagger stripers, etc., also require hand-shaping. I was amazed that over 10,000 fine artists’ brushes are made by hand here every day. This is not some sweatshop, however. The silence of concentration from a couple of dozen brush-makers is interrupted occasionally by the tapping of brass cases on the marble work benches, a beat somewhere between Dixieland and marching music! I was not so surprised to learn that to become a Master brush-maker (yes, there is a school for this) takes longer than
Bill Cooke Rugby and art
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It’s not often one can approach a general election with that feeling of being battle-hardened against the media scrum that will envelop all else. But then it’s not every year that we have a Rugby World Cup. By comparison the media attention given to the election will probably seem scanty. Few people now, as we bask in the glow of world cup victory, will begrudge the frenzy that has attended the whole event. It’s been good to showcase New Zealand to many millions of viewers around the world and to a sizable contingent of visitors. But just every now and then one yearned for a break from the wall-to-wall coverage.
he phrase ‘poetry in motion’ crops up T every now and then, and commentators often speak of a beautiful pass, run, kick, catch or whatever. So is rugby an art form? Amidst all the rugby furore some interesting questions presented themselves; questions about the place of rugby and its aesthetic content. The phrase ‘poetry in motion’ crops up every now and then, and commentators often speak of a beautiful pass, run, kick, catch or whatever. So is rugby an art form? As I’ve said before in this column, it’s not a particularly useful question, because it all depends on what one means by art. I’m still content to understand art as whatever a curator puts in the display area of their gallery. The advantage of this definition is its simplicity. According to this understanding, rugby is not an art. That is not to deny that many people find aspects of the game aesthetically appealing. And neither does this denial have anything to do with Olympian scorn. Rugby is not art because it normally happens on a paddock, not in an art gallery. Simple. Now, having got this out of the way, we can move on to the more interesting question of rugby appearing in art or being the subject matter of art, an entirely different notion. Not surprisingly, I suppose, art and rugby come together most in the medium of photography. Think of David Matches’ photographs of rugby players coming off the field. Called The Match: Portrait of New Zealand Rugby Players, the exhibition is touring at the moment, and judging from what I’ve seen online, it’s well worth visiting. Matches captured players from all grades and in all states of physical fitness. Almost all of them were amateurs who played for enjoyment, and he caught them in various states of dishevelment right at the end of the game, before having had time to tidy up and re-present themselves. Some of the people he’s captured remind me of Duane Hansen’s sculptures. Either way, they are a refreshing (?) change from the stage-managed visuals of the All Blacks we are usually offered.
Then there is the exhibition of photographs by veteran sports journalist Peter Bush of incidents on field, some of them involving so-called ‘rugby royalty’ going back to 1949. I saw these hard-action, mostly black and white, photographs at the Museum of Wellington City and Sea. An interview of Bush played at the same time and, unlike most such interviews, was really informative. Peter Bush would, I am pretty sure, refuse the label ‘artist’. His photographs extolled the virtues of solid, no-bullshit men with firm handshakes, and the New Zealand that produced men like that. One shot was of a Welsh player from a game in 1969 face down and unconscious in the mud with a broken jaw. He had crossed some line known to all rugby players and had paid the price in the ruck (or maul or whatever it was) he had just emerged from. Bush waxed lyrical about this; it was rough but fair justice – men’s justice. Bush seemed happier in the pre-professional era. He spoke movingly of the players of the 1960s who were as strong as they were because of the work on their farms, not from poncing around in some gym. His photo of Buck Shelford in full flight with ball in hand is truly scary. Just as interesting were the shots of the crowd, which captured a New Zealand now long gone. I got a strong feeling that Bush lamented the departure of that New Zealand. Rugby promoters try to replicate that feel with their talk of heartland values and all that. But it’s mostly spin now and Peter Bush’s photographs had a strong flavour of nostalgia. It also makes sense that sculpture should figure prominently in any representation of rugby in art. Probably the most publicised work was the proposal from Weta Workshop for a sculpture of someone retrieving the ball from a lineout. The player (modelled on Victor Vito) straddles two indistinct shapes welling up out of the ground, with a clear fissure between them. The two shapes, apparently, are the Tasman and the Pacific that meet so tumultuously in the Cook Strait. As well as the spirit of contest, the Weta Workshop sculpture also seeks to capture a sense of a ‘celebratory pursuit of the ball.’ I’m not the first person to have mixed feelings about this sculpture. It reminds me of the sculpture at Tiananmen Square, where the glorious proletariat and the comrades in the People’s Liberation Army thrust forward and upward together in a righteous struggle against the running dogs of capitalism. It’s the sort of sculpture that wouldn’t look out of place in North Korea. Kazakhstan is building a grandiose new capital city in the middle of steppe. That’s where the Weta sculpture belongs. And hopefully Borat will turn up to poke fun at it sometime in the future when Kazakhstan discovers its sense of humour. Far more interesting, and a lot more fun, is Alex Stone’s slightly tongue-in-cheek Crouch, Touch, Pause sculptures, which consist of larger-than-life scrum machines which viewers are welcome to push around the paddock (or wherever it is
ot every piece of art could compete N for attention with the fabulous views from the windows, or even the magnificent rooms they were in.
exhibitions
Definitely the most eccentric blending of art and rugby came in the picture of Jesus as an All Black that went on display at the Cathedral of St Paul in Wellington at the height of the rugby world cup campaign. Let’s be clear; the painting itself is not the issue. Without having seen it live, Don Little’s painting looks to be capably done. The issue I have is with use made ArtsAlliance 8/11/11 12:30 PMthe Page 1 of it as
Portage Ceramic Awards 2011 13 October – 4 December
Nigel Brown – Travel to Travel 8 December 2011 – 12 February 2012 Artist’s floor talk – Friday 9 December, 10am
Tree House – McCahon residency five years on 8 December 2011 – 12 February 2012
White Cloud Worlds 16 February – 15 April 2012
a publicity stunt for the church. The cathedral dean, the Very Rev. Frank Nelson, tried hard to get some mileage out of the work. He observed, correctly, that it was painted in the style of a Russian icon which, he helpfully told us, was designed as an aid to prayer. But then, a lot less plausibly, he went on to claim that it would be ‘completely logical’ for Jesus to come back as an All Black.
a lot less plausibly, he went on to … claim that it would be ‘completely logical’ for Jesus to come back as an All Black. Really? I would have thought that would be pretty much the last thing Jesus would come back as. Meek, mild, loving one’s neighbour, turning the other cheek: now I’m not a rugby aficionado, but even I can see the disadvantages of these qualities in a rugby player, at least in his professional capacity. One can only imagine what Peter Bush would make of it all. Anyway, the painting sold quickly, to an Australian, where it will grace some museum of rugby memorabilia across the ditch. This seems a bit desperate on the part of the church. To make such strained linkages and claims to unity of purpose that are so unconvincing serves only to emphasise the church’s irrelevance in a secular society. But that sorry little episode aside, most of the rugby-themed art that’s been prominent recently has been interesting and fun and has acted very well as a mirror to our society. What that says about our society is altogether another question.
Never Give Up by Nigel Brown, 1999-2000.
Lopdell House Gallery West Auckland’s Regional Art Gallery Open daily 10am-4.30pm, free entry www.lopdell.org.nz Lopdell House Gallery is principally funded by Auckland Council with support from The Trusts Community Foundation; ASB Community Trust and SkyCity Community Trust.
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at the time). Heavily built with extra large arms covered with what I suppose is hessian, they are instantly recognisable as an outlandish scrum machine, but they also invoke bizarre instruments of torture one might come across in a glam vampire flick. Along similar lines is Scott Eady’s 2006 work Dickkopf, which features three life-size plastic skeletons in the three, two, one scrum formation atop a large macrocarpa base which, on closer inspection, turns out to be three coffins. This was at the Wallace Arts Centre at the refurbished Pah Homestead in Auckland. Not every piece of art could compete for attention with the fabulous views from the windows, or even the magnificent rooms they were in. But Eady’s work, on the first floor landing, was powerful enough to hold its own. There was quite a lot of rugby-themed art at the Pah Homestead the day I visited, but Eady’s was the stand-out piece.
Postcard from Seville The garden of the Moorish king
art all summer 2011
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Carl Theodore Sørensen watched children playing on construction sites with sand, bricks, and tree stumps, and proposed in 1931 a new kind of playground – skrammelejepads, or ‘junk playground’ – of old cars, packing crates, and timber so children could build their own places. He saw ‘nicely designed’ play equipment and hopscotch lines painted on asphalt as evidence of adults’ profound misunderstanding of children’s play. The first ever adventure playground built in 1943, in Emdrup, just north of Copenhagen, was a flat, open area of dirt sunk below the level of the surrounding land and bounded by berms covered with dense, thorny shrubs; entry was through a small wooden building on the corner. The hole created a frame for activity and for messy constructions. The dense boundary provided privacy and shielded the children’s work from view. Photographs from the 1940s show an open space with piles of bricks, old boards, pipes, barrels, water and other construction materials and children, in groups and alone laying bricks and hammering nails, fixing a flagpole atop a shack. Photographs from the early 1960s depict neat rows of little houses. Adult play leaders had taken over as supervisors and regulators. Sørensen was very disappointed.’1 Javier has just brought Clara back from a walk through the city centre. They naturally ended up in a little, fenced, children’s playground in the Plaza of San de la Palma, with a climbing frame and slide. He’s complaining about how rough the kids are these days, how they don’t seem to know how to play, just run hysterically and aimlessly. The playgrounds in Seville are a typical combination of mass produced sets of a climbing rope plus adventure frame / tunnel, slide, maybe a swing…. In some cases there is bark on the ground, other times rubbery pads, or stones, or just dirt and dog poo. Interestingly, there are never swings for kids older than about six, as if we grow out of them by then. I appreciate that in the Palmerston North Esplanade, there are swings that I have swung on well into my adulthood. I spend a lot of time contemplating these spaces now, as living in an inner city apartment with a small child makes a daily trip to one of these spaces necessary. Some children go for days without getting out at all. It’s just school and home to the apartment where there is TV and homework. What is happening to play? There is a term to describe humans and their speciality for play coined by Johan Huizinga – Homo ludens. He describes places of play as ‘temporary worlds within the ordinary world, dedicated to the performance of an act apart’2. In the last century places of play – sports fields, playgrounds, ski fields and other resorts have boomed as we find more time to enjoy ‘play’. But play is perhaps changing. I remember how I played. I had the luxury, as I see it now,
Abandoned soft toy.
of open spaces, wild wildernesses at the backs of gardens, running into the bush, streams to follow and vacant lots. I created houses with fallen leaves and whole alternate worlds in a neighbourhood. I got to explore the ramshackle spaces behind the work sheds on farms where treasures lay among the discarded farm implements and made clandestine excursions to explore abandoned houses. At lunch, with a work contact of Javier’s, over from England for a conference, we had got on to the subject of childhood play spaces when Dave asked me what I was currently painting. On hearing that I was painting a series about a vacant lot, Dave smiled at a memory. Back in his youth in Sunderland, he and some friends had commandeered a vacant lot and turned it into a football pitch, levelling out the ground themselves with spades and making goals with sticks. Years later he and his wife had helped create a community run playground from a vacant lot which they called ‘The Dell’. It was a wild place and the children were left to their own devices. However things changed with time and the vacant lot became ‘regulated’. My local vacant lot is known to the neighbourhood as ‘El Huerto del Rey Moro’, the Garden of the Moorish King. It’s been a common area for centuries. It may have been attached to a convent at some time and used for community food growing, animal shelter and grazing. It has signs of having had stone buildings on it and there is an old well. An old house that juts into the space dates back to the Moorish occupation, from around 700AD. With this in mind, although no archaeological dig has taken place, it doesn’t take much to imagine the rich fabric of human history that lies just beneath the pounded dusty earth and overgrown weedy vegetable patches. Seville has two thousand years of human history at least.
Emma Pratt
Sharp Frames
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For that reason, while I have no idea to whom the land really belongs, the community has managed to keep it out of the hands of developers. In the hands of the locals, El Huerto has a collection of donated tricycles for kids to play on, faded by the sun. There is a sandpit, an old Wendy House and a swing tied to the old fig tree. Neighbours have raised beds of vegetables and herbs on the go, some organised, some half left to go wild. There is a garden shed where people leave books for exchange, picnic tables under the trees, a water pump and a home made pizza oven. What I also love about El Huerto is that it makes me feel at home. It’s my place of play too, not just Clara’s. It takes me to my childhood places and reminds me that I still need places like this as an adult. If only there were a taller swing for adults, I’d be there daydreaming too, tipping my head back and staring up to the sky. Recently the community gained some funding for a better fence to be erected and other things, I know not what. All I hope, is that the place is left for the most part just as it is. No neat rows, no mass produced ‘adventure’ climbing frames, no loss of freedom, no loss of play.
7 Cockburn Street Grey Lynn, Auckland
1. Anne Whiston Spern, The Language of Landscape, 1998, Yale University Press. 2. J. Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture, p.10.
Phone (09) 376 3913