Art All 106

art all artists alliance magazine issue 106 / autumn 2012

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.

Staff Executive Director and

Features

Managing Editor: Maggie Gresson Administrator: Michelle Beattie

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Board

Redundant?

We ask the question: ‘Is the label “Pacific artist” redundant?’

John Eaden, Matt Blomeley, Juliet Monaghan, Naomi McCleary, Justin Morgan

Acknowledgements Artists Alliance acknowledges the support of: Artstation, Studio Art Supplies and Auckland Council

Address 1 Ponsonby Road, Newton, Auckland Ph (09) 376 7285, Fax (09) 307 7645 admin@artistsalliance.org.nz www.artistsalliance.org.nz www.watchthisspace.org.nz This issue and more at: www.artistsalliance.org.nz

20 Germany does away with itself

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 ISSN 1177-2964 Design: Verso Visual Communications Printing: Soar Print, Auckland Artists Alliance receives significant funding from Creative New Zealand

24 Feature gallery Village Arts

and ASB Community Trust.

Cover: Suzanne Tamaki, (Ng a¯ ti Maniapoto, T¯uhoe, Te Arawa) For God, For Queen, For Country, 2010 Photographer: Norman Heke Dimensions: 1458 x 2000 mm Suzanne Tamaki (Ng a¯ ti Maniapoto, T¯uhoe, Te Arawa) is a fibre artist who operates under the label Native Sista. She was one of the founding members of the Pacific Sisters fashion collective and is a registered user of the Toi Iho M¯aori Made Mark.

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artists alliance magazine issue 106 / autumn 2012

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In every issue

Professional development

5

10

26

Five Questions An interview with Giles Peterson – independent curator

Dr Paynt In with the old, in with the new!

Editorial

6 First up

9 Opportunities Awards, residencies and exhibitions

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13 Best in Show Objectspace’s annual exhibition

Boilerplate clauses Part one: The mechanics that make an agreement function

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The artists' workbook

Mamas showcase traditional craft Master practitioners of weaving, tapa and tivaevae

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.

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Of late – in short

28 Bill Cooke Toi Aotearoa

Contributions should ideally be received by email [maggie@artistsalliance.org.nz] and with the author’s name and contact details.

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From the editor Pacific

art all artists alliance magazine

issue 106 / autumn 2012

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Traditionally the first issue of Art All for the year has a Pacific flavour to coincide with the hugely popular Pasifika Festival Day held in Auckland – this year on March 10. There is an opening night concert on March 9 at 7 – 9pm on the Western Springs Park outer fields. The festival is 20 years old this year and well worth a visit if you are in town.

On page 16 we publish some replies to the question ‘Is the label “Pacific artist” redundant?’ They make interesting reading. If anyone else has an opinion on the subject then we are keen to hear from you. We will publish the article and any responses to it on the Artists Alliance website.

Coming up and also well worth a visit is the annual Best in Show at Objectspace (see page 13). This show offers us the opportunity to see work from graduates from institutions across the country.

The Artists’ Workbook has always been a valued Artists Alliance resource.

We have now made it available to members free of charge on the website as a downloadable pdf. On page 22 we remind readers of its useful content.

On page 20 our correspondent from Berlin tells us of a controversial artist’s project in connection with the upcoming Berlin Biennale. It will be interesting to see how this saga unfolds.

As part of ‘First up’ on page 7 we publish the call for nomination to the Big ‘A’ Awards. Arts Access Aotearoa does a very big job with a sector that works with a number of very big challenges. These awards are a way of celebrating the successes of this sector.

Finally, we farewell our resident poet Jim McGregor who is leaving our shores for Scotland. (Readers may have noticed a Scottish tone to his work over the years.) I would like to thank Jim for his contribution to Art All and for never once missing a deadline. I like that in a contributor!

Maggie Gresson

Letter to the editor I would like to add a small up-date to my article in your Autumn Issue R.I.P. A Great British Brand, in which I lamented the closing of all manufacturing in the U.K. by Winsor & Newton, to repudiate one of your readers (not, though, one of our members), who wrote in saying I was not telling the truth when I wrote that they are now manufacturing in both France and China.

I’m not especially pleased to have just received my first product from Winsor & Newton which, previously made in the U.K., now bears the vindicating line ‘Made in China.’

I attach a photo.

The main theme of my article was a lament for the end of English people making a very English product, a brand that my family have used for generations; and a lament to what globalisation can mean to niche-market products when

multi-nationals get hold of them. This is my personal opinion as an artist, not as a salesperson; in fact, my employer strongly disagreed with my submitting the article.

I only recommend materials that have integrity and that I and many of my fellow artists have used to great success.

I do this only because they work. They work because the same families have been making them for generations in close association with leading artists.

Best regards, Evan Woodruffe, aka ‘Dr Paynt’.

First up OFFSTAGE 4

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Thursday March 1 ARTSPACE from 6.30pm Through creative practices, we question our world, make comments about it and sometimes physically try to exert a change for the better. Tautai’s OFFSTAGE is running in its fourth consecutive year and is a one night event which displays the strong, vibrant, engaging and experimental moving image and performance works by some of the finest in Aotearoa’s Pasifika creative community.

Previously, OFFSTAGE was held at Galatos. With its darkened space, singular focus on the screen or performer, and a bar serving snacks and refreshments, Galatos offered a cinema / theatre type setting for audiences to view the work.

This year, for the first time, OFFSTAGE will be held at ARTSPACE. Audiences can expect a similar cinema / theatre setting where they can enjoy moving image and performance works by established and upcoming creative practitioners. Where they comment, question and make assertions about the world we live in. The difference is that the setting will be more ‘laid-back’ allowing the audience to kick back, get

comfortable and contemplate the works of art being showcased.

South South is a brand new arts publication celebrating the unique Maori and Pacific creative flair emanating from South Auckland. Edited by Nigel Borell and Ema Tavola. Issue one is out now.

South has a report on the 2011 Pacific Arts Summit – look out for details of this year’s Summit due to run May 3 – 31.

For more information on the South Auckland Pacific Arts Summit, see http://2011pacificartssummit.wordpress. com/

Top Five Chartwell Collection works on show flat. Presented as a series of ‘rooms’, this ambiguous, chaotic work can take on a multitude of forms and the installation at the AAG is the first major re-presentation of this now legendary work in the collection.

Ian Burns: Makin’ Tracks, 2010, found objects with live video and audio.

Sue Gardiner, co-Director of the Chartwell Collection, highlights five collection works from the exhibition: Made Active: The Chartwell Show (working title), curated by Natasha Conland, on level 2, Auckland Art Gallery, from April 14 to July 15, 2012.

‘I am really looking forward to the upcoming Chartwell show, the first major one at AAG in nine years, as it will show many works the wider public have not seen.’ All works described can be seen at: www.chartwell.org.nz Daniel Malone: Black Market to my Name, 2007, mixed media installation.

Just before Malone left New Zealand to live in Poland in 2007, he exhibited this extraordinary work – an immersive installation made up of the entire contents of his life accrued over the course of ten years at his Auckland

Australian born Ian Burns, based now in New York, uses objects in combination with video and audio recordings to create what he describes as works that are both ridiculous and beautiful. Taking a playful approach to the objects he selects, Burns’s constructions contain an orchestrated video image such as a toy truck rumbling at speed across the globe while gleefully revealing the improbable actions undertaken to create it.

Campbell Patterson: Sandwich, 2008, DVD single channel 3:4, 18min 8sec.

Taking the phrase ‘getting into bed’ to the extreme, Patterson combines video, absurdist performance with humour and agonising physical extremes to create his work. In the tradition of task orientated action performance, the artist uses his own body to realise improbable feats – in this case, bravely squeezing into the folded up frame of a camp bed filmed within the confines of his bedroom. Barely able to move once

trapped in the folds of the bed, his phone rings...it’s his mother.

Alicia Frankovich: Orpheus, 2010, aluminium door frame, egg tray, eggs.

An open doorway presents an enticing invitation, but on top of Frankovich’s life size door frame a tray of eggs is delicately balanced, ready to fall on any unsuspecting traveller who hesitates and falters. Perhaps a walk across this particular threshold into the unknown beyond exposes us to a sense of potential risk, some gentle magic even – not unlike the invitation to step across a threshold and enter an art gallery – there is no looking back.

Paul Cullen: r/p/m (3), 2010, plastic bucket, Formica table, electric motor and cord.

Activating everyday objects in a series of experiments, Paul Cullen creates models that bring to mind a range of scientific theories and mysterious propositions. This is odd backyard science – with an inventive, improvisational quality to its making that invites curiosity. In the case of r/p/m (3), a hidden motor drives an upturned green bucket in a restricted but rotating circle around a table top.

Exploring possibilities within a given set of rules, these actions could equally have been devised in a laboratory or an artist’s studio.

St Paul St Gallery takes a closer look at curating Exhibitions: Curatorial Season, February 24 – April 21, 2012, St Paul St Gallery Three

Curatorial Symposium: March 29 – 30 The 2012 Curatorial Symposium is an exciting two day event that will explore what curating means here and now within the wider sphere of cultural and knowledge production. The 2012 Curatorial Symposium is the first in a series of discussions around curatorial practice hosted by St Paul St Gallery.

To register your interest in attending this free symposium please email stpaul.gallery@aut.ac.nz International speakers include: Ute Meta Bauer, Kate Rhodes and Wiebke Gronemeyer.

More details available at www.stpaulst.aut.ac.nz

Nominations to Big ‘A’ Awards 2012 A new award recognising the artistic achievements of a disabled or sensory impaired artist is one of six award categories in the Big ‘A’ Awards 2012, presented every year by Arts Access Aotearoa at a ceremony in the Banquet Hall of Parliament. Nominations to this year’s Big ‘A’ Awards are now open.

The closing date is Friday March 23, 2012. The six award categories are: Big ‘A’ Artistic Achievement Award, recognising the outstanding achievements and contribution of an artist based in New Zealand, who has a physical, sensory or intellectual impairment, or is a mental health service user Big ‘A’ Creative Space Award, recognising the outstanding contribution and impact of a creative space that

Limited Sedition Art m’arse are ye takin’ the piss it’s bright coloured paper, (with a graph on the back) That’s all it is

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Adieux I shall miss the tui and its squeaky gate call. & I shall miss my friends and Mt. Taranaki.

That’s all!

e noho ra Jim McGregor

yourself or others. For more information and nomination forms, please visit www. artsaccess.org.nz or contact Pippa Sanderson at Arts Access Aotearoa (T: 04 802 4349 E: pippa.sanderson@ artsaccess.org.nz).

Nominations close at 5pm on Friday March 23, 2012.

Festivals / open studios Fringe Festival 2012 New Zealand’s emerging Arts Festival in Wellington.

February 10 – March 3 www.fringe.co.nz Dunedin Fringe 2012 March 15 – 25 www.dunedinfringe.org.nz Whanganui Artists Open Studios Visit www.openstudios.co.nz to get your hands on an Art Trail Guide.

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Between February 23 – April 21 St Paul St Gallery is commissioning a suite of seven exhibitions, a symposium and publication to make up the 2012 Curatorial Season. Focusing on emerging curators and utilising the quick turnaround nature of St Paul St Gallery Three, the 2012 Curatorial Season aims to be journalistic in tone, attempting to chart the local practices that create this burgeoning discipline.

Curators: Roman Mitch, Nicole Lim, Narrow Gauge, Oh.No.Sumo, Sonya Lacey and Vera Mey, Amelia Harris and Alterations.

provides opportunities for people with limited access to make art, across any or all artforms Big ‘A’ Community Partnership Award, recognising a mutually beneficial partnership between two or more organisations or groups actively engaged in a community-based arts project Big ‘A’ Creative New Zealand Arts For All Award, recognising an arts organisation, company, venue or producer that best demonstrates its commitment to developing its audiences by becoming more accessible to the disabled community Big ‘A’ Prison Arts Leadership Award, recognising the outstanding contribution of an individual using the arts as a tool to support the rehabilitation / reintegration of prisoners. The individual must be an employee, contractor or volunteer with the Department of Corrections.

Big ‘A’ Prison Arts Community Award, recognising the outstanding contribution of a community group or community organisation working with the Department of Corrections and using the arts as a tool to support the rehabilitation / reintegration of prisoners.

The Big ‘A’ Awards 2012 presentation will be held in the Banquet Hall at Parliament on July 18. Last year’s awards ceremony was attended by more than 200 guests.

Richard Benge, Executive Director of Arts Access Aotearoa, said the Big ‘A’ Awards and its nomination process is a great opportunity for people to play a part in celebrating the often unsung heroes of New Zealand communities.

‘We know from our work around New Zealand that there are many individuals and organisations working to ensure access to the arts for everyone in New Zealand, whatever their circumstances’.

We’re also excited about our new award that will celebrate the achievements of an individual artist.

Arts Access Aotearoa is a national organisation, advocating for all people in New Zealand to have access to the arts. Its key stakeholders are individuals and organisations in the community and professional arts sectors; people with physical or intellectual impairments; and mental health service users. It is also the key organisation in New Zealand facilitating the arts as a tool to support the rehabilitation / reintegration of prisoners.

Each of the six awards has a nomination form. You are able to nominate

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Opportunities Awards, residencies and exhibitions

National opportunities

Application deadline: March 30, 2012 Do you have an idea for an exhibition at Toi Poneke Gallery in 2012-2013?

You have two opportunities to apply for an exhibition each year. The next closing date is March 30 for the October 2012 – March 2013 programme.

Exhibition proposals are reviewed by an independent visual arts panel. The panel members are selected because of their knowledge and involvement in the contemporary visual arts sector. The panel exists to make sure the selection process is rigorous and free from bias. In considering exhibition proposals, priority is given to: (1) Wellington-based artists, curators and groups, particularly those in the early stages of their career; (2) those who demonstrate a high standard of technical ability and presentation.

More information about proposal requirements available at: www.artistsalliance.org.nz/html/ opportunities.php

Call for Volunteers ARTSPACE ARTSPACE are seeking people to join their team of dedicated volunteers for 2012 and beyond. Help with exhibition installation / de-installation, administration, cataloguing, openings, and more. To find out more email: arron@artspace.org.nz Dunedin Fringe Festival Wanna be a part of the 2012 Fringe Team? Get amongst the action by volunteering! Fringe volunteers undertake a variety of roles including event production, venue ticketing, promotion and more. To register your interest, email Chris at: volunteers@dunedinfringe.org.nz

Earthskin Creative Artist Residencies During the months from March to November, residencies are available for four weeks duration. Muriwai Earthskin offers a creative / artist scholarship, free of all charges except power and phone.

Other properties via Earthskin, are on offer at Piha on the west coast of Auckland, Stansborough Farm in the Wairarapa, at Te Moata in the Coromandel.

All locations are subject to availability.

More information about the residencies on offer, at: www.earthskin.co.nz/artists-residency/

Call for Applications: The Olivia Spencer Bower Foundation Application deadline: June 30, 2012 The objectives of the foundation are to encourage and promote promising painters and sculptors in New Zealand, with particular emphasis on future artistic potential.

It was the intention of Olivia Spencer

Bower to assist promising artists or sculptors so that they could pursue their own particular visual art form for one year free from the necessity to seek outside employment. The awards are intended for emerging artists and not established artists.

Two awards each of $30,000 will be made for each calendar years 2013 and 2014. www.oliviaspencerbower.org.nz

International opportunities Aesthetica Art Prize Entry Deadline: August 31, 2012 The Aesthetica Art Prize is a celebration of excellence in art from across the world and is hosted by Aesthetica Magazine, an internationally recognised art and culture publication. Four shortlisted artists and four student artists will be selected for exhibition in spring 2013. Artists working in all forms are welcome to submit work and the categories for entry are as below: • Photographic and Digital Art • Three Dimensional Design and Sculpture • Painting and Drawing • Installation and Performance One overall winner will receive £1000 prize money (approx. $1,910 NZD) and editorial coverage in Aesthetica, as well as a place in the Aesthetica exhibition.

The winners and finalists, as well as a longlist of artists will be published in the accompanying publication to the Aesthetica Art Prize. All artists featured will receive a complimentary copy of this publication.

Entry costs £15 (apx. $28 NZD) and permits the submission of two pieces into any one category.

Please visit http://www.aesthetica magazine.com/artprize.htm for more information and to enter.

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Call for Proposals: Toi Poneke Gallery

The Old Library If you enjoy music, performance, photography or art and meeting and interacting with other artists, the old library is looking for volunteers for a variety of tasks within the arts centre.

In exchange the old library can offer benefits such as free tickets to events and shows, and exhibition space, among other things.

The old library also has a community photography studio and gallery that needs enthusiastic photographers to help run it. In exchange photographers can enjoy free display space and studio hire.

Please express your interest to either Ruth: ruth@oldlibrary.org.nz or Megan: megan@oldlibrary.org.nz

Five questions An interview with Giles Peterson – independent curator

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You have been seen as a champion of Pacific artists.

What motivates you?

Community is what motivates me. Contributing to and shaping community, my local community, and the international community. Taking what is special and precious from New Zealand and the Pacific: its artists, its healers, its visionaries and showing that talent to our communities in the world.

A community of artists and designers, tattooists, street artists, fashion designers, musicians, body adornment artists from the Pacific Rim motivate me. I am interested in the customary and the contemporary and new cultural ways that emerge from curatorial exhibition endeavours, residencies, teaching exchanges and learning.

I work with a range of artists and creatives, some emerging, others with established international careers, different age groups, different personalities: poets, thinkers, and change agents – leaders in their communities – humanists from all walks of life.

An interest in cross-disciplinary practice has been a feature of my curating since I began back in 1994. Since then I have curated over 50 large scale group Pacific exhibitions, toured several exhibitions around New Zealand and curated exhibitions in Australia, the Pacific, USA and Mexico.

My interest in art from the Pacific region stems from the fact that we live in the Pacific. The Pacific is my neighbourhood.

I am interested in the local and the global and the concept of artists ‘representing’ and doing good for their communities. I came out of the community art centre model of curating, and those socialist aspects are important values for me.

I guess my interest in Pacific art was also shaped by meeting contemporary Papua New Guinea artists like Timothy Akis and Matthias Kauage during my childhood in PNG and later whilst studying at The University Of Auckland, where I met and became friends with several young P.I. (Pacific Island) artists.

Then of course, later after graduating, I would go and curate many exhibitions featuring the work of Maori and Pacific artists, working independently for the last 17 years.

(As a child I travelled a lot with my family, through Asia and the Pacific. Then we moved to New Zealand. My encounter with living culture and art had an influence I’m sure, on what I do, and my worldview now.)

It is true that I have been seen as a champion of the work of Pacific artists. This is certainly the case in the 1990s when I started curating. There weren’t many curators in New Zealand at the time interested in or actively curating exhibitions featuring the work of Pacific heritage artists back then – only a handful of us: Jim Vivieaere, myself, Rangi Panoho, Ron Brownson and Sean Mallon. I wouldn’t say I was even conscious that I

Giles Peterson, curator. Fatu Feuu: Taputea 2006. Oil on canvas. 1520 x 1220mm Collection: Giles Peterson

was curating exhibitions of ‘Pacific art’. What I was doing was curating exhibitions featuring the work of young artists and designers who inspired me, who became part of my life and my extended community, and family.

That core group of practitioners are still there: we nurture and support each other. It is still the same motivation; the extended community has just grown. I’ve recently been in Cuba and have made contacts and networks with artists and curators there. It was fabulous. And I also now have a base in Mexico following the Tiaho: Contemporary Photography from Oceania Exhibition project I curated in 2010. In December 2011 I returned to Mexico and spent time with artists in Veracruz, and in the state of Oaxaca, along the Pacific Coast so I’m sure I will do more projects in this part of the world over the next few years.

I also curated a big exhibition Niu Pasifik Warriors which just finished a couple of weeks ago in Sydney and hope to do more work with Pacific communities in Australia in the future, so it is an interesting time for me, a new renaissance.

As an individual what are the challenges of taking an exhibition overseas?

Well there are several challenges – freight costs and insurance costs being the first that come to mind. Then there is the catalogue publication, a public programme of talks and all the

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usual things associated with exhibition curation. The biggest challenge but also the biggest buzz is seeing whether the audience you are curating the exhibition for has an amazing experience from the exhibition.

With the Tiaho: Contemporary Photography from Oceania exhibition catalogue we burned heaps of CDs which I then gave out to the exhibition goers in Mexico City. That exhibition showed at three venues across Mexico City and Mexico State: a high school in Coyacoan in Mexico City, a community arts and cultural centre in Iztapalapa, South East Mexico City, and a Town Hall in Ciudad Nezahuacotyl, a working class area with many gang problems in nearby Mexico State.

Curating is very exciting for me. It is a creative process and probably as close to the process of art making that I will come to. Testing to see whether I have got the mix right – mixing and sampling and creating a new kind of total experience for the audience: bringing together the work of different artists and voices. Exhibitions that actually say something, that allow for artists’ work from across the region to be shown and discussed is really important to me. I see the exhibitions I curate as catalysts of change, as forums of dialogue, debate about issues significant to Pacific Island communities, to the Pacific Region and issues that affect everyone as citizens of planet earth.

This has been a driving force in my curatorial work: from Urban Pacific in 2007, where I worked with 12 young artists; Longitude – in the Cook Islands; Take 40 at Fresh Gallery Otara in 2009; Samoan Art: Urban in 2010 at the De Young Museum in San Francisco; and my collection show at the Gorman Museum at UC Davis in Sacramento in 2010; Tiaho in Mexico City and now Niu Pasifik Warriors – the latest exhibition I curated in Sydney, Australia which has just finished and was seen by thousands and thousands of people.

With the Niu Pasifik Warriors exhibition that I curated as part of the Niu Warrior Festival at Casula Powerhouse Art Centre in Sydney – the issues that contemporary Pacific artists explored were very deep. The exhibition was more than just an exhibition, it was about the Pacific and Aboriginal Communities of South West Sydney coming together. About artists from across the Pacific Region: Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Hawaii, Tonga, Niue, Cook Islands, Tahiti – speaking about issues that affect Pacific artists and their communities – colonisation and survival; race and representation, the environment of what it is to speak from a position of different cultures. It was about celebrating Pacific artists as Niu Warriors, encouraging young people to see themselves as Niu Warriors and different Pacific communities seeing and celebrating themselves. It featured the work of over 50 urban artists and designers from across the Pacific Rim. And the Pacific Islander and Aboriginal communities did come and celebrate and see themselves in the thousands – over 4000 people came to the opening of the Niu Warrior Festival and thousands and thousands by the end of the exhibition in September. Three thousand school kids came – primary through to secondary and tertiary. Leo Tanoi (producer), who first asked me to curate this exhibition, and Nisa Mackie (producer: public programmes), and the whole team at Casula were amazing.

It’s an awesome space – a converted power station with an international reputation for brokering Pacific programmes – and the exhibition I curated had the largest exhibition space – so I was incredibly humbled to be given this opportunity. The exhibition was very important in terms of increasing the visibility

Chantel Fraser: Maiden Nesia, 2009. Image courtesy Giles Peterson.

of Pacific communities and their involvement with art initiatives in Australia. There was a huge public programme including community festival days, artists and community leader talks, workshops and performances. Casula ran in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art a project programme called Generation Next which featured Niu Pasifik Warrior exhibitor Allen Villi aka Onesian doing street art and hip hop guerrilla clothing with young people in workshops. Niu Pasifik Warriors was just one of ten exhibitions on at the Art Centre as part of the Niu Warrior Festival and the exhibitions and Festival received extensive media coverage on local and national television, and in the daily newspapers. Local community newspapers and even sports magazines covered the exhibition – the NRL are a key partner and supporter of Casula Powerhouse. Their Pacific Island players came and spoke to heaps and heaps of young people and school groups. It was Awesome!

Tell us about your first ever show? Where did it all start?

The first exhibition I curated was a group exhibition: Emerging into the Light. It was an exhibition that had its genesis in my MA thesis which looked at myth and ritual in contemporary New Zealand art. The exhibition featured the work of 14 women artists and opened at the Uxbridge Centre in Howick in East Auckland in 1994. It included work by Fiona Pardington, Browynne Cornish, Emily Karaka, Robyn Kahukiwa, Lily Laita, Moana Maniapoto, Toi Maihi, Diane Prince, Philippa Blair, Claudia Pond Eyley, Carole Shepheard, Marte Szirmay and Jane Zusters. The irony was that with the exception of the young artists – all of the artists had emerged years ago – but it was a good way of drawing attention to the great work by women artists in this country. And it had an excellent public programme of talks and workshops – thanks to the artists who all gave of their time free.

Many important relationships for me as a curator were forged with this exhibition and those relationships are still important 18 years on.

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Emerging into the Light was very successful – it drew big crowds, received a lot of national television and print media coverage and we ended up touring the exhibition for two years to ten art galleries and museums around New Zealand. It was an amazing achievement for a small community art centre like Uxbridge and only made possible by a lot of hard work and the generosity of a lot of people, including artists who took a leap of faith in exhibiting their work and owners who loaned back work for the exhibition to tour.

Equally important were the curators at the regional galleries and museums who so wanted to show this exhibition to their communities (they are often unsung heroes). I wish more contemporary exhibitions like Emerging into the Light toured New Zealand today. I learnt a lot curating and touring that exhibition.

At the same time I started teaching part time at Manukau Institute of Technology, curated some other exhibitions that year and everything just took off. I started curating more and more at Uxbridge which was paying me a part time wage, started working with artists like the Pacific Sisters – I think I was the first curator to show their work in an exhibition – and have never looked back.

In 1998 I curated Heart of the Niu for the Pasifika Festival at Artstation; Fireworks (Auckland Youth Festival) at the Aotea Centre, and in 2000 Island Crossings – a large group exhibition which filled two floors of the Global Arts Link Gallery in Ipswich in Brisbane. That was a very successful exhibition, seen by thousands of Australians and was quite important in my curatorial career. It opened to over a thousand people in Ipswich, has been written about in magazines like Art Asia Pacific Quarterly in New York and Eyeline in Australia, and was visited by thousands of people over its three month run. It took a year of planning and I had never worked on anything of that scale before – the artworks were huge – on average four and five metres wide each – two artists worked on site as part of a residency attached to the exhibition and we visited heaps and heaps of schools. It was an exceptional way to learn about community curating and touring an international exhibition, a very special and significant show.

Networking must play an important role. Any tips for aspiring curators?

Yes networking is vital, just letting people know who you are, what you stand for, and what you do is vital. I do it so naturally like breathing that I’m not sure I even recognise when I network. I am just passionate about artists and passionate about art and life.

And this can’t be faked – it has to be real, felt and genuine.

When you are passionate about things it’s infectious. You just live, dream and do it. And other people want to be part of that dream as well. They will have their own dreams and your project might help them to get further ahead and realise their dreams, or they may just say yes because the project I’m asking them to be part of might enable them to do something out of the norm. At the end of day it will be because they see I have respect for them, their vision and their Mana; I love their work and their talent, and they recognise in me a kindred spirit. It might be as simple as that. I’ve never really analysed it. And of course I’m very loyal, I work with many of the same artists and I work a lot with young artists – that has been a distinguishing feature of my curatorial career. It’s a family – and then I create other opportunities to play where the artists I work with meet other artists. As Tracey Moffatt said to me when I asked her to be in Take 40: ‘Giles, show the DVDs and rock the party’.

The relationship between an artist and curator is one of trust. The artist has put their heart and soul and a lot of effort into creating their work. In many cases in terms of the exhibitions I curate they have created a special artwork specifically for your exhibition. By asking them to be part of your project they are trusting you to look after their work and to present their work with care and integrity. You’ve got to be excited by the artist’s work in the first place anyway. I have so much passion for artists’ work that I show in exhibitions. I mean – I talk to the art – for me the art is a talisman, a direct touch point to the artist that made the work, so the artwork (artist) and I have conversations. There have been occasions (actually quite often) when the artwork will tell me where to place it in the gallery space, where it can best speak, and in relation to other artworks (artists).

The term curator is imbued with the concept of custodianship and guardianship.

After your successful exhibition Niu Warrior was held at the Casula Powerhouse Art Centre in Sydney in 2011, what’s next?

Well more curating? Though I’m enrolled in a PhD as well as teaching at Whitecliffe College the curating must be projects that go towards my doctorate. The Niu Pasifik Warriors exhibition was the first exhibition towards my doctorate, so it was very exciting to have the opportunity to do that. Now I am in the process of writing it up, because the exhibitions I have curated will form one chapter in my thesis. My PhD topic is Urban Pacific Fashion, Tattoo and Body adornment – so Niu Pasifik Warriors was wonderful for that. A large representation of the exhibition was photography – including Maori Ta Moko and Samoan Tatau; the exhibition which is from my collection also included a significant representation of body adornment from the Pacific Sisters – mainly Suzanne Tamaki’s body adornment but also Rosanna Raymond and Ani O’Neill. The exhibition included a stunning two metre rosary by Niki Hastings-McFall – which glows in the dark. There was also three specially commissioned spray-painted hoodies by South Auckland artist Allen Villi aka Onesian and a lot of hip hop and graffiti art and street fashion; a large installation of Popohardwear tee-shirts by South Auckland designer and artist Siliga Setoga; a lot of strong post-colonial video and performance art that deconstructs the politics of representation, power and display in the Pacific – it was a very large exhibition with presence and impact – over 3000 square metres in scale.

Many of the exhibitions I have curated over the last decade or more have been under the wire and self-funded. I came out of community art house curating so lack of budget and guerrilla art curating and tactics doesn’t faze me. I’m driven to keep exposing the work of New Zealand and Pacific artists to other communities around the world. That said, I have been incredibly fortunate to have earned the respect and support of so many talented and amazing artists over the years, artists who have also wanted to collaborate with me in projects and take on the world.

If you have passion, integrity, and you truly are excited and believe in an artist’s work – well they have given you the viewer something haven’t they: a piece of themselves – put out there for the world to see and judge, their heart on a firing line. I think what artists do is incredibly brave and gutsy, and my life is incredibly rich spiritually because of my friendships with artists and designers.

Best in Show 2012

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Objectspace’s annual exhibition series Best in Show, showcases outstanding emerging applied arts graduates from tertiary institutions around New Zealand. Best in Show 2012 is Objectspace’s eighth exhibition in this series, and will feature 18 practitioners on the cusp of exciting creative careers. Areas of practice in Best in Show 2012 include graphic design, ceramics, product design, textiles, digital design, contemporary jewellery and furniture.

These bachelor-level graduates display a consistent level of polish that belies the relatively limited amount of time spent in their respective fields. Best in Show 2012 will feature a diverse range of work by these exhibitors, presented to engage, spark curiosity or even surprise the viewer. The works entail few compromises when it comes to construction materials, aesthetic decisions and other artistic concerns. Some of the concepts addressed by Best in Show 2012 practitioners include: the

Briar Mark: This would have taken 8 seconds to type, 2011, paper and thread.

Courtesy of the artist.

dominance of the computer in our lives; craft versus graphic design; experiencing place; sustainability and upcycling; the potential of objects to contain; dimensional typography; the notion of pathos; the personal journey of collecting; handmade versus machine made; renewal; the relationship between light and textiles; and the influence of science fiction films.

As well as offering the opportunity of a public gallery exhibition following soon after their end of year graduate showcase exhibitions, Best in Show 2012 provides an additional professional development opportunity including preparing artist statements that have been subject to critique and editing for the online publication which accompanies the exhibition, and some of the exhibitors presenting an artist’s floor talk about their practice as part of Objectspace’s public programme.

Best in Show 2012 features graduates from: AUT University (Te W a¯ nanga Aronui o Ta¯ maki Makaurau), Elam School of Fine Arts, Hungry Creek Art and Craft School, Manukau School of Visual Arts (Te Whare Takiura o Manukau), Massey University (Te Kunenga ki Purehuroa), ¯ Otago Polytechnic (Te Kura Matatini ki Otago), Unitec (Te Whare W a¯ nanga o Wairaka), Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design (Te Whare Takiura O Wikiriwhi) and Whitireia (Te Kura Matatini o Whitireia).

Best in Show 2012 is curated by Laura Howard. The exhibitors are: Saba Aghahasan, Vanessa Arthur, Andrew Cheung, Rowan Dunford, Mike Furniss, Russell Goodman, Janetta Hayden, Lisa Higgins, Megan Lundberg, Gabrielle MacDonald, Lynda McNamara, Claire McSweeney, Briar Mark, Jacquelene Reid, Sophie Rzepecky, Leah Shao, Marcel Watson, Susan Wells.

Janetta Hayden: Lamp (Shelves for Objects), 2011, plywood, acrylic glass, lamp.

Courtesy of the artist.

Where: Objectspace, 8 Ponsonby Rd, Auckland When: Saturday March 17 – Saturday April 21, 2012 Gallery hours: Mon – Sat, 10:00am – 5:00pm, free admission www.objectspace.org.nz

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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

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8/07/2008 12:16:02 p.m.

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What do artist spaces and galleries do over the summer months? Well… some are just plain closed, but others get up to something a little different. Here are some notable ones of late. rice and beans (Elle Loui August, Claire Mahoney and Gilbert May) from Dunedin moved up to Auckland to occupy ARTSPACE for a summer residency of sorts. Their residency / exhibition titled occasionalist had the group working out of the two smaller rooms at ARTSPACE and hosting events and exhibitions in the larger room. occasionalist took on many different forms, such as participants receiving haircuts in the gallery, invitations to attend a discussion or a dawn poetry reading, to signing a contract which meant you could take a swim in a pool that was inside the gallery space (togs permitting), and of course numerous artworks on display from both rice and beans’ artists and invited guests. This approach to a gallery residency certainly differs to any others around New Zealand and here’s hoping it inspires others to push the boundaries a little.

Not your usual Christmas fair, The End of Year Fair held at ST PAUL ST Gallery offered a range of stalls, talks and performances, making a point of having goods for sale and also things that were not. The fair was populated by artist run spaces, artists’ stands, performance art and the more established organisations that all came together for one evening and one day of fun fair time. The opening evening was abuzz with the party mood thanks to D.A.N.C.E Art Club who filled the entry space with the sweet, sweet smell of candy floss on a stick, the sound of great music and lots of face painting.

Enjoy Public Art Gallery continued to offer its annual summer residency; this year’s resident artist being Matt Whitwell.

The residency took the form of an open studio, an exhibition titled Black Flora and also the release of a publication of the same name. Contact the gallery if you

Catherine Ellis, Lonely Friends, 2011, Installation at [side way]. Image courtesy of Youth Art Committee and Artstation.

want to get your hands on this zine-like artist’s book.

Window, the well-established space located in the Auckland University Library foyer, spent the summer months as a temporary storage space housing works from the 2011 Elam School of Fine Arts’ graduating students.

As a passerby the display could be easily overlooked as ‘out of action’ or in between exhibitions, though to an observing eye one could see a purposed order of shape, colour and size.

A new window space [side way] is located in the Artstation building at 1 Ponsonby Rd, Auckland. The Youth Art Committee is responsible for initiating this exhibition space that aims to engage and excite young emerging artists. So far

works by Amy Potenger and Catherine Ellis have brightened up Ponsonby Rd. I certainly enjoy seeing a little art ever day on the way into work.

The latest Appliance zine issue #114 is out now! This issue is a summer poster edition featuring images from The Shutter Pirates (Tim and Joe). Visit their website www.shutterpirates.com for a taste of their style. For a FREE copy of Appliance, email admin@artistsalliance.org.nz.

Until next time.

Michelle Beattie Artists Alliance Administrator 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

Redundant?

Artists Alliance decided to ask some people (who we thought would have an opinion on the subject) the question: ‘Is the label “Pacific artist” redundant?’

Here are the replies:

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Pacific artist refers to a broad group of traditional and contemporary art and craft makers. It’s a term that defines an artist of Pacific / Polynesian / Oceanic decent. Redundant means dismissed or no longer needed or wanted. No longer needed by whom? No longer wanted by whom? The white dominating mainstream? The white artists that think they are Polynesian but can’t call themselves Pacific artists? After all isn’t Auckland the biggest Polynesian city in the world with its Pasifika festivals and exhibitions. Get yourself a Pacific style tattoo. Buy some island fans and eat raw fish. So are we all Polynesians now? I think some would like to think so. And a few would wish it away.

I find the use of the word ‘label’ in this context (a colonial one it is) to be naive and offensive because artefacts and dead things are labelled. The Pacific artist is very much alive and proud to be Pacific.

Lonnie Hutchinson, Artist

Many would suggest that the question is not even necessary – that the asking is redundant.

There may be some cute interpretations of what is meant by ‘Pacific artist’ . . . I have heard it suggested that anyone who lives anywhere ‘in the Pacific’ (Japan? or California??) can refer to themselves as a Pacific artist. Well, maybe. But I think when someone in New Zealand speaks of someone as being a ‘Pacific artist’ the expectation is that that person is of Pacific Island heritage, that is they are of Tongan, Samoan, Niuean, Kiribati, etc.

So, is that label redundant?

The artists that I have spoken to about this say they ARE PACIFIC as a person – that is who they are, be it Samoan, or Tongan, or Tokelauan, or of other Pacific Island.

They say though, that they don’t need to attach that label to what they DO – they are AN ARTIST. Christina Jeffery, Manager, Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust

My first thought when thinking about the title ‘Pacific artist’ made me think of other titles artists, curators and writers use in gallery exhibition texts or descriptions. For example, Auckland based artist… Wellington based artist… New Zealand artist….

I’ve often found this type of description can help provide an introduction of the artist as a person. Another way of describing this is when someone asks where a person is from, where they grew up, and where they live now. Sometimes you can learn a lot from asking these types of questions.

Place of origin or residence can often play an influential factor in a person’s upbringing. Such influence can help shape a person’s cultural, political, social and economic views to name a few. These experiences can subsequently influence an artist’s

Marlon Rivers. Image courtesy of the artist.

practice and what they choose to comment on.

So is the label Pacific artist redundant? I don’t believe so.

Is it the only description used to identify an artist of Pacific heritage? No, as the Pacific is host to a number of Polynesian cultures, but I think it is equally as important in identifying a person as well as an artist and their practice.

Jeremy Leatinu’u, Artist and LEOTC worker at Te Tuhi, Auckland

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There is a certain amount of inevitability about being labelled a ‘Pacific artist’ if you happen to make art outside of the actual islands of the Pacific and you yourself happen to be of Pacific descent. If I lived all my life in Samoa, I doubt that I would be called a ‘Pacific’ or ‘Samoan’ artist. Insofar as labels go, this is applied within a Western construct.

Is ‘Pacific artist’ redundant as a label? Out of context, yes it is. It just distracts the art consumer from taking seriously

what artists of Pacific heritage are contributing to the broader discourse of contemporary art practice. Too often though, curators and art writers don’t go further than the label and expect only essentialised visual language and qualities from ‘Pacific artists’. It’s this that detracts from the artist who identifies as Pacific.

Ultimately, each artist is an individual, who relates in innumerably different ways to their family of origin. The idea of

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Lonnie Hutchinson: Comb (Red and Black) 2009. Dimensions: 200 x 200mm each. Steel and automotive paint. Photo: Schwere Webber.

label is probably where the redundancy lies because it assumes that there is a desire to ‘fit’; where does one stop with the labels?

Classification can be helpful in context but it is the context and premise of the artist’s work that directs who the artist chooses to be today. Today, I am a German artist.

Leafa Janice Wilson aka Olga Krause

I guess it’s human nature the need to quantify, assess and define, and perhaps all labels are redundant in some way A problem arises when a label like this is applied, in that as artists, we are so much more than that. Perhaps its ok to label a movement or genre but it seems very unimaginative and one dimensional to sum up an artist in a couple of glib phrases.

Another problem with this label is, how does one define what constitutes a PI artist, but even more than that is the fact that the descriptor signifies culture and not practice. In this way the descriptor is limiting and unnecessary and in some ways insulting and racist.

Shouldn’t the label be when talking about art... Is it good art or bad art? And WTF is that!

Aotearoa New Zealand inevitably return to Hotere’s often quoted statement that he is an artist who happens to be M a¯ ori. However the issue is less about the label that the artist may ascribe to, and more about the labels we ascribe to them. I recently spoke to an artist who was instructed by Michael Parekowhai to ‘be whatever they want you to be, until you can be yourself’.

As with Hotere and Parekowhai, a person’s heritage and upbringing will always affect the art they make, but does not define them or their art. Being defined by one categorical distinction may be claustrophobic and limiting for an artist who would prefer not to have every work they make tainted by preimposed interpretations. An artist of Pacific heritage can choose to make kaupapa Pacific artworks one day, and the next day make something completely removed. Categorising, and indeed defining the parameters of such definitions, is predominately the concern of art historians.

Personally Pacific art, as opposed to Pacific artist, is a more comprehendible term. Pacific art (to me) is about the work, not the artist. Pacific art is something that speaks to, for, or about the plight of Pacific peoples.

Reuben Friend, Curator of Maori and Pacific Art at City Gallery

Niki Hastings-McFall, Artist

Wellington

The question of whether the label ‘Pacific artist’ is redundant, is a tired old chestnut that has been cracked open and explored from many angles, many times before. Such conversations in

It really depends in which context you look at it. I think in terms of the New Zealand landscape you could argue yes, especially in Auckland. It’s difficult to say but from my experience, being

Marlon Rivers, Artist and Lecturer and IT Manager, Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design

What’s in a name?

The word Pacific derives from Latin meaning peacemaking, a tip of the hat to the Western construct of the noble savage perhaps. Captain Cook would refute that with a far from ‘peacemaking’ end.

Whether it be Pacific Islander, Polynesian, PI, Fob or Freshy, these are all labels that originally were branded on us by the Other1, signifying that our whakapapa2 derives from one of the more common Pacific Island countries. In using the term common I mean from the more popular Pacific Island diaspora communities that live here in New Zealand such as the islands of Samoa, Tonga, Cook Island, etc. In theorising about labels and identity I often raise more questions than answers.

And what of the now commonly used term Pasifika, just as the North American label of Latinidades poses problematic for the multiethnic Latino diaspora, the label Pasifika at best expresses unity and at worst a homogenised identity.

A person once said to me ‘Ah Leilani Kake!, what will you be tonight, a Maori or a Cook Islander?’ As an artist of Maori and Cook Island parentage, born in Rotorua and raised in South Auckland I was always aware of my dual cultural identity. Often the term bi-racial is labelled Half-Cast or Afa’Kasi, derogatorily denoting impurity and that one is less than whole. I choose to reject that label and liken myself to a whariki3 (woven mat) that draws on various cultural strands and is woven together to represent an original and whole identity. I am proud to be one of the many strands that are a part of the Pacific identity.

The late Tongan writer, anthropologist and poet Epeli Hau’ofa believed in the affirmation of an Oceanic identity to represent and include all countries within the Pacific Ocean.

Within the New Zealand Arts industry savvy Pacific artists (yeah I said it) such as Tanu Gago, Silinga Setonga and Kila Kokonut Krew have made these labels their own by turning the tables and reclaiming the labels. When I am amongst my peers I don’t

say ‘hey who’s that Pacific artist over there?’ I ask ‘who’s that new video artist or painter?’ In the end, it’s all based on context and personal positioning. To answer the question what will I be tonight? I am a Maori, Cook Island, Pacific, New Zealand artist who’s a little bit dark and a little bit cheeky.

Leilani Kake, Artist

Endnotes: 1. The idea of the ‘other’ was first philosophically conceived by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and later made popular by Edward Said in his well-known book Orientalism. Despite originally being a philosophical concept, othering has political, economic, social and psychological connotations and implications.

2. Whakapapa is a fundamental principle that permeates the whole of M¯aori culture. However, it is more than just a genealogical document.

It is in fact a paradigm of cultural discourse and provides the basis for establishing, enhancing, and even challenging relationships between individuals, whanau (families), hapu (local tribal entities) and iwi (regional tribal bodies).

3. Whariki means woven mat in M a¯ ori but is also used as a metaphor to signify how differing ideas and skills represented in the differing strands must come to an equilibrium in order to work together.

Thanks Artists Alliance would like to thank all contributors for their thoughtful comments. If you have an opinion on this matter we are keen to hear from you.

Please email your comments to admin@artistsalliance.org. nz with the words Redundant Question in the subject line.

We will publish this article and any additional contributions on the Artists Alliance website.

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identified as a Pacific artist has been interesting in the sense that I’ve always felt an expectation for my works to contain uniquely Pacific themes in them as identity markers.

In my opinion, knowledge of the Pacific has traditionally been through the exposure of weekend packages at large beach resorts with more recent interest gained through sport, specifically rugby. These two methods present a number of challenges in that potential visitors to the Pacific tend to associate the area more as a holiday destination. Also, not everyone follows rugby.

I think there is a tendency to overlook the richness of what being Pacific really means when you associate it with only those two things. This makes exposing Pacific art that much more difficult. So in that respect, no I don’t think it’s redundant because the right identity markers have to be found first.

When I look at Pacific art in New Zealand, I think that the exposure needs to be very particular and targeted. Organisations like the Tautai Trust have done invaluable work through the building and fostering of a strong Pacific arts community.

Internationally, I think what Tusi Tamasese and the success of O le Tulafale has done, is raise the curiosity in Pacific culture and hopefully Pacific art.

Germany does away with itself … ‘und dann treffen sich alle auf dem bebelplatz zum lagerfeuer.’ (… ‘and then they all meet at the bonfire at Bebelplatz.’)

– anonymous German academic’s succinct commentary on Martin Zet’s action

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In August 2010, German politician Thilo Sarrazin published a book called Deutschland schafft sich ab (roughly translated: Germany Does Away with Itself or Germany Abolishes Itself), in which he discussed a number of controversial opinions about immigration in Germany. The thing has sold ridiculous amounts since then, becoming the highest selling non-fiction work by a German author in a decade (according to some statistics anyway) and in the process it ignited an absolute shit-storm of discussion in Germany.

Before I get into this anymore, full disclosure: I haven’t read the book cover to cover. My German is not nearly good enough to do that, so what I have read has been largely through media sources and all in translation, which you might correctly assume means it’s all got a heavy slant of some kind on it. Even with that said, I can assure you through my own discussions with people that the book was definitely polarising. Immigration and the socalled ‘integration debate’ is something that’s been an ‘issue’ in Germany virtually since the end of the Second World War. After its complete defeat and destruction, post-War (West) Germany was severely short of manpower, and had to reach out for what they called guest-workers, foreigners who would come and work for a short period of time to rebuild the country, and then apparently were meant to bugger off back home with a decent pay cheque for their efforts and that would be that.

If that sounds incredibly naïve and ridiculous to you, you can be forgiven. Of course many of the poor workers, a huge percentage of them from Turkey, decided that they weren’t so keen on leaving the country where they were making good money and had had such a big hand in building it up from the rubble. Many moved their families over and settled permanently, a process which was gradually made easier over time from the project’s inception in the 50s to the present day by various law changes. Since then however, there has been a national discussion about how well they have ‘integrated,’ a fairly vague concept that no one can quite define, but which seems to have a lot to do with how well they learn the German language, and how unobtrusive they can make their religious practices (i.e. how not-Muslim they can make themselves appear). Of course at the mere mention of Germany, you probably all already had some brief flash of something to do with the Nazis, so perhaps you get a sense of how a massive debate about this stuff is sort of like watching a bunch of people on LSD try to tread on eggshells.

Now fast forward to 2012, with the approaching Berlin Biennale (everyone has a Biennale these days, look out for the Gore Biennale in 2014, I hear it’s going to be raging), and a Czech artist named Martin Zet has come up with DEUTSCHALND SCHAFFT ES AB (GERMANY GETS RID OF IT). Basically Zet has set up collection points across the country,

particularly in Berlin itself to collect as many copies of the book as possible for an art installation, after which the book will be ‘recycled,’ (though we have not actually been told how any of this will look or happen).

At this point it’s sort of a toss-up as to which aspect of this project is more problematic, the incredibly awkward idea of collecting books in Berlin to be disposed of en masse, or the fact that by his own admission, Zet isn’t interested in really discussing the book itself. In his proposal he writes ‘from a certain moment it is not important what the quality or real intention of the book is, but rather how it affects the German society. The book woke up and fed the anti-immigrant and mainly anti-Turkish tendencies in this country. I suggest using the book as an instrument enabling people to privately manifest their personal position [sic].’

For starters, many people are already using this book to express their personal opinion, and that’s half the problem. Zet’s assumption that the book is by and large viewed as racist and xenophobic is sadly idealistic. The success of the book itself is a testament to how popular some of the ideas expressed therein are with mainstream German society, which when combined with the economic issues of the day, the legacy of the Nazi persecution of pretty much everyone and the current issues surrounding Islam in the post-9/11 world, suggest we need a slightly more nuanced approach then collectively chucking the book into a wood chipper and using it to fertilise our organic asparagus.

It’s not that Zet’s instincts aren’t sort of in the right place.

The book is a fabulously vile piece of propaganda, misusing statistics and redirecting the facts with a pretty ballsy disregard for the truth, but like it or not Sarrazin did fuel one hell of a discussion. Surely a better solution would be to engage with all of the ideas in the book to show their real merit (or lack thereof)? While it may seem totally tiresome to have to engage with something which seems so obviously meant to cause trouble rather than actually address the issues, to do otherwise is a bit like letting him off the hook. I remember reading an article some time ago about a group of German academics who had come together to publish a paper refuting all of the dodgy stuff in Sarrazin’s book, which I’m hoping will come out soon. I don’t think that will change the minds of the people who already believe what Sarrazin wrote before he even wrote it, but neither will some big, vague, liberal circle jerk moment like Zet’s project.

The difference to me seems to be the degree of integrity inherent in those two approaches, which I guess is also kind of a vague and problematic concept. Like it or not, Sarrazin published the book and it sold, it’s out there and people are engaging with it. Collecting the copies to ‘recycle’ them, even as a small action (Zet’s hope to collect 60,000 copies won’t come

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The site of the book burning is bordered by the State Opera building, St. Hedwig's Cathedral and by part of the Humboldt University Campus. Image: Will Gresson.

close to the total amount published, which in some ways makes it seem like even more of an empty gesture), frankly conjures too many parallels to the infamous Nazi book burnings at Bebelplatz in 1933 to ignore. It’s a bit like those within Germany who want to ban the NDP, which for all intents and purposes is the legal successor to the outlawed NSDAP (Nazi Party). The instinct isn’t hard to understand, both Sarrazin’s book and the NDP are horrible, but banning them or destroying them is too close to the tactics of the very people you are trying to deal with for comfort.

Already organisations in Berlin have started to pull back from their support of Zet’s action, an article in English Language news site The Local stating: ‘Berlin’s House of World Cultures, which had been one of the supporters of the art action, has now called for a “conceptual clarification,” saying that the fact that a link had been made with the Nazi book burnings had lead to polarization [sic].’ While I believe that the project needs more than just a ‘conceptual clarification,’ it’s definitely a start. I would argue, however, that Zet also needs to offer some more concrete information about exactly what he intends to do with the books and why. For the moment it seems like more of an ill-conceived publicity stunt than a meaningful action.

Will Gresson Notes: The portions of Martin Zet’s press release quoted in this article can be found on the website of the 2012 Berlin Biennale at this address: http://www.berlinbiennale.de/blog/news/%E2%80%9Edeutschlandschafft-es-ab%E2%80%9C-%E2%80%93-buchsammelaktion-17483 The article from German news site The Local is available here: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20120114-40111.html

This memorial, designed by Micha Ullman and inaugurated in May 1995, commemorates the Nazi burning of books on May 10, 1933. On either side of the memorial reads a plaque engraved with Heinrich Heine’s famous words: ‘Das war ein Vorspiel nur, dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen.’ (That was but a prelude; where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people also.). Image: Will Gresson.

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airports advertising campaigns alternative art spaces architects art buying groups art conventions art fairs arts festivals banks billboards books brand launch events cafes; bars, pubs, nightclubs, restaurants chambers of commerce charitable events/auctions churches/temples/ synagogues civic centres community cultural development corporate exhibition spaces corporate gifts and events country clubs cruise ship auctions cultural tourism fashion film

foreign markets frame shops furniture showrooms games galleries: dealer galleries nonprofit galleries artist run spaces co-op galleries rental galleries museums art lease art consultants greeting cards/stationery hairdressing salons heritage interpretation hospitals and clinics industry industrial design interactive games interiors designers internet kohanga reo libraries limited edition prints markets lobbies (hotels, offices, cultural/arts centres etc.) local authorities magazines

marae museums national parks / conservancies new technology nonprofit art spaces nursing homes online art sellers private commissions product packaging professional offices public spaces/parks radio real estate projects recreational services restaurants schools signage street corners television tourism transportation areas university galleries vacant buildings vineyards/wineries warehouses web galleries anywhere/everywhere

the world of art is so big there is room for everyone.

Pine Taiapa. From: ‘Maori Artists of the South Pacific’ Katarina Mataira 1984

the artists’ workbook

•

9

The artists’ workbook

Income Likewise, income is a movable feast. On page 15, are listed some potential income sources for visual artists – including: Assistance to other artists; Barter; Bursaries / research grants; Commissions for public collections; Commissions for public places; Commissions (private); Commissions (events); Consultant fees; Corporate sponsorship; Curatorial fees; Exhibition payment right fees; Gallery stipends / retainers; Grants / awards; Individual philanthropy; Management of exhibition; Private sales; Product sales; Publishing; Rentals; Reproduction rights; Residencies; Retail; Royalties; Salaries; Sales at exhibitions; Sponsorship; Teaching / tutoring; Wages; Workshops; And more …

Freebees And then there are Freebees. On page 43 we had this to say: ‘As resourceful entrepreneurs, we create the “abundant” flow we need through a combination of voluntary, bartered and paid transactions. Each has its place in gathering the matrix of funds, resources and information we need to progress our business.

One way many people gain skill is by offering to do work experience, where the financial rewards are usually low (if any), but the pay-off is practical experiences in real life situations. It is also a good way to build relationships with potential mentors, clients or employers, to get inside and meet in action. The willingness to contribute can generate (work and income) opportunities for you down the track.

Remember that you are in control. So be clear about why you are doing it and how much you will do for free. Understand the whole picture of how the “freebees” fit into your strategy and

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the artists’

workbook

artists alliance

protect yourself from being taken advantage of.’

As a rule we do not advocate working for nothing, but sometimes, just sometimes, a bit of voluntary work could be a good investment in an artist’s career. If in doubt, contact the Artists Alliance office for a chat.

On re-reading The Workbook after some time, it occurs to this writer that a good question is invaluable. If you don’t have a good question then how do you get a good, useful answer?

And there are an awful lot of questions in The Workbook.

From, ‘what will it take to bring your current situation towards your ideal?’ (page 30) to, ‘are you waiting to be “discovered”, or taking action to initiate communication?’ (page 69) and, ‘what are the new opportunities for you as a visual artist?’ on page 47; all the questions can be used as a springboard to some new thinking about your career.

Maggie Gresson

The Artists’ Workbook is now available as a free PDF download for all Artists Alliance members: www.artistsalliance.org.nz/html/ artist-workbook.php

art all autumn 2012

In 2002 Artists Alliance commissioned Caroline Robinson to write The Artists’ Workbook – an enquiry tool: professional development for visual artists. A fourth edition was published in 2008. This updated resource is now available on the website – free to members. When I say updated, I mean that all websites mentioned have been checked for currency. Some of the original comments about, say use of email (page 75), remain; if only to remind ourselves how quickly things have changed in recent times.

Some things don’t change. Page 9 from The Workbook is reproduced on the opposite page. There are many ways to be an artist and / or use the skills learned at art school or acquired through a career of making work. Most artists would need to have what is called ‘a portfolio career’. Some would call it multi-tasking. An artist may choose one path from the list on the opposite page, or may have a handful of activities and locations where they continue their practice.

feature gallery

Village Arts When was Village Arts established?

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Village Arts opened as an art and craft gallery on October 1, 2005 after a group of five local artists, operating as a collective, secured the rental of the old Andrewes Store building. The work of 16 invited artists and artisans initially graced the walls. Within six months the gallery was thriving, representing 49 artists and growing apace.

By 2007 Village Arts was at a crossroads. Only two of the original five founders remained – Wally Hicks and Lindsay Evans – and the dual art and craft roles had begun to jar. The building changed ownership and it was decided to transfer the administration to Kohukohu Community Trust to obtain legal status and formalise the organisation as a whitewall gallery for fine art.

Substantial renovations ensued and since re-opening in September 2007 Village Arts has continued to grow from strength-to-strength with monthly solo and group exhibitions by local artists, punctuated by major exhibitions including Hotere Country featuring Ralph Hotere’s Song of Solomon; 30 Ukulele / 30 Artists featuring 20 prominent NZ artists including Gretchen Albrecht, Glen Hayward and et al and, Good As Gold with leading NZ Jewelers including Andrea Daly, Nicki Hastings-McFall and Lisa Walker.

Selection process and scheduling exhibitions?

Whilst maintaining the highest possible standards as a fine art gallery Village Arts acknowledges its multiple roles as a community gallery showcasing local artists, promoting visual arts, encouraging artist’s development and acting as the public art gallery for remote North Hokianga. We have a strong commitment to Te Tiriti O Waitangi and excellent relationships with local hapu and iwi. We therefore maintain a completely open submissions policy. Anyone can approach the gallery with artwork or proposals for exhibitions. The acceptance of artwork

Village Arts gallery, Kohukohu. Image courtesy Wally Hicks.

is dependent on the approval of three of the five trustees and the scheduling of exhibitions upon all five trustees approval at our trust meetings. Along with more formal shows this policy allows for some highly community-focused exhibitions such as Matariki 2010 by students of Kohukohu School, Whenu by Pa Te Aroha Weavers (May 2011) and Patchwork Patience by Far North Quilters (Nov 2011). In all cases the material on show, be it fabric or object, 2D or 3D, is treated as fine art and curated accordingly.

Each year Village Arts organises several group or ‘themed’ exhibitions by invitation or called for submissions, recent examples being Poetic Licence – art inspired by, or including text (May 2010), – Objects of Desire (April 2011) and Doors: unhinged (Oct 2011). We have a Matariki exhibition almost every year and in 2011 responded to RWC with a giant Hokianga artists’ showcase entitled Wa Hiki – Time Out.

The people behind Village Arts gallery?

The five trustees of Kohukohu Community Trust – Village Arts are John Wigglesworth, current CEO of Hokianga Health printmaker and community development worker; Marg Morrow, renowned local photographer and curator who operates her own photographic gallery adjacent to Village Arts; Wally Hicks, sculptor, curator and gallery administrator; Lindsay Evans,

sculptor and curator, and Phil Evans, local tourism operator and passionate heritage advocate. All trustees also work voluntarily for the gallery along with a pool of local artists who staff it on a rostered basis.

We consider all residents of Hokianga and especially North Hokianga to be stakeholders in the gallery. Between October 2005 and August 2007 we concluded that 180 people had exhibited their work at Village Arts; equivalent to the entire population of Kohukohu village or one person in every three households in North Hokianga. Today that figure would be well over 300.

What exciting new projects or exhibitions are coming up in 2012?

Until March 1 we have Rachel Miller’s New Works, Rachel’s third solo at Village Arts and an excellent example of a developmental gallery / artist relationship.

Rachel’s exquisite drawings and prints attract great attention and critical acclaim.

From March 3 – April 5, 2012 we are very excited to have our first solo exhibition by Allan Gale, one of the best known and most successful artists currently living in Hokianga, past winner of two categories in WOW - World of Wearable Art. Allan’s A Beastiary features new carved sculptural works and prints.

It promises to be a remarkable and stimulating show.

Mid-year in July, Village Arts will

Anything else?

Our links with Maori communities of Hokianga are extremely important to us, especially Te Ihutai hapu who hold mana whenua over Kohukohu, Tauteihiihi, Pikiparia and Te Karae and Ngai Tupoto

hapu in Motukaraka, Te Huahua and Tapuwae. Maori constitute around 75% of the area’s population. This has led to the openings of exhibitions at Village Arts often involving some ceremonial formality, whakatau and occasionally full powhiri.

320+ people attended the powhiri to open Hotere Country on Oct 10 2009. We wish to acknowledge and thank the above hapu for their support and assistance.

Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.

As one of five designated heritage precincts in Far North District the historic importance and heritage value of Kohukohu cannot be overlooked and must be safeguarded, sustained and promoted. The village is, for instance, site of the oldest European built bridge in NZ. Village Arts engages with heritage Kohukohu through the sale of local history books and digitally restored historic photographs. Several of our regular artists reference heritage in paintings and postcards. We act as an informal

information centre. Kohukohu Community Trust also maintains a heritage purpose and function.

Village Arts is very pleased and rather proud to be one among a relatively small number of change agents who have re-envigorated the arts community in Hokianga since 2005. We wish to acknowledge the other principals in this ongoing process: Sue Daly, initially with MSD, then with Maree Wilson, Harriet Stockman and others at NorthTec Rawene Campus as the faculty of Applied Arts (Visual) and Hokianga Art Gallery, now Rawene Art Gallery. Lise Strathdee and Outpost Hokianga, formerly located in Rawene. Lise, Wally and Hokianga Tourism Assoc (HTA) for ‘Te Ara Manawa: The Heart Trail’. There are many more who warrant acknowledgement; the artists themselves, the art gallery volunteers and our many local, national and international art appreciators and buyers.

Wally Hicks

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stage an exhibition of works by the five trustees entitled Untitled, during which we hope to have a public screening of the film by the same name.

Having recently concluded one of the most unusual, refreshing and successful exhibitions yet staged at Village Arts, TemporeaL by Outpost Hokianga (Lise Strathdee) – simultaneously a popup shop and site-specific art installation blurring boundaries between art, lifestyle design and tourism – we are extremely excited about hosting the next expression of this concept in Dec 2012 / Jan 2013.

In DIY Design Lise will further develop ideas of remoteness, making do and community interaction.

In with the old, in with the new!

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The first two exhibitions I saw this year both showed inventive use of grounds by the artists.

The first, at Whitespace Gallery, bright, suggested landscapes painted with verve in an alla prima style. Exhibited by recent AUT graduate Lisa Rayner they looked like they were painted on wood panel but on closer inspection (you can tell the artists in galleries – they’re the ones getting really close to the artworks!) revealed the oilcolours were painted on paper that had been glued onto wooden panel. This is an old technique, popular in 17th century France, that has several advantages over painting directly on wood.

It is cheaper to work on paper than wood. Painting on paper and only mounting the successful ones will save you money.

Paper is available in many different surfaces, from very smooth to very rough, allowing more of a choice to paint on.

Even on smooth paper, the surface helps take paint from the brush more than smooth panel, making solid areas of colour easier to achieve initially than on wood panel.

Good paper is more archivally sound than wood, which contains lignin that can cause long-term problems. If painting with oilpaint, the paper must be sealed with a non-permeable barrier – two coats of Golden’s GAC100 will prevent oil soaking into the paper and rotting it, and also prevent any impurities from the paper or backing board coming up into the paint layer. Oilcolour can be painted directly onto the GAC100, or more purchase for your paint can be obtained by painting an addition layer or two of your choice of primer.

Wood panels can move, permanently warping in some cases, making a painting difficult to repair if it’s been painted directly on the wood. It is far easier to remove paper from a warped surface and remount it.

Lisa Rayner: Site 2, 710 x 810mm. Image courtesy of Whitespace.

The best adhesive to use for the paper to wood bond is Soft Gel Gloss, which has a very low water content (the paper won’t move), is strong, flexible, and archival. Simply apply with a brush to the back of the paper and the front of the board, press the two surfaces together with a roller, set a weighted board on top and leave overnight for a good bond.

The show by recent Elam graduate Imogen Taylor at Michael Lett Gallery used very modern painting grounds for her acrylic works, which were ‘like Paris in the 1950s’, as Denys Watkins commented.

When I visited Golden in 2009, I saw various examples using their huge range of acrylic pastes, gels, and mediums as alternative grounds to gesso, but I haven’t seen this kind of work being done here, or at least not to the original standard of Taylor’s works.

She had used a variety of hard and soft molding pastes as the base for her

paintings, letting each surface dictate the method of paint application – from dry-brush scumbling to fluid blends and hard-edged masking. Within the scope of ten modest-sized works, a diverse and dynamic paint vocabulary was achieved using these modern painting surfaces, along with bricolage items.

Some of the pastes and gels can also be used as alternative grounds for oilpainting. Golden’s Molding Paste especially offers a smooth, hard surface similar to painting on a marble stone support (without the weight!), great for reductive painting techniques.

Both exhibitions contained what I really like in contemporary painting – a reference to the history of painting in combination with a modern-day approach. Needless to say, I bought a work from both shows!

Dr Paynt Studio Art Supplies

legal issues

Boilerplate clauses Part one: David McLaughlin looks at the underlying mechanics that make an agreement function consider the way in which notices are given and make sure that you are capable of receiving and responding to notices in such a way. For instance, are you prepared to accept notices by email and fax? These kinds of issues are especially important if the other party is required to give you a certain amount of notice to cure any breach by you before they can terminate the agreement.

In these situations you want to make sure you actually receive these notices, and in a timely fashion.

You should also make sure that if your contact details ever change over the course of the contract that you notify the other party and update the notice provisions so you don’t miss any future notices that may be sent.

Many contracts will provide a restriction on any type of assignment of the rights and obligations of either party under the contract – after all, you don’t want the other party selling or granting their rights to another party that you may not want to be in business with or who may not be capable of meeting the obligations under the agreement. If the contract doesn’t put any restriction on assignment then you should assume that either party is free to assign as they see fit.

Another commonly seen boilerplate clause is one that deals with how amendments to the contract can be made. These clauses usually provide that any amendment to the contract must be in writing and signed by both parties. The intent behind these types of clauses is to ensure there can be no misunderstanding about the parties agreeing to alter their rights or obligations under a contract. In the course of informal conversations about the content of a contract, for example, it can be possible for one party to incorrectly assume an agreement has been reached to alter some aspect of the contract, a misunderstanding it’s clearly in everyone’s interest to avoid.

In the next edition of Art All, we’ll be continuing our discussion of boilerplate provisions including looking at governing law provisions, and Force Majeure clauses.

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 previous editions of Art All, we’ve looked at many different types of contracts that you encounter in the art world. However in this edition of Art All we’ll be delving a little deeper into some of the standard clauses (which are often referred to as the ‘boilerplate’ provisions) that you encounter in almost all contracts.

So what exactly are the ‘boilerplate’ provisions? Boilerplate provisions are commonly understood to be those terms of an agreement that are not strictly related to the commercial aspects of the deal but provide for the underlying mechanics that make the agreement function. Common examples of boilerplate provisions include termination provisions, notice provisions and governing law provisions. These types of clauses are usually buried towards the back of a contract.

Although all of these types of clauses are not usually directly relevant to the details of the commercial deal being done in the agreement, they can still have a significant effect on your overall rights and obligations under a contract and consequently, it is really important that you understand just what these clauses are providing for.

Termination provisions are some of the most important ‘boilerplate’ clauses. Although there may be aspects of these provisions that relate directly to specific obligations of either party under the agreement, there are also certain standard issues that are usually covered. For instance, there will usually be provision for the agreement to terminate if either party ceases trading or goes into liquidation. The reason for this is that ideally neither party should be able to assign their rights under the agreement to another party in the event they cease to operate, as this would essentially force the other party to do business with someone they didn’t initially decide to enter into the contract with. The effect of termination provisions also need to be more carefully considered when a contract includes licences or assignments of intellectual property (e.g., rights to use an image or design) to ensure that, where practically possible, all or appropriate portions of such rights are reassigned and applicable licences terminated.

Termination provisions will usually also make reference to the ability to terminate the agreement if there is a breach of any term of the agreement that is not rectified or cured within a certain period of time. You should always review these clauses very carefully to make sure there are no specific exceptions to these kinds of rights or any unusual procedural requirements that may weight the agreement in the other party’s favour. You may also wish to consider if breach of any specific provisions of the agreement by the other party should give you the right to immediately terminate the agreement without the other party having the ability to remedy such breach.

Notice provisions are an incredibly important part of the boilerplate as they set out the method and procedure the parties use to communicate with one another. You should carefully

Bill Cooke Toi Aotearoa

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On an unseasonably wet and miserable day for mid-summer, it seemed a good idea to visit the newly-refurbished Auckland Art Gallery. I’d been in Wellington only the week before and had, as always, checked out Te Papa, so it was interesting to see what sort of contrasts sprung up. I made a point of looking at the Treaty 2U permanent display at Te Papa and was underwhelmed by its tired didacticism. As I’ve commented before in other contexts, it was more stimulating and rewarding to look out of the window than in at the displays.

So, grinch-like, I was ready to be underwhelmed once again when visiting the Auckland Gallery. After all, how many successful combinations of old and new has Auckland managed to pull off? But it works. The new and the old come together seamlessly which add value to both. I didn’t get a sense of the two aspects of the building being in any sort of tension. And to look out of the windows was enjoyable as part of the whole experience of the building, not a means to pretend one is not in it. You’d come to the end of a line of art and all of a sudden a window looks out on Wellesley Street, or to Albert Park as it makes its way up to the university. The views from the windows complemented the art I was seeing, there was no felt need for the two to compete.

ou’d come to the end of a line of art Y and all of a sudden a window looks out on Wellesley Street, or to Albert Park as it makes its way up to the university. The views from the windows complemented the art I was seeing, there was no felt need for the two to compete.

But, ever the pessimist, there was still room to be disappointed. If the building worked, what of the art? Well, the good news just kept coming. I hadn’t planned to do anything more than look at the building, but there was the Toi Aotearoa exhibition, so I thought ‘Why not?’

Toi Aotearoa was a delight to view. First of all, though being an impressive and well-considered collection of New Zealand art, it was unpretentious in its approach. In particular, the various statements, both for the individual works and the broader assessments of each era, showed a maturity that’s been a long time coming. We were given clean, straight-forward commentary free from grandiloquent

jargon, in-house art talk and weightless quotation (Robert Hughes’ phrase) that has disfigured such statements for years. Also, the organisers resisted the temptation at some clever-clogs thematic grouping and went for a simple chronological order which helped us appreciate each one in its proper context.

And then there was the art itself. What a pleasure to see, sometimes for the first time, these important works. Many of them were important enough that one has come across them in books and magazine articles. But as we all know, to see them in the pigment, so to speak, is always a different experience. One can always quibble about this or that piece being chosen over others, but I had no major concerns on this score. The choices seemed about right. As evidence for this claim, look through the illustrations in Francis Pound’s The Invention of New Zealand: Art and National Identity 1930 – 1970. This really important book (which I would like to discuss sometime in the future) features a large percentage of the pre-contemporary works shown at Toi Aotearoa.

The exhibition starts with the contemporary art first.

It was good to see a piece by Fiona Connor; A Section of Something Transparent (Please go round the back) (2009).

Even though it’s not especially interesting on its own, it puts one in mind of her substantial work Something Transparent (Please go round the back) (2009), her submission for the disastrous 2010 Walters Prize. Her inclusion in this exhibition goes some way to redressing the injustice done then. It also underlines, again, the scale of the error made in 2010. Try to imagine what the winning piece from the Walters Prize would have looked like in this company.

The viewer then sees art from 1980 to 1995, the highlights being Max Gimblett’s The Kiss (1991) and Tony Fomison’s Not Just a Picnic (1980 – 2). Gimblett’s work was a large piece of wood, lacquered and gessoed, shaped as a circle, with magical plays of light in the negative space at the centre. This seems much stronger than his more recent work. Fomison’s painting showed three figures; one in a cave, one at its entrance and one on the beach just beyond it. Each look in different directions and are ‘consumed by landscape’. Plato’s cave spoke of reaching the light outside and the apprehension of real truth such light offers. Fomison’s altogether more gloomy work called such optimism into question.

Moving on, there is the oddly arresting sculpture by Arnold Wilson; Tane Mahuta (1957). With a title like that,

I hesitate to use the dreadfully over-used word ‘iconic’, but the exhibition does include several works that could, if one were of such a mind, justify the label.

I hesitate to use the dreadfully over-used word ‘iconic’, but the exhibition does include several works that could, if one were of such a mind, justify the label. For example, William Sutton’s Nor’wester in the cemetery (1950) was one of the works I was glad to see live. The overgrown rural cemetery, squat little wooden church, and the high grass blown by the ubiquitous nor’wester that dries Canterbury out each summer. This image turns up frequently and was a pleasure to see live. The same can be said for works one might be a little more familiar with. There were three works by Rita Angus, for example, though not the definitely iconic Cass (1937).

A particular education came from Otaki Maori Meeting (c. 1955) by Russell Clark. We’re used to seeing colonial representations of Maori from people like Charles Goldie or Gottfried Lindauer on the one hand. And we’re used to seeing contemporary impressions of Maori by artists like Michael Parekowhai on the other. But in the century between colonial and contemporary, Maori seemed to disappear from view, making works like this one all the more interesting. Otaki Maori Meeting records a conversation between seven Maori people, four women and three men. We don’t know what they are talking about. We assume, from the title, that it was at Otaki. And the rest we have to suppose. All seven are dressed in Western clothing.

Indeed, with paler skin, they could all be mistaken for pakeha. We could sentimentalise the apparent pleasure they are taking in their conversation as evidence of the joy of communal living. But really, they look much as any

group engaged in spirited conversation would. Gone is the relentless ‘othering’ that is a feature, paradoxically, of colonial representations and some contemporary accounts of Maori.

And what a pleasure it was to see two paintings by Lois White. War Makers (1937) and Jubilation (1948) were well chosen, with one looking at the mood for war before it started, and the other the mood once it had come to an end. And again, we weren’t cajoled into some preferred position by the statement accompanying the works which ended: ‘White’s biblical themes and social allegories, the result of carefully prepared compositional designs, lie outside mainstream New Zealand art.’ This is true, but whether that is a good or bad thing is left to the viewer to judge. Which is at it should be.

Rather underdone, was the exhibition’s attitude toward photographs. Tucked in a corner were two historically significant photographs by Edward Clark Lackland of evictions from a Norfolk Street property at the height of the Depression. They’re photos one sees in most histories of New Zealand at the time. But if these photos were included, why not others? That seemed a bit half-hearted.

one is the relentless ‘othering’ that G is a feature, paradoxically, of colonial representations and some contemporary accounts of Maori.

The only other lapse, it seemed to me, was the lack of a catalogue for this exhibition. Why wasn’t there a catalogue? I would have bought one. I suppose the copyright hassles for such a large number of significant works would have been formidable. And the inclusion of many of them in Francis Pound’s book, I suppose, makes a separate catalogue unnecessary. But most of all, the lack of a catalogue encourages one to revisit the exhibition. And it runs for all of 2012, so there’s plenty of time to do just that.

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we are moved to think of manly gnarls and whorls, splendid age, size and mana. And yet Wilson’s relatively diminutive, modernist obelisk doesn’t do this at all. It’s almost like an Ikea take on what Tane Mahuta should look like. Or Danske Møbler. Those who can remember the small black idol that was in each photo of Led Zeppelin’s Presence album (1976) will know the sort of impression it gives. Oddly, with the significant reshaping and reworking at Wilson’s hands, the piece expresses anew something of the majesty of the original.

Mamas showcase traditional craft Master practitioners of weaving, tapa and tivaevae

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Pacific women from Fiji, Tonga, Tuvalu and the Cook Islands will share their knowledge and craft skills in a two-day community event to be held at the Horticultural Hall in Western Springs.

This project aims to showcase master practitioners at work, provide opportunities for participation and sharing of culture with local communities and endeavours to create economic benefits for the locally based Pacific Island women involved in traditional craft.

Inspired by the Mamas role in maintaining and preserving their traditional craft, this project is based on the Genetic Pasifika model conceived by Brenda Railey in 2004. It connects the Auckland based Pacific Island practitioners of weaving, tapa and tivaevae with local communities to share their traditional craft knowledge and experiences.

The Mamas will demonstrate their skills and lead workshops. It provides a lively and exciting opportunity to develop on-going dialogues, networks and friendships, as well

Photos: Genetic Pasifika, Auckland Museum (2007) B Railey.

as a chance to learn new skills and celebrate Pacific Island culture.

The community is invited to come along and be part of the experience. Come and talk to the Mamas and learn how to make your own tapa cloth, weave a small plastic basket, create your own tivaevae cushion or buy a beautiful piece of craft.

This project received sponsorship from Creative Communities NZ. Event: March 7, 8 and 9, 2012 (10.00am – 4.00pm) Late night Wednesday: March 7, 2012 (6.00am – 8.00pm) Location: Horticultural Hall, 990 New North Rd, Western Springs (Opposite the end of Motion Rd, which leads to the Auckland Zoo).

For more information, please contact Brenda Railey: Phone: 021 054 3335. Email: brenda@leiko.co.nz Registration fee applies.

Sharp Frames

YOU

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could advertise here to find out how email: admin@artistsalliance.org.nz with the words ‘advertising query’ in the subject line.

7 Cockburn Street Grey Lynn, Auckland Phone (09) 376 3913

PURELY PASTEL

PASTEL ARTISTS OF NEW ZEALAND NATIONAL EXHIBITION OF PASTEL PAINTINGS Yealands Estate Marlborough Gallery.

204 High Street Blenheim, March 31 to April 15 2012.

Open daily 10.30am to 4.30pm. Good Friday 1.30pm to 4.30pm.

If you’re visiting Blenheim during Easter or in the School Holidays, do not miss this artistic treat.

The Pastel Artists of New Zealand is a national organisation with membership from Northland to Bluff who are dedicated to painting in pastel as a serious art medium. Visit the exhibition, see for yourself and learn something about pastel and its history in the art world..

What do PANZ do? There are regular pastel groups active in most places in NZ; several Pastel Portfolios

are circulating nationally among small groups; a regular newsletter in full colour more like a mini magazine is published bi-monthly; they hold various regional exhibitions; have a website; an annual scholarship; a regular PANZ Pastel Challenge competition and hold the Annual Convention and National Exhibition in a different location each year. Weekend workshops by leading national and international tutors are held around the country; there are links with overseas societies, and more is to come.

Check out our website: www.pastelartists.co.nz.

For more information and to join: Contact Wilson Lattey, wilson@otaihanga.co.nz, or P.O.Box 248, Paraparaumu 5254. Phone 04 293 3252.