William Wegman:
His First Dog was a Genius The Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu’s first international touring exhibition since the record-breaking Ron Mueck show in 2011, opens in April. American photographer and conceptual artist, William Wegman’s Being Human, surveys 30 years of photographs of his internationally renowned Weimaraner dogs - Man Ray, Fay Ray and her litter of pups. Like Mueck, Wegman has been well received internationally by prestigious galleries like the Smithsonian and also through popular culture in television shows like Sesame Street and Saturday Night Live. His arresting, yet deadpan images of his Weimaraners have their origins in his work from the late 1960s when performance art, video and photography challenged given ideas about the exclusivity of the experience of art in public gallery spaces. A graduate from The University of Illinois he remembers the 60s as the era in which the camera became a preferred option for many emerging artists. ‘The camera was a way to make video and photo pieces that weren’t like anything else that I had seen. They were sort of a whole new territory. You could have a photograph or a work in a magazine or a book. That was as good as being on a museum wall.’ ‘I was a young artist in my early 20s and photography was a new thing. I was learning it, actually being taught by some of my students. I had a position in Long Beach Wisconsin and some of my students taught me how to print and develop. That really had an amazing effect. Video was also available and I figured out a way to use it. It was really mesmerising. It really spoke to me and transformed me. I
IMAGE ABOVE William Wegman, Constructivism, 2014, pigment print, courtesy of the artist
started that way - and on the way I got a dog.’ By good fortune, Weimaraners are a breed that thrive on human company and Wegman’s first Weimaraner, Man Ray, featured in his early video work and photography, setting a high benchmark, he says, for his work over the next 5 decades.
‘There was just me and him in my studio usually. He saw me trying to figure out how to use this camera. He was kind of fascinated with that, maybe in a way that a hunter would be with his hunting dog checking out the gun or whatever it was.’ CONTINUES OVER PAGE
Installed in Kiosk Lake in the Botanic Gardens for SCAPE’s 2016 festival, David McCracken’s Diminish and Ascend has become a favoured attraction for Christchurch residents and tourists. Initially intended to be a temporary festival work, Christchurch City Council’s announcement in 2018 that it is to become a permanent artwork for the city is welcome news. For this reason, SCAPE is seeking the remaining funds for Di-
minish and Ascend, to secure its foundations in Kiosk Lake with a necessary target of $20,000 towards its realisation. How did it all come about? McCracken is a sculptor with a background in performance and film and he says that the original idea for Diminish and Ascend came from its name: ‘A group of us were talking about a performance and something was said about making something smaller and smaller that would be about diminish and ascend. I remember doing a sketch and immediately thinking: There is a perspective gag in there. Diminish and Ascend literally is a staircase that requires you to get smaller as you go up. There is a punning aspect to it.’ In 2014, Diminish and Ascend was featured in Sculpture by the Sea in Sydney, followed by Sculpture on the Gulf on Waiheke Island. It was then seen by SCAPE curator Heather Galbraith in 2015, making its debut in Christchurch in SCAPE’s 2016 festival. McCracken recalls: ‘I had always thought that work was very difficult to place publicly for obvious OSH reasons. Various people have been interested in placing it in Auckland but none of us could get around the “where do you put it?” Since 2016, Diminish and Ascend has found its home in the Botanic Gardens and it all came down, (as McCracken notes), to ‘the breakaway idea of putting it in a pond. Then it became so popular. I was totally taken by surprise. It is just one of those pieces that is now everywhere on the internet, it gets photographed and photographed.’ To support and contribute to the completion of Diminish and Ascend, go to: boosted.org.nz/projects/wanted-artworkfor-the-gardens
David McCracken, Diminish and Ascend
IMAGE ABOVE David McCracken, Diminish and Ascend, welded aluminium, 2013, Kiosk Lake, Christchurch Botanic Gardens. Image courtesy of artist, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland and SCAPE Public Art
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William Wegman
CONTINUED FROM COVER PAGE Filming Man Ray’s performances, Wegman ‘fine-tuned’ his approach, (see: Two Dogs and a Ball, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=mxsypEOXpik), distancing his work from the conceptual provocations of artists like Joseph Beuys. Wegman says that he wanted his works to be more ordinary and really bland. ‘Some of my heroes were the Canadians, Bob and Ray who did radio in the 1950s. They were droll and deadpan and I used that as a strategy. It was really appealing to reach audiences that weren’t grounded in whoever the critics were talking about.’ ‘My first dog, May Ray was a genius and I was severe in my editing and that created a cathedral of work that was quite intimidating - even to myself. I had this dog that was so attached to me, so weirdly creative and also kind of spooky and grey - and not kind of cute. That was also an important factor. I never dressed Man Ray as people or characters, that was my second dog, Fay Ray, where I just let all hell fall out, and part of that reasoning was the Polaroid camera that I had to fill that 24 x 20 inch frame. My first photographs were always black and white and they were not big, but the new ones, I just let my guard down and draw up my manifesto from one week to the next into all these new territories.’ Fay Ray also had puppies and Wegman says
IMAGE ABOVE William Wegman, Cursive Display, 2013, pigment print IMAGE BELOW LEFT William Wegman, Leg Ladder, 2004, pigment print BOTH courtesy of the artist
that was also significant to his work. ‘It really exploded. It went into all kinds of areas that I couldn’t have predicted from that conceptual art period.’ ‘She had 8 puppies and I worked very closely with 3 to develop all different kinds of work. The fact that they were grey and you could do anything with them. The fact that they wanted to do it was pretty interesting too.’ Wegman comments that the subjects of his photographs ‘are always in a state of becoming. Look at what they are now; they are in a family. Oh now they are another kind of animal. They can be transformed into all these things. It seemed like mythology to me, like Egyptian Gods with human bodies and beaks and so forth.’ ‘I was always weary of dressing the dogs up as people, so I avoided that with the first dog and always felt a little squeamish about that - whether that was a thing to do or not? Then I decided that it is okay . I was thinking about the act of photographing the dogs and how calm they get when I am working with them. How mesmerised and happy they get. Which is so rewarding, the fact that they crave doing it in a very serious way, not in a goofy-dog way, but in a profound way.’
IMAGES ABOVE Joel Hart, Looking Out of the Window Frame, Mixed Media on Layered Perspex Sheets, 2019, courtesy of the artist
Joel Hart Dopamine Reuben Woods
With his growing profile, it is somewhat surprising that Christchurch artist, designer and muralist Joel Hart’s Dopamine, opening at Fiksate on March 15 th , will be only his second solo exhibition. His captivating compositions of alluring, mysterious portraits amid busy, detailed surroundings of patterns, text and gestural elements, have gained a widespread following, whether on walls, canvas or various other surfaces. Yet, a show of a cohesive body of new work, within a specialised gallery setting, is still a relatively unfamiliar experience, William Wegman, Being Human albeit one Hart is relishing. Dopamine draws Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu on Hart’s interest in exploring materials and 6 April – 28 July 2019 processes to elicit a sensory response from his audience. The show’s title is drawn from a neurotransmitter found in the brain, responsible for various emotions and behaviours, including our ability to see and act towards reward, a fitting reference for works that invite inspection and reward examination. This ability is further developed in the exploration of surfaces and materials. Already adept at adapting processes to work in various settings, watching Hart employ screen printing techniques within his mural work is always satisfying, his studio practice has afforded the opportunity to extend into reflective, shiny and layered supports and surfaces.
This materiality, along with the gestural presence of swathes of paint and drips of aerosol, ensures the recontextualised imagery and text from the contrasting worlds of natural science, high fashion and urban markmaking (influences drawn from Hart’s background as a graphic designer, a formative experience still clearly evident in his compositional qualities), are ever more enticing and dynamic. The cumulative effect is one of almost instant sensory attraction. This effect, in combination with the imagery cut from magazines and newspapers, affords reflection around the impact of advertising and stylised imagery in contemporary culture, without any heavy-handed exposition. While representing a concerted period of work, Dopamine also suggests new directions for Hart. The subtly shifting, layered works on Perspex sheets and illuminated light boxes provide a hint at a new interest in sculptural approaches that may expand his public practice in new areas, outside of his mural work. Hart’s inquisitive, hands-on approach, coupled with his almost fearless ability to overcome practical problems, ensures such a shift is sure to be compelling. As such, Dopamine may prove to be the beginning of the further evolution of Joel Hart.
trated book, Canterbury gardener, Margaret Long, tells the story of one of New Zealand’s finest gardens. As though we are right there with her, the reader is taken on a tour through the seasons. Acclaimed garden photographer, Juliet Nicholas, “lived” with Frensham for an entire year, photographing its changes through the months and the seasons. Book launch: Scorpio Books, BNZ Centre 120 Hereford Street Thursday 4 Apr 2019, 05:30 pm IMAGE ABOVE Juliet Arnott knocking an oak wedge into a greenwood stool made from ash & elm from Hagley Park. Image by Jusytyn Rebecca Denney
Rekindle’s Workshops: From string-making and spoon-carving to soap and eco-book making, Rekindle has a varied programme of workshops in the Arts Centre of Christchurch. It is continually adding new classes and crafts, taking place throughout the week. Rekindle is also starting regular Monday, Wednesday & Friday ti kouka string making classes
(10.30-11.30am) for visitors - A fun experience for all ages & a unique, resourceful way to connect with Ōtautahi Christchurch. Please go to: rekindle.org. nz/collections/resourceful-workshops Book Launch: Margaret Long & Juliet Nicholas, Frensham- A New Zealand Garden: In this lavishly illus-
Life Drawing Invitation: Cranmer Life Drawing Tuesday Night, Eastside Gallery, Linwood, Opens 23 April and artists will be drawing a model, partially clothed and anyone is invited to sit and draw. Artist Jon Jeet says: ‘We are exhibiting to encourage others to take part and join us, as we are a group of figure drawing artists that meet up to draw and socialize.
IMAGE ABOVE Margaret Long & Juliet Nicholas, Frensham- A New Zealand Garden, published by Quentin Wilson Publishing
At the Galleries ‘My paintings are abstracted landscape, influenced by my job as a gardener and the visual stimulation of my immediate surroundings. This exhibition builds on previous work, with a continued interest in mark-making and painterly surfaces, a love of colour and an emphasis on process.’ Artist Katie Thomas Katie Thomas, solo exhibition Chambers Gallery ‘Developed in my time as the Pacific Artist IMAGES ABOVE CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Tanu in residence at the Macmillan Brown centre Gago, SAVAGE IN THE GARDEN (BLUE), metallic arprint, 2019, lighting Pati Solomona Tyrell, for Pacific Studies, University of Canterbury chival styling Elyssia Wilson Heti, model Tapuaki Helu, 2018, this work is a collaboration with a The Physics Room. Melissa Macleod, The Fall (#1), Ashburton Art Gallery. The Ponsonby small community of Pacific Island men from (detail), DC’s from The Big Cover Up, Eastside Gallery. John Badcock, En Plein Air - Summer Paintings, around the country.’’ Susan Badcock Gallery. Artist Tanu Gago Tanu Gago, Savage in the Garden ‘The work is creepy, peculiar, and also The Physics Room possessing of a stunning beauty much like some of the natural occurrence it is ‘Forms are hinted at amidst the clot- inspired by. One sees a respect for, and ted impasto, the general atmosphere and deep knowledge of, ceramic processes.’ presence of the scene eventually being as Scott Chamberlin Professor of Ceramics at important to the painting as fine detail.’ Colorado University on Madeleine Child’s James Dignan, ‘Art Seen’, Otago Daily Times, ceramics. Otago Daily Times, 17 Oct 2009, 26 April 2012, Madeleine Child, Neither Fish Nor Flesh Nor John Badcock, En Plein Air - Summer Paintings Good Red Herring Susan Badcock Gallery Aigantighe Gallery ‘The judges called the winning work “spellbinding”… a poetic distillation and reinterpretation of place, it somehow conveys a sense of both stillness and temporality… a reminder that it’s not always the loudest voice in the room that is the most memorable.’ Zonta Ashburton Art Award 2019 Ashburton Art Gallery
IMAGE ABOVE Ceramic work from Madeleine Child, Neither Fish Nor Flesh Nor Good Red Herring IMAGE BELOW Katie Thomas, untitled, oil on canvas
‘A Haunting Sarcasm Throughout.... A Genuine New Zealand Classic and a Revolutionary Local Release, an Underground Milestone with pioneering use of Kiwi vernacular. Like An Antipodean Lou Reed. In 20 Years This Record Has Never Gone Away.’ Keith J. Dion, Amazon, 6 August 2009, The Ponsonby DC’s. The Big Cover Up an exhibition of vinyl albums from Warren Robertson and Keiran George Eastside Gallery
Absolution Uncle Harold, new work 5 – 30 Apr Arts Centre, 2 Worcester Blvd, CHCH, Mon-Sun 10 – 6pm | Aigantighe Gallery Hanna Shim, Smer Smern (fabric and soft fibre sculpture) until 5 May Madeliene Child, Neither Fish Nor Flesh Nor Good Red Herring until 28 Apr The Salon until 28 Apr 49 Wai-Iti Rd, Maori Hill, Timaru, Tue-Fri 10 – 4pm Sat-Sun 12 – 4pm | Art on the Quay Nature Photography Society of New Zealand, Weather until 1 May 176 Williams Street, Kaiapoi, Mon-Wed, Fri 9 – 5pm, Thu to 9pm, Sat 10 – 2pm, Sun 1 – 4pm | Arts in Oxford Character Study: the figure in action and inaction, works by Nigel Wilson, Philip Beadle, Quillian Collister and Gavin Chai until 14 Apr Folio 2019: Oxford Area School Student Art Portfolios that received NCEA excellence 16 Apr – 5 May Main Street Oxford, Tue-Sun 10 – 4pm | Ashburton Art Gallery Zonta Ashburton Female Art Award 2019 until 7 Apr Tony Bond, Croactus until 5 May Truth or Consequences - 5 new works for cinema by Andrew de Freitas, Jeremy Leatinu’u, Vea Mafile`o, Janine Randerson, and Bridget Reweti until 28 Apr Emma Fitts Towards Another Figure until 7 Apr 327 West St, Ashburton, MonSun 10 – 4pm, Wed to 7pm | Bryce Gallery Art and Music group exhibition until 9 Apr 21 Paeroa St, Riccarton, Mon-Fri 10-5pm Sat-Sun 10-4pm | Canterbury Museum Hannah Beehre, Tunnel (2018) an emersive entrance to an exhibition until 3 Jun Kura Pounamu: Our Treasured Stone until 3 Jun Rolleston Avenue, CHCH, Mon-Sun 9 – 5pm | Chamber Gallery Rangiora Peter Carson, pastels until 2 May 141 Percival Street, Rangiora, Mon-Sat 9 – 5pm | Chambers Gallery Roy Good, Paintings and works on paper until 13 Apr Richard Adams, exhibition and workshop until 13 Apr Katie Thomas, new works 16 Apr – 4 May 241 Moorhouse Ave, CHCH, Tue-Thu 11 – 5.30pm, Fri 11 – 5pm, Sat 11 – 2pm | Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu Simon Denny, The Founder’s Paradox until 28 Apr William Wegman: Being Human 6 Apr – 28 Jul Trusttum: Just a Glimpse until 28 Apr Hidden Light: Early Canterbury and West Coast Photography until 18 Aug We do This. Group exhibition until 29 May Eileen Mayo: Nature, Art and Poetry until 9 Jun Julia Morison: Headcase until 14 Jul Cnr Worcester Boulevard & Montreal Street, CHCH, Mon-Sun 10 – 5pm Wed 10 – 9pm | City Art Depot Ed Lust, Choke 19 Mar – 8 Apr Charlotte Watson, The Small Hours 19 Mar – 8 Apr 96 Disraeli St, Sydenham, CHCH, Mon-Fri 8.30 – 5pm, Sat 10 – 2pm | CoCA Toi Moroki Julia Holden, new works until 9 Jun Matthew Galloway, The Freedom of the Migrant until 9 Jun Roy Good, Parallel Universe until 12 May Lee Richardson, Coffee and Peermaset until 12 May David Green, Extraviado until 12 May 66 Gloucester
St, CHCH, Tue-Sun 10-5pm | Eastside Gallery Warren Robertson, The Big Cover Up (vinyl albums -selected works) 8 – 18 Apr Jon Jeet, Cranmer Life Drawing Tuesday Nights 23 Apr – 4 May 388 Worcester St, Linwood, CHCH, Mon-Fri 11 – 4pm, Sat 12 – 3pm | Fiksate Joel Hart, Dopamine until 26 Apr Work in stock , local, national and international artists 28 Apr - 10 May 165 Gloucester St, CHCH, Mon-Fri 7 – 3pm | Fo Guang Yuan Art Gallery Sacred Art, paintings by Nemesh, David Arkenstone Barnett, Sandra McAlpine, Jonny Bear & Students until 7 Apr Ros Beck, Liquidity In Motion, paintings until 23 Jun 2 Harakeke Street, Riccarton Tue-Sun 9 – 4pm | Form Gallery Koji Miyazaki, Sophie Divett and Ryan Dewsbury, One Individual 3 – 23 Apr 468 Colombo St, Sydenham, CHCH, Tue-Sat 10 – 5pm | Heart & Soul Painting, craft and photography until 31 Mar 34 New Regent Street Mon-Thu 10 – 5pm FriSat 10 – 6pm | Ilam Campus Gallery Ella Sutherland until 26 Apr Fine Arts Ln, off Clyde Rd, Ilam, CHCH, Mon-Fri 9 – 4pm | Jonathan Smart Gallery Kristy Gorman until 13 Apr Tjailing de Vries 18 Apr - 18 May 52 Buchan Street, Sydenham, CHCH, Wed-Fri 11 – 5pm Sat 11 – 3pm | PGgallery 192 Autumn Group Show: Philippa Blair, Darryn George, W.D.Hammond, Julia Holden, Euan Macleod, Terry Stringer until 5 Apr 192 Bealey Avenue, CHCH, Tue-Fri 10.30 – 5pm, Sat 10.30 – 2pm | Selwyn Gallery Jo Ogier, Mary Zurakowski and Stacey Weaver, Flora & Fauna until 2 May 17 South Terrace, Darfield, Tue-Sun 10 – 4pm | Susan Badcock Studio John Badcock, En Plein Air - Summer Paintings 7 – 30 Apr 47 Talbot St, Geraldine, Tue-Sat 10 – 2pm | Teece Museum of Classical Antiquties Fantastic Feasts: Dine with the Ancients 6 Apr – 23 Feb 2020 Arts Centre, 3 Hereford St, CHCH, Wed-Sun 11 – 3pm | Te Pito Huarewa/ Southbase Gallery Tūranga Kā Huru Manu (The Ngāi Tahu Cultural Mapping Project) until 28 Apr 60 Cathedral Square CHCH Mon-Fri 8am – 8pm Sat-Sun 10 – 5pm | The Anchorage Ella Harrington Knapton , Violet Nothing until XX Apr 4 Walker Street, CHCH, Mon-Fri 7 – 4pm Sat 10 – 1pm | The Central Neil Dawson, Clouds and Feathers until 7 Apr Arts Centre, 2 Worcester Blvd, CHCH, Tue-Sun 10 – 5pm | The National Tyne Gordon, new works 3 – 27 Apr 249 Moorhouse Avenue, CHCH, Tue-Fri 10.30 – 5.30pm, Sat 10.30 – 4pm | The Physics Room Tanu Gago, SAVAGE IN THE GARDEN, new works by 2018 MacMillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies Artist in Residence until 31 Mar 49-59 Worcester Blvd, CHCH, Tue-Fri 10 – 5pm Wed 10am – 9pm | Windsor Gallery 35 artists+ 100 changing artworks, including Joel Hart, Rhonye McIlroy, Mike Glover and Sue Syme Until 31 Mar 386 St Asaph St, CHCH, Mon-Fri 9 – 5pm Sat 10 – 1pm
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IMAGE ABOVE Tyne Gordon, Double Dribble, installation image: Lucinda Webber IMAGE BELOW Julia Morison, Headcase 27, 2015. Glazed and painted stoneware. Courtesy of the artist and Two Rooms, Auckland Andrew Paul Wood
Tyne Gordon is a Christchurch-based Ilam graduate and 2018 Olivia Spencer Bower fellow, and Double Dribble at the University of Canterbury’s School of Fine Arts Ilam Campus Gallery represents the fruition of freedom to work afforded by that OSB year. It’s a very good show and promises great things in the future as Gordon’s practice continues to evolve. Since graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2015, Gordon has had an impressive track record including a major show at CoCA and twice being a finalist in the national Parkin Prize for drawing. The work, sculpture and painting, functions on two levels. Firstly it has great visual appeal in the organic strength of the sculptural forms and their indescribable colours ― often to comedic effect as in the kitschy miniature fountains, crusted in paint, pretentiously poised on their carpets of AstroTurf, accompanied by a vaguely New Age monologue on an ancient cassette tape Walkman urging us to be mindful of our physical bodies and oneness with the material world. That narrative is, perhaps, the clue to understanding the second layer, altogether more existential; it’s an absurdist exercise in ambiguous relationships between the mortal flesh, the natural world, and the artifice of art, and water seems to be the thread connecting
it all. The messy, viscerally pink interiors of the fountains could be read as metaphors for the body, or an anticlimactic evocation of the lost Pink and White Terraces. Some of the paintings on the wall, of a flawed and funky piece with their frames, are as much disembodied body parts ―nipples, pimples, obscure genitalia ―as they are stylised imaginary landscapes. Other paintings move between desolate landscape and pure abstraction. It is brilliant work, highly engaging, and open to nearly any reading you might want to apply to it. Is it a feminist parody of Romanticism and its predominantly male dominated manifestation in modernist art, the transcendent ambitions and minimalist plinthed forms of those movements bogged down in the lurid or murky colours and melting shapes of putrescence and abjection? It’s so messy and superficially random yet calculated and carefully contrived. It’s ugly, but it’s beautiful. I love the cartoonishness of it all. It’s conceptual, but it’s also a space containing characterful, standalone objects that invite responses ranging from empathy to laughter, and often both. Art is far too important a thing to take too seriously, and this work embodies that perfectly. Tyne Gordon, Double Dribble 22 February – 22 March 2019 Ilam Campus Gallery, School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury
Gareth Brighton, Until Your Room is Ready
Warren Feeney
If the Auckland Art Gallery’s 2015 exhibition of young contemporary New Zealand painters, Necessary Distraction, was credible as a comprehensive survey , it was not in the artists selected, (so many anticipated names were missing), but in the longer term resonance of the participating artists’ subjects, materials, process and scale of their works. Okay, it is generalising to make the point, but it is still worth making; attention was accorded to small paintings and paint found itself as only one material amongst others. Subjects were poised precariously between figuration and abstraction, and paint was applied with a slacker attitude and confidence that often revealed evidence of good decision making by the artist.
This summary inventory could also be a description of Gareth Brighton’s paintings in Until Your Room is Ready – these are works that could have easily found themselves accommodated alongside Necessary Distraction’s Julian Hooper, Nicola Farquhar and Stella Corkery. Brighton shares their faith in painting as a distinct means of expression, makes particularly good decisions about his choice of materials, and applies and moves paint around on the picture plane with attitude. There is a dropout and drop dead assurance to his work in Until Your Room is Ready. Previously working with plywood as his base material to screen print on, Brighton’s attention has always, in part, been about directing attention to the patina of the surfaces he works with and it is fundamental to the experience and success of these painting. Now his plywood boards are covered in found commercial textiles and fabrics with patterns and design as the foundation for his decisions around applying paint or masking out, as he sees appropriate. For works on such a modest scale (28 x 22cm) Brighton’s paintings possess a presence that controls the gallery’s spaces. Bed, a work in which paint is thickly laid over black and white striped fabric is superb. The fabric serving as an animated frame for a colour harmony of blue, pink and fragments of yellow that deliver the artist’s prime directive; ‘painted objects with the intention of making the viewer slow down and examine the materials and visual structure of pictorial communication.’ Until Your Room is Ready is, indeed, a necessary distraction, but also much more. Gareth Brighton, Until Your Room is Ready 2018 – 2019 Mixed Media 6 – 23 March Chambers Art Gallery, 241 Moorhouse Avenue
Julia Morison, Head[case]
Audrey Baldwin
Julia Morison is an iconic artist and it’s hard for me not to ‘fan-girl’ over her practice. Whenever I enter the Christchurch City Council and see Myriorama:08 ‘Knot’ (2010) I pause. And memories of her retrospective exhibition, a loop around a loop at the Christchurch Art Gallery in 2006 still gives me art chills. I even follow her dog (and erstwhile collaborator) on instagram. It’s all justified admiration. An Arts Laureate since 2005 and an Officer of the Order of New Zealand Merit since 2017, Morison’s career spans over forty years and she consistently delivers work that defies easy categorization and pulls me in. Head[case] brings together a series of new works - 100 ceramic ‘heads’ - made over the past 4 years. Each form is modelled on a traditional wig-maker’s block and seems imbued with its own story, emotion or personality. They are arranged on varying levels in hexagonal ‘rooms’, some meet me at eye level, while others, I have to crouch down or crane my neck to peer at. Some seem to float, trailing spines, lashes, wires or sprouts of hair. I feel as though I’ve stepped into a cabinet of curiosities, a museum or a desiccated bestiary. The sound-scape by John Christoffels is a superb accompaniment to the show. It journeys between hackle raising eerie whines and disquieting peaks to grandiose, luxurious dulcet tones - at times almost romantic but always uncanny. Some heads are endearing while others are comical, sensual, sumptuous or tortured. Knights/monsters and poor, injured noggins converse or sit adjacent to visions from dreams and nightmares - It gives me hazy memories of seeing Return to Oz while too young. There is a head for every occasion. Horse hair and lashes brush the floor and stories seep out of eye slits and crisp lips, sutured together. The range of her treatment of materials is impressive. Ceramic is seemingly made into oozing flesh for
some - others have glistening, crackled surfaces, built up textures or dull rust-like patinas. Eyes and mouths masked by rivets stare blindly at a gold-toothed, grinning maw while another glazed earthenware piece looks squiffily in two directions at once. This body of work and its engagement with an entirely new medium is a testament to Morison’s ongoing sense of playfulness and her exploratory making processes. There are methodical collisions in material and concepts; a delight taken in meshing the familiar with the bizarre. Clay lends itself well to the visceral, tactile qualities of her past works and the esoteric knowledge required to work the magic of glaze and kiln aligns well with Morison’s interest in Kabbalistic mysticism. Head[case] stands up to multiple visits; each circumambulation of the space offers a new vantage point, and a fresh conversation between pieces or new narrative. There is a satisfying circling around of materials, themes and relationship between Head[case] and Morison’s past works – it all loops around in on itself in a surreal and poetic logic. Julia Morison, Head[case] 23 February – 14 July CChristchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu Crnr Worcester Boulevard and Montreal Street Supporting Art Beat arts reviewers 2019
IMAGE ABOVE LEFT Hannah Kidd Hot House in the Slaughter House, recipient of the Sculpture on the Peninsula Award 2017. Judge’s Comments – Felicity Milburn, Curator Christchurch Art Gallery. ‘Visiting the Sculpture on the Peninsula exhibition is an experience like no other. More than 100 works by experienced and emerging artists from around New Zealand, thoughtfully installed at Loudon, an historic working farm. Many artists have responded specifically to the unusual setting, incorporating references to farming life, the geography of Banks Peninsula, and even the birds that inhabit the garden and farmland. One of the great pleasures of coming back to Loudon every two years is seeing the practices of returning artists develop as they continue to explore the possibilities of the location. The work I have chosen, an installation of hothouse plants by Hannah Kidd in the old killing shed is an example of this. Opening the door instantly transports you to unexpected worlds — one that is not only delicately welded metal cacti, lilies, and carnivorous plants, but radiates with tropical heat and rings of birdsong. IMAGE ABOVE RIGHT Matt Akehurst, The Land of Riches, 2017
Sculpture on the Peninsula 2019. A Call to Artists for Submissions Taking place every two years at Loudon Farm on Banks Peninsula, in 2019 Sculpture on the Peninsula is scheduled from 8th to 10th November. Established in 2000 it remains the largest sculptural event in the South Island, bringing together the work of senior, mid-career and emerging artists. Administered by the Lombardy Charitable Trust, it encompasses installationbased and site specific works, alongside free-standing sculpture. It is an arts event founded upon the vision of Governors Bay resident, Geoff Swinard and his enthusiasm for the arts and plans to create a
fundraising event for the Cholmondeley Children’s Centre in Governors Bay, the residential care facility for children in crisis. Administered by the Lombardy Trust for the past 18 years, in 2017, $100,000 was raised from proceeds of the event for Cholmondeley. All who have attended previously will have fond memories of Sculpture on the Peninsula as a family and community occasion, with the Loudon Farm Sculpture Trail creating a experience all of its own, a walking tour with the company of others and a certain amount of exercise and respite from the suburbs of Christchurch.
Over its history Sculpture on the Peninsula has featured the work of numerous prominent artists, including Paul Dibble, Cheryl Lucas and Hannah Kidd, (winner of the 2017 award), and selection panels and judges of well-known arts professionals. In 2019, the panel selecting submissions for its bi-annual award are Lara Strongman, Senior Curator at the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu and Gwynneth Porter, arts writer, curator and academic. Valued at $10,000 the Sculpture on the Peninsula Award will be judged by Jenny Harper, former director of the director of Christchurch Art Gallery. In addition,
a popular vote for all works exhibited, the People’s Choice Award valued at $1,500, will be presented to an artist for the public’s favourite voted sculpture. Submissions from artists for Sculpture on the Peninsula are requested now. For conditions and details of entry go to: sculpturenz.co.nz/ sculpture-on-the-peninsula-submissions Artists are requested to supply photographs and or working drawing with their submission no later than 5 July 2019. Please post to: Gill Hay, 47 Reserve Terrace, Lyttelton 8082 or email: gill@sculpturenz.co.nz
Roy Good’s Parallel Universe The survey exhibition Parallel Universe at CoCA Toi Moroki, opens with the catalogue book launch, Friday 29 March, followed by a walk through the show on Saturday with Good and editor/academic Ed Hanfling. (Chambers is also opening a complementary exhibition with the publication, Tuesday 26 March). Roy Good’s 50 years as designer and painter is celebrated in Parallel Lines, featuring his design work for New Zealand televisions (1960s –2000s), and his geometric, abstract paintings from the same period to
the present day. Commenting on his design, Hanfling states “As a designer, he was an instrumental figure in the early days of New Zealand television, creating graphics and sets for a medium with the widest possible audience.’ Roy Good, Paintings and works on paper 26 March – 13 April Chambers Gallery Roy Good, Parallel Universe 29 March – 12 May CoCA Toi Moroki Centre of Contemporary Art,
IMAGE BELOW LEFT Roy Good, installation image of designs for Television New Zealand from the exhibition, Parallel Universe. The Art and Design of Roy Good IMAGE BELOW RIGHT Roy Good, A Tilt to Malevich, 2017, acrylic on canvas, 1220 X 1220mm
IMAGE ABOVE Kim Lowe, Master Beancurd waits at the Gate with Scales and a Basket… 2013, Ghost print with mixed media
The 2019 Olivia Spencer Bower artist has a studio at last! The 32nd recipient of the Olivia Spencer Bower Award, Kim Lowe now has a studio for her residency in Ōtautahi Christchurch, which ‘officially’ commenced in January 2019. Due to an artist’s departure from one of the studios at Chambers Gallery, 241 Moorhouse Avenue, Lowe is at last taking up studio
residency as the OSB recipient in keeping with its support for such accommodation. Lowe’s plans are to develop the figurative content and narratives of her work, as well as developing calligraphic brush and wash techniques in a new series of works.
Art Tours: Christchurch Art Seen in April
Christchurch Art Seen invites you to tour to new exhibitions of senior and emerging artists and local artists’ studios in April in Ōtautahi Christchurch. Three tours are scheduled with arts guide, writer and commentator Warren Feeney. April’s exhibitions include a visit to: The Physics Room to see works by the 2018 MacMillan Brown Pacific Studies artist in resident, Tanu Gago; new works at the National by the 2018 recipient of the Olivia Spencer Bower Award, Tyne Gordon; and a studio visit to Chambers to meet with conceptual artist and sculptor, Tim Middleton. The April programme is: Saturday 6 April: Fiksate Gallery, Joel Hart, Dopamine. The Physics Room, Tanu Gago, SAVAGE IN THE GARDEN. Absolution, Uncle Harold. The Teece Museum of Antiquities, Fantastic Feasts. The Central Art Gallery, Neil Dawson and new works in stock Saturday 13 April: The Anchorage, Ella Harrington Knapton, Violet Nothing. Chambers Gallery, Roy Good and Richard Adams, new works. Nadene Milne Gallery, current exhibition. Chambers Studios, Tim Middleton.The National, Tyne Gordon, new work
IMAGE ABOVE Director of Dilana, Hugh Bannerman introduces the process of creating textiles with the numerous contemporary New Zealand artists that he represents and works with. The textile in the background is a design by artist Bing Dawe. (Photograph from a gallery tour in February 2019).
Friday 26 April: Form Gallery, Koji Miyazaki, Sophie Divett and Ryan Dewsbury, One Individual. Doc Ross, studio visit. Dilana, work in stock. Jonathan Smart Gallery, Tjailing de Vries, new work. City Art, Charlotte Watson, The Small Hours.
96 Disraeli St Sydenham cityart.co.nz
Bookings for each tour is $20 per person Please contact Karin Bathgate for further details and to book: karin@christchurchartseen.nz or phone: 027 5355422
Mon–Fri: 8.30am–5pm Sat: 10am–2pm
Conservation picture framing and contemporary art gallery
Hei tiki (pendant in human form). Te Aika whānau, Ngāi Tūāhuriri, Ngāi Tahu. Photograph: Maarten Holl, Te Papa Exhibition presented by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu
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