an old man's grapes

"I have long held the opinion that the amount of noise that anyone can bear undisturbed stands in inverse proportion to his mental capacity and may therefore be regarded as a pretty fair measure of it."

- Arthur Schopenhauer, from "The World as Will and Representation" 1819

vaguely feminine

"mountains and sea" (1952) by helen frankenthaler at the tender age of twenty-three.

"she didn't give a fig for theory"

a watery-stained tableau...an enacting of the memories of the north atlantic sea encapsulated in her wrists...a controlled falling or gentle pouring of thinned oil paint onto untreated canvas...

sharp curves, crests, pooling & spreading hills.

adieu ms. frankenthaler!

helen frankenthaler (1928-2011)

a moving painting

alas I still have yet to see a performance of 'sleeping beauty' and the infamous rose adagio. my ideal would be this one with margot fonteyn as it looks like a moving van dyck painting... but I'll settle for one in an old european opera house with faded painted backdrops and red velvet seats...

a man walks into a bar... a penguin slides into a bar...

"ahhm.... ok.... it's alright.... alright alright alright alright.... a man walks into a bar.... a hippopotamus walks into a bar.... it's a bit manic today.... ok... if you like.... I am expecting more people... if you'd like, a request.... we're just going to move down this way.... it feels a bit affected today... so, ok... ahm... ok... we won't do it now... so a hippotamus walks into a bar... old older.... old material... no no... it's alright"

if you ever get the chance I highly recommend you attend a performance by brent harris. each encounter is an agonising and awkward dissection of rehearsal/repetition and attempting to perform. idiosyncratic quirks, deferrals and gags pepper his physical and psychogeographic works which are marked by an acute awareness and enactment of the liminal moments of presenting performance.

brent harris
"poring"
monday 12 december, 2011
as part of oct dec series
w st pauls st gallery
auckland

the great unbuilt

architecture student yumian (dino) chai's '100 rooms of solitude' is 100 small models representing 100 days of memories... inspiration was gleaned from daily walks to auckland university from mt eden and it was constructed from whatever materials were at hand at the time...

it's a lovely image, a lone architecture student wandering around the city, remembering then making...

see here, see now

image: yumian chai 100 rooms of solitude

crinkle & pink

some lovely crinkly glasses and a saccharine-pink crown lynn bowl were recently found. fairy parties will ensue...

rhyming with hemisphere

a feminist collaborative intervention of sorts...

do go have a look!

eve armstrong & gretchen albrecht
"making arrangements"
michael lett
19 november - 23 december
285/2 great north road

school fete

a little listing can be quite satisfying. 

there were at least two major events this weekend in this little corner of the world: one was a rather soul-destroying general election, the other was the annual art outing that is the elam graduate show.

some highlights for me were:

--- sam thomas' virtuosic and rickety room of fun

--- taarato taiaroa's understated and elegant meditations on travelling by train

--- the handsome work by nell may & kelvin soh. both demonstrated a penchant and knack for typography.

--- clara chon's sharp installation & roman mitch's assured work too

--- karin hofko's simultaneously endearing and awkward pseudo-confessional film (her work at george fraser was ingenious too)

--- lucy bolsover's sophisticated use of printmaking and paint

--- sophie bannan's dance experiments

--- susan wells' superlative stitching

--- ayesha green's simply painted interiors and exteriors were probably the strongest painted works to be seen...

--- though kei park's work was also delicious. and florid. thomas hinton's paintings were endearing too.

--- and a special mention goes to aindriu macfehin's video works tatoo & bus station for combining radical politics with world-cup interventions.

elam graduate show 2011
26-27 november
the university of auckland

image: a cat. part of an installation by sam thomas
and a painting by ayesha green

bluesy

looking forward to seeing some michael harrison watery wonders today. perhaps all the rain is in sympathy.

image:
michael harrison
ghost (2011)
watercolour on paper
49.5 x 44.5cm

michael harrison
"from this world to the next"
23 november-22 december
ivan anthony
cnr east st and karangahape rd
auckland

green thumbs

here are some plants. a roman tomato, borage and smaller tomatoes interspersed with carrots. one of the tomato plants is beginning to flower. its leaves are lovely to finger and bruise with their particular tomato-leaf smell.

six o'clock legs

his slight materials

on the 10 july 2010 the rosetta spacecraft passed the lutetia asteroid. unlike regular asteroids which are usually broken remnants of planets, lutetia might be a whole, unbroken building block left almost intact since the birth of the solar system. it is thought that lutetia has one of the highest densities ever measured, it is denser than graphite and may have heavy metals in its core.

[this information was gleaned from an article by lisa grossman]

john ward knox
moving on looking
26 october - 19 november
ivan anthony
corner of east st and karangahape rd
auckland

moody-broody

pyramidal and pensive, katy-lee is compelling. a somewhat reluctant sitter, however imaginary she may be.  conjured and torn from memory, plum and grape and blue-black hair. daubed, feathery and stroked in paint. she peers from beneath the orange and feels the forest behind her.

nicola farquar
new paintings
6 october - 5 november
hopkinson cundy
1/1 cross st, auckland

images:
nicola farquar
katy-lee (2011)
oil on canvas
580 x 470mm frame

installation view,
hopkinson cundy

desperate to find a finger

"the ring is desperate, desperate to find a finger"

 - karl fritsch

tarnished and ludic, the rings of karl fritsch are tempting and tactile. often silver and gold bear the imprints of his fingers, they seem modelled like clay with precious stones embedded like sultanas in soft cookie dough.

it will be very exciting to hear him discuss his work in person at objectspace, friday 4 november at 5.30pm.

karl fritsch
rings without end
from november 4
at objectspace
8 ponsonby road, auckland


image:
karl fritsch
oxidised silver, diamond (2007)
see here

flora and fauna

despite the appearance of green shoots and canopies of blossoms, many are complaining of art fatigue. a fine antidote may be some new works by ceramicist corrina hoseason and painter dick lyne.

corrina's florid trophy-like confections have been carefully hand-crafted, sometimes with vintage chocolate-moulds. these creamy-white concoctions proudly bear cattle and geese and are bedecked with garlands and rosettes recalling the A&P shows of old.

dick lyne's colourful and eccentric acrylics carefully depict events from forestry past, including the measuring and sawing of majestic native trees. there is a delicious sense of jollity and zeal about them.

corrina hoseason & dick lyne in
TURF
melanie roger gallery
226 jervois rd, auckland
5-29 october

images:
corrina hoseason
"untitled" (geese), 2011
unique ceramic

dick lyne
"kauri pit sawing" (2011)
acrylic on board

aureoles

this morning we got up at dawn to visit a small apartment, where under a bright flood of lights we handled slight slips of cast zinc and were told stories of breathing, sky writing, settling dust, outside the light slowly shifted from deep to pale blue, draining traces of the night

upon leaving we paused to look back at the block of apartments, where all except for one were dark, sleepy, with their curtains drawn, this one particular apartment was emitting from its doorway a slight hum, a tangerine light, an aura of sorts

parlour presents
alexandra savtchenko-belskaia & sonya lacey
with vera mey
14/79 beresford street west
freeman's bay, auckland
saturday 17 september 6-8am
parlourgroup.wordpress.com

good morning

cars were sputtering to life this morning while it was still dark.

one had to get dressed in the dark and speak in hushed tones in order to make it to an early-morning exhibition of work by alexandra savtchenko-belskaia and sonya lacey. yet there was a generous turn-out of cheery and earnest visitors to a small apartment in freeman's bay this saturday morning. it helped that there was much hosting with hot coffee in agreeably textured white paper cups and many smiles as soft pastries were presented in large woven baskets.

upon arrival savtchenko-belskaia's lighting installation was most apparent, three large lamps from switched on gardener cast an orange-yellow spill over the room serving to highlight the increasing and glowing blue light outside behind dark-black trees. thus the gathering was rendered a rarefied hothouse environment by its lighting- one artist informed me that these lights make things grow. another component of savtchenko-belskaia's work was a selection of flat terracotta pieces half painted with powdery blue.

some blinking visitors were also privy to the two parts of new work by sonya lacey. one part was composed of three small discs cast into zinc and finished by hand. melted pebbles or pennies stretched on train tracks these were handed out, fondled and warmed by palms as lacey spoke. the second part was a reading by lacey from a printed piece of paper, given to small groups of people in parts of the room where she could be heard. in the corner, on the stairs she read aloud, interrupting herself to ask whether or not we could hear her, sometimes stumbling and making corrections. lacey read of atmospheres, water, air, breaths... appearances and disappearances, anomalies of vision, light and darkness, volumes of bodies...

one young man with a beard in the corner by the stairwell struggled to stay awake...

there was morning chill, blue light, pink blossoms and being invited over to someone's house.

thank-you for having me!

parlour presents
alexandra savtchenko-belskaia & sonya lacey
with vera mey
14/79 beresford street west
freeman's bay, auckland
saturday 17 september 6-8am
parlourgroup.wordpress.com

kitty kitty kitty

watery, pastel acrylics and paper depicting cats and dogs and deer and other beasts... michael harrison's paintings gently flit and float around. light colours bleed and seep over nubbly paper, the traces of flowing brushstrokes that create the forms of lovely creatures and mystical landscapes.

it looks like one can see some of his works at papakura art gallery as part of animal incarnations. I have yet to visit this gallery but a group exhibition revolving around the depiction of animals may just draw me out to the suburbs.

michael harrison in

"animal incarnations"

papakura art gallery

10 averill street, papakura

image:

michael harrison

hindsight, 2004-2010

acrylic on paper,

297 x 209mm

echo

it would be nice to be in london at the moment, if so one could see francis upritchard's echo at kate macgarry. the exhibition runs from 7 september to 8 october 2011.

francis upritchard
"echo"
kate macgarry
27 old nichol street
london, E2 7HR
7 september - 8 october

comely, documented

all images were taken by daniel strang, from the exhibition "comely". works by: suji park, sarah gruiters, richard orjis, alexandra savtchenko-belskaia, amelia harris, erica van zon.

comely

c o m e l y
a ceramics exhibition at our house...
1/155 symonds street, eden terrace, auckland

xin cheng
sarah gruiters
amelia harris
richard orjis
suji park
richard parker
alexandra savtchenko-belskaia
erica van zon

exhibition opening: friday 2 september, 5.30-8pm
open house: saturday 3 september 11-1pm

new/old

kay ambrose classical dances & costumes of india, raspberry stitch scarf in progress, gustave flaubert l'education sentimentale.

and here is the recipe for the infamous raspberry stitch:
 
-- you need to cast on a certain amount of stitches, this number must be a multiple of four plus an extra two: for example 22 or 26.
-- this stitch is made up of a pattern of four rows which you then repeat


-- for the first row: purl all stitches
-- for the second row: knit one stitch, (then knit one, purl one and knit one into one stitch), purl three stitches together. repeat this until you get to the end of the row where there will be an extra stitch, knit this.
-- for the third row: purl all stitches
-- for the fourth row: knit one stitch, purl three stitches together, (then knit one, purl one and knit one into one stitch), repeat this until you get to the end of the row where there will be an extra stitch, knit this.

-- repeat this pattern to your heart's content.
-- to knit one, purl one and knit one on the same stitch is a bit difficult. the trick is to do all three stitches and not slip the stitch off the needle until after the last one. (there are tutorials online if this does not make sense!)
-- to purl three stitches together just jam three stitches on your needle at once instead of one.

other things to do

things to do rather than sit for very long periods of time at a computer:

watching the fire, playing cards, going for walks and picking flowers that hang from people's gardens over the footpath, knitting and knitting, making biscuits, reading diaries, strolling, drinking water, buying vegetables for dinner, eating raisins, brewing tea in the special tea-pot, re-arranging the furniture in my house and having afternoon naps.

the sound a bird makes in korean & other tales

suji park's figurines are rather special. it was lovely to see them at personal best. it is a completely different space in the daytime, with windows and light and awesome 1970's plasterwork.

aside from this, suji's figurines were deftly displayed on discarded decorative pieces of wood and hung high. one had to stand on one's toes and peer upwards to see them.

at times quite dark and sometimes sweet with rosy cheeks. touch and hold-able, most definitely.

suji park
may it come to pass
personal best
456 karangahape rd
12-26 august, 2011

images:

suji park
jaekjaek, 2011
graphite, watercolour and stone pigment on clay

suji park
amimitl, 2011 & huh, 2011
graphite, watercolour and stone pigment on clay

peter stichbury

do go and see the "peter stichbury" exhibition the next time you are in our nation's capital. it is a concise but neat little show on level six of te papa. airy with ample light, there is much about the pedigree of new zealand studio pottery and some charming ceramics by nigerian women from stichbury's collection.

peter stichbury: a potter's world
until june 2012
te papa tongarewa
wellington

auckland art fair picks

Patrick Lundberg, Suji Park, Campbell Patterson

ume

plums & honey, honey & plums... dacia at miller's on cross st makes a novel concoction known as ume. it is lovingly crafted from particularly fine plums and alpine honey, brewed for six months to a year before it is made into a syrup that one drinks with soda water. according to dacia two glasses a day keep the heartburn away, additionally it is fizzy and frobscottle-esque.

ume
miller's
31 cross st
auckland
open 7.30-12.00