goodnight kiwi

dear reader,

this little website has been put to sleep. there will not be any more new posts.

if you'd like something similar though, my new project is leaflet

it's a fresh new one, but it will still be much the same.

take care,

v

caressing...

"It is important to be able to, when appropriate, go beyond the pure facilitation and “caressing” of art. Being subservient can be good, even useful, but sometimes we also need to take up the challenge of art and answer back. Which for me means taking art and artists super seriously."

- maria lind, see here 

image: my favourite critic, monsieur c. monster of "monster-piece theatre"

moss-moss

much to my chagrin I seemed to have had two unfinished scarves floating around which were meant for this winter past. I am just catching up on them now. here is a scarf in a lovely checker-board moss stitch.

the recipe for moss stitch is as follows:

-- this is actually a double moss stitch

-- cast on a certain number of stitches, this number needs to be a multiple of four.

-- this stitch is made up of a pattern of four rows.

-- row one: knit two stitches, purl two stitches, repeat

-- row two: knit two, purl two, repeat

-- row three: purl two stitches, knit two stitches, repeat

-- row four: purl two, knit two, repeat.

-- this is the pattern, repeat to your heart's content!

there is only yes

perhaps it is summer after all...

forward-thinking...

looking forward to...

-- luke willis thompson's upcoming show at hopkinson cundy. see here
-- a road trip up north to visit studio potters
-- where split-fountain's new house will be...
-- caterina riva spreading her wings at artspace, auckland
-- what happens next at frontbox, st pauls st.
-- new shows from campbell patterson & imogen taylor at michael lett
-- the next offering from the lovely parlour ladies. see here
-- how artist run spaces in auckland will pan out...
-- some nice new shows at hopkinson cundy, perhaps something utilising their awesome roller-door, large scale, driveway space?

& who will temporarily replace all the charming young men/artists who have left the country of late...

image:
patrick lundberg
"no title" 2011
(thumbtack, shoelace, gesso and gouache)

something to say...

un petit mot of some of the more memorable / successful / piquant exhibitions / moments of the last year...be warned it is rather long and a bit auckland-centric. alors...

-- a mobile library (hirschfield gallery, wellington)

-- a special mention for hopkinson cundy and their lovely shows with: nick austin, renee so, kate newby, tahi moore and nicola farquhar

-- brent harris: oct dec series (st pauls st, auckland)

-- christian jankowski, richard maloy, sriwhana spong (sue crockford, auckland)

-- dane mitchell: radiant matter (particularly at govett brewster)

-- frances hodgkins: colour and light (auckland art gallery)

-- future art stars: karin hofko, kei park, sam thomas, taarato taiaroa and thomas hinton.

-- gesamtkunsthandwerk (martino gamper, karl fritsch & francis upritchard, govett brewster, new plymouth)

-- jennifer teets, curator extraordinaire gave a series of inspirational talks

-- karl fritsch: rings without end (objectspace, auckland)

-- liz maw: francis upritchard (artspace, auckland)

-- measure the city with the body, curated by steven cleland (an itinerant physics room project)

-- making arrangements: gretchen albrecht & eve armstrong (michael lett, auckland)

-- moments of PROSPECT: New Zealand Art Now. particularly those by: kate newby, selina foote,  sriwhana spong and john ward knox (city gallery, wellington)

-- nice new space: robert heald, wellington

-- parlour presents alexandra savtchenko-belskaia & sonya lacey (beresford st west, auckland)

-- patrick lundberg: quotes (ivan anthony, auckland)

-- re-fried beans: xin cheng (split fountain, auckland)

-- sam rountree williams: nature culture (st david's church hall, auckland)

-- saskia leek: a modern menu (ivan anthony, auckland)

-- suji park: may it come to pass (personal best, auckland)

-- surface characteristics: xin cheng, clara chon, claire cooper & asumi mixuo (split fountain, auckland)

image:

sriwhana spong

"lead by the lights unheard novelty and chemical (after a dress by madeleine vionnet, second translation by joanna watson" (2011)

(silk dyed in fanta)

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