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...