Off the record, on the QT and very hush hush

Prompted by CNZ's response to out post on their selection process, we zipped over to the Creative New Zealand site to check on the Venice Biennale news section. At the moment there are three stories. New Zealand to participate (December 07), Celebrated artists chosen (June 08) and, thanks to some prodding by OTN, Venues chosen (December 08). That’s one media release on 2009's major visual arts funding event ($650,000 from CNZ) per 122 days.

It’s not as if there’s nothing to report. The venues have been visited on our dime (Trip Of A Lifetime part 2) by the curators, who presumably had cameras and came back loaded with images. We’ve heard one of the venues described as “Dusty and bare and thrilling in that Venice way” which sounds pretty cool. So here are some pics of the venue being used by Francis Upritchard that we found on Google. It looks perfect, and good on Upritchard for organizing it. We weren’t able to find images of the Judy Millar venue.

We’re not sure whether the decision by the CNZ web site not to share images like this or give regular updates (some studio shots, how the fund raising is going, interviews with the artists etc) is a matter of secrecy or disinterest, or both.
Images: The Fondazione Claudio Buziol where Francis Upritchard will show her work.