Branded

In a curious effort to promote tonight’s auction, Webb’s attempted to drum up interest by associating an emblem in a Shane Cotton painting with gang patches. The New Zealand Herald went into a paroxysm of shock and awe and asked the New Zealand expert on gang patches, Michael Laws, Mayor of Whanganui, for a response. He didn’t see or care about the connection and driving to New Plymouth in the weekend we saw an image that might just as easily have attracted Cotton: beer brand symbols that are on billboards and pub façades throughout the Horowhenua and Manawatu. Such references are only minor footnotes to the final work, of course, but it’s cool to drive through our own art history.