The date today being 11.11.11 we thought we should front up with a cricket theme. While the game has not had much recent play in NZ art, back in the late eighties the Auckland Art Gallery toured an exhibition called NZXI (really) to Australia. Our cricket team was doing better in those days so the title wasn’t the put-down it might be today. You can see from the list of artists included how things change and how central the Sue Crockford Gallery was at this time. The 1988 NZXI were Bill Culbert, Neil Dawson, Jacqueline Fraser, Jeffrey Harris,Christine Hellyar, Megan Jenkinson, Richard Killeen, Denis O’Connor, Maria Olsen, James Ross and Boyd Webb.
For a different team of artists taking up positions for a day in the field how about:
First slip: Kate Newby
Second slip: Francis Upritchard
Keeper: Fiona Connor
Out field: Simon Denny
Out field: Alicia Frankovich
Out field: Michael Stevenson
Cover: Ian Scott
Silly Point: Dane Mitchell
Forward: Rohan Wealleans
Deep: et al.
Spin Bowler: Michael Parekowhai
Image: an hour after writing this post we visit a friend and find Ian Scott’s painting featuring NZXI. Spooky.
