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unvarnished facts, reckless guesswork, insinuations and possible inventions that have arrived at overthenet.blog@gmail.com. the smart money is settling on ron mueck for the final of the christchurch art gallery’s five big sculptures project • the nz organising team are gearing up for crowd control management for lisa reihana’s opening next year at the venice biennale (#dreamon) • in more venice news, it has been floated that uk celeb chef peter gordon, partner of venice commissioner carruthers, is going to man a pop-up food stall near the nz venue • misal adnan yıldız is tipped to be off to join a project with serpentine’s huo when his term is up at artspace in may next year • wellington enjoys a mini-renaissance with rohan wealleans and andrew beck both now working out of the city • te papa is threatening to move its art exhibitions down a floor or two (#believeitwhenweseeit) •  it’s recently been confirmed that weta is definitely making a big bug show for te papa as predicted by otn in a spam five months ago • any missed details, indignant denials or additions gratefully received, and any that makes us laugh out loud richly rewarded.

Distance looks our way

Creative New Zealand has just announced the venue for next year’s Venice Biennale outing and it's a bold move. In past years artists chose their own venues. They'd usually try to take advantage of Venetian character (Denny, Millar, Parekowhai, Stevenson, Upritchard) or to secure a venue with good foot traffic (Culbert, Denny, Millar). For 2017 the venue selection has been taken over by NZ's Commissioner for Venice Alastair Curruthers. He made it clear he was determined to secure a permanent venue for New Zealand (with no formal consultation as far as we know) within the main exhibition site. To an extent that is what he has done. (Commissioner Alastair Carruthers has since told us that there were three options offered the artist and curator within the Arsenale and that the current space has only been leased for the current Biennale)

The new venue for New Zealand is Tesa dell'Isolotto. This translates as 'small island' and this is no doubt what it was some time in the past. So where is it? Well, not as Creative NZ would have it in its media release ‘in the heart of the Arsenale exhibition district’ but rather on the outskirts of the Arsenale. While this part of the Biennale is visited, suggesting it is in the heart of things is stretching credulity as you can see from the map. The Commissioner has made the call that if NZ can't get a space in the Giardini (and that's been a closed shop for decades), then we are better off in the Biennale precinct consistently than trying to make an impression each time in a new venue. There's certain corporate logic to that, if you want to find Team NZ you'll know where to go. But there are trade-offs. While the format of the venue is perfect for Lisa Reihana’s work, with its very specific space requirements, of course, this will not necessarily be ideal for those who follow. The gamble is for a more manageable known quantity against unpredictable opportunity .

The main challenge with this particular location will be getting audiences that still have attention and energy to spare for us. The centre of the Biennale remains the Giardini with its array of national pavilions (this is where the Australians are) and part 1 of the Central Exhibition curated by the artistic director of the Venice Biennale. As a visitor the big attraction of the Arsenale is part 2 of this exhibition. It's always an exhausting experience all but fills one of the biggest exhibition spaces in the world with a huge number of artists (in 2015, there were 136 of them), themes, talks, performances etc etc. Once you've popped out the other end of this over-heated clamour there are even more spaces to deal with. In 2015 these rather brilliantly included the Vatican and next year will include New Zealand. One of the problems is that few visitors start their Biennale experience with the Arsenale but kick off with the big names in the Gardini. Still the deal is done now so let's see how this new set of cards plays out.

On the QT and strictly hush hush

Creative NZ is looking for some new peer reviewers to advise it on who should get funding. Anyone thinking about putting up their hand (you can get up to $40 an hour but the hours are tightly limited) may wonder what they're getting into, so some background.

Over the past decade Creative NZ has professionalised. There have been some positive results (e.g. clearer accountability and priorities) but also some negative ones. Its processes are more complex for users, it's more risk averse, and it's become remarkably protective of any information it receives. Confidentiality agreements are used to control outsiders working with them and to side step what we would consider the intent of the Official Information Act.

This is not just a problem with Creative NZ, of course, it's endemic throughout the public service. Ask any journalist. We had our own experience of it when we asked who had applied for the Venice Biennale gig for 2015. We weren't asking for the discussions or the opinions or the minutes of the meeting, just who had applied. We took it to the Ombudsman but Creative NZ was way ahead of us. All outsiders involved had been tied up with confidentiality agreements from the outset so we got zip.

So you have to ask why anyone would to sign up to be a peer reviewer when they have to agree in writing:

•    to keep confidential all information supplied by Creative New Zealand and any information relating to the assessment of an application (including assessment panel discussions) and to only use this information for the purpose of assessing an application. This means that applications cannot be discussed.

•    to ensure that all such information is stored securely and that it will be accessible to no one but me for the sole purpose of assessment and that electronic material is deleted at the end of the decision making process and any hard copy material is returned to Creative New Zealand.

•    not to discuss or write articles, including social media, on the assessment panel’s recommendations.

•    not to report back to other organisations on the work of the assessment panel.

•    To bite down hard on the green capsule provided should they be detained or questioned outside CNZ premises
 
As Agent J of The Men in Black said, 'Why the big secret? People are smart, they can handle it.'

Image: Secret Squirrel

One day in the Creative NZ offices

Communications officer 1: Oh no. What a disaster!

Communications officer 2: What….has the Lotteries Commission pulled the plug?

CO1: No, I’ve just got the final attendance figures for Venice.

CO2: That’s good, isn’t it? Simon Denny was a huge success, every major curator in the world came to see it, the party was the talk of Upper Italy, we had more art world publicity than we’ve ever had, it was right up there on every don’t-miss-it list, and the work sold faster than a speeding ticket.

CO1: So?

CO2: So that’s a good thing….isn’t it?

CO1: It would be if the numbers were better. The fact is fewer people went to the Denny exhibition than the last time we went to Venice.

CO2: How many fewer?

CO1: Around three sixths of the amount it cost in dollars to get those climate change protesters off the Parliament building a few months ago.

CO2: (thinks) That means Denny got only .91743110 percent less than the time before.

CO1: People will see it as a complete disaster. We need a way to present it so it doesn’t jump out.

CO2: But it was the most spectacularly successful thing we…. have…. ever….done….

CO1: (cold, hard stare)

CO2: Oh, ok. …..I’ve got an idea, how about, 'More than half a million people attended (the Venice Biennale) this year and around two fifths of them visited the Secret Power installation….'

And that is what they did.

Cast of one

The decision-making process of the selection panel for the Venice Biennale is not open to the public. We've never heard a convincing reason as to why this should be necessary, but this year, with 10 members, it started opening up anyway. By piecing together bits of information a picture of what went on can be suggested.

It was always going to be tough to get a decision out of such a large and diverse group of panelists. The mix was four curatorial, one artist, two fund-raisers, three arts council members, and a commissioner (a former chair of Creative NZ) who had the casting vote. In past years the curatorial voice was more dominant and in some memorable instances the commissioner just cut to the chase and made the call.

Our understanding is that this time there was a fifty-fifty split among the panelists and that a long and stressful debate ensued. There was always going to be mixed opinions about how a work so focused on eighteenth century colonisation was going to play in a Europe nearly two more years into coping with ongoing waves of refugees, leaking borders and terrorist assault. One version of events has at least one panel member so upset by the process they left the room.

Given the weighting of Creative NZ representatives and doing some arithmetic, we suspect that the fund-raisers probably voted for a different project. Getting money in is a huge and growing challenge for NZ at Venice. It was why there were two fundraisers/ patrons on the panel after all. The government contribution via Creative NZ is only part of the story. For instance, for the Denny outing it was the dealers who coughed up for the crucial networking party, the lavish catalogue as well as other costs along the way. In past years the ever-generous Jenny Gibbs has offered strong financial support so all eyes will be on Alastair Carruthers who apparently secured Reihana’s place with his casting vote.

Infectious

The selection of Lisa Reihana’s In Pursuit of Venus [infected] to represent New Zealand at the 2017 Venice Biennale will come as no surprise to its curator Auckland Art Gallery Director Rhana Devenport. The Auckland Art Gallery already had a lot invested  in the Reihana work and never has anyone put so much energy and lobbying power into an NZ Venice project. There must be a huge sense of satisfaction for Devenport who made it clear she thought the Reihana work was a slam dunk from the word go. Despite all that confidence, In Pursuit of Venus [infected] did have to climb over a few hurdles but as Creative NZ has already shown its rules and regulations when it comes to Venice are, to say the least, malleable. For all the talk of tweaking it into a new work, In Pursuit of Venus [infected] has been around for a long time in various iterations. To put it simply, it's unlikely that anyone who has seen the Reihana work in Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne or Singapore will not recognise it in its Venice outing. So CNZ 'commissioning' an additional suite of photographs as 'new accompanying work' to try and take the heat off the 'new' issue feels kind of unnecessary.

Unusually Reihana doesn’t have dealer representation at a time when dealers are expected to front up with cash and cashed-up connections, but with Devenport bringing the resources of the Auckland Art Gallery that's well taken care of. Still, if you pop your head out of the window in Auckland you'll probably catch a dealer or two racing by to offer their services.

This is the first time the director of a major metropolitan gallery has stepped up as sponsoring curator. It's the third time we have chosen women as both curator and artist and Lisa Reihana is the third artist of Maori descent to represent us. As for the Brian Butler list being so prescient, forget we ever mentioned it.

Here we go again

The panel to select the next New Zealand artist (or artists) for the Venice Biennale has been announced. Who are they and what can we expect?

Dr Dick Grant is Chair of Creative NZ and also chairs the panel. He's an enthusiastic supporter of NZ’s participation in Venice. He can be counted on for a straight up selection process, not something that has always been a feature in the past.

Alastair Carruthers is the Commissioner for the 2017 Venice Biennale and a past Chair of Creative NZ. As chair of Creative NZ he was hot on transparency and focus on artists. He values his independance and we can expect leadership from him as Commissioner. He'll be after an artist who can make a major international impact. He was on the panel that selected Simon Denny for 2015.

Aaron Kreisler is the Head of the Ilam Art School in Christchurch with a curatorial background, especially at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. He submitted a proposal to a previous panel so he’s familiar with the process, and the importance of curation to the project.

Dr Caroline Vercoe is a Senior Lecturer in Art History at the University of Auckland. She specialises in contemporary Pacific artists, particularly those based in New Zealand.

Dayle Mace is a long-time Patron of the Venice Biennale. She's served on every art-related board you can think of from Te Papa to the Auckland Art Gallery patrons and the Auckland Art Fair. She’s an effective arm-twister, especially in Auckland, and an excited supporter of artists. She was on the panel that selected Simon Denny for 2015.

Heather Galbraith was the Venice Commissioner for 2015. She has long been an insider in NZ’s presence in Venice including as curator for Francis Upritchard in 2009. In her day job she is Associate Professor at Massey University's art school in Wellington. She was on the panel that selected Simon Denny for 2015.

Judy Millar is the only artist on the panel. She represented NZ at the Venice Biennale herself in 2009 so she certainly has seen the game from both sides. She is also known for her opinionated writing and thinking around current art issues and brings an international perspective as she is based in both Auckland and Berlin. She was on the panel that selected Simon Denny for 2015.

Leigh Melville is a partner in the Auckland auction house Art + Object. She was chair of the Patrons group in 2015 and is back for more in 2017. Her input will be significant as the Patrons are responsible for coming up with a big chunk of the funding for NZ at Venice and they have had enough experience now to be clear about what works.

Michael Prentice is Managing Director of Designworks in Christchurch. He has had a long involvement with the performing arts including founding then Trust Board for Black Grace. He is on the panel as an Arts Council member.

Rose Evans is a conservator with a long history in the NZ Museum business. She is on the panel as an Arts Council member.

Charlotte Huddleston is Director of ST PAUL St Gallery in Auckland

On your marks....get set.....

A big change for New Zealand’s representation at the next Venice Biennale. Creative NZ has released the rules around who can submit a proposal and how the process works. There's also a much clearer statement about the Venice context, expectations of the event and why NZ should participate. Many of the Proposal Guidelines have been cut and pasted from earlier documents but their clarity and detail is a huge improvement on previous years. The biggest shift?

International curators can now be part of the team
The biggest difference is eligibility. The set of eligibility clauses outlined in the 2015 Venice document have been dropped completely. This time round international curators will be considered along with curators who are New Zealand citizens or permanent residents of New Zealand.

Foreign artists a possibility?
Curiously, it also appears that with the eligibility requirements gone there is no longer any stated conditions that require the artist to be a New Zealander. Creative NZ has assured us this is not the case but, just for fun look at these two confusing 'and/or' phrases that appear to allow foreign artists in. Test your logic – if you can stop your head from spinning.

The panel will individually asses the proposals against the following criteria:
Artist(s)/Curator
1   The artist(s) and curator have significant exhibition records in New Zealand and/or internationally and they are considered by the sector to be at the ‘top of their game’. 

2  The artist(s) and/or curator have established profiles within the New Zealand contemporary arts sector and internationally. 

 
A non-NZ artist would be very contentious, of course, and seriously, where would you find a panel with the nerve to try it on?

The Commissioner rules
Yes, the Commissioner has been elevated and centralised. The word 'lead' is sprinkled about especially in the assertion that the Commissioner 'will have a leading role' in the selection process.

Invitation process formalised
The Wild West we’ll-just-pick-whoever-we-damn-well-feel-like approach that was used for Upritchard and Parekowhai has been ruled out. Now if the proposals submitted are not considered up to scratch, Creative NZ, on the advice of the Commissioner and the panel of course, can issue a specific invitation.

And one other new change:

One step processThe requirement for artist/ curator teams to submit an expression of interest first has been dropped. Projects that don't fit the criteria or are not suitable will be eliminated based on a short discussion with CNZ before the proposal stage saving artists and curators a lot of wasted time and energy. Once that is done a proposal form will be sent out.
 
(sound of starting pistol)

.

Sydney sider
Having been hammered to death from 2007 to 2009 the artist resale royalty popped up again in the Sunday Star Times. Weirdly artist Grahame Sydney came out against it calling its supporters "Greedy. Immensely greedy." He went on to say that a sale was a sale and that as such it was "A firm, final contract between two parties - the implicit agreement being 'I will give you this thing I have made in return for this amount of money I have asked for, or we have mutually agreed is fair'. At that point, as with any sale, I relinquish my ownership rights to it.” Presumably he exempts copyright payments, the other artist royalty system, from this hard line position.

Art chart  A couple of years ago we looked at the male/female ratio in dealer galleries. Has the situation changed at all since then? Well yes it has. It’s not mega but there has been a small increase overall in the representation of women: just one percent up to a still pretty bleak 34 percent overall. In dealer galleries run by women the percentage increase was 10 percent (to 52 percent) with galleries run by men dropping their representation of women by 5 percent. If you want to look at the representative list of galleries we based these figures on you can see it here.

Gold 
The golden trumpet for stretching description beyond recognition goes this month to New Plymouth Mayor Andrew Judd for: "The Govett-Brewster is a cornerstone of contemporary art globally.” You may smile now.

By the numbers: Venice edition

0  the number of artists who have used the Marco Polo airport as a venue

1    the number of times we didn’t go because et al. annoyed the PM

2         the number of venues being used by Simon Denny

7         the number of times NZ has been represented

41       the number of NZ at Venice patrons

44       the percentage of NZ Venice participants who have been female

45       the average age of artists representing NZ

33       the age of this year’s participant Simon Denny

56       the number of art biennales that have been held in Venice

75       the percentage of women who had to show as part of a two-hander

80       the percentage of men who had solo shows at Venice

88       the number of countries that participate at Venice

197     the days the Venice Biennale will run in 2015

Miniatures
If you haven’t seen the tiny furniture by set designer John Parker on OTN’s site, it's beyond cute. And for all miniature fanatics this great behind-the-scenes clip of tiny LA being constructed for the movie Earthquake.

All the news that fits

The news that Simon Denny is showing in not one but two Venice venues (the Marciana Library and the Marco Polo airport) was recently leaked to the Christchurch media. Creative NZ rallied after an initial omg response but if you’re interested in the whole Venice thing (news as well as PR) it’s not that easy to follow what's happening. Creative NZ has put up a dedicated website but it’s not big on news so doesn't really give the whole picture. And on Facebook and Twitter Creative NZ treats its outings at Venice as a continuous event. This means that on Facebook the doings of artists who have previously been at Venice are all interspersed among updates on what we might see in 2015. On Twitter there's been nothing since September.  So kind of confusing, especially if you hit the signature map image  for Secret Power on the NZ at Venice Facebook page. You don't go to the Secret Power site as you might expect, instead you get 25 images, 21 of them of Michael Parekowhai's work.
   
So here’s a roundup of the extensive media Secret Power has already attracted:

16 February Infurno magazine announces Denny's Venice and PS1MoMA shows.

17 January 2015 satirist Steve Braunias lines up Simon Denny as potential future business in his NZH column Steve Bruanias the secret diary of ...2015

21 December John Daly-Peoples does a follow up for the NBR 'Simon Denny expands his Venice Biennale project'

Nine to Noon's Kathryn Ryan interviews Simon Denny on 16 December

The NBR shamelessly digs into Nicky Hager’s relationship to Simon Denny’s Venice gig on 16 December in a story about Hager’s sister getting a writer’s residency in Nick Grant’s 'Hager named Waikato University’s 2015 writer in residence'

On 15 December CNZ write a press release on Denny's dual venue 2015 'Venice Biennale: Second venue secured for NZ pavilion' which is picked by Scoop

The Denny installation at the Venice airport story reported by Charlie Gates in The Press on 4 December. Along with the inevitable photograph of Nicky Hager it announces the airport installation ‘will be funded by private donors’. The following day the story is updated with a brief CNZ response as 'Kiwi art to greet Venice new arrivals'.

Kim Knight’s 23 November interview with Simon Denny in Stuff 'Biennale artist follows his love'

Kate Brettkelly-Chalmers profiles Simon Denny for Ocula

Ashton Cooper profiles Simon Denny in Blouin Artinfo on 4 November with 'Artist Simon Denny On Silicon Valley, Skeuomorphic Design, and Tech Conferences'

Henry Oliver, a Denny insider, writes 'Simon Denny; the fine art of success' that appears in the November issue of Metro and includes news of Dame Jenny Gibbs' withdrawal from the Venice Patrons

On 29 October Jenny Gibbs gives her side of her walk out from the Venice Patrons to Stuff’s Kim Knight in '"Ethics" behind patron's withdrawal of Biennale support'

Natalie Akoorie on Jenny Gibbs withdrawal from the Venice Patrons in the NZ Herald on 30 October in 'Dirty Politics author in arts funding row'

Sally Blundell profiles Simon Denny in The Listener on 9 October in 'Imagining the vastness' (behind a paywall)

The Dominion Post features Simon Denny in Diana Decker’s 29 September piece 'The power of one: The rise of Simon Denny: Tracking Simon Denny's rise in the art world'

Nicky Hager is announced as a member of the Venice team in Tom Hunt’s 19 August article in Stuff 'Hager's book empowers Venice-bound artist'

E-flux announces Denny’s selection as NZ's representative in Venice on 14 August

Scoop headlines Creative NZ’s 5 August media release announcing the venue for Simon Denny’s installation in Venice with 'Spectacular venue secured for New Zealand exhibition'

Shhhhhhh

Creative New Zealand has just announced the venue for Simon Denny’s outing at the Venice Biennale. This time it’s a new location, the grand salon of the Marciana Library in San Marco Square. No big surprise that Denny’s work is going to be about information so expect to see a collision of the digital and analogue worlds. A clue to what Denny might be up to can be found in the name of a special consultant to the project: Nicky Hager. He’s written extensively about New Zealand’s role as one of the furtive five that controversially gather and analyse the digital communications of citizens around the world. In fact the Denny installation will take its name from Hager’s book Secret Power. So, great location, provocative idea and, knowing Simon Denny, more surprises to come.

Image: Simon Denny in his Berlin studio looking at an image of the grand salon of the Marciana Library

Crowded house

When we suggested a while back that every curator and his dog in NZ had put in a name for the next Venice Biennale we were right. Twenty of them have submitted expressions of interest. The dog’s proposal wasn’t accepted so only 19 have gone through to proposal stage and word in Auckland is that at least three of them come from the Auckland Art Gallery.

The selection panel has also been announced. This time it has grown.  Ten members as opposed to, say, six in 2011. There are two artists, the patrons have secured two spots for the first time, Creative NZ has four (even though it’s double counting we’re including one of the patrons who is the previous CNZ Chair), and three from art institutions. 
 
They are:
Judy Millar, Artist
Brett Graham, Artist
Dayle Mace, Patron
Alastair Carruthers, Patron
Dick Grant (Arts Council Chairman) Chair
Anne Rush, Board of Arts Council
Helen Kedgley, Board of Arts Council
Heather Galbraith (2015 Commissioner) Head of School of Art at College of Creative Arts, Massey University
Blair French, Assistant Director, Curatorial & Digital, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
Caterina Riva, Director, Artspace
 
So a big change of philosophy as to size and composition.  In the meantime, OTN is pushing ahead trying to get you the names of the proposal teams.

This is public money and it’s none of your damn business

If you’ve followed Creative New Zealand’s handling of the Venice Biennale you'll know it's hard to keep up with how the selection of artists to represent NZ is made. Given that it costs close to a million dollars that's probably not a good thing. For the last two outings the selections seemed to be a fait accompli but the efforts to find the representative for 2015 have taken a formal line as in: send-us-an-expression-of-interest-and-if-we-think-you’re-up-to-it-we-will-call-for-a-proposal-which-our-panel-will-judge.

Now, the Venice Biennale is by far the largest single chunk of public money that goes to the Visual Arts (it's around 15 percent of the visual arts annual total) so it matters how it is spent. The only way to see what CNZ is trying to achieve at Venice is to understand the rationale for the selection so we can have an informed discussion not just a reaction. It’s a power thing. The difficulty is that even when there is a selection process in place, as there is this time around, it's impossible to judge the quality of the decision unless you know who threw which hat in the ring.

CNZ issued an 11 page call for expressions of interest (you can read it here) to be in no later than 12 August so we asked for the names of the curators who have expressed interest and the artists they want to work with. No, said CNZ. We asked again as a matter of urgency under the provisions of the Official Information Act. We got a standard go-away letter.

“Creative New Zealand is aware of a number of people who are interested in and eligible to make proposals.” Of course they are, CNZ would have had all expressions of interest since the deadline of 12 August and sent them all emails on or about 16 August. Word is that all the proposals were accepted to go through to the next stage so that’s a lot of proposal writing to be done between now and the deadline of 16 September.

More from CNZ:
“Creative New Zealand’s decision is made on the basis that all applications are submitted to us in confidence…” Say what? Confidentiality is not mentioned anywhere in the CNZ call for proposals and why would it be a problem for artists or for curators if people knew they'd applied? This is the sort of attitude that encourages an unhelpful winner-takes-all culture. As one senior curator said to us, “why not just release them. It's kudos for the artist, not a shaming.”

“Making application material available during the funding decision making process would prejudice the provision of free and frank opinions to us in applications” Hey back up the bus we didn’t ever ask for material in the applications, only the names of the people who put in proposals. And besides we would be perfectly happy to have the names after the proposals have been written and sent in to CNZ which would seem to sort out free and frank.

So there you go. What we did was to ask for a list of people that at least 50 people will know already and that most of us will have worked out in a few weeks, and that’s what you get. You can read the two CNZ responses here. 

Our next step will be to ask the Ombudsman to reverse CNZ’s decision, but having to do this for such a simple request feels like overkill and a waste of public money. Why can’t we all just get along.

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

Creative NZ has announced that its Venice Biennale committee is set to pick who's to go to Venice in 2015 but who's on that committee? So far we only know the names of the CNZ operative and the Commissioner who's head of school at Massey Heather Galbraith (as an aside one assumes this probably rules out any Massey staff getting the nod). The word is that the artist will be chosen before the current Venice Biennale ends on 24 November.

There's certainly some interesting scene-setting for their choice. Across a couple of dimensions past selections have added up to a perfect balance: an equal number of women and men selected over the years and an equal number born in the North Island and in the South Island. The selections even stack up quite well in bicultural terms with three of the eight having Maori affiliations. Beyond that though the choices have been considerably narrower. 

Our Venice representative studied at Elam (5 to 3), lived overseas or in Auckland (5 to 3), was a sculptor (7 of 8 - even the one painter Judy Millar was most likely to have had her Venice installation read as sculpture). Interestingly 5 of them have also gone on to be a finalist or win the Auckland Art Gallery’s Walters Prize (5 to 3). In fact looking at it the other way round, the only Walters Prize winners not to have done Venice are, Yvonne Todd and Kate Newby. Whoops we left out Dan Arps (thanks for the reminder R) and sorry Dan.
 
So how do the leading contenders shape up?

The elephant in the room remains painter Shane Cotton. A NZ artist who has received major recognition (exhibitions, publications, overseas representation) but can’t tick even one of the majority boxes including (unbelievably) winning or even being nominated for the Walters Prize. That's especially weird when you think that 24 artists have been selected for the Prize to date. 

As a photographer Fiona Pardington doesn’t do much better box-wise although she picks up one for studying at Elam. 

Simon Denny on the other hand ticks the lot and coupled with his recent rave review by Roberta Smith in the New York Times must be a front-runner. If he got the nod he'd be the youngest ever by a couple of years and 47 years younger than this year’s Bill Culbert (ironically 47 is also the average age of all the past Venice representatives). So it looks like a slam dunk for Denny. 

But then it did last time too.

Call for papers

In a cavern, somewhere deep beneath the art world, is the unseen stream of decisions and deal-making. Only a small group of people visit and even fewer know where to get tickets for the boat. For instance currently floating along on the stream is the 2014 Walters Prize panel, whoever they are, who will be looking (or if the last one is anything to go by, not looking) at exhibitions like mystery shoppers. There's also a bunch of people who will be deciding on the next commissioner for the Venice Biennale (surveying the field it's probably between Alastair Carruthers and Massey's Heather Galbraith with Carruthers as the current off course favourite) and of course another mystery group will be deciding who's to go to Venice in 2015.

So here's a question - why are all these decisions being made in the dark? The appointment of the artistic director of Documenta in 2017 will be announced this November but it's public knowledge as to who's on that very significant panel. Why can't we have the same level of information on NZ plans? There are no commercial issues involved and there would be some major benefit. The Walters selectors could surely do with some input on exhibitions in NZ and overseas that might be worth considering and the Venice juggernaut needs all the good will and interest it can get.

And then there are the delays. Even when decisions are finally made why does it take so long to announce them? It can't be in hopes of a publicity blitz as the media releases are seldom picked up and the only people really interested could be drawn from the mailing lists of about ten dealer galleries. So why restrict knowledge of the final decisions to the committee, their immediate families, a few friends they bump into and people they meet at parties, some of who (hell maybe most) don’t give a damn?
 
That was really what got us to start publishing  OTN back in 2006, to jumpstart communications. So if you hear any of this stuff let us know and we’ll make sure the rest of you find out. And yes, wild guesses and overheard conversations in public toilets are more than welcome.

Stickability

Generous to a fault Justin Paton, who is curating the Bill Culbert exhibition in Venice, devotes one of his blog news stories to the last Venice representative Michael Parekowhai. It seems one of the many stick down signs that were applied to the foot paths is still hanging on two years later. Not bad given that the practice is technicially banned by the Venice officials. You can follow progress via Justin and other members of the Venice team here on the CNZ site NZatVENICE.

Good work

One thing has changed in the presentation of NZ at Venice. This time round there is a constant flow of information and insight coming through about the artist and the context of his work. The heavy lifting is being done by curator Justin Paton who is finally answering the often-asked question, “what the hell does a curator do when an artist is making a solo project at the VB?”  Follow the trail here

Image: Bill Culbert's Pacific Flotsam in the collection of the Christchurch Art Gallery

The unkindest cut

 Creative New Zealand is often puzzled as to why it doesn’t attract more publicity and profile from the Venice Biennale. It’s not so surprising really. Virtually every time CNZ heads into one of these hugely complicated events it does so with staff with little or no previous experience of the event. 

 And then there is the commitment problem. To date neither the Arts Council nor the Minister have publicly supported NZ’s long term participation in the Biennale beyond next year. From the record then, next year's outing with Bill Culbert will be the last to be funded. There was a flurry back in 2009 about setting up a Foundation to take over from CNZ but hard to find any reference to it now. As for the Cultural Philanthropy Taskforce, which might have looked to the future of our commitment to the Biennale, doesn't mention specifics like Venice in its ideas about how to grow the pie. So as it stands, it looks like independent rich people/ philanthropists will be expected to stump up with the million plus – good luck with that. 

A textbook example of CNZ’s ambivalence about its participation at Venice is summed up in a recent press release (you can read it here) announcing the venue for Bill Culbert’s contribution next year. It turns out CNZ has secured the same space that was used for the et al. installation in 2005 plus the use of the church that backs onto it. Makes sense. It's very well positioned on the way to the main Biennale site and a well-known venue. So good news. 

But could they bring themselves to even name the et al installation in the main copy? No, they couldn't. Although The Fundamental Practice has proved to be a major part of New Zealand's history at Venice it is described in the press release as a generic “New Zealand presentation in 2005”. Evidently nervous that resurfacing the media storm that surrounded et al.'s selection seven years ago might reflect badly on Culbert's participation CNZ chose to edit their own history.

You can read a full account of the et al. media issue here

Doge ball

It was a classic this-is-the-house-that-Jack-built moment as we stood on the platform of Mejiro metro station and saw across the lines a billboard featuring the Bellini portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan. This was the guy who lived in the Palazzo Loredan dell'Ambasciatore that is owned by Filippo Gagia who rented the ground floor to CNZ so that Michael Parekowhai could show his work in the Venice Biennale. Same hat, same white cloak with snail buttons. 

But hang on, what about that double chin? Turns out it’s another Doge altogether, an earlier Doge, Doge Giovanni Mocenigo to be precise. Damn. Then to add to (or rather subtract from) our spooky Tokyo coincidence, it turns out it wasn’t even painted by the right Bellini (or, blush, even in the same century) but by Gentile, the famous Bellini’s brother. Still, for a moment there... 

You can see the Giovanni Bellini portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan here.

Image: Tokyo billboard featuring Gentile Bellini’s portrait of Doge Giovanni Mocenigo

A decision tree

Bringing balance to Venice in 2013

Four women and three men have represented New Zealand at the Venice Biennale

Choose a male artist

The surnames of four of the artists representing New Zealand at Venice start with a letter from the second half of the alphabet and the surnames of three from the first half

Choose an artist whose surname starts with a letter from the first half of the alphabet

Four Elam graduates and three Ilam graduates have represented New Zealand at Venice

Choose an Ilam graduate

Four of the artists representing New Zealand at Venice have been under fifty years old and three over fifty

Choose an artist over fifty

New Zealand’s representation at Venice has followed the pattern: pair of artists/ single artist/ single artist/ pair of artists/ single artist/

Choose a single artist

Four of the artists at Venice were living in New Zealand and three were living abroad

Choose an artist living abroad

All the artists representing New Zealand at Venice have exhibited sculptural installations

Repeat