Vanishing cream

If you've followed OTN for a while you'll know its position over the use of Gordon Walters' version of the koru has gone from astonishment through resignation to whatever. As a design it has been slapped on just about everything but now that the digital is putting copyright itself under such pressure all this WTFing is starting to feel rather old school. But there are always exceptions. And you do have to laugh when you see Walters basic design revamped into a clumsy identity for a product called ‘Come Clean’. Their killer by-line? “Clear skin with a clear conscience.” Not until you've talked to the Walters Estate you won’t have.

You tubes

The sight of design chipping away at art’s domain is a familiar feature of our world, but here's a major leap forward. Artists like Bruce Nauman, Claire Fontaine, Joseph Kosuth, Tracey Emin and Martin Creed (and there’s a lot more where that came from) who've kidnapped neon lettering from the commercial world may have to think about letting it go. Now there's an art/design neon kit available that you can use to construct your own words, letter by letter. Suggested are ‘Light’ (at $650), ‘Love’ (sorry Martin), ‘Home’, and, inevitably, ‘Art’ (the cheapest at $395). And where do you buy one of these art destabilising machines? The Auckland Art Gallery shop, Corner Kitchener and Wellesley Streets.

Image: left Martin Creed Work no. 374 and right the less attractive DIY version made by Seletti on display at the Auckland Art Gallery shop

By the numbers: links edition

0   the amount of significant change (pdf.) in attendance by 10-14 year olds at visual arts events or locations since 2011

0  the number of flag designs presented in the flag panels current top 40 that are worth pursuing

3   the number of comments generated by John Hurrell’s review of the new Len Lye Centre on eyecontact that included his opinion that “there is a strong sense that the Lye Centre has hijacked the Govett-Brewster, that the Govett is only a mere annex to the Lye project.”

4  the number of lectures on Len Lye you can find on Circuit

5  the number of people (ok men) on the 185 strong 2015 NBR Rich List who chose to be photographed with art in the background

5   the number of prints of the 21 published for Artspace’s twenty-first birthday that have sold out

11    the number of visual art works Te Papa currently has integrated into its non-art exhibitions.

27    the number of artist talks available as Auckland Art Gallery podcasts

704  the number of days that have passed since the Government announced Te Papa North

799  the number of art works registered as ‘by New Zealander’ in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales