Living the dream

The mega game Minecraft allows you to create worlds using simple (well not so simple these days) building blocks, sort of like LEGO online (#sorrytoeveryonewhoplaysforthatgrossgeneralisation). Tate has used the Minecraft platform to deliver the holy grail of every art educator: a 3D walk through paintings. You can get the links here at Tate and mine away this Saturday.

Images: top left, The Pool of London painted by André Derain in 1906 and right, in its Minecraft version. Bottom, Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson’s 1920 painting The Soul of the Soulless City (New York - an Abstraction) and right in Minecraft

Reading the Walters Prize

While the selection of this year’s Walter' Prize finalists has certainly encouraged a great deal more discussion than in the past, the traditional news media remains pretty apathetic.  An upcoming profile of Simon Denny in Metro may have a halo effect on the Prize, so a potential flicker of interest there possibly, but fortunately online there have been wide ranging and thoughtful responses. Cheaper than buying a newspaper and non of that irritating rustling noise. Checking them out is more than worth the effort.
 
EyeContact has delivered not one but four reviews (Terrence Handscomb, John Hurrell, Emma Jameson and Natasha Matila-Smith) all taking a serious look at the finalists, the politics of the WP and the work. The Pantograph punch leads with a quiz and follows up with Janet McAllister reckoning art is the winner on the day. Te Papa pitches in with a piece by Nina Tonga on finalist Kalisolaite ‘Uhila  and a long interview by Abby Cunnane with finalist Maddie Leach. The sane companion blog of Masters student Katherine Stewart promises to follow the award with regular commentary.  There’s probably more and if you let us know we’ll we’ll add them in.

Maybe the traditional mainstream media have had their day when it comes to the visual arts. At the same time as specialist print publications like Art News are taking the Prize very seriously interviewing all the finalists, Mark Amery’s fortnightly review has been dumped from Wellington's Dominion Post as of last month. But you can still catch his fortnightly reviews online at The Big Idea.

Vanishing point

A recent panel discussion at the Auckland Art Gallery apparently prompted just one question from the audience. The panel of three art dealers was asked something along the lines of whether people were prepared to buy online without seeing the work. Dealer Michael Lett said yes, they were, but added that such sales are usually based on the buyer having a pre-existing knowledge of the artist. Dealer Gary Langsford even put some numbers around it. According to him local online art shopping cuts off at around $20,000 an item and internationally it hovers around $100,000.

Of course as Lett suggested sight-unseen purchasing has always been part of the art market. For example auction phone bids often rely on catalogue photographs and discussions with the auction house.  Still, when you add developments online with the suggestion that at least one prominent NZ gallery is thinking of closing shop, you have to wonder just how long bricks and mortar will remain the primary channel for art purchases. And if the worst were to happen, you also have to wonder what the hell we’ll all do with our Saturday mornings.

CHRISTOPHER TAYLOR COMMENTS: "Gary Langsford is not paying attention, or misinformed. In the New Zealand alone Ocula Black has sold many artworks online, entirely through the online auction system, one being for well over $200,000, a number of others for over $20,000. And international online sales have long left $100,000.

Whatamibidforthisbeautifulcolinmcahonlandscapeonboard?

Want to buy art but don’t like crowds, openings or putting on a clean shirt? You might try Ocula, a new NZ/Australian focussed online auction site and news source. You can also sell art on the site with a negotiable commission capped at only 5%. 

Will it work? Well, there are a few artworks poised ready to leap into cyber auction mode - a Billy Apple silkscreened Bartered work kicks off today with an estimate of $15,000-20,000 and a beautiful signed Max Dupain Sunbaker print comes up for bidding on 10 May. 

So far there are no time limits against any of the listed auctions but maybe they’ll be added when the bidding starts. Elsewhere on the site auctions are described as either being seven or ten days long. Without them of course you don't really have an auction so much as a listing.

The proof of Ocula will be in the results and in the transparency of the entire transaction. We’ll check in again around the end of May to see what info is provided on sale prices, best bids and all the other stuff that make auctions such fun to watch and nerve-wracking to join. 

In the meantime, you can check Ocula out here.