Advice to collectors 11

How the hell did they make that diamond encrusted skull for Damien Hirst? we hear you cry. Here's how.

Spam

unvarnished facts, reckless guesswork, insinuations and possible inventions that have arrived at overthenet.blog@gmail.com. noticed in passing – of the 16 photographs of students at work on the elam school of fine arts site, 14 are female. the publication being produced for the wellington sculpture trust was ready to go to go to print until the chairman found he had problems with the text. oh, and with the photos too. the city gallery connection with two rooms in auckland continues to flourish with the presentation of two rooms exhibition of denis o’connor booked for wellington. the two rooms catalogue includes essays by city gallery stalwarts lara strongman and gregory o’brien. after an unsuccessful attempt with art students, u.s. artist meg cranston has enlisted the help of michael parekowhai and his studio to help construct pinatas for her artspace exhibition. any missed details, indignant denials or additions gratefully received, and the one that contains the most verbs - rewarded. thanks to everyone who emailed us things they shouldn’t have.

Whew!

What a relief. You'll all be relieved to hear that the 500 PhDs per year are for all faculties at Auckland University, and not just the arts sector. We've asked Robyn Hill, Faculty Manager of the National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries, how many of those will be PhDs-who-make-art. We'll keep you posted.

The 500

The Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland has decided to go for gold in the Art School Graduating-The-Most-PhDs awards. We have already noted its passion for a practice called ‘research,’ and we can now point you to section 4 of the 2007 Annual Plan which quantifies that research in terms of bodies delivered.

The National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries (that’s the School of Architecture and Planning, Dance Studies, Elam, School of Music and the Manukau School) aims to “achieve 800 masters and 500 doctoral completions per annum through the development of an international quality graduate programme.” No, amazingly, this is not a typo: 500 doctorates a year.

A couple of comments:

• For the whole of NZ, the most recent figures we could find stated that 2,574 research degrees were completed in 2005. About 25 percent of them were doctorates.
• The Institute failed to meet its current postgraduates targets in Architecture and Fine Arts in 2006; the pressure is on.
• The Institute seems to believe it can reach its extraordinary goal by minor tweaks. It’s talking about improvements to its web site, recruitment events and communications, a couple of new areas of study and better supervision.

Let’s estimate what the Institute’s 500 PhDs a year could mean for Elam. Given that dance comes late to the PhD fever, it seems to us that as its contribution, the Elam School of Fine Arts must be looking to deliver at least 150 PhDs a year! People with maths skills will know that means in 10 years there could be another 1,500 Fine Arts PhDs loose in the country.
CORRECTION: What a relief. You'll be relieved to hear that the Auckland University has informed us that the 500 PhDs per year are for all faculties and not just the arts sector.

Lookalike XVII

Images: Left, Born Again by BGL (Jasmin Bilodeau, Sébastien Giguère and Nicolas Laverdière). Right, Ricky Swallow’s Model for Sunken Monument Click on images to enlarge.

Small print

To save readers from having to wade through boring information they are not in the least bit interested in, we will be using this post space as a parking lot for future references.

Heads up

These telling images of New York dealer gallery reception areas have been around for a while, but here's a selection for those that missed them. For more of the same, click here.
Images: Top left, Andrea Rosen, right Cheim&Reid. Bottom left, Pace Wildenstein, right Metro pictures from the series Sentry by Andy Freeberg

Desolate Dreams

There's a new, art-related comic now on display at stimulusresponse called Desolation Row (Of Panels). The connection to this blog is tenuous, but strangely powerful. The comic features a painting.

And that's about it.

Hyperbole

The art galleries talk things up.

Mystic Truths
“… this courageous and enigmatic exhibition.”

Bill Hammond
“The long-awaited spectacular survey exhibition.”

King Kong
“This unique exhibition.”

Trust Waikato National Contemporary Art Award 2007
“It has put Waikato on the map for refusing to shy away from controversy.”

Laurence Aberhart
“This major exhibition of New Zealand’s most eminent photographer.”

All extravagant claims by art galleries for their exhibitions gratefully received. The best published and, the very best, rewarded.

Look alike XVI

Images: left, Marcel Duchamp L.H.O.O.Q. Right, poster Brussels.

Show time

Today's the day the Trip of a Lifetime Tour travellers have to pay the Piper, and hand in personal reports on their tax payer funded trip to the Venice Biennale, Art Basel, Liste, Volta, Scope, Documenta and Sculpture Projects Muenster 07. We have asked CNZ for copies of the reports so we can share highlights with you. We have also requested the timetable and process for the Reference Group's (three women museum directors: Tina Barton, Rhana Devenport and Jenny Harper, a couple of artists: Gavin Hipkins and Riki Manuel and a curator: Jim Vivieaere) review. CNZ have asked the TOALT team to report to the next meeting of the visual arts reference group in October 2007. Of course this is the second review of Venice requested by CNZ. The first was commissioned from Australian consultants SGS Economics and Planning Pty Ltd. That report strongly recommended a return to Venice but as far as we can see is no longer available on the CNZ web site.
UPDATE: The first report has been found by one of our readers. You can read it here.
Don't forget, if you have the psychic strength, you can read all the Trip of a Lifetime posts by clicking Trip of a Lifetime in the Labels box at the bottom of this post.

Wiseguys

Over at stimulusresponse there is, at long last, a post relevant to this blog. It's a comic called Three Wise Men featuring Ronnie Van Hout's Son of Nothing Else as one of the men.

Lifestyle section

The Breakfast opening
Signs are that Saturday morning openings are on the up, with breakfast starting to push wine and cheese off the menu, as the savvy art opening offering. A recent breakfast opening at Wellington’s Adam Art Gallery offered juice, croissants, fruit and coffee, and now a breakfast opening is promised for the Julian Dashper exhibition at the Christchurch Art Gallery on Saturday morning 11 August. We welcome any thoughts on art lifestyle trends for this new overthenet feature. Insights into topics such as curator shoes, gallerist restaurant preferences, wall colour tones and invitation design styles will be rewarded.

Simple pimple

Why the hell didn't we think of that?

Getting an earful

News that the Christchurch Art Gallery has just introduced a new audio tour with Sam Neil talking to the art works via iPod didn’t cause a ripple, and why would it? Like corporate sponsorship, cafes and souvenir shops, the audio tour is now accepted as part of what a good art museum should offer its public. Indeed, it’s hard to remember now what it was about audio tours that offended the art profession in the first place. Some we concerned about the overly didactic nature of this sort of material, but computer lettering on the wall has put an end to that sensitivity. Others worried that visitors would not look at the work, just listen to the tape and move on. Guess what, people were smart enough to do both things at once. Checking out audio tours in action recently , the only conclusion we could draw (apart from the fact that they are ubiquitous), is that the people with the headphones study the specified works longer and more intently than virtually all other visitors. There’s a lot of controversy behind that phrase ‘specified works,’ but moving on, the iPod and easy uploading has also opened the opportunity for anyone to create their own tours. Do a tape, put it up on the web and anyone can download your perspective on an exhibition. Even better, tours can include commentaries by artists, conversations and a mix of voices and sounds. Don’t like the museum’s selection of work? Make your own. Check out the tour of the most overrated and underrated paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Modern Art Gallery by Slate critic Lee Siegel and Art Mobs unofficial guides as podcasts for inspiration.