Even in its wildest dreams the politicos couldn’t
have imagined that their plea
for philanthropists to take over arts funding would result in packs of patrons
roaming the streets of Venice acting as supporters of team Culbert and team
George.
New Zealand has exhibited at the Venice Biennale
since 2001 and each outing has been backed by a group of patrons as well as
Creative NZ. This year turns out that John and Jo Gow (Connells Bay Sculpture Park on Waiheke Island and also NZ at Venice patrons ) and dealer Rebecca Hamid of RH Gallery in Nelson have launched a competitive patronage package.
This one is funding Darryn George to show in the curated exhibition Personal Structures exhibition at the
Palazzo Bembo in Venice. It seems to have much the same trappings as the NZ at
Venice one for Bill Culbert (editioned George prints for sale at $2,500, $5,000
and $5,000+, tours in Venice etc) but of course with Culbert as the official NZ
representative his comes with Venice gold, the almost-impossible-to-get Vernissage
tickets.
So how much is this new group trying to raise? You’d
have to guess you'd say - a lot. Showing at Venice is not cheap even at the edges. The PalazzoBembo where George has been invited to show (Judy Millar
was there at the last Biennale and Scott Eady will join George in this one) offers
its spaces at $2,200 per square meter. When you add making the work (a ‘fabricated room’ to
fit within the existing space along with ‘a high tech lighting system’)
freight, airfares, accommodation etc George's budget must be in the region of
$150,000. That’s a lot of money to suck out of a well that the Culbert patrons
must have thought was theirs for the drinking. How this will all be negotiated
with George’s other dealers is anybody’s guess. Look out for more of these
patron/dealer/artist mixes as biennales, art fairs and artist projects expand
in scale and ambition and the costs escalate.
