Friday, May 31, 2013
A bit off
Posted by jim and Mary at 12:00 PM
Top Bill
Images: top Culbert and bottom Denny on show in Venice
Posted by jim and Mary at 9:00 AM
Labels: venice biennale
Putting the fun into funding
OTN joined up and in March chose to support the Christchurch Art Gallery’s effort to fund an outreach programme. The goal was $25,000 in 35 days. The first surprise (ok, we didn’t read the fine print) was that unlike other crowd sourcing sites Boosted banked our contribution a day or so after it was pledged. On other funding systems our dollars were claimed when and if the project reached its target. Of course the big difference with Boosted is that in reality you are donating to the Arts Foundation and not the project. It is the Foundation that decides whether or not to pass the money on to your selected project. OK they are almost certain to do so, but it is not guaranteed. As the Foundation has also undertaken to refund donations when projects don't reach their goal, it must be bracing for the heavy admin job of contacting hundreds of contributors (one unsuccessful project alone had over 55) when this happens. That's on top of providing tax receipts to the 600 plus donors (the average donation, not including Christchurch, is around $100) to successful projects
Back to Christchurch. By the middle of April nothing much had happened. Our project was only five percent funded and its prospects were looking grim. Suddenly a contribution of around $12,000 landed in the kitty via insurance company IAG. Hmmm, that was convenient. Then with three days to go, magic. Another $12,000 popped up, this time from the Christchurch Casino, and game over. It's hard to believe that the Christchurch Art Gallery didn't already have those large donations in its back pocket and was participating as an act of support to the Boosted concept. The downside was the danger of making the other smaller contributors feel rather surplus to requirements.
Tracking projects is definitely an issue for Boosted. There is nothing on the site we could find listing successful projects and unsuccessful ones just vanish in the night although you can cobble some information together from Facebook. We've been through the site but we're not quite sure what happens if a project is over-subscribed. There is some stuff about projects maybe being given more if the AF thinks they would do even better good things with it but it's wrapped in a lot of lawyer language.
And then there's the way the Boosted site stresses that projects have a limited time to raise their funds. Sure, it adds drama, but it's a little ingenuous as a number of 30-day time extensions have been allowed to projects that have only excited the smallest flutter of donor interest.
At the 50-day mark the Arts Foundation announced the funding of six successful projects. “We're thrilled to announce that, since launching, Boosted has raised over $50,000 for the arts! “ (this amount is now $70,000). While Boosted certainly had raised $50,000 what was not mentioned was that over half of it came from two donations for one project.
A site like Boosted that gathers good art projects that need funding and manages donations is a great idea. But it probably needs some fine tuning to make it a little more donor friendly given that increased philanthropy is the aim. For example a clearer connections between the projects and the cash (not every donor is just in it for the tax deductions), better tracking to show what happens to every project, a cumulative list of past projects and results that stays up for easy reference (at the moment Google seems to be the only way to old projects, so a search box might be good too) and a FAQ that answers potential contributor questions.
Posted by jim and Mary at 7:00 AM
Labels: Boosted, christchurch art gallery, funding
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Spilling it
Now Spill has come out from behind the security fence and published The way of the bodyguard. According to Spill the book has been written for “those who are curious about the world of bodyguards, those who want to get into the profession” (and let's face it who isn’t? and who doesn’t?) and next week will be available at Amazon for $4.99.
There are many tips along the way. “They [potential bank robbers] looked at my suit jacket, probably worked out I was wearing a bulletproof vest under my white shirt and tie and that I had a large handgun somewhere.” Bulletproof vest, check. Large handgun, check.
And, “ According to verbal judo doctrine an uncocked tongue is more dangerous than an uncocked gun.” Tongue cocked, check.
And, “The way of the bodyguard is to lose your ego.” Uncheck ego, check.
And, finally, “If a new bodyguard shows up to work for me without a flashlight, and a pen and notebook, I send them home.” Pen, flashlight and notebook, check, check, check.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Stickability
Posted by jim and Mary at 12:00 PM
Labels: cnz venice, venice biennale
Living room.
The complex is astonishing, a twentieth century castle meets geometry. As the identical modules turn and reverse on each other they show how important the spaces between things and around things are to art and architecture. But so unnerving to to see though such a massive structure as it frames the sky and trees beyond. And it is massive. At opening it comprised 354 apartments and although some have now been joined together it has not affected the external appearance. Indeed it's hard to think of Habitat as a single structure so complex are its forms and the connections between them.
Initially it was intended to provide affordable housing but that was one ambition not realised. It is now a very private upscale housing complex with the expansive courtyards and natural stairs and its entry pathways tightly guarded. In 2009 Habitat67 was recognised as a heritage building but from what we could see Montreal's climate is not kind to concrete. There are many signs of stress and partial decay. Still the complex is an imposing achievement and still a powerful model for urban housing.
Just along the road is another structure built for Expo67 the Montreal Biosphere, Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome. In architecture you would have to say 1967 was a very good year.
You can take a peek inside Habitat67 via this Leonard Cohen music video
Posted by jim and Mary at 7:00 AM
Labels: architecture
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Site specific
And then there's the works that will never be returned, the countless religious paintings and icons and sculptures that have been stripped from their context and narratives and put in museums. When you do get to see a great artwork in its original setting it's a startling experience.
We've just been to St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valetta and met up with Caravaggio’s masterpiece The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist. Ok, it's not exactly accessible, but an extraordinary visual reward is guaranteed. Painted for a side chapel in the Cathedral used by the Knights of Malta, this painting hangs behind the altar exactly where Caravaggio intended. It even witnessed the day the Knights of Malta gathered to defrock the artist after another unpardonable escapade. Like many other art pilgrimages it has its challenges but you’ll never see anything like it anywhere else.
Image: Sure it’s behind a sign and you share the space with a small crowd but there it is, Caravaggio’s The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist right where it belongs.
Posted by jim and Mary at 7:00 AM
Labels: art museum, audience
Monday, May 27, 2013
Baby steps
Image: Ai Weiwei's Baby formula 2013
Posted by jim and Mary at 7:00 AM
Labels: controversy, exhibitions
Saturday, May 25, 2013
One day in the TV studio
Director: Here’s your script, Mr. Dali
Dali: (reads) First it dissolves. Happy bubbles but devoted bubbles. The Alka-Seltzer shoots into the stomach. Here it neutralises the bad excess acid. Meanwhile this specially popular aspirin is speeding into your blood stream and places of pain so those beautiful places will feel beautiful again. Alka-Seltzer is a work of art. Truly one of a kind.
Director: OK?
Dali: Yes, it is good. I will make only one small change.
And he did.
Posted by jim and Mary at 7:00 AM
Labels: dali, one day in
Friday, May 24, 2013
Busted
Insight into what is involved in an Aztec Treasures type show has been revealed by the Australian Museum in Sydney with some numbers around its Alexander the Great: 2000 Years of Treasures from St Petersburg. Alexander pulled in a modest 161,145 visitors and according to the museum will ‘hopefully’ break even. For context Te Papa's Monet and the Impressionists attracted 152,000 visitors in 2009
We did some estimates on what break even might mean for Alexander. Ticket prices were $28 Adult; $72 Family (2 adults + 2 children); $21 Concession; $14 Child and we figured of the 161,145 visitors 55 percent were adult, 25 percent kids, 5 percent families and 10 percent concessions. Then we threw in 5 percent for free admissions. In terms of ticket revenue this all adds up to around $4 million and yet Alexander still only broke even (hopefully). And the costs can be huge, Alexander required 29 curators to accompany it across the world. Still, the Australian Museum remains game; it's one of the Australian venues taking Te Papa's Aztec show.
The investment into these blockbusters is more about marketing the museum and attracting attention than it is about making a return. That’s why although museums can allow some blockbusters to fall on the red side of the ledger, they really do have to get those numbers through the door.
Images: Back in the day queuing for Tutankhamun at the British Museum in 1971
Posted by jim and Mary at 7:00 AM
Labels: blockbuster, Te papa
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Let it go Bob, let it go
Posted by jim and Mary at 12:00 PM
Labels: controversy, et al., lol, media
King hit
And how the marketplace loves Gerhard Richter. Even Richter thinks it's on another planet when it comes to his work. "It's just as absurd as the banking crisis. It's impossible to understand and it's daft.” Last year Eric Clapton sold one for $33.4 million making Richter at the time the world’s highest priced living artist. It’s big business the Richter business with total sales for the 30 years leading up to 2010 at $538,118,111, with the single boom year 2010 accounting for $76.9million of that total. So great call by whoever was in charge of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in the late eighties.
Image: details from Gerhard Richter’s diptych AB Mediation 1986
Posted by jim and Mary at 6:43 AM
Labels: art market, art museum, collecting
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Stupid, stupid, stupid: the mistakes we make
Posted by jim and Mary at 12:00 PM
Labels: auckland art gallery, wrong again
The duck Christo problem
Posted by jim and Mary at 7:00 AM
Labels: big, lookalike, public sculpture
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
1978
Carpet bomb
The big surprise in the painting gallery (ok shock really) was to find that the famous movable walls were covered, Austin Powers-like, in carpet. Yes, carpet was a Philip Johnson favourite that he'd used as early as the sixties in the Kreeger house. Somehow he convinced his clients that laying fireproofed beige cotton carpet over plaster would highlight the art while providing ease of installation (no visible nail holes, no touching up). In his enthusiasm he forgot to mention one small fact: while it looks ok at a distance in photographs it looks plain weird close up. Still if weird is what you want, you can see how to lay carpet on a wall here.
Posted by jim and Mary at 7:00 AM
Labels: architecture, display
Monday, May 20, 2013
Direction
Front Rhana
Devenport is of course from the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery that must now be the pre-eminent launch pad for senior art museum staff in this country. Cheryll Sotheran to the Dunedin Public Art Gallery and Te Papa, John McCormack and Pricilla Pitts to DPAG, Greg Burke to Toronto's Power Plant and Robert Leonard to the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane. Then there's the selection of Devenport when Christchurch Art Gallery's Jenny Harper is understood to have been in the running. As Harper is one of the most qualified museum professionals in the country you'd think this would be cause for at least some discussion. Devenport did after all come in from behind to beat the odds on favourite.
Plus there's Devenport’s commitment to Asian art. This focus was seen in her programming of the Govett-Brewster and will be complemented by her new principal curator Zara Stanhope who has just completed a PhD on cross cultural contemporary art practice with her research based in Asia. One in four people living in Auckland city identified with an Asian ethnicity in 2006, and this is expected to increase to one in three in 2021 so this appointment could bring big changes to the direction of the AAG. Devenport has already hinted at this. You would think, wouldn’t you, that combined these factors add up to a great story? So how surprising it is then to see the minor attention it has attracted.
The chronology. It seems that the Auckland Art Gallery issued an embargoed media release with the announcement sometime on Sunday 12 May. It was almost immediately broken by Metro magazine in a tweet at 7.28pm. The response on Twitter was muted to say the least. A few regulars picked up the early Metro tweet, including Leg of Lamb, Anthony Byrt, Courtney Johnson, Newstalk ZB and four others who retweeted Metro.
The one substantive comment we've found was made on Monday morning at 8.42am by Hamish Keith. He expressed dismay: “New Zealand’s greatest ever Director, Jenny Harper – passed over for Auckland Art Gallery job – bloody shame.” And later tweeted that “…Jenny’s track record leadership and scholarship are among the best I have encountered in my career.”
The AAG itself finally acknowledged the appointment with an oh-by-the-way tweet at 9.16am (“We are looking forward to our new director Rhana Devenport who starts in July.”) and that night Newstalk ZB made the announcement online at 6.24pm and half an hour later Scoop published the media release probably in line with the embargo.
On Tuesday morning OTN posted and the mainstream media came on board with the NBR taking up the story and filling it out with what appears to be interview material from Jenny Gibbs strongly in support of the appointment. Then at 5am on Wednesday the Taranaki Daily News ran the story and followed up the next day with a ‘first woman’ piece.
Sticking to its guns the AAG still has nothing on Facebook (apart from auto-postings from other pages), no news, no blog post and no sign of the media statement on its site. The New Zealand Herald, at least online, appears to have spiked the story.
The Auckland Art Gallery is the major art institution in NZ and yet no one seems all that interested in its leadership or what changes might be in store. There was a time when this sort of appointment might have made the front page of the Metropolitan daily rather than just raising a flutter of insider tweeting.
Posted by jim and Mary at 7:00 AM
Labels: auckland art gallery, media
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Showing off on Saturday
Friday, May 17, 2013
Man up
Posted by jim and Mary at 12:00 PM
Labels: numbers, venice biennale
Fashionartstas
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Watermark
Posted by jim and Mary at 7:00 AM
Labels: art museum, duchamp
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
The never ending story
Guarded
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Top spot
More here from the Taranaki Daily News
Posted by jim and Mary at 6:00 AM
Labels: auckland art gallery
Monday, May 13, 2013
Rat king
Posted by jim and Mary at 12:00 PM
Labels: art fair, public sculpture
Big Ears
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Friday, May 10, 2013
Deep Frieze
Crowd sourcing II
Posted by jim and Mary at 7:00 AM
Labels: auckland art gallery, audience, moma
Thursday, May 09, 2013
That was the year that was
Posted by jim and Mary at 7:00 AM
Labels: curators, exhibitions
Wednesday, May 08, 2013
Woulda, coulda, shoulda
Posted by jim and Mary at 6:36 AM
Labels: architecture, Te papa