Lookalike

If you were in Sydney early in 1992, you're in for a bit of déjà vu all over again at Te Papa. As part of their new re-hang of the national collection, the curators have made an elegant homage to an earlier exhibition. This exhibition was part of their own history back when they were known as the National Art Gallery. The last time Julian Dashper’s Mural for a contemporary house and Lillian Budd’s Modern world were coupled was in Headlands. 

It was the opening exhibition for the MCA in Sydney (kinda amazing for an Australian institution to launch with NZ art, and hasn't been done again) and curated by the National Art Gallery's Robert Leonard. Ok, there was a curatorium (why don’t they use cool names like that any more? … oh, that’s right, we remember), but it was Leonard’s exhibition, and the Dashper Budd combo is about as pure Leonard as you can get. There are other more subtle echoes of Headlands in the Te Papa hang in the selection of artists (Dawson, Derek Cherrie) as well as the title of this section (Mod Cons in Headlands, Open Homes at Te Papa). So if you want to experience something with more than a bit of the flavour of Headlands, head to Te Papa, but don't expect to see that history acknowledged. Nowhere on the signage or labels is there any link back to the MCA, Leonard or Te Papa's own connections with these objects. Seems a weird way to participate in art history. Or maybe the similarity in the selections is just a coincidence and George Santayana was right, those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Images: top Headlands 1992 and bottom Te Papa 2015

Lawn dog

You look out the window at the small plot of grass and garden and think, ‘what could I put there that would brighten the place up?’ The answer lies in China - a Jeff Koons Balloon Dog either full size or (if you really want to annoy the neighbours) even bigger. Is such a thing even possible? Sure it is. You just need to get onto Vincentaa Landscape & Architect Sculpture Co’s website and order one up at a cost of between $500 (we assume for a smaller dog) to $5,000 (who knows how big). Vincentaa can knock you up 10 of these a week, not that you will probably need 10 but who knows, economies of scale etc. Once it’s made your dog goes to Tianjin Xingang Port in a ‘strong seaworthy iron frame’ and then to you. If you really want to add some grunt to your front you can also order up a 30 meter reflecting Anish Kapoor like the one in Chicago on the same site.

Copy Kahn’s

One thing that has happened in Bangladesh since we have been going there has been a major increase in the standard of building. Call it the Dubai effect. Bangladeshis have been a major force in the building of that city and they've come back home to produce buildings with the international level quality and finish. It's particularly amazing when you realise that even in high-rise projects concrete pours are delivered on site via woks on the heads of endless streams of workers.

And is the spirit of Louis Kahn apparent in these modern buildings? Not so much. But it was great to spot his influence in the oddest places, including a gas station.

Images: Louis Kahn alive and well in Dhaka. Top, a disused gas station. Middle, a mosque and inside the airport's international terminal and bottom, bus station.

Mars attack

Anyone else think of Colin McCahon’s Gate series when this photo was sent back from Curiosity on Mars? Oh, ok, maybe it was just us. 

Image: the first colour photo snapped by Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI). Photo / NASA

Lookalike

Seeing the boy with a pig in yesterday's New Zealand Herald and thinking about Jeff Koons' Ushering in banality

The dogs howl but the caravan moves on.

 

UK artist Douglas Gordon channels Michael Parekowhai with a stuffed wolf at the Galerie Jensen in Berlin. (Thanks B)

If it's neon it must be Flavin

Sandra Sperkhake and Dieter Hoppe give the whole industry a bad name as they present incredibly lame art lookalikes on Flavorwire.

Image: Sandra and Dieter's best effort for a Dan Flavin lookalike

Snap

Starkewhite and Tim Melville both go for deep-water action in their February exhibition programmes. Cheers A

Balloon wars II

Following up on our don't-anyone-make-balloon-dogs-or-I'll-sue Jeff Koon's story, balloon dog lovers will be pleased to hear Koons has folded. In a legal arrangement with the shop that sold mini balloon dog bookends Koons has agreed to no restraint of trade so long as his name is not associated with the product. As this was never the case things should go swimmingly. Gentlemen, start up your balloon dog productions.

My watch has stopped too

Is there anyone in New Zealand doing stranger work than Rohan Wealleans? His layer, cut and paste technique has driven him from the unnerving gashed and pinned works of the beginning of this century (love saying that) to the weirdly believable objects that constitute his current focus. 

Creating a convincing object has always been a benchmark for sculptors (not as easy as you would think), but it is a goal that can be easily subverted or at least made even trickier by uncanny surfaces. Surfaces that don't add up as far as the human eye is concerned but just keep on looking weird. Now we discover that maybe Wealleans' surfaces aren’t as strange as we thought but more like spooky echoes of shapes and surfaces hidden from normal vision. 

That’s certainly the impression you get when you visit subblue, Tom Beddard’s blog where his animations of fractals programmed to mimic natural terrain are featured. You can see Beddard’s videos (and possibly a fair rendition of Rohan Weallean’s dreams/nightmares) here.

Skied

The ASB channels Neil Dawson on Ponsonby Road. Thanks a million M.

Balloon wars

Jeff Koons - shameless appropriator - is now putting in the boot from the other foot. Seems JK feels that he now owns all things balloon dog and we assume all that implies: chasing down street clowns, harassing kids at birthday parties and rounding up balloon dog lookalikes from gift stores. It was a BD gift that got him crossing swords with Jamie Alexander who runs Park Life, a store here in SF. Koons's lawyer instructed Alexander to pull his balloon dog bookends from the shelves and Alexander complied reluctantly grousing, "This man can't own something that existed before him." And this is a strange battle for Koons to pick, back in 1992 he was successfully sued for copyright infringement by the photographer who took that shot that was the basis of Koons's work String of Puppies. If you believe in freedom for balloon dogs, clap your hands.

To get some idea of the wide range of BD-like products available for Jeff Koons to unleash his lawyers on, check out dustyburrito.

Other OTN Koons tales:

Koons body butter

Flogging flowers
The best Koons lookalike ever
Koons at the movies
Koons and camo
All the pretty colours
Koons crane and train
 
Image: Balloon dog bookend (left hand side)

Don't change that channel

Earlier this year we found Martin Kippenberger being channeled at the Southern Landfill. Since then they have been busy getting ready for their survey exhibition.

Pointed

Our OTN British correspondent is in Oxford thinking about Phil Price's Zephyrometer and pointy sculpture in general.
Thanks J

Lookalike

You want lookalikes? Well hop over to the smallworlds forum where they spend a lot of time creating their own versions of great art in a small worlds art forgery competition. Some of it surprisingly touching.

Lookalike

Top, Shane Cotton Broken water, bottom Bill Culbert Off White

In so far as we can thank you, thanks B

Infinity pool

Like reflections in one of those Kusama rooms the world of lookalikes stretches as far as the eye can see. Here a photograph taken by one of OTN’s readers Derek Henderson in Orepuki in Southland echoing the Peter McIntyre’s view of the North Island town, Kakahi we posted the other day.
Image: Top. Bottom, Derek Henderson Dover Street, Orepuki, Southland. 2-45pm, 23rd February 2004

Lookalike

Images: top, Threadless Spoiler t shirt by Ollie Moss 2007. Bottom, Peter Robinson Dirt cheap c.1994

Hold your horses

If you doubt that technology is changing much, check out this music video. Shot in just four days in a garage, it features Swedish band Hold your horses performing 70 Million while pimping 24 lookalike artworks. Produced by L’Orge, it was edited on a Mac (what else?) with Final Cut Pro.

You can catch the amazing video itself here. If you can’t i.d. all the recreated art works, there’s a complete list below (don't cheat). To give credit where it’s due, it was directed by David Freymond with photography by Eugenie Marcland.

Images: clockwise from top left. Velazquez – Las Meninas, Géricault – The Raft of the Medusa, David – The Death of Marat, Munch – The Scream, Otto Dix – La journaliste Sylvia von Harden and Rembrandt – The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp

Answers:

Te Papa buys version of painting already owned by the Australian National Library

Why has Te Papa spent over two million dollars on a painting when another copy is available for loan just across the Tasman? The purchase of one of three versions of John Webber’s painting Poedua (Poetua) was made using ‘cash reserves for capital purchases and projects, a mixture of funding from government and the museum's commercial activities.’ It seems a strange purchase when an virtually identical version of this work is only 3.5 hours away by plane in Canberra in the National Gallery of Australia, on loan from the Australian National Library. 

You might wonder whether or not Te Papa had any conversation with the Australians about the possibility of borrowing the work on a regular basis. None of these art works stay on permanent display. If the Australian National Library was willing to lend its work to the ANG, couldn’t Te Papa also become a loan partner?

If Te Papa is to remain a sustainable collecting institution entering into cooperative arrangements with other institutions will surely have to be seriously considered. This is already happening between institutions like the Tate in London, the Whitney in New York and the Pompidou in Paris. They share the cost of expensive art works rather than each going to the huge expense of owning their own examples. The borrowing option could be even cheaper and easier.

You can read more about institutions sharing art works here.

Image: the three versions of Poedua. Left to right, National Maritime Museum in London, Australian National Library and Te Papa