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Auckland is closed today (Anniversary Day) and of course Artspace is too but behind those closed doors there's a major reno going on. The sign on the door says Artspace will be open again tomorrow and it is certainly going to be a case of more-open-than-usual. The old Nga Taonga Sound & Vision space facing East Street has now become part of Artspace itself as an expansive open area for reading / resources / offices. No more wondering if you dare go through the glass door at the back of the gallery and venture past the toilets and into that office where everyone spins around as you come through the door. OK, some fashion stores do the intimidation thing better, but not many. We're told that Adnan Yildis, Artspace's newish director, figured out how to rejig Artspace a couple of hours after he first saw it. Now, thanks to Sue Gardiner acting as über fundraiser, his idea has been realised just a year after he took up the job. The only loser in the revamp was Oscar Enberg. Having taken on the Christmas Holidays slot, he might have expected his show to be on view for longer than usual, but when we got there it had been ‘Christoed’ to protect it while the builders and painters were doing their thing. Unfortunately it is squeezed at the other end by the opening of Fiona Clarke’s THE BILL to mark the 30th anniversary of Homosexual Law Reform in NZ. No one would suggest mucking around with that important anniversary but maybe the same energies that are galvanising Artspace will find a temporary venue so Enberg’s exhibition can get its full run.
Images: Looks like art, Oscar Enberg’s installation under wraps during the Artspace re-fit.
When we walked up the stairs to Peter Robinson’s studio a couple of months ago it was for the last time. Not for the first time gentrification has honed in on previously unwanted spaces rented out for artist’s studios. The Robinson moved was forced by the renovation of the building into expensive apartments. In New York the transformation of the areas artists have lived in-moved onto- and moved-on-again from have become some of the most sought after residential property in the world. August / September was obviously moving time here too. Andrew Beck had just moved from Auckland to a new space in Wellington, Dan Arps had taken Andrews old space in Henderson and Oscar Enberg had just returned to an old studio he had left the year before. As always OTNSTUDIO pics are available for use. If you’re using them for something significant let us know first so we can tell the artists and give you bigger files if you need them.
Images: materials packed up and ready to move out of Peter Robinson's studio
You can’t beat the kick of going into a large exhibition space in an international art museum as important as the Pompidou to see a work by an artist you know and admire. This time it was Oscar Enberg in the sixth edition of Un Nouveau Festival titled Air de jeu that dug into the connections between art and games. But we're not talking about some dice and arcade cabinets showcase but games in the big sense. This one's got philosophers, dancers, writers and even OuLiPo and Alighiero Boetti all ‘playing and thinking’ as the Pompidou like to put it. Yes, Enberg is in very good company and also showing alongside another favourite of ours Jonathan Monk.
Len Lye is in the building too and Peter Robinson’s interactive felt scatter piece has just closed. Then, still hanging in the sky above the square outside Piano & Rogers iconic building, is the ghost of Neil Dawson’s Globe the star of the 1989 Pompidou exhibition Magiciens de la terre
All this NZ-in-Paris action comes just weeks after seeing Simon Denny knock them dead in Venice. You’d have to lay a lot of this level of exposure on Creative NZ’s simple focus on success in its international funding. The fact is those Art fairs, exchange programmes, residencies, support for exhibiting off shore and bringing interested curators, writers and bureaucrats to NZ are all starting to make a real impact.
Image: in the foreground Oscar Enberg's work in the exhibition Air de jeu
