Stay where you are

Put a painting by C F Goldie together with an auction price of $1.175 million and odds are the media are going to suddenly get interested in the visual arts. Last night at the International Art Centre we got a flurry of excitement and a couple of interesting questions. The new owner of the Goldie was unwilling to discuss whether or not he would export the painting to China which raises the question as to just what can be taken out of the country. In fact any protected NZ artwork can only be exported if Government approval is given under the provisions of the 1975 Protected Objects Act. In the case of the Goldie approval would be all but impossible.
 
So what are the rules around NZ art being taken out of the country on a permanent basis? First and foremost it has to be regarded as a ‘protected object’. This classification is pretty sweeping and means something that is ‘part of the movable cultural heritage of New Zealand and that is of importance to New Zealand, or to a part of New Zealand.' Then, if it is over 50 years old and has been made by a New Zealand artist living or dead and is related to New Zealand, it stays unless permission is formally granted.

The 50 year rule is particularly interesting as it is now starting to affect modern artists like Colin McCahon and Don Binney and Gordon Walters. As the 50 year date line line moves forward, any of works created pre-1966 are now subject to export restrictions.

Intruder

Ok, no artist owns rabbits and none own huge inflatable sculptures or rabbits as metaphors for the invasion of an environment. But you have to admit if you put all three together the person who comes to mind in New Zealand and Australia is Michael Parekowhai. This pic of inflatable rabbits installed in San Francisco by Australian artist Amanda Parer certainly hits the same trifecta. Parer has been touring her rabbits round the world for the last couple of years following in the footsteps (ok wake) of Florentijn Hofman’s large rubber ducky. Parer's rabbit installation is called Intrude but maybe she might consider giving a little credit where credit is due and rename it Ghosts of Mike P.

Images: top, Amanda Parer’s Intrude 2012 currently installed in San Fransisco. Bottom left, Michael Parekowhai Cosmo Melbourne Art Fair 2006 and right, Jim McMurtry and Cosmo at the Queensland Art Gallery 2010. (Thanks for the point A)

The Millar’s Tale

The artist -themed dinner is definitely a thing. For those who haven't been to one of these sit-downs, it's an event with food by a celebrity chef themed by an artists and it has reached Auckland. Hot(ish) on the tail of LACMA’s table heads (via Marina Abramovic) and the Christchurch Art Gallery patrons (via Michael Parekowhai and Martin Creed) Auckland Art Gallery is getting ready to front with food. Looks as though the evening is inspired by a Dada / Futurist mélange.  The name of the event - The Holy Palate - evokes the raging Futurists and their Holy Palate Restaurant where museum hater Filippo Marinetti ('We will destroy the museums, the libraries ....') held sway. Presumably the AAG affair will be a little more restrained and supportive of the institutional context than your average Futurist debauch. The invite image of black squid ink dripping off pasta certainly feels like it is sticking one of its blue-gloved fingers to Marinetti who in the 1930s appalled Italy by calling for the abolition of pasta.

The Holy Palate's art director is to be Auckland/Berlin based artist Judy Millar. Her work is also the center of attention as one of the purposes of the festivities is to kick off an appeal to buy one of her site specific installations. And about time. This is an artist who has represented New Zealand at Venice, lived in Auckland most of her life, and has only one  work purchased by the Auckland Art Gallery in the 33 years since she left art school. Chartwell has one painting and two works on paper, Te Papa three paintings and the large Venice installation Giraffe, bottle, gun. So, in the spirit of better-late-than-never, a long overdue and serious commitment by the AAG  to one of Auckland’s most sophisticated artists.

Is there a Doctor in the house?

It wasn’t so long ago that the idea of university scholars spruiking art for auction house catalogues would have been shocking. Today such catalogues are one of the go-to places for readable art history by both academics and serious art writers. In the latest Art + Object catalogue Colin McCahon expert Peter Simpson makes a careful analysis of McCahon’s seventies works on Steinbach paper while discussing Rocks in the sky, series 2, No 2: Lagoon, Muriwai. You get info about the origins of the title, its place in the larger series, consideration of the use of Roman numerals and even a riff on what the subtitle might be pointing to. By the time he brings up the five wounds of Christ (another of McCahon’s key themes) you're with him wondering whether the large V shape could even be the tear of a spear wound. The A+O catalogue has also mustered Professor Laurence Simmons, Professor Emeritus Michael Dunn, Dr Oliver Stead and Dr Kriselle Baker. Bowerbank Ninow were playing the same game with their last photography catalogue including essays by Dr Andrew Paul Wood. He nails Ans Westra's sensibility noting that 'While Westra is not afraid to appeal to sentiment, she never romanticises human life.' Wood also drags up a great quote from American photographer William Eggleston talking to novelist Donna Tartt in Artforum from way back in 2001. Nice. University art history departments will now be lining up these catalogues on their library shelves for more than just the pictures.

The more things change

You think things change? In 1956 the Auckland Art Gallery came under siege when it opened an exhibition by the English artist Henry Moore (you can download the AAG catalogue here). The Mayor popped in to describe the exhibition as ‘a nauseating sight' and for two weeks the newspapers gave themselves over to mocking attacks and general outrage. One wit melted some plastic in an oven and the press was only too pleased to feature the resulting blob as equal to anything Moore could come up with.  Now exactly 60 years later in New York City at Columbia University (seriously) students are protesting against what they call an ‘ugly hunk of metal’ that is due to arrive on campus (Strangely enough we have posted before on this Henry Moore sculpture back in 2008 when one of the edition was stolen from the Henry Moore Foundation.) Over 1,000 students have signed a petition for the installation of Henry Moore’s Reclining figure to be cancelled. It would probably be best though in this current case that the complaining students don’t bother to hold their breath. A substantial base has already been constructed and the sculpture will be placed on it later this week.
Images: top a copy of the Henry Moore Reclining figure that will be installed at Colombia, middle the NZ Press in full flight and bottom the 1956 Auckland Art Gallery catalogue cover

Double or quits

Creative NZ has pressed the emergency button. After 'signaling' (aka managing bad news) that more funding cuts are on the way now a letter has gone out to warn 'colleagues' that things could get worse.

As we have reported previously, for the year 2015-16 Creative CNZ covered its shortfall from Lotto from reserves. 
Lotto stumps up with around 64 percent of Creative NZ's funding. Government is good for around 31 percent and 5 percent comes from other sources. The problem is that Lottery funding to Creative NZ has fallen around 10 percent a year for the last two years. Lotto is now paying less than it did in 2008 ($27.4 million) and has indicated that there will be a further reduction for the coming year.

 Setting aside any ethical implications to the arts largely being funded by gambling (NZ Lotteries started in 1987) what's Creative NZ going to do? In his email Chief Executive Stephen Wainwright outlined CNZ’s plan.

1 Bury its head in the sand
'assumes our revenue from Lotto for 2016/17 is $30 million'
It's hard to see what this assumption is based on as Creative NZ has faced cuts in Lotto's contribution year after year: 2013/14 - $37.5 million; 2014/15 - $31.07 million; 2015/16 - $26.31 million. Surely based on this record of continuing 10 percent cuts it would be more realistic to expect around $22-24 million in the 2016/17 year rather than $30 million.

2 Whistle in the wind
'brief the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage on the consequences of the lower revenue'
None of this will be news to the Minister. The Government has barely increased its share of Creative NZ's funding for over eight years (2008 - $15.5 million; 2015 - $15.7 million). From the Minister's perspective Creative NZ's job is to manage the sector and protect its Minister when people send some angry emotions her way (like when their funding is cut). Job well done CNZ.

3 Pass the buck
'we would encourage you to run a series of  budget scenarios  including one that assumes up to 10 percent less financial support from Creative New Zealand.'
Let’s face it, if the reduction in Lotto’s funding for the coming year is only 10 percent on the 'budgeted' $30 mil it will be champagne all round.

4 Miss the point
'This shift in financial circumstances will be a major challenge for the Arts Council.'
... but not half the challenge it will be for a sector facing another round of cuts. Maybe this time Creative NZ itself will take some of the heat and reduce its 51-strong staff. Hmmmmm.....ok..... maybe not.

One day in the editorial offices of OTN

Publisher: Our readers are crying out for more juicy behind-the-scenes stories and scandals. They want to be in on the inside.
 
Senior Editor: We can do that for them. That’s the OTN way.
 
Junior Editor: I’ve got a great piece on a sex scandal that’s rocking one of our big art museums...
 
Publisher: I have a conflict of interest there so, forget it.
 
Features Editor: We could run that story on directors and their plastic surgery mishaps. The photos are amazing.
 
Illustrations Editor: No, no those close-ups will just put people off.
 
Senior Editor: Well we have to post something!
 
Junior Features Writer: How about doing a compilation of our ‘One day in the…’ features?
 
Senior Editor: Haven’t we done that before?
 
Senior Researcher: Well, kind of, but not for a few years.
 
Production Manager: Do you think we’ll get away with it?

They did.


One day in the...
Hamilton council offices
Art Museum Director’s office
Surfboard development office
Architect’s office
Len Lye Trust boardroom
Tattoo studio
Brajolena mansion
Auction house director's office
Director’s office
Cake shop
Dominion Post’s offices
Te Papa Press
The kitchen
TV studio
Offices of J C Crew
Publisher’s office
Offices of Dr Seuss Enterprises
TV studio
Japanese sex toy manufacturers office
Minister’s office
Marketing Department

Watching two up in Aussie

If you ever needed a reminder of the limitations of photography you only need to look at the exhibition 100 chairs in 100 days at RMIT in downtown Melbourne. Martino Gamper’s book of this project was published to great acclaim in 2012, but to see the chairs themselves is something else. There are indeed one hundred (rather sadly we counted them) and Gamper declares he did make them in 100 days, and this is where photography gets left behind. It's is a remarkable demonstration of formalism plus functionalism freely mixed up with spontaneity, wit and humor. Gamper makes up his own rules just for the fun of breaking them and we, the viewers, are drawn into his processes and ideas. Famous chairs, everyday chairs, stylish chairs, absurd chairs, classic chairs are elegantly collaged into new arrangements. That all this was done in 100 days is remarkable enough, but individually these works each test the very idea of function in ways that are both amusing and profound. And then, on the other side of the city, Gamper’s partner and sometimes collaborator Francis Upritchard is on impressive show at Monash University. Her first major survey exhibition Jealous saboteurs takes full command of the art museum there. This large show demonstrates Upritchard's distinctive style and her consummate skill with materials and ideas. Fortunately Jealous saboteurs will be shown in New Zealand later this year as it is a joint project of the City Gallery and Monash University. With a bit of luck, someone might also pick up the Gamper show.

Images: top, Martino Gamper chairs from 100 chairs in 100 days and bottom Francis Upritchard works from Jealous saboteurs

One day in Hamilton

Number One:  I’m not at all happy with the Waikato Museum.
 
Number Two: Me neither.
 
NO: It’s all very well them storing and showing stuff of historical, scientific, artistic, or cultural interest but, as Gertrude Steam said 'you can be a modem or be a museum, but you can’t be both.'
 
NT: Classic Steam....
 
NO: Thing is, it’s all digital now
 
NT: Ones and zeros ....
 
NO: Visitors want to be entertained.
 
NT: Absolutely.
 
NO: And frankly the word museum doesn't capture the diversity of the venue's collections or the role it plays in the arts community.
 
NT: No capture at all. None… an absence of capture even
 
NO: So what we need to do is something really radical.
 
NT: We could give them more money. Their budget has been frozen for the last five years and ....
 
NO: Don’t be ridiculous.
 
NT: ....or we could give them less money, of course.
 
NO: No. I want something radical, something that will transform the paradigm.
 
NT: We could get rid of that interactive science place. The Jackson Pollock painting game’s a bit tired … not very exiting … (laughs to himself)
 
NO: Hmmmm (thinks hard) …radical… rad-i-cal… (thinks harder). I know! We’ll change the name.
 
And that is what they are going to do.

Over egged

Have a good break, OTN will back on Tuesday.

More artist inspired Easter eggs here

Fright night

For at least five years it's as though Dane Mitchell has been stalked by another artist. It’s the horror film scenario. First off you just catch a quick glimpse of something at the window. 'Was that one of my works?' (cue unsettling music). Later, flicking through an art mag, there's a sudden, heart-stopping sound as a deep shadow blacks out the page. 'That’s a work I made ten years ago!' (shivering violins). Initially it was reasonable to pass it off as global zeitgeist thing (after all, ideas are seldom unique) but when the echoes turn up in production, look and feel, scale, it gets harder to accept as coincidence. So what can be done? Not much as it turns out. Despite discussion the other artist refuses to acknowledge the takes and keeps on going. Legal redress across borders is of course complex, expensive and out of the question.

And now it’s happening again, this time with a different artist. Visitors to Art Basel Hong Kong who know Dane Mitchell’s work will see a familiar face, well a familiar sculpture actually. The Polish artist Alicja Kwade’s work is more than just a close call (is Mitchell some sort of flypaper for lookalikes?) the two rings are not only in a Venn diagram arrangement but have exactly the same dimensions and lean against the wall like the Mitchell work. It was first exhibited in his 2014 at Hopmoss show Other explications, in LA the same year and Switzerland in 2015. In the end the implicit system of art making and influence relies on good citizenship. Well, that didn’t seem to work.

Images: top, Dane Mitchell 2014 and bottom, Alicja Kwade 2016

Distance looks our way

Creative New Zealand has just announced the venue for next year’s Venice Biennale outing and it's a bold move. In past years artists chose their own venues. They'd usually try to take advantage of Venetian character (Denny, Millar, Parekowhai, Stevenson, Upritchard) or to secure a venue with good foot traffic (Culbert, Denny, Millar). For 2017 the venue selection has been taken over by NZ's Commissioner for Venice Alastair Curruthers. He made it clear he was determined to secure a permanent venue for New Zealand (with no formal consultation as far as we know) within the main exhibition site. To an extent that is what he has done. (Commissioner Alastair Carruthers has since told us that there were three options offered the artist and curator within the Arsenale and that the current space has only been leased for the current Biennale)

The new venue for New Zealand is Tesa dell'Isolotto. This translates as 'small island' and this is no doubt what it was some time in the past. So where is it? Well, not as Creative NZ would have it in its media release ‘in the heart of the Arsenale exhibition district’ but rather on the outskirts of the Arsenale. While this part of the Biennale is visited, suggesting it is in the heart of things is stretching credulity as you can see from the map. The Commissioner has made the call that if NZ can't get a space in the Giardini (and that's been a closed shop for decades), then we are better off in the Biennale precinct consistently than trying to make an impression each time in a new venue. There's certain corporate logic to that, if you want to find Team NZ you'll know where to go. But there are trade-offs. While the format of the venue is perfect for Lisa Reihana’s work, with its very specific space requirements, of course, this will not necessarily be ideal for those who follow. The gamble is for a more manageable known quantity against unpredictable opportunity .

The main challenge with this particular location will be getting audiences that still have attention and energy to spare for us. The centre of the Biennale remains the Giardini with its array of national pavilions (this is where the Australians are) and part 1 of the Central Exhibition curated by the artistic director of the Venice Biennale. As a visitor the big attraction of the Arsenale is part 2 of this exhibition. It's always an exhausting experience all but fills one of the biggest exhibition spaces in the world with a huge number of artists (in 2015, there were 136 of them), themes, talks, performances etc etc. Once you've popped out the other end of this over-heated clamour there are even more spaces to deal with. In 2015 these rather brilliantly included the Vatican and next year will include New Zealand. One of the problems is that few visitors start their Biennale experience with the Arsenale but kick off with the big names in the Gardini. Still the deal is done now so let's see how this new set of cards plays out.

Insider story

We don’t need to tell you again how much we enjoy visiting artists' studios but sometimes you can get more than you bargained for. Visiting Rudi Gopas in Christchurch in the late 1970s was always a throw of the dice. Somewhere we have a tape of Rudi chanting one of his poems, 'Atom Bomb. Atom Bomb. Did I cry for you? Will I die for you?' In the background you can hear the crashing of furniture as we retreated while the artist approached gesticulating forcefully. The night before he had spent 12 hours looking at the moon through his handmade telescope and was still out there in space. On another visit a week later we sat for two hours entranced as Gopas explained the complex theories behind his astonishing galactic paintings. Here are a couple of artist studio sites that are worth a look (one and two) or you can wander around the studios in OTN:STUDIO here.

Images: artists in their studios from the top, Jonathan Meese, Chris Ofili, Camille Claudel and Sonia Delaunay

They killed Kenny

There are always some good things to see at the Sydney Biennale and sometimes, as in the outstanding 16th edition curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev in 2008, many, many great things. But this year it’s a struggle to find much excitement. Artistic director Stephanie Rosenthal titled her biennale after William Gibson's well-worn phrase, ‘the future is already here - it’s just not evenly distributed’. Presumably she intended to claim some sci-fi cred but went on to undercut it by seven heavy-handed curatorial themes: Transition, the Real, Translation, Spirits etc One theme or “Embassy of thought’ as they are coyly titled per venue. This gave rise to all sorts of awkward diplomatic analogies over the weekend: attaches, amabassadors, visas, passports etc. Why a major art event would want to define itself by conventional diplomatic stereotypes is anyone’s guess.

The extraordinary character of Cockatoo Island has usually made it one of the highlights of the Biennale. This time round even the history and atmosphere of this world heritage site were dampened. Lee Bull was the lead attraction. No slouch when it comes to filling space, she was given a massive 2,500 meters (about the half the size of the new MCA extension) and gave it a decent go: there's an enormous silver dirigible, an enormous inflatable globe, enormous draped sheets of figured plastic, enormous loops of light bulbs. Trouble is, trying to fill such enormous industrial spaces sets up a competition a single artist can't win. Bul's willing to be vulnerable seemed driven by the space rather than commanding it. Although the work does appear more convincing in photographs, in reality it looks alarmingly like the replica NYC in Charlie Kaufman's 2008 movie Synecdoche, New York.

William Forsyth did rather better by suspending hundreds of plumb bobs swinging from a moving frame and Ming Wong nailed the sci-fi theme with monsters, robots and rockets from the history of Chinese cinema. The odd thing though about the Cockatoo experience this time was how few works there were to see. It's a mission to get out to Cockatoo and you have to wonder why the Biennale was dispersed over so many venues when there is so much opportunity there. Then there was the lack of labels, signage and the impossibility of connecting the numbers on the Biennale map with the buildings in front of you. Add to this confusion an annoying number of Biennale staff swishing past on golf carts tooting people watching videos out of the way (sorry Joyce Campbell) and we'd have to say this time the Cockatoo Island experience really lacked its usual energy and focus. If you're thinking of visiting, consider waiting a few weeks to give the Biennale's admin time to get themselves organized and the island venues signed and labeled.

Great Dane

‘Dane, Dane, Dane.’ It’s a moaning sing-song voice coming from the second floor of the MCA showing works from the Biennale of Sydney. We know Dane Mitchell has works in the Biennale but we thought they were at the Art Gallery of NSW. ‘Dane, Dane, Dane.’ There it is again. Maybe it’s one of Dane Mitchell’s ghost works. Then we see a dancer and a guy who is actually singing ‘Dane, Dane, Dane’ to the viewers and yes, it is NZ’s own Dane Mitchell he is referring too. We know this because he starts singing ‘Dane Mitchell’ which is a complete giveaway. Turns out it is a work by the choreographer Adam Linder who is Australian and now based in Sydney. For five hours a day he delivers choreographic services and the  writer working with him, Holly Childs, has put Dane into the script for Linder’s performance. The dancer slides across the floor, ‘Dane Dane, Dane.’ Contemporary art, you gotta love it.