Lookalike

Images: Left Max Patte’s Solace in the wind 2007 in Wellington and right Voyage in Hull 2006 by Steinunn Thorarinsdottir

Mything the point

When travelling in Eastern Europe recently a friend of ours was offered a free coffee in a sidewalk café. Before she had finished sipping she felt very dizzy and next thing she knew she woke up in a hotel room covered in ice with a note on the side table. It told her to ring a phone number urgently. She did and a couple of paramedics turned up to announce that one of their kidneys had been removed. That is, of course, an urban legend that started circulating sometime in 1997. Another legend that had its beginnings sometime in the late 1970s, told how the director of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery could only stay in the job for an unnegotiable five-year term. 

The idea certainly took hold as part of the avant-garde, we-do-things-differently-here brand of the Govett-Brewster. Turns out though that it was only ever a suggestion following the departure of the first director John Maynard (who was not appointed to a fixed term and stayed in the job just under five years) that was never tested: the first seven directors only stayed for an average of four and a half years. The first to buck the trend was Greg Burke who was appointed for a 5 year term, which was subsequently extended by 2 years and then extended indefinitely as has been the case with the current director Rhana Devenport.

Until the last decade most directors of smaller art museums did around five to seven years apiece (with the glorious exception of Whanganui’s Bill Milbank and Nelson’s Austin Davies). Even the first seven professional directors of the Auckland Art Gallery, for example, stayed on average just under six years each.

Why the change? It's probably due to increased professionalism and salary hikes as directors' conditions have been aligned with other senior local body officers. And then there's the merry-go-round effect. In a small country with a limited number of jobs, a couple of people staying longer in the same job quickly slows the turnover to a crawl. In the end it’s always going to be a toss up between the benefits of continuity and the potential of having regular injections of new energy.

Image: a kidney of the type taken from our friend

In XS

Well we all missed this, the ultimate event or ultimate nightmare depending on where you come from. Lady Gaga playing a Damien Hirst piano. Apparently Francesco Vezzoli got the Gaga to jam on the piano at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art back in 2009

One day at the public sculpture committee

Chair: We need something spectacular, something that will make this city really stand out from the pack.

Brightest member of the committee: How about a giant something or other?

Chair: Interesting ..... Go on.

BMOTC: Oh, I don’t know - a fish hook, a couple of crossed swords… a group of sports people reaching for the sky - that sort of thing.

Chair: For God’s sake, it’s going to be in the middle of our beloved lake… it has to be tasteful and reflect our rich cultural community. 

BMOTC: Naked woman.

Chair: Yes, yes.

BTMOC: In the lake with her legs outstretched. You could row or swim between her knees right up to her breasts.

Chair: Breasts?

BMOTC: Her submerged breasts.

Chair: Do it.

And in Hamburg, they did.

OTN goes viral

 OTN hits the Melbourne Age like a thunderbolt. Page Nine boys Jarrod Rawlins and Vasili Kaliman roped in to pose for extensive coverage of OTN's posting on Melbourne Art Fair. You heard it here first. Well, second if you live in Melbourne.

The silence of the sculptures

"I talk too much …The whole point as a maker is to create things that don't talk.”

UK sculptor Anthony Gormley

Death in Venice

And we thought we were relentless! That is nothing in the face of Metro Magazine’s attempt to bring Creative NZ to its knees and in the process jumping all over artist Michael Parekowhai. The first Metro hit was an ‘expose’ of a consultant who left CNZ in the lurch and out of pocket. Now for their second strike they have unleashed Josie McNaught

Judging from talk about her phone interviews the initial focus of her article was a Fair Go type investigation of the Te Papa purchase of Parekowhai’s Venice piano. That story obviously didn't fly which probably explains the minor roll call of offenses she has rustled up in the October issue: CNZ painted signs on the pavement (they were stickers but what the hey), Michael Parekowhai wouldn’t give JMcN an exclusive interview (get away), the tote bags were the most exciting thing at Venice (of course they were), Parekowhai was badly dressed at a party (scoop), and the red piano was “a joke” (journalist always think art they don’t get is a joke). In amongst it all she kicked the junior players and sucked up to the seniors (Alastair Carruthers and the two Jennys – “go girl”) and suggested CNZ should privatise the whole affair (which is their intention anyway). 

Fortunately not all the media has taken such a dim view of the event. As journalist Josie McNaught (relation) said in the 4 June’s NZ Herald article Venice show hits the bull's eye “I doubt the harshest critic would find much to moan about.”

Images: the two Metro Magazine articles headlining their displeasure over two issues

On the road

By popular demand yet another in the OTN series celebrating the Ministry of Land Transport and Local Body support of New Zealand artists.

For others in the series hit the 'on the road' label tag below.

Bent

Plans in New York to transform a sculpture destroyed ten years ago into a memorial have finally been dropped. The sculpture Bent Propeller  was a 7.6 metre work by Alexander Calder that had been bolted onto a pedestrian platform over Vesey Street close by the World Trade Center. When the twin towers collapsed the sculpture was crushed. 

Seeing the potential for a memorial, Calder’s grandson Alexander Rower searched the rubble and found what was left of Bent Propeller commissioned from Calder in 1970. What remains of the sculpture is now in a Port Authority store at JFK Airport with other 9/11 recoveries. 

Still, if you are in New York there are plenty of other Calders to see. The artist was the go-to guy for public sculpture there in the late fifties and sixties. His publicly accessible works include 125 at the JFK Airport, Untitled a mobile in the Chase bank at 410 Park Avenue, Saurien at 590 Madison Building, Le Guichet at the Lincoln Center and Cirque Calder at the Whitney Museum.

Images: Left Bent Propeller before and right, after the 9/11 attack   

art at work

Lunch time on Para Matchitt's Sea to City Bridge sculpture

The best of the boosters: final edition

 This is the final edition of Best of the Boosters (unless unqualified praise enters some new extreme realm)

So let's hear it one last time for art museum marketing departments putting it out for art:

Widely regarded as one of New Zealand’s most important artistic partnerships. - Dunedin Public Art Gallery 

A reputation for innovation and style, inspiring and challenging its audiences with a world-class programme of exhibitions. - City Gallery Wellington

One of the largest and most absorbing presentations of New Zealand art. - Te Papa

This exhibition fizzes with emotion. - Auckland Art Gallery

Offers an unprecedented glimpse into the soul of the region. - Te Papa 

Unique and exemplary experiences – Govett-Brewster

And one from the media

Jaw-dropping pieces in a long-anticipated exhibition. - Dominion Post on behalf of Pataka

Lookalike

Some link chasing to keep you occupied on Saturday morning. The top image is by New Zealand artist Andrew Blythe who is on exhibition at Wellington’s Roar Gallery and bottom French-born Polish artist Roman Opalka who was attempting to paint from one to infinity,  spotted here on Flavorwire (he never made it but you can see him cracking 4 million on Youtube). You can also see more of Blythe’s work here on selftaughtartist. 

Click the image to enlarge

Second life

Who would have thought that a independent Sierra-style game based on a performance art work would be downloaded by over 90,000 people worldwide? And all so they could virtually queue up for hours on end to sit opposite an eight-bit Marina? And yet that’s what has happened to Pippin Barr's game The artist is present. There have also been hundreds of blog posts, tweets (including one from the big MoMA herself) and stories in the Village Voice, Der Spiegel, Slate and The Huffington Post. The opportunity for a second life for exhibitions on the internet will come with its own questions, but clearly there's potential there. Game on.
Image: the end of the line, a virtual visitor gets to be present with Marina Abramovic. 
You can see a week of the game site download stats here

Thoughtless

If you’re thinking unlucky sculptures, think The Thinker. Next to Michelangelo’s David, Rodin’s bronze must be one of the most recognised sculptural images in the world. It also immortalised the thoughtful pose that has launched a million back cover author photos over the years. Thanks for that Auguste.

But The Thinker is back in the wars, most particularly in Argentina. Here the only copy of the sculpture that is located outdoors (all the other 20 full-sized copies are in museums or private collections) has been sprayed pink. The Buenos Aires city council claims not to know why the sculpture has been defaced (although pink and the sexual symbol for female on its arm feels like a clue) but has decided to soldier on and water blast the paint off the statue. This has caused conservators the world over to pale at the thought of the potential damage to the work’s patina.

This is not the first time one of The Thinker has been attacked. The most famous occasion was at the Cleveland Museum of Art back in 1970 when a pipe bomb was stuck between The Thinker’s feet and blew them apart on detonation. Remarkably the Museum decided to leave the sculpture on display in its damaged state as a memory of the civil unrest that had swept America at that time. The damaged work is still on view and is cared for by the Museum like any other of their sculptural works with regular cleaning and rewaxing.

Another recent attack on The Thinker was more prosaic. Thieves attempted to cut up a smaller sized version of the work owned by the Singer Museum in Netherlands for the resale price of the bonze. Stupid really as the bronze at that time would have only fetched around $600 while there was a $1.66 million valuation on the sculpture itself. Panicking when they realised they had nicked a high profile artwork the thieves buried it in a garden. It was later recovered but unfortunately the other six sculptures stolen at the same time did not escape the melting pot.

Images: The Thinker top to bottom, Argentina, Cleveland and The Netherlands

Branded: Michael Harrison

The moment when artists become brands