NZFM "Passion" Exibition Opening.

This was a exhibition in the Auckland photography festival. which showcased photos by the New Zealand Flickr Meetups group. Which I had a photo in. the exhibition contained a varied range of photographs with different approaches and areas of interest. the opening had a more family reunion style feel than the sterility of auckland art fair. It was in kinder house, a cozy small space spanning two rooms with a entryway, the walls lined with photos and a projection display in one of the rooms. there was uniformity in the framing. green textured walls. and a dress casual dress code. The breif for the exibition was about what makes you passionate about photography, with each of the 47 framed photos having a small reasoning behind the individuals passion for the photographic practice. The authentic reasons were a nice deviant from the usual pretensious artistic statements acompanying most exhibitions. My initial thoughts of the space was the shock of how small it seemed at first but after a few minutes it started feeling large. the large collection of varying interests and subjects make the exibition very aproachable with each photo having their own personality within the confines of the black frame white border, a window into others lives and thoughts.

Polaroid is Dead, Stephen Tilley

Polaroids fascinate me, its science in a box, the biological human dictating a physics based device and then a animistic chemistry reaction , the Polaroid notion has a Romanticism to it, and its the one camera fanaticism I get , the spurr of the moment encapsulated within a window. its a tangible result there in your hand with a developed picture in 15-120 seconds. last year I attempted to acquire a passport photo Polaroid camera. but was thwarted by negative balance in my trade me account. and theres a sense of disappointment at not getting to try it personally, with revival attempt looking a few years off. its a integral part of history a nogistalic entity for many a symbol of another time.

The exhibition consisted of series of Polaroid grids showing details, a scene built up by many different shots, showing detail of the models form, clothes, face etc and the surrounding objects the image built up from 36+ shots, so often subjects were doubled over which makes them look significantly busy in appearance at first, especially when you try to look at the image as a whole.
The feel of it was quite subdued in the palette. Salmon, orangy, yellows the squares of glossy picture surrounded by white rectangles. with occasional colours seeping in like blues and greens from clothing or furniture. the curve of the the human form contrasted inside the straight edges of the media.

I <3 geometrical arrangements of photos, and how it comes of like a memory. how when you take in something visualy you break it down into small fragements. a collection of observations. like the little things you notice about someone you like. the photos guide you through this, frame by frame adding something new to the dialougue. a capture of a moment of time. yet these individual frames show motion and capture of personality.

I got to talk to the artist as he cleaned up the bottles and glasses from the gallery party. He talked about how he started them one and a half years ago, since he was asked to have a work at the opening of a hip hop style gallery's opening, and felt underwhelmed by just showing a photograph when the others had large muralesque works. so he decided to shoot using Polaroids, inspired by a mural of a deceased k road tatto artist. he started with a planned out sketch of what he wanted to do get in the grid.(note this is based of my memory so facts might be off)


I loved how the works weren't supported by a pompous plethora of artistic waffling with a mundane picture gaining its meaning through the thousand words accompanying it.these works stood there on their own. the beauty of them up by themselves untainted. there on the wall in their simplistic complexity. the natural human curve forms within the straight lines.i loved the shapes the occasional break in the shapes with a whole object contained or a missing Polaroid, the occasional imperfections. the colours, and the contrast of the matte white borders on each shot with the gloss of the picture encapsulated. the scale, and repitsion of forms from another angle or composition, I left in awe of them inspired and saddened about the demise of the medium

It was the first exhibition that I've been tempted to take acquire something,but the two that I loved had already bought can't find picture of them either , it would have been tempting if they weren't, especially since due to the nature of Polaroids there wouldn't be any reprints.


Stephens website Stil Photgraphy
pictures acquired from here and here

Auckland Art Fair

The Auckland Art Fair was a art fair located inside the old America's cup bases. down on the waterfront near the tank farm.
It was probably the most high brow art event that I've been to they even had proper wine glasses (which you could occasionally hear breaking), cheese, and lapel pins.
I felt somewhat under dressed wearing jeans and a tshirt and a hoody.

The event was laid out so that each gallery had a small booth which to display works often with the same artists works showing up at different galleries booths.

Liam Barr had paintings which depicted children with small touristy Maori toys, they had quite a sinister quality especially "The Rescue of Miss Dorothy Hohepa" where the Maori toys had fought off the European toys. i enjoyed how the touristy toys i associate with mass produced in china toys had fought off the horrible influence of the Europeans. Saving her from losing her culture. while shes wearing Westerner clothes. I loved his painting aesthetic with detailed backgrounds forms shading and the expressions on the characters.


Linde Ivemey had large dolls adorned with bones the one I found most interesting was a large human shaped doll with rabbit ears with a small doll behind its back it was a black material covered in a material like layer of bones sewn like fishnet, the effect was really interesting and as you got closer you start to notice the spine pieces, she also had several others with one being a fine sack material human shape with a owl like head looking distraught at a decapitated Friend. it had chicken bones as fingers. Ivemeys human like forms with a animalistic element exhumed a science of playfulness and innocence but the bones suggested otherwise.


Stephen Bush painted large apocolyptic?? paintings with exuberant colours and smears like chemical spills beheaded animal head. smoke pollution. in each painting a person wearing a mask obscuring the face like a bees keeper mask, welding mask. is present, industrial type imagery clashing with fantasy. with natural all creating a blender of colours and imagery.

Callum Arnold paints what appear to mimic multiple exposures which seems to show a areas development over time, which makes the static nature of a landscape feel no longer like just a capture of a single moment of time. but showing the development of a place, it was interesting concept I've haven't been seen done in a paint medium.

A more amusing part was a photo of a kakapo a black and white portrait with a a shallow depth of field and Judith noticed how nice it was and I looked at its eye and it looked a bit wrong, so then I analysed the reflection in its eyes and concluded it was a stuffed bird, you could see the desk with black cloth on it the tripod the photographer behind the tripod, totally ruining the mystique of the image for her.


The space itself had a different feel than a gallery, It was more like Big boys Toys stacked full of art. and it was quite difficult to give ample time to all the works, we employed a method called speed art. which involved 3 passes through the space stopping and analysing anything that caught our interest.

Callum Arnold picture from Suite Gallery
Liam Barrs picture from Warwick Henderson Gallery
Stephen Bush picture from Sutton Gallery
Linde Ivemey picture from my flickr

Two Rooms Gallery

The gallery had exhibitions by two artists
Tracey Moffatt and Murray Green

The first of the two we looked at was Tracey Moffatt
She was displaying her "First Jobs" series
It was a series of modified photos showing a narrative about the varied jobs that she partook during her time as a teenager and student. she has shot in or converted to black and white and then coloured. due to the nature of this colouring it was difficult to tell which format she shot in. it looked feasible that she shot on film and cut gels to give the colour, or could have done digital manipulation. she was using pastel colours orange green pink yellow... it apeared very pop art like, the restricted palette allowed cohesion between the photos, with only half way through me noticing that they weren't in chronological order (in order of when she did them? random order?)
In each photo there was a Wheres Wally element to it, where you look around through all the pastel colours to find the ompalompa coloured face, almost comically out of place aesthetically.

the one that caught me the longest was the waitress photo it had a unatural feel that took me a while to work out what it was, in the large size the shadows from the chairs became faint and were devoured by the paterning of the carpet, making a more

We didn't pay much attention to her video works which were also on display at the gallery in the same room.



The other exhibition was Murray Green a painter, he was using polyester based resin to created depth and suspension. Brush marks frozen in space. The resin used was somewhat opaque giving a flat appearance to most of the paintings despite their 3D nature. As you got closer to them you start to notice their depth. Another aspect that was interesting was how he left the sides unframed they were a block that stood out from the wall allowing you to decipher how they were constructed and mentally workout how you would deviate if you to create one yourself. The technique was so interesting you don't look at the works longing to find some hidden clue in it as to what it represented. the aesthetic seemed to be the focus. I noted how interesting it would be to have a entire wall done using the same effect. after the naff explanation about the exhibit it was very pleasing for it to far exceed my hesitant lowered expectations.

One of the paintings had blue glossiness coming out to the resin reminding me of when you have water slowly seeping through material, or like blood starting to merge when you get a graze.
another had swelling drips inside which made a pattern like bricks.
grayish blue swipes with the brush with the layers making there appear to be a colour difference becoming a 3d object appearing as a 2d object representing a 3d object.


The gallery had a large open room space and a smaller naturally lit room upstairs, the typical gallery industry standard white walls. the segregation of the two spaces was intriguing it allowed for the gallery to feel like two separate gallery entities.

photos from Two Rooms Gallery

presentation/ representation (part 2)

presentation / representation
This exhibition showed "a cross-section of contemporary German photographic practice as photography evolves from an analogue to a digital medium." [AF2009] naturaly with any cross section exibition you find alot of the artists to be

Laurenz Berges took pictures of interiors of abandoned buildings. capturing muted colours, decay as detail the natural reclaiming the space.

My least favourite of the exibition was claus goedickie the photo that was a severe abomination of using photoshop to make what looked like a patterned rug with pictures inlaid.

Heedi Specker was fascinated by a Swede, and was inspired by her uniqueness. This was the most coherent and visually interesting of the exhibition. I was drawn in by the soft pastel palette depicted in the first image showing a light blue in the ice isolated by white with a small fissure running through the middle the next image kept the gaps with a hand made quilt full of reds yellows blues and texture with trees in the background. each image seemed to be connected by a feature or shape in the last picture

Wiebeke Loeper upon first look it looks like a series of photos starting with a town, it then moves onto buildings being built the sea and old people and decayed buildings
at the end of the row is a small a4 letter which basically depicts the photo essays content a story through pictures, there was somewhat of a cultural barrier to understanding the story with just the pictures the leaving of the young people was symbolised by a picture of the sea something I don't associate with leaving due to the close proximity of the ocean and the idea of sailing away off to another land via sea.

This was a 2 part exhibition and it would have been interesting to see the works from part one to contrast to this selection.

The bath street gallery was a adequately sized exhibition space stained concrete floors white walled, with a large glass window entrance and a set of stairs to the main area the layout was in a L which creates a very linear approach to moving through the space.

Pictures from Bath St Gallery & HEIDI SPECKER

Art crazy nation

Judit and I went along to the Little Artists show Art Crazy Nation.
It was a lego homage to famous works of art. Each peice was a legonised version of a work and had a minifig (a lego person figure for the unintiated) of the artist. which was cute, It was amusing seeing how they characatured the features of the artists within the limits of the lego parts catalougue. like warhol had the iconic white hair. each sculpture was intriguing you could see all the descisions the artists took in representing the works. and how you could recognise the works aswell as individual peices of lego.

A almost game like aspect that Judit pointed out was the difference between the pictures and how the figures were aranged in their current state, it added a futher degree of playfulness the the exibition. and made you question was it the playfull nature of the artists, or did they just get set up slightly different by the gallery staff? it also alludes to the imagination these small structures of moulded plastic in our childhood create elaborate sets, structures and plotlines.

my favourites leaned heavily to the works that I had knoledge about in their "real" non lego form

The SEED Gallery is a small gallery in newmarket it has the conventional white walls and varnised wooden floor, the works were displayed on shelves on the walls and pedatals in the center of the room, the photographic prints were suspended by bulldog clips.











glossy pictures from Auckland Festival & SEED gallery
artist website: http://www.littleartist.co.uk/

The Theraputic Hour: Art History Explained. and Mrkusich (draft this is currently a massive jumbelled mess to be tidyied)

showed the progressive ocsilation between different art historians about

context, modern relevance, asthetics

diference between female perspecive in art and male
adjusting your work to fit into a gallery

each object has a artistic value, tools had craftsmen individual forms, signatures

many had tried to rank art throught history, by tecnical skill and its perceved beatuy based upon this. others stresses the importance of the mood, feelings social situation, and intent of the artist

meaning and whether the ideas are independant of the historians take upon the peice,
its like mushroom spore structures a ever expanding where the historians take a new meaning from the work and then future historians take a new take on the older historians take

Art historians reject the previous movements ideas on art and rehash a version of the old. it travels along a few years and then someone descides to try and push the historical practice back in the other direction.

The preformace was a woman in scholarly robes on stilts with binders stacked high. the entire lecture was in the format of a school like class. refrences to homework, a multichoise quiz on the back of the information booklet. the whole presentation was in rhyme. which was juxtaposed with the fast flurry of ideas and beliefs and heavy laden with artistic jargon, the whole preformance ran at a trepid pace it was like someone had sat had sat on the remote and it was was running at two times speed, a slideshow played in the background with the artworks reflective of the periods being disscussed
there almost was a symbolisim with the stilts with the historian teetering back and fowards, side to side, much like the retrospective views as the timeline traveled along.

The preformance happened in the Gus Fisher Gallery quite a interesting building the outside has no windows at the front facade a detailed brickstructure a large wall of orange. inside it was a intricate white entrance way wide open with a large stained glass window in the ceiling. the space the preformance happened in was a room full of Milan Mrkusich much to the squeamish excitement of Judit.

mostly consists of geometric shapes a and painted texture
of the ones that I found interesting was a red painting with a grey border it had little variations in the thickness of the red and the combonation of these made it appear to bulge out like a pin cushion.

There was one that looked like it was a reflection the left side had intricate brush strokes with semi random placement and a semi textured strong blue line down the right side, where the second canvas starts a almost reflection the blue line is thinner in width and has faded to a light blue the black has faded to almost grey. I likend it to a photgraph of a scene it only captures a fraction of the detail and beauty present in the original scene.

the last one was called blue square it had blue along the base orange triangle in the bottom right corner a blue sky and a blue square suspended at the top of the picture it didn't feel like it would be able to stay suspended after the moment depicted in the painting
reminded me of a old 8bit game like mario.