William Wegman:
His First Dog was a Genius The Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu’s first international touring exhibition since the record-breaking Ron Mueck show in 2011, opens in April. American photographer and conceptual artist, William Wegman’s Being Human, surveys 30 years of photographs of his internationally renowned Weimaraner dogs - Man Ray, Fay Ray and her litter of pups. Like Mueck, Wegman has been well received internationally by prestigious galleries like the Smithsonian and also through popular culture in television shows like Sesame Street and Saturday Night Live. His arresting, yet deadpan images of his Weimaraners have their origins in his work from the late 1960s when performance art, video and photography challenged given ideas about the exclusivity of the experience of art in public gallery spaces. A graduate from The University of Illinois he remembers the 60s as the era in which the camera became a preferred option for many emerging artists. ‘The camera was a way to make video and photo pieces that weren’t like anything else that I had seen. They were sort of a whole new territory. You could have a photograph or a work in a magazine or a book. That was as good as being on a museum wall.’ ‘I was a young artist in my early 20s and photography was a new thing. I was learning it, actually being taught by some of my students. I had a position in Long Beach Wisconsin and some of my students taught me how to print and develop. That really had an amazing effect. Video was also available and I figured out a way to use it. It was really mesmerising. It really spoke to me and transformed me. I
IMAGE ABOVE William Wegman, Constructivism, 2014, pigment print, courtesy of the artist
started that way - and on the way I got a dog.’ By good fortune, Weimaraners are a breed that thrive on human company and Wegman’s first Weimaraner, Man Ray, featured in his early video work and photography, setting a high benchmark, he says, for his work over the next 5 decades.
‘There was just me and him in my studio usually. He saw me trying to figure out how to use this camera. He was kind of fascinated with that, maybe in a way that a hunter would be with his hunting dog checking out the gun or whatever it was.’ CONTINUES OVER PAGE
Installed in Kiosk Lake in the Botanic Gardens for SCAPE’s 2016 festival, David McCracken’s Diminish and Ascend has become a favoured attraction for Christchurch residents and tourists. Initially intended to be a temporary festival work, Christchurch City Council’s announcement in 2018 that it is to become a permanent artwork for the city is welcome news. For this reason, SCAPE is seeking the remaining funds for Di-
minish and Ascend, to secure its foundations in Kiosk Lake with a necessary target of $20,000 towards its realisation. How did it all come about? McCracken is a sculptor with a background in performance and film and he says that the original idea for Diminish and Ascend came from its name: ‘A group of us were talking about a performance and something was said about making something smaller and smaller that would be about diminish and ascend. I remember doing a sketch and immediately thinking: There is a perspective gag in there. Diminish and Ascend literally is a staircase that requires you to get smaller as you go up. There is a punning aspect to it.’ In 2014, Diminish and Ascend was featured in Sculpture by the Sea in Sydney, followed by Sculpture on the Gulf on Waiheke Island. It was then seen by SCAPE curator Heather Galbraith in 2015, making its debut in Christchurch in SCAPE’s 2016 festival. McCracken recalls: ‘I had always thought that work was very difficult to place publicly for obvious OSH reasons. Various people have been interested in placing it in Auckland but none of us could get around the “where do you put it?” Since 2016, Diminish and Ascend has found its home in the Botanic Gardens and it all came down, (as McCracken notes), to ‘the breakaway idea of putting it in a pond. Then it became so popular. I was totally taken by surprise. It is just one of those pieces that is now everywhere on the internet, it gets photographed and photographed.’ To support and contribute to the completion of Diminish and Ascend, go to: boosted.org.nz/projects/wanted-artworkfor-the-gardens
David McCracken, Diminish and Ascend
IMAGE ABOVE David McCracken, Diminish and Ascend, welded aluminium, 2013, Kiosk Lake, Christchurch Botanic Gardens. Image courtesy of artist, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland and SCAPE Public Art
THERE’S AN ART TO INVESTING
At Craigs we tailor our services and investment strategies based on your needs.
Craigs Investment Partners - proud supporters of Art Beat
03 379 3433
Call our Christchurch office: craigsip.com
Craigs Investment Partners Limited is a NZX Participant Firm. Adviser Disclosure Statements are available on request and free of charge. Please visit craigsip.com for more information.
M238118-CIP-Banner Advert 35x295mm-v2.indd 1
10/01/19 4:25 PM