Artbeat no. 9 August 2019 by warrenfeeney

WINTER WANDER: Creative Thinking in the Central City

Opening 3 August, Winter Wander is a week-long pop-up arts event featuring exhibitions, an arts trail, installations and lunchtime life drawing in the city’s centre at The Crossing, Ballantynes and Cashel Mall. Initiated and managed by the recently established Ōtautahi creative production company Glitterbox Pursuits, (Audrey Baldwin and Jennifer Shields), Winter Wander is about a productive relationship between the visual arts and business with the sites for all events in retail outlets and surrounding public spaces. Baldwin describes it as part of a strategy to create the city that she wants to belong to. ‘We are definitely creating the Ōtautahi that we want to see and be a part of. We have chosen to stay here. It was a very conscious decision and I want to make it worth my while. Jen has come back here and has been doing the same, making that move worth it.’ As a free arts event Winter Wander is encouraging residents and visitors to rediscover the central city and a number of new retail outlets are sharing the spirit of their plans. Baldwin comments that ‘everyone benefits from creativity. It engages communities and it creates communities. Owner of The Crossing Philip Carter has an interest in the arts, he understands them and so does Antony Gough from The Terrace. Shields adds that there are now new retail outlets that are creative spaces. ‘In Head over Heels’ the interior decorating and merchandising, there is some fine art going on in there. It is really crisp and architectural.’ How did Winter Wander come about? Baldwin says she was approached by Central City Activation Coordinator Martin Kozinsky in January, asking her ‘to do for the central city what First Thursdays did for Sydenham.’ (Baldwin had curated eight public arts events in retail and public spaces in Sydenham between 2013 and 2016). Kozinsky’s request coincided with the establishment of Glitterbox Pursuits, a project that Baldwin and Shields created, realising there were considerable opportunity in the way that they operated in the arts. Baldwin maintains that their work is ‘sitespecific and outside the box. It is problem solving and it is working with communities. What I learnt from First Thursdays is you have got to make use of what is already there and take advantage of pre-existing communities and facilities instead of trying to build from the ground up.’ Shields adds that an infrastructure is a goal, ‘but the events that we do are taking place in established venues. The big one now is Winter Wander. It is the City Council’s and there is a big structure around it.’ Both agree that Glitterbox Pursuits is a creative company committed to filling the gaps in the city’s arts and entertainment venues, and its community spaces. Shields states that ‘arts events and queer events are the two communities that we are catering to. The last two events that we ran were Revelry, a queer pub night with board games and the Queer History series where we screened a documentary about Miss Major [Griffin-Gracy] who is an American trans activist. At both of those events we saw people that we don’t know turn up, which is always great.’ Both are looking at strategies to reintegrate the arts into the central city, accommodating and cultivating them through studios and outlets for greater representation. Shields comments that ‘no artist can currently afford a space or to run projects in the centre of the city which is what I want to work towards. I think with Winter

Winter Wander: An art in public spaces Pop Up arts project in the central city of Ōtautahi in August brings together the work of local artists in retails spaces in The Crossing, Ballantynes and Cashel Mall. IMAGE ABOVE First Thursdays 2015 in Sydenham. An exhibition at The Colombo that saw artists’ work displayed in the retail centre’s public spaces. Photograph: Centuri Chan

Wander we are making those relationships with property developers and managers. We had a tour through the new Riverside Farmers Market. That is an example of what we will hopefully see more of. It might not necessarily be affordable in terms of rent but Mike Fisher [who is part of the development], was talking about the bar

IMAGE ABOVE RIGHT Mandy Cherry Joass, Puapua Whenu. The artist will create a sculptural installation at The Crossing LEFT Rebecca Smallridge, Biophilia, watercolour. A work on paper from the exhibition Reverie, at the BNZ Centre, 2 – 11 Aug 10-4pm IMAGE

space upstairs and wanting it to be an accessible venue for the arts to hold events and stuff like that. They are definitely looking at making it accessible for artists and creators.’ For Winter Wander, visitors to the central city will be able to see the work of more than 30 artists in the BNZ centre for Reverie, an exhibition of works on paper that respond to its title as ‘a state of dreamy meditation or fanciful musing, “lost in reverie.” There are also four Lunchtime Sketch Club events in retailers’ windows, with a different model and artist for each one, with art supplies and easels for the public to join in from 11.30am to 1.30pm. The first is in The Crossing in the air bridge, followed by the second sketch event in Ballantynes window, then in Scorpio Books, (with the ‘magnificent Aurora Borealis’ the liquid drag queen as the fairy drag mother), and then again in Ballantynes on Saturday, 10 August . Artists’ installations will be located in public spaces with sculptor Mandy Cherry Joass at The Crossing, artists from Fiksate street-art gallery and a collage by artist Kate Maher at The Terrace, and installations by sculptor, Min-Young Her, and Annemieke Montagne and Steven Park in the Guthrey Centre. Following her participation in Shared Lines, (a series of public arts events supportive of the recovery of the township of Kaikōura in February this year), Baldwin is adamant that Winter Wander is what the central city needs right now. ‘Kaikōura reinvigorated me. Its residents were so into it. With Christchurch, you have got to stick it out. I’m still here and I am not going away. I am going to keep doing what I am doing until it dawns on everyone how powerful and important this is.’ Winter Wander is presented with the support of Christchurch City Council, Life in Vacant Spaces, Christchurch Central Business Association, The Crossing, The Terrace, BNZ Centre, Ballantynes, Scorpio Books, Phantom Billstickers & Momentum Creative. For full details of the programme see Gallery listings on PAGE 5 and go to: https://glitterbox.nz/winter-wander/

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IMAGE ABOVE The crowd at 2016’s CAPD - Paper Trail at Fiksate Gallery - then located in New Brighton. A collective exhibition of urban art on a scale completely different from Brooklyn’s Beyond The Streets. Photograph: Charlie Rose

Beyond The Streets

Reuben Woods

I don’t like to admit it, but throughout June and July, I was struck by constant waves of envy. As my social media feeds were swamped with posts about the blockbuster exhibition Beyond The Streets, I couldn’t help but feel like I was missing out on something special. The brainchild of Roger Gastman, Beyond The Streets featured over 150 artists representing the past, present and future of graffiti and street art. Following in the footsteps of last year’s Los Angeles incarnation, the 2019 version took over a vast Brooklyn space (over 100,000 square feet), bringing together work from the worlds of graffiti, street art, and interconnected urban cultures, exemplified in paintings, sculptures, photography, film and historical ephemera, piecing together the diverse parameters of urban art. Figures such as CORNBREAD, Lee Quiñones, Barry McGee, Vhils and Nina Chanel Abney suggest a mixture

A Sketch in Copyright: Arts Canterbury is presenting a seminar on intellectual property and copyright by local IP lawyer Virginia Nichols. Outlining the legal protection for visual arts she erases myths, providing a framework for commercialisation. As Senior Associate at Saunders and Company Lawyers, Nichols will provide insight into the laws that protect artistic works, followed by an opportunity to ask questions. Arts Canterbury is an incorporated charitable organisation, fostering appreciation of the visual arts in Canterbury and providing support to artists who create art. A Sketch in Copyright is scheduled: Wednesday 11 Sep, 6pm Philip Carter Family Auditorium, Christchurch Art Gallery

IMAGE ABOVE Michael Springer, Into the Fold, 2019, selected as a finalist in this year’s Parkin Prize award at the NZ Academy of Fine Arts, 6 August to 8 September.

WGTN Street Artist Chimp’s Aliases in CHCH Reuben Woods

of the histories of graffiti and street art, as well as new trajectories as contemporary artists for whom the streets have provided a vital platform and influence, even as their work has expanded in scope and context. Of course, this piece is supposed to have a local focus, so what does a Brooklyn-based exhibition mean for Christchurch? For me, it sparked reflection around the potential within Christchurch’s burgeoning urban art circles. Graffiti, always beholden to its own rigid rubric, but undeniably influential, and muralism, inherently problematic as an offshoot of an initially rebellious and subversive culture, perhaps provide the most visible markers. Yet in between these two poles, there is an increasingly diverse community, cross-pollinating and sharing influences. From the DTR crew’s work with young graffiti artists, to the presence of Fiksate Gallery as a specialist site for urban con-

temporary exhibitions (as well as CoCA’s Lux Gallery), the visibility urban artists in commercial and pan-artistic collaborations, and the emergence of artists taking the energy of their urban art roots in new directions, there is a palpable sense that there is more to Christchurch’s urban art scene than the traditional assumptions. Of course, this emergence is essentially in its infancy, and there is a need for ongoing networks of support to encourage further growth. Notably, this culture is also decidedly not of the ‘art world’, and at times requires a slightly different frame of reference, a different lens of analysis (it is, of course, entirely open to criticism, and it requires such challenges). Yet, if we are to consider the wide scope of Beyond The Streets, we can also imagine the potential of Christchurch’s urban art scene as a truly vibrant and expansive cultural phenomenon that will continue to grow and evolve.

Parkin Drawing Prize Finalists 2019: Now in its seventh year, the Parkin Drawing Prize was founded by philanthropist and arts patron Chris Parkin. 472 entries were received in 2019 from throughout Aotearoa and 79 will be exhibited at the NZ Academy of Fine Arts in Wellington from 6 August to 8 September. Among the finalist this year are Ōtautahi Christchurch artists: Blair Chamberlain, Lucy Dolan Kang, Donna-Marie Patterson, Michael Springer and Greg Yee. The winner of the $20,000 prize will be selected and announced 5 August by John Gow from Gow Langsford Gallery.

Main and Mark Soltero, NZ Artbroker, selected works, The National, Joe Yen & Christopher Duncan. 24 August Central City: Fiksate, new works by Chimp, Tūranga, Hapori exhibition space, level 1, The Art of Calligraphy, The Central, Leigh Martin and Michael Hight, new paintings, Nadene Milne Gallery, Sam Harrison, Obscura PGgallery192, John Reynolds, In the Street I was lost… For bookings email: karin@christchurchartseen.nz (art tours - $20 per person)

CHRISTCHURCH ART SEEN Tours in August: Visit 14 exhibitions and an artist’s studio with arts writer and commentator, Warren Feeney: 3 August Central City: Winter Wander, a guided tour of artists’ installations, exhibitions and life drawing at The Crossing, Cashel Mall and The Terrace, and Nebula 2019, 7th Murray & Co Emerging Canterbury Artists Exhibition. 10 August Sydenham: City Art, Saskia Bunce-Rath, Should we run to the lake made of shining stones? Form Gallery, Behind the scenes, Jonathan Smart Gallery, Saskia Leek and Rob Hood, Dilana, two selected artists’ work, artist’s studio Simon Ogden 16 August (Friday) South of the City: Art Hole, works by Gemma Syme, Ng Design, works on paper by Scott Flanagan, Chambers Gallery, works by Tim

IMAGE ABOVE “Chimp in his Wellington studio, courtesy of Fiksate

Community Education Life Drawing at Hillmorton High School: Tutored by Alan Gunn Running for more than 35 years with literally hundreds of adult students over that period of time, Alan Gunn comments that he doesn’t teach from the front, instead taking each individual and working alongside them, making suggestions, and encouraging them to develop their own style. ‘But, I do have some basic advice, which I think is central to eventual success. Class members vary from extremely competent to beginner and some of the class’ models have been with the class in excess of 15 years. Many in the class produce work second to none in my view and I’m extremely proud of their work – we have a website updated each week and the Down by the Liffey Gallery in Lincoln has showcased exhibitions for us over the last few years.’ For class details and enrolments: www.lifedrawingchristchurch.co.nz

Fiksate is excited to host Aliases, a new body of work by Wellington artist Chimp. Aliases is the first presentation of Chimp’s studio work in Christchurch. It is also his first solo show since his 2015 exhibition at Wellington’s ROAR! Gallery, and his last New Zealand show before undertaking a 45-day residency with the Street Artist in Residency programme in California. Aliases extends beyond the captivating technical virtuosity of Chimp’s stunning mural in the Justice and Emergency Services precinct, adding more diverse pictorial elements within an investigation of the complex act of identity-construction in our contemporary environment. Elements of portraiture, native bird-life and flashes of geometric forms, both abstract and suggestive, are deconstructed and placed together in fragmented compositions, allowing Chimp to explore the way we adopt personas for the personal, public and digital arenas we occupy, each pieced together from accumulated segments of expectation, like birds compiling a nest from various detritus. The result is a series of performances we play to suit our surroundings and situations, never wholly consistent and always shifting.

IMAGE ABOVE Noriko Kitamura, Figure Study, 2019, charcoal and pastel on paper

At the Galleries

‘The Hieronymus Bosch of Lyttelton.’ Curator Justin Paton describes Bill Hammond. https://citygallery.org.nz/exhibitions/billhammond-23-big-pictures/ Bill Hammond, Playing the Drums Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu

‘…a strange fusion of My Little Pony, Stanley Kubrick/Jack Nicholson’s The Shining and Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Starry Night.’ Warren Feeney on Saskia Bunce-Rath’s images. Saskia Bunce-Rath, Should we run to the lake made of shining stones? City Art Depot ‘I like the idea that we can observe the medley of forms in a plant and take from that a few expressive elements that once crafted/ constructed will function as a symbol for all nature.’ Tim Main on his work. Tim Main, The Foot Hills Chambers Gallery ‘If you have ever looked at the moon though a telescope, it has a very luminescent colour, with the blackness of the moon’s edge. I like that idea.’ Patterson Parkin discusses his painting. Bryce Gallery

IMAGES ABOVE CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Saskia Bunce-Rath, the ones inside you are gathering bones, embroidery on calico fabric, 2019. Bill Hammond Bone Yard Open Home, Cave Painting 4, Convocation of Eagles 2008. Acrylic on canvas. Scott Flanagan, Endpapers no.9, the sun through closed eyes, pencil on paper, 2018. Patterson Parkin, Solo Bass, Acrylic on board, 1230 x 1230mm. Tim Main, Lacebark Single Stem Series, laminated oak and stone clay IMAGE RIGHT Samuel Harrison in his studio, preparing work for his exhibition Obscura, NMG Christchurch

‘Scott Flanagan’s works are conceptual in origin, but they are often created with a methodical and labour-intensive approach,’ The Bulletin, September 2012 untitled works on paper by Scott Flanagan, Ng Design

‘Gutsy, but also very sophisticated… I think that all of his works have quite an extraordinary presence.’ Curator and academic, Heather Galbraith on Sam Harrison’s sculpture. Sam Harrison NMG

Wheriko- Brilliant! Not Just Things that You Look at

IMAGE ABOVE LEFT Anila Quayyum Agha Shimmering Mirage 2016 Lacquered steel. Courtesy of Sundaram Tagore Gallery. Presented with the support of the Asia New Zealand Foundation. RIGHT Installation image, from left: Haines & Hinterding Encounter with the Halo Field 2009-2015 single-channel video, sound, 3.38min. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 2015, and Hannah Beehre, Orion, 2018. Swarovski ® crystals, acrylic and dye on silk velvet. Courtesy of the artist, Canterbury Museum and SCAPE Public Art Trust.

Opening in May at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, Wheriko –Brilliant! is an immersive experience in a series of darkened rooms of artworks that sparkle and mystify. Appealing to first-time visitors, children, seasoned regulars and art academics, how does it manage to be all things to all people? Warren Feeney interviewed its curator, Felicity Milburn, seeking answers to its disarming democratic appeal and magic. Warren Feeney: So where did the idea for Wheriko – Brilliant! come from? Felicity Milburn: I thought light was an interesting subject from an art history perspective, but also in a more scientific, mechanical sense as an extension of how we experience the world – that’s certainly one of the things that seems to fascinate artists about it. Wheriko – Brilliant! goes beyond works that simply incorporate light, and looks at how contemporary artists can use it to prompt new ways of seeing and thinking. WF: The exhibition is an immersive experience.

That was a critical element for you? FM: Absolutely. For me the exciting thing about light is how it transforms – changing how you feel about quite familiar objects and situations. I was really keen that the exhibition experience was involving and experiential, rather than just a bunch of things that you look at. The show is also part of the Gallery’s ongoing series of family-friendly exhibitions, so I wanted to make it intriguing and fun for children, and by extension accessible for a broad audience. Immersive works have a way of overcoming those initial apprehensions people sometimes have about belonging in a gallery. I tried to select works that had immediate impact, but also left room for people to bring their own associations. In Te Pūtahitanga ō Rehua, for example, Reuben Paterson’s black and white drawings are animated and projected onto a wall painted with glitter paint, which makes it a work you walk into and become part of – a very social kind of art space that also draws on bigger ideas if you dig a little

deeper. Each person approaches that work in a different way, as you quickly discover if you eavesdrop on conversations in the space! Because the art in the show is all of a very high calibre, I’d hope that you could arrive with almost any level of art knowledge and still have a really satisfying visit. I’d always planned to include a work exploring shadow, and when I saw Anila Quayyum Agha’s Shimmering Mirage on a Twitter account featuring art by women from around the world, I knew it was perfect. It fills a room with intricate patterns and as you walk through they play across your face and body. It was a real long shot – I had no idea if it would be available – but we ended up being able to present it through the support of the Asia New Zealand Foundation. Agha is based in the United States, but she was born in Lahore, Pakistan, and her sculpture highlights cultural references and complexities that aren’t often made visible here. I really wanted that for Christchurch, and of course, it’s even more rel-

evant now. More than half of the works in Wheriko – Brilliant! are from the Gallery’s collection, but a few key loans like Agha’s piece, Joe Sheehan’s pounamu light bulb and slide carousel and Gemma Smith’s prismatic Boulder (Radiant ) #5 extend it and take the show in different directions. As soon as I started thinking about light art, my mind went back to Sheehan’s beautiful light bulb Menlo Mana, 2005. Pounamu carries a lot of associations, but we don’t usually think about it as transparent. As an object, Sheehan’s bulb has a familiar everyday feel, but using that material makes it strange enough to make you stop and think about the idea of light itself – and its title relates to Thomas Edison’s ‘invention factory’ at Menlo Park in New Jersey where he produced the first safe and affordable incandescent light bulb. That was the very first loan request I put in for the show. Daniel von Sturmer’s light animation Electric Light (facts/figures/christchurch art gallery te puna o waiwhetū), is a recent acquisition, a gift by some generous supporters. It was probably one of the most important catalysts for the show. Von Sturmer programmed the work specifically for our space and it plays on the human response to light – including how our brains are trained to respond to light effects through our experience of film. When we see a spotlight, we know to pay attention, because something important is happening. When that same light fades out, we feel that something is ending. It’s irresistible and sets up a very theatrical situation for the viewer. The whole sequence is about 7 and ½ minutes long and contains more than 119 scenes or changes, so you experience it as something that unfolds while you interact with it – and it feels a little different every time. Wheriko – Brilliant! Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū Cnr Worcester Boulevard and Montreal Street 17 May – 16 February 2020

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Aigantighe Gallery Glenn Burrell, New works until 11 Aug Abstraction – work from the Aigantighe Collection until 11 Aug Festival of South Canterbury’s creative students (3 to 18 years) 17 Aug – 1 Sep South Canterbury Pottery Group, Fire & Earth-19 7 – 22 Sep 49 Wai-Iti Rd, Maori Hill, Timaru, Tue-Fri 10 – 4pm Sat-Sun 12 – 4pm

Ilam Campus Gallery Student Series: Sophie Ballantyne, Connie Dwyer, Min-Young Her until 9 Aug Jamie TeHeuheu, Christian Lamont, Connie Dwyer 16 Aug – 6 Sep Fine Arts Ln, off Clyde Rd, Ilam, CHCH, Mon-Fri 9 – 4pm

Jonathan Smart Gallery Saskia Leek, Early Telepaths Later Arca Gallery Sophie Divett, Jewellery, work by Jennie De and Rob Hood until 24 Aug Groot, Chrissy Irvine, Prue MacDougall, Deborah Moss, 52 Buchan Street, Sydenham, CHCH, Wed-Fri 11 – 5pm Sat 11 – 3pm Steven Park, Kylie Rusk and Jane Shriffer until 31 Aug 127a Hackthorne Rd, Cashmere, CHCH, Tue-Sat, 11 – 4pm Little River Gallery David Lloyd, Lee-Ann Dixon, Jane Downs, Blanche Fryer and Anthony Savil, Elemental: Collections, Art Hole Gemma Syme 13 – 18 Aug, opening 13 Aug Curios and Clusters until 21 Aug Olivia Isobel 27 Aug – 1 Sep, opening 27 Aug Christchurch Akaroa Road, Mon-Sun 9am – 5.30pm 336 St Asaph Street, CHCH, opening hours TBC Ng Design Scott Flanagan, works on paper until 31 Aug Art on the Quay Morant and Friends until 29 Sep Level 1/212 Madras St, CHCH, Mon-Fri 10 – 5pm, Sat 10 – 4pm 176 Williams Street, Kaiapoi, Mon-Wed, Fri 9 – 5pm, Thu to 9pm, Sat 10 – 2pm, Sun 1 – 4pm NMG Sam Harrison, Obscura, 16 Aug – 7 Sep Wynn Williams House, 47 Hereford St, Tue-Sat 10 – 5pm Arts in Oxford Winter Show 2019: Selected Artworks until 1 Sep Showcase: Oxford Papermaking Group until 11 Aug PGgallery 192 John Reynolds, In the Street I Was Lost… until Showcase: Haiku 5-7-5: A Poetry Project 15 Aug – 1 Sep 23 Aug Rebecca Harris, ‘Somewhere To Go’ and Julia Holden, 73 Main Street Oxford, Tue-Sun 10 – 4pm Newly Formed 26 Aug – 20 Sep 192 Bealey Avenue, CHCH, Tue-Fri 10.30 – 5pm, Sat 10.30 – 2pm Ashburton Art Gallery Marjan Verstappen, Atlas of Nowhere until 26 Aug AEĮOU – Explore the Māori Alphabet 6 Aug – 1 Sep Pūmanawa Community Gallery Group show, Spirit Animals until 4 Gathering of Threads, Ashburton Embroiderers Guild 25 Aug – 22 Sep Aug Chitin Biological Illustrations, 5 – 18 Aug Aotearoa Quilters – 327 West St, Ashburton, Mon-Sun 10 – 4pm, Wed to 7pm New Zealand Through Our Eyes 28 Aug – 1 Sep 2 Worcester Boulevard, CHCH Tue-Sun 10.30 – 5pm Bryce Gallery Patterson Parkin, paintings until 31 Aug Cnr Riccarton Rd & Paeroa Riccarton, Mon-Fri 10 – 5pm, Susan Badcock Studio Group exhibition: Susan Badcock, Sat-Sun 10 – 4pm John Badcock, Douglas Badcock, Sharon Whittaker ongoing Vashti Johnstone, WaLkeRS & FLyeRs until 5 Aug Canterbury Museum Breaking the Ice: The First Year in 47 Talbot St, Geraldine, Tue-Sat 10 – 2pm Antarctica - Carsten Borchgrevink’s Southern Cross and Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova expeditions until 13 Oct Stoddart Cottage Gallery Susan Hood, Sky Dehne, The Water Project; 13 artists until 10 Nov watercolour paintings until 31 Aug Rolleston Avenue, CHCH, Mon-Sun 9 – 5pm 2 Waipapa Ave, Diamond Harbour, Fri-Sun 10 - 4pm Chamber Gallery Rangiora Mountain Photography Titiri o Teece Museum of Classical Antiquties Fantastic Feasts: Dine Moana Southern Alps until 15 Aug Pip Trumic, Humpbacks of the with the Ancients until 23 Feb 2020 Silver Bank, 18 Aug – 19 Sep Arts Centre, 3 Hereford St, CHCH, Wed-Sun 11 – 3pm 141 Percival Street, Rangiora, Mon-Sat 9 – 5pm Hapori / Community, Level 1 Gallery Tūranga The Art of Chambers Gallery Tim Main, The Foot Hills and Mark Soltero, Calligraphy, 15 Aug – 15 Sep until 17 Aug Sandra Hussey, Liqui-forms 20 Aug – 7 Sep Bianca 60 Cathedral Square CHCH Mon-Fri 8am – 8pm Sat-Sun 10 – 5pm Scrimgeour, new works 20 Aug – 7 Sep 241 Moorhouse Ave, CHCH, Tue-Thu 11 – 5.30pm, Fri 11 – 5pm, The Central Art Gallery Leigh Martin and Michael Hight, new Sat 11 – 2pm paintings until 25 Aug Arts Centre, 2 Worcester Blvd, CHCH, Tue-Sun 10 – 5pm Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu Wheriko – Brilliant! Group Exhibition until 16 Feb 2020 Hidden Light: Early Canterbury The National Karl Fritsch, SUPPEN! until 10 Aug Joe Yen & and West Coast Photography until 25 Aug Endless Light until 8 Mar Christopher Duncan 12 – 31 Aug 2020 Now, Then, Next: Time and the Contemporary until 8 Mar 2020 249 Moorhouse Avenue, CHCH, Tue-Fri 10.30 – 5.30pm, Sat 10.30 – 4pm Backstory: First Issues until 23 Sep Cnr Worcester Boulevard & Montreal Street, CHCH, The Physics Room Tuafale Tanoa’i, new and archival work, Mon-Sun 10 – 5pm Wed 10 – 9pm 2019 CNZ University of Canterbury Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies Artist in Residence until 4 Aug Joshua City Art Depot Saskia Bunce-Rath, Should we run to the lake Harris-Harding and Sophie Bannan 8 Aug – 15 Sep made of shining stones? 6 – 26 Aug 49-59 Worcester Blvd, CHCH, Tue-Fri 10 – 5pm Wed 10am – 9pm 96 Disraeli St, Sydenham, CHCH, Mon-Fri 8.30 – 5pm, Sat 10 – 2pm Windsor Gallery Contemporary Art Gallery: 100 changing artworks. 35 Artists +100 changing artworks, including Joel CoCA Toi Moroki 27th Annual Wallace Art Awards until 1 Sep Peter Vangioni and Kate Unger, Kowhai Press; KP & WM: The makers behind Hart, John Burns, Bruce Stilwell, Mike Glover, Kees Bruin and the artists, until 18 Aug Overshadow Nicholas Keyes until 18 Aug Tim Rhonye McIlroy, until 31 Aug 386 St Asaph St, CHCH, Mon-Fri 9 – 5pm Sat 10 – 1pm Ross, The Mid Century Project 24 Aug – 6 Oct 66 Gloucester St, CHCH, Tue-Sun 10-5pm Winter Wander, Central City, 3 – 11 Aug Reverie, Works on paper, BNZ Centre, 101 Cashel St Eastside Gallery Fibre Art Networks, Out of the Ashes until 17 Aug Tiffany Thornley Survey Exhibition, I’m Glad I’m a Girl Arts Trail, 10 retailers: works by Ōtautahi artists, Bridge of Remembrance-High St intersection - My Life in Prints 18 – 30 Aug 388 Worcester St, Linwood, CHCH, Mon-Fri 11 – 4pm, Sat 12 – 3pm Installations, Mandy Cherry Joass, sculptures, Level 1, The Crossing, 166 Cashel St, Annemieke Montagne and Steven Park, Guthrey Centre, 126 Cashel St, Min-Young Her, Plymouth Ln, Guthrey Centre beside the Fiksate Chimp, 9 Aug – 7 Sep 165 Gloucester St, CHCH, Mon-Fri 7 – 3pm General Store, Fiksate Gallery collective, The Terrace, 126 Oxford Tce, Kate Maher, window collage, The Terrace, 126 Oxford Tce Fo Guang Yuan Art Gallery Gail Batchelor and Ian Batchelor, Lunch time sketch Clubs, Constance Mayhem, airbridge above Joy & Fear until 5 Oct 13 artists from the Morant Foundation, Colombo St between The Crossing and Ballantynes, 3 Aug 12 – 2pm, Bonita Danger Doll, Ballantynes, Cashel St, 6 Aug 11.30 – 1.30pm, Transience 8 Jul – 1 Sep 2 Harakeke Street, Riccarton Tue-Sun 9 – 4pm Aurora Borealis, Scorpio Books, 7 Aug 11.30 – 1.30pm, Angelah Rose, Ballantynes, Cashel St, 10 Aug 12 – 2pm Form Gallery Anneke Bester, Sister Water 7 – 27 Aug 468 Colombo St, Sydenham, CHCH, Tue-Sat 10 – 5pm

27th Annual Wallace Art Awards 2018 Charlotte Filipov

IMAGE ABOVE Peata Larkin, They Don’t Speak My Language (detail), 2018, acrylic on embroided silk, 1015 x 2200 x 55mm. Winner – Kaipara Wallace Arts Trust Award

CoCA is currently hosting a wide-range of contemporary artists practicing in Aotearoa - a selection of the finalists in the 2018 Wallace Art Awards. The show has been travelling the country for the past 10 months and the varied levels of artists’ careers represented (emerging, mid and senior), and the diversity of media and ideas all add up to a particularly generous selection of works in CoCA’s upper floor. The Wallace Art Awards is a fundamental arts institution in Aotearoa’s small art’s ecology, giving exposure to and providing opportunities of residencies and monetary prizes for contemporary artists. The awards are a long-standing staple in New Zealand’s art history, important enough to be a distinctive stepping-stone in any artist’s career. The varied group of 2018’s prize-winners are spread evenly among their peers, most of the selected works in touch with a textural or sensoryfocused approach to making. Andrea Du Chatenier’s Celestial Blue Cave Drawing is a ceramic fantasy-landscape that stands out as a miniature spectacle, frozen by the kiln in an illusory manner. Du Chatenier’s work was the first that drew me into this preoccupation with technicality and the importance of texture in this show, something

Marjan Verstappen, Atlas of Nowhere

Warren Feeney

Yes! Atlas of Nowhere is referencing Samuel Butler’s Erewhon, his 1872 novel that drew upon his time on his Mesopotamia high country station in Canterbury, 1860- 1864. (ie, Erewhon spelt backwards almost spells ‘nowhere’). And in researching, documenting and reviewing the life of Butler as the archetypical educated Victorian settler, New Zealand-born and now Canadian-based Marjan Verstappen charts and reveals a story veiled in historical imaginings, yet all too real in the here-and-now. That in itself is revealing. On the evidence of her collection of texts, materials and objects she sets out a series of questions, implicitly asking the gallery visitor to address and enunciate their own associations, conclusions and responses. Atlas of Nowhere feels like an encounter with an enthused Victorian humanitarian scientist and explorer’s home and a bit like Butler himself. Verstappen brings together documents and drawings of a ‘native plant’- the Flower of Neptune, with weathered pseudo-historical paintings by Butler’s cook at Mesopotamia, H. K. Holmes. His landscapes are populated with this bogus botanical species, believed to be extinct. Selected extracts from Butler’s journals and The Press, as well as a dried plant specimen and historical photograph of the same at Bulter’s Mesopotamia station, share the gallery space with recent pho-

Endless Light Margaux Warne

With a personal interest in nineteenth-century European and New Zealand art, I was especially keen to see Endless Light soon after it opened. It features twenty-two oil paintings, all of which are drawn from the Gallery’s historic collection. The works date from between the seventeenth century and early twentieth century, capturing the impact of light on the natural landscape at different times of the day and across a range of seasons. It is a delightful little exhibition which focuses on the landscape genre just as much as it explores the theme of light. Of particular significance is a wall which boasts John Gibb’s powerful, awe-inspiring Flood in the Otira Gorge (1895) and Petrus van der Velden’s Mount Rolleston and the Otira River (c.1893). Both artists capture the majestic qualities of the Otira landscape and the light lurking behind the mountains, piercing its way through dark, imposing storm clouds. Having the two works displayed alongside each other is long overdue. Set against the Gibb and van der Velden images is a pair of strikingly different works on the wall opposite: Charles Herbert Eastlake’s autumnal Lingering Leaves (1901) and Grace Butler’s Evening Glow (1919), a personal favourite

tographs of the now ‘rediscovered’ plant. Yet, the exhibition’s promise of the potential recovery of the natural world, (an extinct species is no longer extinct?), far from an affirmation, directs its attention at the gallery visitor as a kind of metaphorical face-to-face meeting with the perplexity of their temporary and thoughtless moment of delight. Atlas of Nowhere opens a window to the intimate connections between all our great-grandparents and the current state of the planet, as well as philosophical questions about our enduring detachment from the natural world and questions of personal responsibility. In choosing to work with historical documents and material, fictitious or otherwise, (there is plenty of both firmly residing in Atlas of Nowhere) Verstappen takes full advantage of the potency of her subjects. I liked this exhibition, not simply because it opened up big questions and directed the ownership of responses and answers back at us, but also for the way in which Verstappen’s art - its wit and its beauty - with such calm and incisiveness, quietly and comprehensively caught me off guard. Marjan Verstappen, Atlas of Nowhere Ashburton Art Gallery 327 West Street 11 July – 16 August

of mine. Butler is an underrated artist and her painting evokes the golden light, warmth and atmosphere, typical of a late summer’s evening. Nearby is Butler’s impressionistic On the Beach, New Brighton (1916) in which a muted light is cast across the beach scene through soft-pink and white clouds. Hung alongside it is local favourite, In the Sandhills, Jutland (c.1885) by English artist Adrian Stokes. There are a number of other surprises in the exhibition, including van der Velden’s Gathering Beet, Village of Rijnsburg (c.1888). A poignant and atmospheric Realist work, van der Velden has portrayed a group of farm workers picking beet against a backdrop of thick, silvery clouds. Terrick John Williams’ Twilight, Venice is also striking; through the use of viridian green and lavender, evening light is captured on the façades of Venetian buildings, while the glow of a streetlamp is reflected in the water nearby. Twilight is also the subject of Alfred East’s peaceful English pastoral scene, The Moon and the Manor House (c.1894), moonlight reflecting on water, light emanating from one of the farm house windows. Other works of note include John Gibb’s Bottle Lake (1882), Meindert Hobbema’s A Wooded Landscape with Peasants

the winners held in common as well. (Lucy Meyle’s Duck and Snail ramps provided an exception to this, her chroma-key green plywood ramps holding an assuring comedic charm). Emma Fitts, Imogen Taylor and Peata Larkin established the tone for these textural foundation to the show through a shared, varied approach to working with textiles. Larkin and Fitts engage closely with craft-inclined methodologies speaking to the rise of this romance in making - the consideration of media and the histories that they carry being a shared approach to their works. Textile work has historically established itself alongside feminist politics and has a timeline of being sidelined in the institutional environment. Taylor engages via a history of feminist paintings with queer theory and a new understanding and retrospective reimagining of the historical and canonically masculine modernists. A distinct feeling of a pre-industrial/digital age is present in the gallery, everything bar a small number of works are hand-made, painted, stitched and laboured. There are few examples of works that rely on mechanical or digital intervention as their primary point of focus. Considering the prevalence of ‘shiny and new’ developments in Christchurch’s ever-changing inner city landscape,

the works as shown in this city, seem to bring on a new model. They fill a desire for objects that carry history, labour and an attitude of a romanticallyinclined approach to art-making. The abundance of such works signposts a cultural move toward a desire for the organic, human manner of creating; hand-carved, hand-dyed, hand-woven. Despite trends in contemporary art to the sleekness or computer aided or 3D-printed work, the 27th Annual Wallace Art Awards noted another, more caring and technically informed approach to art making. It moves away from an occasionally cynical conceptualism and ready-mades toward an immediate, sincere experience of texture and a protracted consideration of the intentions behind these varied technical approaches. The finalists of the 27th Annual Wallace Art Awards also point to a renewed desire for a human-hand in the works that artists create and audiences view. This leaves the show open for a large audience, accessible and enjoyable for many, looking for something more particularly human in our galleries. 27th Annual Wallace Art Awards 2018 CoCA, Christchurch 66 Gloucester St 22 June – 1 September 2019

IMAGES ABOVE Paintings by H.K. Holmes depict the flowers of Neptune as described by Samuel Butler in his journals Mesopotamia station 1861 - 1864 recently discovered in an archive, oil on canvas. BELOW High resolution scan of flower of Neptune (dried sample), found in archive with paintings and map believed to be preserved by Samuel Butler circa 1861, digital print on solvit.

IMAGE ABOVE Grace Butler, Evening Glow (1919) Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu; presented by the Canterbury Society of Arts, 1932

on a Path and an Angler at a Stream (c.1662) and Edmund Gouldsmith’s impressive Pool near Adelaide (c.1864). While providing Gallery visitors with an opportunity to view paintings they may not have seen for some time, if at all, Endless Light reveals something of the range of the Gallery’s historic collection and the predominance of the landscape genre in particular. There is much potential for other historic exhibitions of this nature to be curated. Endless Light Curated by Nathan Pohio Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū Cnr Worcester Boulevard and Montreal St Until 8 March 2020

Dilana: Principles of design and integrity about the Medium of Wool Karin Bathgate

Dilana, a bespoke Christchurch carpet and rug making business, has collaborated with a range of leading contemporary New Zealand artists over the last thirty years, producing limited edition artist-designed rugs handcrafted locally from New Zealand wool. The name Dilana comes from the Latin for a working of wool. Hugh Bannerman founded the company in 1982, setting up a showroom and workshop on Lichfield Street with the help of Wools of New Zealand. Bannerman was selling into retail shops and right from the start, focusing on New Zealand design concepts, wanting Dilana rugs to be seen as fine art pieces rather than as accessories. To achieve this vision Bannerman needed to move the company in a new direction. In the late 1980s, he approached the manager of the Arts Centre of Christchurch, Christopher Doig, and fortuitously Doig replied that Dilana was “just what we are looking for”. Bannerman leased a showroom and the concept of Dilana began to take off. Housed in the Arts Centre at that time were the studios of artists such as Neil Dawson and Bing Dawe. Surrounded by these studios and other crafts workshops, Bannerman formed relationships with the artists and artisans.

IMAGES ABOVE LEFT Dilana’s premises and workshop at 102 Buchan Street, Sydenham, Christchurch. From left; director, Hugh Bannerman, design director, Sudi Dargipour and rug maker, Josh Braden. The rug on the screen behind them is John Reynolds’, Solo. RIGHT Richard Killeen, Punctuation Butterfly (a series of rugs), 1998, New Zealand wool, hand-tufted

In a 2008 interview with Habitat Magazine, he commented on the Arts Centre move: “It was the start of a great chemistry between us: I knew wool and carpet manufacture, and these people were the future soul of the design industry in New Zealand.” This underpinning of creative talent is what sets Dilana apart from other rug makers in

the industry, and Bannerman describes its artist projects as taking Dilana to another level. Each piece has been driven by principles of design and integrity to the medium of wool in a partnership between artists and rug makers. The rugs can be viewed as functional pieces or art pieces, depending on the desire of the buyer to place the rug on the

floor or hang it on the wall. Through collaborations the artists have brought an aesthetic criterion to the design and creation of the rugs, retaining their functionality but adding a profundity which ultimately transforms what is a crafted object into an art object.

Sandra Hussey: Consumerism and the Importance of Pouring Paint. Graduating with an MFA in painting from the University of Canterbury in 2018, Sandra Hussey’s solo show, Fluid Scapes at the Ashburton Art Gallery in January is an exhibition highlight to date in 2019. Pouring acrylic paint on canvas, and incorporating collaged shapes of dried paint and synthetic resins to her painted surfaces, Hussey’s images value the idea of order and intuition. Warren Feeney interviewed Sandra Hussey about her practice and asked the question: Why pour paint on canvas? Sandra Hussey: Previously I painted abstractions in oils in the usual way with brushes. I began using acrylics in 2014 while researching the scenario of ocean plastic. Thinking about consumerism and waste I experimented with pouring paint to make casts from discarded plastic rubbish – drink bottles, takeaway food containers etc and incorporated them into my paintings. From there the process itself took over, evolving into paint skins and finally paint poured directly onto canvas. I am also interested in the work of Marie Le Lièvre, [also widely recognised for pouring paint on canvas], particularly, the human presence and the intuitive decision making embodied in her paintings. I enjoy the sumptuous palette and that she does not allow any hint of splash or drip to creep into the work. WF: Without that process could you still see yourself making images in paint? SH: I have often thought about this. All I can say is I enjoy the process but as my work evolves I want to remain open minded about future possibilities. I’ve found the process of pouring paint somehow a natural and engaging way to make a painting, a more direct and tactile experience. I’ve made images from paint skins alone but ultimately found this to be unsatisfying. Pouring paint onto canvas and then the collaging of paint skins to complete the painting is what matters. My practice seems to sit between camps – a hybrid mixture of painting, collage, screen printing and perhaps even a sculptural element to the work. WF: There is an accidental aspect in pouring paint. Does the inclusion of collage act as a counterbalance, the

IMAGES ABOVE LEFT Sandra Hussey, Nascent (detail), 2018, acrylic and synthetic resins on unstretched canvas RIGHT Sandra Hussey, Green Pour #5 (detail), 2018, acrylic and synthetic resins on unstretched canvas

control and certainty of its application provide a necessary control over the making process? SH: Yes it’s this juxtaposition that is the most rewarding - the chaotic and unexpected and then organising all of these components. The paint skins serve as useful textural, compositional and sometimes spatial elements in the work. The skins are used in their naturally occurring forms. They are not cut and shaped. They are made by pooling mixtures of paint and resin onto glass and plastic surfaces. There is some predictability of outcome in terms of scale, form and colour, but even these aspects can change dramatically depending on the paint mixture, viscosity, room temperature etc. Once dry, the resulting skins are often unexpected and I try to capitalise on this. The odd torn or broken paint skin can also become a happy accident and work well in a painting. WF: To what extent are narratives im-

portant to your paintings? It is possible to read your work as pure abstraction yet you indicate that it is important to retain a narrative, a connection to the events and circumstances in your life. Are you concerned if such content/ messages are missed by those experiencing your work? SH: First and foremost is the process of making. Personally I like the idea of an artwork being open to individual interpretation, that it can exist independent of narrative or symbolic meaning. However I suppose I come from a position of ambiguity. By osmosis my lived experience of the environment seems to enter the work and I find the viewer invariably picks up on this. It is only recently that I have begun to talk about this underlying thread. Most of what I have to say is embedded in the materiality of the work anyway. Referencing natural forces through the medium of acrylic paint does speak of our conflicted relationship with nature and our

place in it. I am not at all concerned though if such content is missed but feel it may be useful for an audience if I at least acknowledge this aspect of my practice. WF: Your exhibition at Chambers Gallery, Liqui-forms what can we expect to see? SH: The works aren’t particularly recent, but have not been shown publicly before. They were produced alongside the large paintings exhibited at Ashburton Gallery and are a related, but slightly separate, line of enquiry. The large paintings are more playful with a stronger emphasis on materiality and colour relationships. The works in Liquiforms are quieter in scale and palette and perhaps more experimental. There is an increased sense of the source material – the Washdyke lagoon near Timaru – embodied in the work. Sandra Hussey, Liqui-forms Chambers Gallery 20 Aug – 7 Sep

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Image: Hannah Beehre Orion (detail) 2018. Swarovski® crystal, dye and acrylic on silk velvet. Courtesy of the artist, Canterbury Museum and SCAPE Public Art. Photo: Sam Strati

Arts Canterbury present a seminar by local IP lawyer Virginia Nichols outlining the legal protection for visual arts, erasing myths, and providing a framework for commercialisation. Virginia Nichols, Senior Associate at Saunders and Company Lawyers, will provide insight into the laws that protect artistic works, followed by an opportunity to ask questions. No prior knowledge required.

Supported by Art Beat www.artscanterbury.org.nz

96 Disraeli St Mon–Fri: 8.30am–5pm Sydenham cityart.co.nz Sat: 10am–2pm Conservation picture framing, picture hanging, art shipping and contemporary art gallery

Celebrating 30 years in business, 1989–2019

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Exhibition runs 30th July - 17th August

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Special exhibition co-produced by Science North & Canadian Museum of Nature

Meet the people and wildlife of the Arctic

Exhibition on Now

Rolleston Avenue, Christchurch Free entry; donations appreciated www.canterburymuseum.com