Hodge Podge*

The school holidays and tax returns have snuck up on me to yet again its a time of barely keeping my head above water and sadly still contemplating my lack of a compost bin (while the wood to build it languishes in the tardis garage).

My attempt to lighten things by reading fiction went totally awry, although I am enjoying “The Witch of Portobello” to some degree. The library requested Waimarino County back for their Montana Book award display so I couldn’t slowly go over that again and I don’t have the heart to more than briefly open two poetry books** that unexpectedly arrived, after hearing the author’s comments on his poetry. I will have to force myself though as they are due back soon. Libraries are fantastic but sometimes owning a book is required so I keep putting my gold coins in the piggy bank and forgo coffee for a while - I’ve actually started drinking tea!. I have also been offered the Dean Buchanan book “Wild Beast” at a knock-down price so am mulling over that as my next prospective purchase.

Things do improve as the days lengthen and I was pleased to see the extensive web resources related to the Rita Angus exhibition at Te Papa. Its all good for shut-ins like me and I think Te Papa has really picked up their game on the internet front, although I suspect they have a backlog of work to get through. And a tip - you can download the audio resources for the exhibition and take them on your own ipod (or the like) and save yourself $5.

Art writing is taking some interesting turns and I am curious as to why Tom Cardy has been doing the visual arts writing for the DomPost in the last few weeks (interesting look at Fiona Halls “Force Field” today), Jill Trevelyan writes about Picasso’s collection in the Listener and on a more literary note anyone interested in the Bloomsbury group (that would be me) would do well to read Diana Witchel’s excellent article on her tour. On this subject though, I can’t go past the movie Carrington with Emma Thompson in the title role and Jonathon Pryce doing a wonderful Lytton Strachey.

(Giles) Lytton Strachey (1880-1932), by Dora Carrington, 1916.

*common English for Hotch-Potch, a mixture; mutton soup thick with pieces of meat and all sorts of vegetables, also Hot-Pot
**”Houses, days, skies” and “Streets of Music” by Martin Edmond

Two in the bush

Today in a fit of nostalgia I have been thinking about Blue Ducks (or Whio) and a small part of my life spent following them (and their trackers) around mountain rivers.

Birds seem to feature largely in NZ art, or is that just me…? Of course Dr Buller was one of the first documentors and I grew up with his book of birds, although J. G. Keulemans was the illustrator. There was even a play “Dr Buller’s Birds“. Its a pity Buller collected skins but I guess it means we do have “examples” of extinct species.

Blue Duck and Scaup from Birds of New Zealand, 1888. (Buller)

More contemporaily, I can think of Raymond Ching, Don Binney and Bill Hammond who have used birds rather centrally to their work. What does it all mean?

Whio and the Dance of Extinction -Ray Ching

I found this well reported ‘fact’ about Hammond “As a result of this trip to The Auckland Islands and his interest in macabre aspects of the taxidermist’s trade as evidenced in the book “Buller’s Birds of New Zealand”, Hammond began producing his haunting world of half-human, half-bird creatures. And it is this original parallel world that has captured the imagination of so many New Zealanders’“

However more interesting is a discussion of the significance of the birds here with reference to Binney and Buller.

“With his bird paintings Hammond has stepped into the spotlight in New Zealand art, tapping into the national psyche’s obsession with native birds…colonial history, and Kiwiana. Buller was not the only precedent. The regional modernist Don Binney achieved prominence and popularity in the 60’s and 70’s depicting birds soaring over landscapes, symbolising triumphal national identity as much as individual spiritual transcendence. The kiwi itself, a flightless, nocturnal, clumsy, unattractive, and increasingly-endangered bird, is a decidedly-peculiar choice of national icon, and Hammond’s stiff, upright, Egyptian-looking humanoid birds, always in profile, theoretically capable of flight but never flying, allude to that indirectly. ” (my emphasis)

Watching for Buller- Bill Hammond

So are we “kiwis” doomed to be earth-bound, only dreaming of flight?

The Audubon Notebook

Let me tell you a story. In October last year I ventured out to the Annual Lions booksale in my area. I had a $10 budget and I think I did really well. I am always on the lookout for…the quirky. In my browsings I picked up “The Audubon Notebook: An Illustrated Journal with Space for Notes” that was filled with handwritten ‘poetry’ scribed in fountain pen. I could not resist. It also had a pink flamingo on the cover which I have a special penchant for. I had a quick flick through and then put it on my bookshelf where it remained until a few weeks ago.

So recently I got the book out and unstuck the first couple of pages and I found the following inscription “The Way of Life, according to LaoTze. Translated by Walter Bynner. Lyrebird Press” - well doh! and wow!. It appeared just at the right time as well.

I have a liking for botanical/natural images although I squirm a bit at Audubon (maybe because they are so widely reproduced). However it all came together in this little book. The final page reads “To love a person is to/ let them Be and and allow/ the Tao to take care of/ them. Non interference”.

So

“existence is beyond the power of words”

The waiting (is the hardest part…)

For the first time I am tempted to use my blog in the cuttingly efficient (and amusing) way that Cactus Kate does. However I won’t, mainly because the person in question probably doesn’t even read this. Good things come from bad though including discovering a lovely poem that sums it up called “Waiting“. A friend once told me that everything has already been said in a song lyric - I add to that “or a poem”.

I have decided that changing my reading may help navigate a way through my current personal morass so I took all my books back to the library this morning, incuding the masses of unfinished ones, and got some fiction out. I am not a big fiction reader but maybe something a bit lighter is in order. Its like needing to watch (a good British) comedy after a long meal of documentaries. My fiction list is embarrassing though so don’t expect to see it here.

On a more artistic front I have been asked to comment on A. Lois White and Ralph Hotere. I am no art historian but in my internet wanderings I found these two items which probably capture some essence of the artists.

Hotere
I do love his stuff - espcially the corrugated iron work (it resonates!). However Over the Net today mentioned “The elephant in the room” in Alan Smith’s words on Song of Solomon and the absence of reference to McCahon - maybe it was assumed? Anyway in other works not so obviously paying homage there is a kinship which I like.

Song of Solomon

A. Lois White
White’s work is generally a little too ‘graphic’ in style for me but I love stories (and storytellers) and this one struck me.

“In 1975 the Wellington dealer Peter McLeavey called at the Blockhouse Bay house White shared with her sister. He was greeted by an artist who thought of herself as ‘old fashioned’. Many of her early compositions were stacked in her studio and garage. In 1977 McLeavey organised White’s first solo exhibition and brought her work to the attention of the galleries and collectors. She was 74 years old.”

Nude at Easel - Self Portrait (circa 1935)