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

Art in Reverse

I’ve been slack on the blogging front. Basically I’ve been tired and things sometimes catch up on you when you have three little kids. Today for instance our baby has croup.

I have also had a bit of a revelation. I visited some friends last week who are living off the grid and off the land. I won’t go into detail out of respect for their privacy but it is sure a lesson in perspective to spend some time with them and I am in awe. Then I watched the documentary “What Would Jesus Buy?” which was amusing and really depressing all at once. So I was thinking “what I am doing be interested in this art game? At its worst its just another aspect of consumerism.” But I saw some things when visiting my simple living friends (who aren’t “arty” people) that brought me back to some ‘art truths’ .

Even though they are focussed on the absolute necessities of life i.e. food, shelter, water, warmth they had decorated their environs with illustrations, small carvings and other meaningful items. It made me think of that urge to record by way of art and to simply decorate. There is that debate about rock drawings as to which of these purposes they served - and I think quite probably both.

So Its interesting that art has significance even when we are ‘back to basics’.

Something else I learnt about this week was Reverse Grafitti. A good example here at Wooster Collective. Reverse Graffiti can be created by using many different methods, the most well known and probably the most common form would be words or simple drawing written into the dirt of cars that have not been kept clean. A more advanced and difficult method is done by cleaning the graffiti onto dirt in the street, this dirt is difficult to clean off and the graffiti is often created by scrubbing [or waterblasting] aided with the help of a detergent . There have been several instances of authorities attempting to prosecute those performing reverse graffiti. No authority has found legal ground to prosecute those who perform reverse graffiti.”  I think the Mt Victoria tunnel in Wellington would lend itself to this (some great examples have been done in tunnels) and it would be interesting to test the ‘legal’ status here in NZ.

You gotta have soul

Well my plans to see Landed in Palmerston North were foiled today by a sick kidlet. We might still go tomorrow but I can’t really be bothered with State HW 1 holiday traffic on the way back and that show finished today anyway.

I was thinking about last week being Youth week and Hoodie day on Friday. Yes I did wear a hoodie but it was not the official murky grey one that made me look like a walrus. I don’t think that a whole lot of old people wearing the hoodies really helps anything except the ‘youth’ probably get a good laugh, however I still stand by the message “its what’s under the hood that counts”. Actually in one of out little local free newspapers they had a pretty good couple of photos on the front page. One of a ’scary looking’ person with hood obscuring their face and the other of the same person with the hood flipped off, revealing our Mayor. Of course any message was totally destroyed by that idiot Dale Evans wearing his KKK hood. To protest against discrimination? NO - protesting the water quality - doh!

And so to art - well I’ve just watched episode 3 of New Artlandwhen Judy Millar and a bunch of Henderson High School students create some art. Which I have to say, considering the students initial reaction, was pretty good. Millar’s exasperation “doesn’t anyone care about art anymore - these are Art students!!” was telling. But for me (and I guess it was edited that way) the highlight was the very talented kid Dion, who was from Henderson High but not an art student “Why not? - They wouldn’t let me in”. He is the ‘youth’ I was talking about that wasn’t evident in the RAY exhibition ”maybe taggers and/or bombers don’t take high school art“. Anyway he contributed a great deal and you could see he got something out of it. Also a nice scene with his parents proudly looking on the finished work. I couldn’t find a pic of the painting (#3) which is now in the Henderson Rec Centre (I think)

I am slowly gathering research on ’street art’, graffiti and tagging as legitimate art and/or expression and the role of ‘legals’ (eg do they help or hinder with graffiti “problems”) for another proposal I am working on so drop us a line via contact me page or in the comments if you know of anything.

Anyhow I found this Wellington Cityscape the other day - done on a piece of plywood nailed to a pallet and am kicking myself for not buying

by Sole

Comfort Art

The days are much shorter here now and the weather a little cooler. Today there is pot of ham and lentil soup in the making and rugby on the go. We have been having a lot of ‘comfort food’ lately which while curled up with a blanket by the fire (what a nana) made me think of ‘comfort art’.

While I doubt any artist wants to be identified as the bread and butter pudding of the art world, in my life I often retreat to what is familiar, warming and a little nostalgic. For the most part, I like to be challenged and provoked and made to think by art, but some days its all too much and I fall back on old favourites. I don’t think these are generic artworks and my favourites would be rather different than someone else’s choices and in fact might be the opposite of comforting for another. I think this feeling is possibly why painting continues on even though every one keeps saying its dead. Perhaps what I have nostalgia for will be seen in 30 or 50 years time in the same light as the Constable print of “The Haywain” my Grandmother had on her wall.

Andy Warhol Campbell’s Soup Can - Comfort Food/Art?

Art Movies
I have almost accidentally accumulated a small collection of dramatised movies about artists. While some are not so great, Frida, Basquiat and Pollock are excellent. Here is a very short list - please comment if you have any others to add (reviews would excellent too). Documentaries too if you want.

Goya’s Ghosts
Surviving Picasso
Love is the Devil (Bacon)
Frida
Basquiat
Pollock
Girl with a Pearl Earring (Vermeer)

BTW - what’s happened to Artbash???