C6 MAINLANDER Saturday, May 4, 2013 THE PRESS, Christchurch Biennale chance to shine a light on Kiwi Art luminary Bill Culbert recently made a fleeting visit to Christchurch, where he spent his formative years. The Press’ arts editor CHRISTOPHER MOORE reports.

t first sight, the wiry bespectacled figure ambling down Worcester Boulevard, street map firmly in Ahand, is another anonymous tourist engaged in the post- earthquake Christchurch experience. But Bill Culbert is a man with a goal as he tries to locate a reminder of his past; a tangible link with the beginnings of an extraordinary artistic career. Culbert is seeking out the site of a vanished student flat in Armagh St. More than 46 years ago it was home to a group of noisy, ebullient and talented young New Bill Culbert’s works: SkyBlues in Zealanders. More than 40 years Wellington, top, Spacifics ago, Pat Hanly, Ted Bracey, John Plastics, and Pacific Flotsam. Coley, Hamish Keith, Trevor Moffitt, and Culbert were among those who called this rambling Victorian mansion home. The Armaghians eventually went their In terms of size, this is a large separate ways, united by an work. In terms of recognition and enduring belief that art was a force mana, it’s huge. He is our own to shape the world. Magician of Venice; New Zealand’s If his friends sought the light, official artist at the 2013 Venice Culbert continues to be beguiled Biennale, the world’s oldest and and bedazzled by it. Today at 78, he most prestigious cultural lives in London but his creative Olympics. His installation in spirit perhaps burns brightest in a Istituto Santa Maria della Pieta (La small village in France’s deep Piet) Front Door Out Back will be south. In a house and studio in revealed in late May. The Croagnes ‘‘at the crossroads at the surroundings, on the edge of the bottom of the hill’’ (Culbert is a Grand Canal, in a building forever precise man in everything), he linked with the 18th century creates the art that has made him Venetian composer, Antonio one of the world’s leading Vivaldi, will add potency to contemporary artists. Culbert’s Culbert’s 21st century abiding fascination is light. Pure, installations. simple, natural or manmade, For an artist dealing with the sunlight or electrical, Culbert drama and beauty of light, Venice manipulates and traps its elusive, redolent with glass, water and sky, mercurial qualities, marrying it seems an appropriate place for the with unlikely materials and expatriate South Islander to enter. objects to create the complex Britain’s cultural explosion. Later he discovered Croagnes and Today Culbert’s works can be ‘‘Frances Hodgkins was chosen works that trip the light fantastic ‘‘Seeing the RCA for the first the picture was complete. Defying found throughout the world, as the British representative for in a joyous, surreal, playful visual time was an amazing experience, changing fashions and styles, including New Zealand where a the 1939 Biennale but never got dance. one which I’ve never forgotten. It Culbert’s art remained constant as close friendship and collaboration there because of the war. Isn’t it Born in Port Chalmers in 1935, was an extraordinary time to he moved through the era of with Ralph Hotere produced an superb that a New Zealander was he studied at the University of study and work in Britain,’’ he experimental art in the 1970s and especially rich source of chosen for Venice as long ago as Canterbury’s School of Fine Arts remembers. into Tony Blair’s Cool Britannia inspiration, including Pathway To that?’’ he says. from 1953 to 1956 before moving to He stayed on long after when art and culture became a The Sea (1992) a 30 metre-long line His project will be placed along London to attend the Royal College completing his studies. With its national brand. Throughout the of lambent lighting with a parallel a 26m-long, 6m-high corridor of Art in 1957. His arrival was growing arts community, London years, he has continued to refine line of abraded paua shells. A thin where individual works will perfectly timed to coincide with appealed to the New Zealander. his sculptural language. stripe running alongside the shells unfold before reaching the core of forms an iridescent ripple in a the installation Hut, a structure work which creates a symbolic constructed last year in flight path across a sacred harbour Christchurch. Another piece will mouth. In Wellington, Fault, be a 20m-long overhead light commissioned by the Wellington sculpture; a dramatic cascade of City Council for the facade of the gleaming steel chairs, tables new City Gallery matches black- cocooned in a skein of fluorescent painted windows with a tubes. dramatically angled line of white Beyond these details, Culbert neon tubing. In Auckland, Black provides few clues to what will be Stump, a 20m-high and 1m square on view when The Pieta’s massive black tower is perforated by a door swings open in late May for constellation of tiny holes the Biennale’s three-day preview representing the stars of the when the world’s curators, southern night sky. journalists and cognoscenti will Blue Neon at the vanished view the Biennale’s offerings Christchurch Convention Centre before it opens in early June. was rescued from the February ‘‘Like many of his installations, earthquake, surviving to glow Front Door Out Back, will be seductively again. His light anchored firmly in the domestic sculpture Pacific Flotsam was one world, featuring common objects of the stars in the Christchurch such as tables, chairs, wardrobes Art Gallery – a 5m by 9m sea of and plastic containers,’’ says luminous white fluorescent light Culbert’s curator at Venice and punctuated by brightly coloured curator at The Christchurch Art plastic containers. Gallery, Justin Paton. Beneath the serendipity of ‘‘These objects will also be lifted these transformed plastic out of the ordinary, by Culbert’s detergent and milk bottles, neon signature medium – light. An tubing and recycled materials, abundance of fluorescent light there’s Culbert’s constant drive to tubes will draw viewers through illuminate, literally and the spaces, flowing around, over figuratively, perspectives of what and often right through Culbert’s art is. Whether it’s through furniture and coloured plastic photography, sculpture or vessels.’’ installations, Culbert transforms The artist himself is happy with the drab, discarded and mundane both the site and the works, many into the glowing creations which, of which have been meticulously for more than four decades, have planned and pre-constructed in his made a quietly spoken, self- studio in Croagnes. They will soon effacing New Zealander one of the be transported 300km to the Italian most acclaimed contemporary border then across northern Italy artists of his generation. to the shores of the Venetian He has emerged as a highly lagoon where the cargo (including respected and influential artist, 50 formica chairs and tables and collected, feted and admired. He 200 fluorescent tubes) will be still returns to New Zealand loaded on to a barge and shipped to regularly to install new works, re- La Pieta for installation. Like any kindle old friendships and visit old expert magician, Culbert believes haunts. He’s never lost his Kiwi in a certain mystery and accent or the New Zealander’s unpredictability to his works. quizzical and inventive nature. ‘‘There’s a lot of energy in any Outwardly he’s amused by life’s project. I don’t know what will ironies and small pleasures, happen when the works are installed, I don’t know how they experience,’’ he adds with the possessing a dry humour; a sharp installed. You can never say for will behave. quiet smile of a man satisfied with eye for the endless possibilities of certain how things will work out, ‘‘The ultimate experience a job well done and poised to say: the ordinary. what the final result will look comes when you stand in the space ‘‘Hey presto.’’ For the past 18 months, Culbert like,’’ he says. to enjoy the dazzle and play of light has been consumed by his latest ‘‘I’ve planned carefully but until and the journey. Everything will ■ The 55th Venice Biennale runs project. I’m there and the works have been then converge in a here and now from June 1 to November 24.