Issue 28 Exhibitions Ōtautahi www.artbeat.org.nz May 2021 Galleries Christchurch Studios Waitaha Street Art Canterbury Art in Public Places ARTBEAT In this issue: Let’s Take This Online 02 Art Chemist 04 Tribute to Grant Lingard 05 Reviews 08 Artists Continue to work in Difficult Conditions 09 Wild-Taste Walk 09 Hang in There Mate – Saving Ng Building Property owners Roland Logan and (Land Information New Zealand, handling Sharon Ng both emphasise that they land titles), stating that they wanted to are just here to save their building at 212 purchase the Ng Building and the land Madras Street. ‘The last thing we want to was later followed by the Christchurch City do is hold up the stadium’. Council inferring that NG Building could 212 Madras Street is the last remaining be incorporated into the stadium design. Edwardian warehouse building in Ōtautahi In April 2020, the Crown announced Christchurch and has been the recipient that Ng Building could not be incorpo- of several heritage awards over the past rated, even though plans for the project still decade. Acquired in 2005 by Logan and depicted its incorporation within its design. Ng, for the past sixteen years it has been Then, in March 2021, a compulsory notice a multifaceted centre for contemporary of acquisition was sent to Logan and Ng, art and design in numerous and varied and new plans were released which now manifestations. On its ground floor, Ng showed that the Ng Building could not be Boutique, a distinct and unique cloth- incorporated. Not surprisingly, writing in ing and design store with an integrated The Press at that time, journalist Steven gallery space and upstairs, artists’ studios Walton commented that the outcome of and office spaces representing various this sequence of events ‘has had massive creative practices, tenanted by designers, implications for its owners, who are now architects and artists. trying to convince the government to save Logan and Ng had first discovered the 115-year-old building by moving it’. that the site on which their building was Earthquake strengthened and fully located was to become part of the loca- tenanted, Ng Building was among the very tion for a new public stadium, watching the first businesses, retail spaces, galleries ↑ 212 Madras Street in 1913. Premises of Cotton Brothers announcement on the evening television and a cluster of artists’ studio to reopen Ltd., importers, Christchurch. Alexander Turnbull Library, news in June 2012. Central government in the city late in 2011. As one of the few ref: 1/1-005614-G. Webb, Steffano, 1880-1967: Collection agency CERA (Canterbury Earthquake remaining heritage buildings in Ōtautahi of negatives Regional Authority) had identified the site in 2021, Logan and Ng are resolute in their as key to its ten anchor projects for the determination to ensure that it is saved. recovering city. And they are not alone. Prominent However, three days later following among the initial expressions of support this public announcement Logan and for the building’s preservation a decade Ng received an unanticipated and very ago is the voice of artist Ralph Hotere welcome letter from CERA’s chief execu- (1931 – 2013). A good friend of Roland tive stating, “the Ng Building was feasible to Logan and Sharon Ng, the artist gifted be incorporated into the stadium design”. them “Hang In There Mate” in 2013, with his ← Ralph Hotere, It represented an assurance from CERA specific instructions that it be used in the “Hang in There that the building could be accommodated service of protecting the building. Logan Mate,” 2013, oil and integrated within the stadium’s plan- recalls: ‘Ralph was a strong supporter of stick on paper ning. (A decision at the time that it is worth the campaign to save the NG Building, he noting is even more surprising when 70% was very sympathetic towards our situa- ↙ its preservation that will be offered for and furnishings represented through- of then-standing buildings under lockdown tion as he had gone through a very similar Philip Trusttum, Wove To auction 20th May 2021. The auction is out Ng Building. Among the artists are in the central city were demolished, among situation with his studio at Port Chalmers , 1989 – 2002, acrylic on being organised on a voluntary basis by Brooke Georgia, Tim Main, Nathan Pohio, them 151 with heritage status). several years earlier. He made and gifted canvas a group of friends/artists and people who Mary McFarlane, Paul Maysek, Tatyanna Yet, by 2017, this commitment to us a work to be used in support of saving wish to see the building retained. Meharry and Nichola Shanley. Indeed, saving the building had become embed- the building, and the auction is named after ↓↓ Former Ng Boutique manager, Donna there is, as both Hughes and Park main- "Hang in There Mate" Marie Le Lievre, ded within a series of contradictory state- it Scoper (Tray), Hughes and artist/designer and marketing tain, a definite and overarching vision for ments from central and local government. It is one of 50 works of art from artists 2021, oil on person for Ng Boutique, Steven Junil Park all the spaces. canvas An approach to Logan and Ng from LINZ who are friends of the building supporting are managing the auction to raise funds Moreover, following immediately after towards saving the building either in its the February 2011 earthquakes when the current site or its relocation. heart of the central city was cordoned From its opening as Ng Boutique off and 212 Madras Street bordered the in 2005, Logan and Ng have fostered a very edge of CERA’s boundary line for its strong exhibition programme with senior demarcated red zone, Ng Boutique was and emerging New Zealand artists that among the very first businesses to reopen. have taken place in gallery spaces, artists’ With the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna studios and installations throughout the o Waiwhetū ‘s building occupied at that building. Hughes observes that the exhi- time by CERA as an operation-centre, bition spaces were a progressive devel- the gallery launched its Outer Spaces opment: ‘Whilst the gallery spaces were programme, a series of art in public spaces never formalised as such, visitors and projects and temporary exhibitions in artists have consistently come to experi- off-site spaces. ence them and the exhibitions as central The first floor of Ng Building became to Ng Building’. central to the Christchurch Art Gallery’s The programme began in 2005 with Outer Spaces in an exhibitions series that a series of changing exhibitions of paint- ran from February 2012 to January 2013. ings by Philip Trusttum. The association with him and many other artists has seen a programme as distinct as the clothing continues on page 3 Artbeat 01 Let’s Take This Online… ← A stencil at the giant cans on the corner of Lichfield and Manchester streets in the East Frame draws attention to the popu- larity of NFTs. Photograph: Reuben Woods → Do NFTs have the potential to change the way we consume art or will they see culture continue to be owned by the rich? Photo- graph: Reuben Woods writer Reuben Woods Since the turn of the year, my social media file that is stored on the Ethereum block- In a world of infinite reproduction, NFTs of monetisation, the rebellious outsider feeds have been overrun with artists chain and allows ownership to be traded add authenticity and scarcity to the market. forms becoming part of the art market in announcing new NFT drops and article and verified. There is also the potential for artists to various ways, from commercial projects headlines asking variations of “What is Online artist Beeple became a central gain royalties from on-sales of their work, to exhibitions and auction house sales, an NFT?” Although they have apparently figure in the emergence of NFTs after his a long-standing problem in the traditional the extreme being the extraction of pieces existed since 2017, NFTs have exploded digital collage Everydays: The First 5000 art world. From a process point of view, the from the streets for personal gain. in popularity in recent months, with signif- Days sold for almost 70 million dollars at willingness of artists to explore pan-dis- This is tough to reconcile with the initial icant sales attracting artists and the poten- major auction house Christies in Febru- ciplinary approaches may grow and facili- impetus of urban art to operate outside of tial impact on the art world, and indeed how ary. But it is not just visual artists, Twitter tate new modes of creation, expanding the the art market and is symptomatic of the we consume art, ensuring wide-ranging founder Jack Dorsey sold his first tweet, possibilities of creative work. Of course, desire for art and culture as a symbol of commentaries. As a development in the while musicians such as Kings of Leon there have been numerous concerns power and status. Will NFTs and digital realm of crypto-currency, NFTs connect are releasing albums as NFTs, and the raised as well, notably the environmental art face similar challenges and resulting the tech and art worlds in an unprece- sports world has embraced the potential impact of the Ethereum blockchain, which changes? Digital artists may not share the dented manner. of highlight GiFs and digital trading cards reportedly consumed the same amount outsider desire of early urban artists, but Admittedly, I am not an expert on as tokens. NFTs seem to be shifting the of electricity as Iceland for much of 2018. the online realm does present an intriguing this topic. In fact, reading dozens of arti- concept of digital creativity and what we But there is something more nagging space for the democratisation of culture.