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EDITOR DAVID SIMPSON GALLERY CONTRIBUTORS DIRECTOR: JENNY HARPER CURATORIAL TEAM: KEN HALL, FELICITY MILBURN, LARA STRONGMAN, PETER VANGIONI PUBLIC PROGRAMMES: LANA COLES PHOTOGRAPHER: JOHN COLLIE EDITORIAL COMMITTEE AARON BEEHRE, BARBARA GARRIE, BLAIR JACKSON, SARAH PEPPERLE, DAVID SIMPSON, LARA STRONGMAN, LUKE WOOD OTHER CONTRIBUTORS DEIDRE BROWN, ELIZABETH CALDWELL, SHANE COTTON, DELANEY DAVIDSON, SOPHIE DAVIS, SARAH FARRAR, BLAIR FRENCH, LOUISE GARRETT, BARBARA GARRIE, DARRYN GEORGE, DEBORAH HOWES, penelope jackson, MICHELE LEGGOTT, JUSTINE OLSEN, NATHAN POHIO, KAREN STEVENSON, MEGAN TAMATI-QUENNELL, LINDA TYLER, REDMER YSKA TEL: (+64 3) 941 7300 FAX: (+64 3) 941 7301 EMAIL: [email protected], [email protected] PLEASE SEE THE BACK COVER FOR MORE DETAILS. WE WELCOME YOUR FEEDBACK AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE ARTICLES. Foundation PARTNERS WE'RE growing ‘TOGETHER’. WE’LL BE LISTING OUR NEW together parTNERS HERE IN THE AUTUMN ISSUE OF BULLETIN. CORPORATE PARTNERS I-SITE SINGAPORE AIRLINES WESTPAC DESIGN AND PRODUCTION EDITORIAL DESIGN: NARELLE DENMEAD ART DIRECTION: AARON BEEHRE PRINTING: PMP LIMITED ISSN 1176-0540 (PRINT) ISSN 1179-6715 (ONLINE) Bulletin Summer Christchurch Art Gallery December 2014 Te Puna o Waiwhetu —February 2015 Christchurch’s Boutique Hotel A thoughtfully orchestrated blend of design, art, food and wine in a remarkable boutique setting. 363 Montreal Street (Cranmer Square). hotelmontreal.co.nz Director’s Foreword Paul Johns: South Pacific Sanctuary / Peraki / the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Susie Cox, Banks Peninsula is now a month into its run at our educator, talked to her about the strides MoMA 209 Tuam Street, and our visitor services staff report has taken in demonstrating how an art museum can it’s being very well received. A quiet, thoughtful connect with students young and old online. And exhibition, its roots are in an activity that is far Sophie Davis and Barbara Garrie of the University of from reflective—whaling. At a time when the world Canterbury look at the holdings of our library and is objecting to whaling, Johns prompts us to think archives in an attempt to define the artist book. about our whale-hunting past, and its role in bringing The pagework in this issue is one I’m amused to Europeans to this region. As well as his meditative see, as it has a family connection for me—or at least landscape photography, the exhibition contains relics that’s what I read into it. At first glimpse, UK-based from Peraki Bay—the site of the first permanent New Zealand photographer Boyd Webb’s contribution European settlement on the Banks Peninsula—and is a couple of fishing flies—so familiar, but where are extracts from the Peraki Log, a diary kept by whaler the hooks? As with much of Webb’s work, that first look Captain Hempelman. is deceptive and, as with much of what we call art, a Paul Johns will be followed in late January by glance does not do it justice. David Cook: Meet Me in the Square, which has at In this issue of Bulletin we also pay tribute to its heart Christchurch during the early to mid-1980s. our colleague Jonathan Mane-Wheoki, who died After the earthquakes in 2010-11, Wellington-based in October. Like so many in our profession, senior photographer and lecturer at Massey University David curator Lara Strongman was a student of Jonathan’s Cook realised that he had an archive of around 6,000 at the University of Canterbury, where he taught art images dating back to a documentary urge during history for many years; she talked to him about his his time at the University of Canterbury School of life and career at his Auckland home and has invited Fine Arts. Cook’s images document day-to-day life others whom he taught to reflect on his legacy to New in a Christchurch now lost forever, and a number of Zealand’s art and museum professions. the subcultures that gathered in and around the city. On behalf of the Gallery I’d like to thank our This exhibition is preceded by a new publication from Bulletin designer for the past three issues, Narelle Christchurch Art Gallery, which we’ve published in Denmead. A final-year student at the School of Fine time for Christmas. It’s available from our online shop Arts, Narelle is the first student to undertake design and at bookshops throughout the city. of the magazine under the tutelage of lecturer Aaron Also newly available in a shopping situation is Beehre as part of our newly formed relationship with Michael Parekowhai’s Chapman’s Homer. Although to UC. This will be her final issue at the helm, and I wish be accurate, he’s in one shop—PlaceMakers Riccarton, her all the best for the future. perhaps appropriately near the barbecues. He’s there I was fortunate to speak at a conference in for the next month or so thanks to Grant and Sandra Dubrovnik and visit this city for the first time in Close, who were the first to sign up as ‘Bull sitters’. September. It was a magical place—the old city so You can find out more, including how you or your concise and, it seemed, so perfectly formed. I didn’t organisation can apply to have him on site for a while, know a lot about it before and was amazed when on page 47. We’re thrilled to not only have him back out I found out that this city, important for so many on public display, but in a place where he can meet and powerbrokers from medieval times was flattened by be enjoyed by a new audience. an earthquake in 1667. It was entirely rebuilt then In this issue of Bulletin we feature an interview (with just a single Renaissance building remaining) with Deborah Howes, director of digital learning at and much of it again after the brutal wars of a few 4 Exhibitions years ago. It is a heartening example of a city and its Paul Johns: South Pacific Sanctuary / Peraki / Banks Peninsula people bouncing back—but as the guidebooks say— Until 24 January 2015 slowly and with difficulty. I spoke of our post-closure The residue of history is awakened in new work by Christchurch-based artist Outer Spaces programme, of becoming a ‘gallery Paul Johns, whose consideration of Japanese whale-hunting activity in nearby without walls’, and of how we had supported our southern Antarctic waters and the ensuing protests has led to a reflection on creative community as best we could. Attendees were our local whaling past. The artist’s personal connections to Banks Peninsula uniformly impressed—but I also impressed on them contribute to a finely tuned response that reveals how, although the substance how much this seemed like an extended range of of the past is eroded over time, resonant traces are left behind. The contrast hors d’oeuvre at a banquet and that we were anxious between past and present also draws attention to changing or evolving for the main course to appear. attitudes to animal life. This coming year is very special for us as we expect to reopen in December 2015. It will be wonderful to be able to say ‘this year’ from 1 January; and to eventually David Cook: Meet Me in the Square name a date. As a staff we’ll be planning, writing, 31 January – 24 May 2015 researching, speaking with artists and their agents, re-staffing and, closer to the actual date, preparing Where were you in 1980s Christchurch? (Or if you weren’t born yet, where and installing works for your viewing. We can’t wait to was your mum?) Dishing out generous servings of nostalgia and retro, Meet exchange this life for the reality of visitors we can see Me in the Square shows central Christchurch as we’ll never see it again. As a and count each day enjoying art. student in photography at the University of Canterbury’s School of Fine Arts, All at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o David Cook wandered the streets at all times of day and night, finding new Waiwhetu wish you, our readers, and our audiences vantage points, meeting strangers. The camera was his licence to explore. near and wide, off- and online, best wishes for the Part anthropologist, part cultural commentator, he captured bell-ringers and New Year. Here’s to 2015 and the chance to once more boot boys, beery crowds, nuns, mums with prams, the Seagull Man and royal demonstrate fully what we do for this city. watchers —and in doing so, created a body of work that continues to resonate. #meetmeinthesquare Jenny Harper Director November 2014 5 Jonathan Lara Strongman Mane-Wheoki: Teacher 6 There are some teachers you remember all your life: He altered my perception of He suggested that the best way extraordinary individuals who view learning as a Māori forever. Growing up and to start looking at the material boundless source of energy, both for themselves and their seeing images in the media he had gathered was to get to students. This sort of teacher has not only total command of Māori as troublemakers in know the artists—to establish a of their subject, but an infectious enthusiasm for it that society, made me embarrassed community. Now second nature transmits itself to the minds of others. Teachers like this about revealing my Māori to me, the concept of this kind create advocates for their subject. They impart knowledge, heritage at school. That changed of ‘community’ was new to but more importantly they show you a way of being in the when as a student at UC, I heard me.