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Christchurch Art Gallery Reading the Swell The Militant Artists’ Union Hair Story Colin McCahon Not Quite Human Te Puna o Waiwhetu Matt Vance looks at the art of Marti Friedlander on Fomison, Ken Hall draws attention to the Peter Simpson examines the Ronnie Van Hout talks to the sea. Maddox and Clairmont. theatre of personal grooming. artist’s fruitful Christchurch years. Lara Strongman. Bulletin Issue no.185 Spring 2016 Bulletin Issue no.185 Spring 2016 Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu B.185 Editor David Simpson Christchurch Art Gallery Foundation Charlotte and Marcel Gray Small Business TOGETHER Partners Nicola and Ben Hardy Cakes by Anna Gallery Contributors Level One TOGETHER Partners Ernest and Catherine Henshaw Caxton Print Director: Jenny Harper Philip Carter Family Fiona Timms and Richard Laing The Colombo Curatorial Team: Ken Hall, Felicity Milburn, Sandra and Grant Close Sir Christopher and Dayle Mace Cowdy & Company Charlotte and Alex Malone Nathan Pohio, Lara Strongman, Peter Vangioni Ben and Penny Gough, trustees of the Fendalton Eye Clinic Ben Gough Family Foundation Jacqui and Steven McDonald McCarthy Design Public Programmes: Lana Coles, Amy Marr Grumps Lynette and John McFadden Mods Hair Merivale Photographer: John Collie Joanna and Kevin Hickman Patsy Dart and Michael Norris Potsticker Dumpling Bar Gabrielle Tasman Mavis Frances Potter Tavendale and Partners Editorial Committee Chartwell Trust Sue and Ron Pynenburg Aaron Beehre, John Collie, Elizabeth Davidson, Hall Cannon and Miles Refo Sophie Davis, Barbara Garrie, Blair Jackson, Humphry and Debra Rolleston Level Three TOGETHER Partners (95) Sarah Pepperle, David Simpson, Lara Strongman, Level Two TOGETHER Partners Anu Pratap and Harsh Singh and Hospitality Partners (4) Luke Wood Katrina and Mark Anderson Benesia Smith Please see christchurchartgallery.org.nz/ Juliana Hilson and James Anderson Jenny and Andrew Smith support/foundation for a full list. Sue and Mike Stenhouse Other Contributors Heather and Stephen Boock David and Catherine Boyer Barbara and Robert Stewart Charitable Trust Tusiata Avia, Alice Barclay, Kah Bee Chow, Mel and Marcel Brew Sheelagh Thompson Foundation Partner Delaney Davidson, Marti Friedlander, Peter Simpson, Stephen Collins Family Trust Leaanne O’Sullivan and Andrew Vincent Matt Vance, Andrew Paul Wood Rosie and Nick Davidson David Wilton Louise Edwards Margaret and Carey Wood Design and Production Lisa and Garth Gallaway Anonymous Partner Our thanks to the Graphic Design department at Gaye and Kent Gardner Anonymous Partner the Ilam School of Fine Arts for designing Bulletin, Dame Jenny Gibbs Anonymous Partner and to PMP Print for their generous sponsorship June Goldstein Christchurch Art Gallery Staff and Families of the production. Art Direction: Aaron Beehre Editorial Design: Gemma Banks, Eilish Cameron, Raquel Joseph, Emma Kevern, Klaudia Krupa Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu Printing: PMP Print Strategic Partners Contact Us We welcome your feedback and suggestions for future articles. Media Partners Tel: (+64 3) 941 7300 Email: [email protected] [email protected] Please see the back cover for more details. ISSN 1176-0540 (print) ISSN 1179-6715 (online) Product Partners Issue no.185 3 2 Bulletin Spring 2016 I like making things that I haven’t seen before. That doesn’t mean to say that “ they don’t start off with the familiar, they often do. But through the work it evolves and something else happens, and that’s where it becomes really exciting for me. It’s the unknown. Julia Morison ” Visit the Christchurch Art Gallery to watch Julia Morison working in her studio on the video wall in the NZI Foyer. Issue no.185 3 B.185 4 Director’s Foreword 58 My Favourite A few words from director Jenny Harper. Delaney Davidson makes his choice. 8 Reading the Swell 60 Finding Barry Cleavin Matt Vance looks at the art of the sea. Alice Barclay reflects on the artist’s archive. 16 The Militant Artists’ Union Marti Friedlander on Fomison, Maddox 62 The Year in Review and Clairmont. A summary of the year in business at the Gallery. 20 Hair Story 64 Postcard From... Ken Hall draws attention to the theatre Kah Bee Chow in Malmö, Sweden. of personal grooming. 29 St Paul’s Trinity Pacific 66 Exhibition and Events Island Church Programme What’s on at the Gallery this quarter. A poem by Tusiata Avia. 32 Colin McCahon Peter Simpson examines the artist’s fruitful Christchurch years. Cover: Ronnie van Hout Quasi 2016. Steel, I like making things that I haven’t seen 42 The Camera as a Place polystyrene and resin. Commissioned by Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu. before. That doesn’t mean to say that of Potential Courtesy of the artist. Photo: John Collie “ they don’t start off with the familiar, Nathan Pohio on Fiona Pardington’s early they often do. But through the work it photograph, Moko. Previous spread: Detail of the Britten V1000 evolves and something else happens, installed in GREAT BRITTEN! A Work by Billy and that’s where it becomes really 46 Not Quite Human Apple at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o exciting for me. It’s the unknown. Ronnie van Hout talks to Lara Strongman. Waiwhetu, July 2016. F002–92 collection of Kevin Grant. Photo: John Collie Julia Morison 56 Beyond The Fields We Know Fiona Pardington’s Flora_Unicorn, ” introduced by Andrew Paul Wood. PLEASE NOTE: The opinions put forward in this magazine are not necessarily those of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu. All images reproduced courtesy of the artist or copyright holder unless otherwise stated. Visit the Christchurch Art Gallery to watch Julia Morison working in her studio on the video wall in the NZI Foyer. 4 Bulletin Spring 2016 Artist Fiona Pardington with Sheelagh Thompson in July 2016 Issue no.185 5 Director’s Foreword JENNY HARPER August 2016 Since mid July we’ve been enjoying the first major made by an inventor he knew and admired and he exhibition change downstairs. While it was difficult to reminds us of its amazing prowess and success. On the say goodbye to Unseen and Op + Pop—and to be rid of other hand, Pardington delves into the storerooms the colourful castor sugar (some 600kg were required) of natural, medical and social history museums and with which Tanya Schultz made Pip & Pop’s Newest New archives to present us with less celebrated objects: birds World—it’s now so rewarding to be the final venue and feathers, death masks (which fascinated French for City Gallery Wellington’s exhibition of Kāi Tahu ethnographers), and soft-porn magazine images from photographer Fiona Pardington’s A Beautiful Hesitation. the 1950s. She also assembles and photographs Designing the display and augmenting the content of this still-life arrangements of birds and beasts; of flowers, show for our audiences feels like another big step towards shells and globes. being fully operational. When she captures what’s been ordered and collected And artist Billy Apple’s homage to Christchurch’s in her precise and beautiful images, they are shown John Britten—the inventor of an amazing motorbike, for our reconsideration, but also, importantly, to allow still some 25kg lighter than any other racing bike—is us to reflect on where we’ve been and the basis of our itself amazing. To work with such an exacting and precise knowledge. It’s been wonderful to be able to enhance A artist as Apple is an extraordinary event in any Gallery’s Beautiful Hesitation with additional work from our own calendar; he’s improved the space within which he’s worked collection, and we thank Canterbury Museum for its loan as well as presented the components of GREAT BRITTEN! of Arthur Llewelyn Barker’s original letters to his uncle. and it’s such a privilege for us finally to realise a project This exhibition has been the perfect moment to we’ve had in our notional programme since before 2011. introduce our visitors to the great generosity of Sheelagh When they visited, both Apple and Pardington Thompson, who gave the Gallery the means to buy a reinforced what an amazing team we have at Te Puna o new work by Pardington, Still Life with Wild Wheat and Waiwhetu Christchurch Art Gallery. My grateful thanks Freesia, Waiheke. It’s such a treat to be able to acquire on the city’s behalf to all involved in the development and a beautiful work that is contemporary, but calls to mind presentation of these exhibitions. some of the Dutch still lifes in our current Treasury Of course, Apple and Pardington’s art is very different, exhibition upstairs. but there is a key link inasmuch as both artists re-present Continuing with local generosity, I am thrilled to key objects for our consideration and admiration. Apple’s announce another recent gift to our collection. It’s a small Artist Fiona Pardington with Sheelagh Thompson in July 2016 project is a homage; he presents us with a motorbike but important early watercolour of Christchurch by 6 Bulletin Spring 2016 Emily Harper Christchurch from near Gloucester Street Bridge 1857. Watercolour. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, gift of the Acland family 2016 Issue no.185 Director’s Foreword 7 Emily Harper, one of the daughters of the first bishop, From the aggressive displays of outsider status Henry John Chitty Harper and his wife, also Emily. Painted flouted by punks to the bewigged respectability of the in 1857, it is no doubt one of the earliest paintings made judge’s bench, curator Ken Hall takes his exhibition by a woman in this part of the world—showing us the Bad Hair Day as a starting point for a serious look at promise of the new world she and her family came to only the use of hair as a cultural signifier.