Thursday, April 30, 2009

17 hot air balloons and a brass band



This sampler is from Phil Dadson's new video, Breath of Wind.
Image: Phil Dadson, Breath of Wind, 2009, 2 screen video installation

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Starkwhite and BLACK magazine



Each issue of Auckland's BLACK magazine includes Gallery, an arts section featuring pages by New Zealand-based and international artists selected for the magazine by Starkwhite. The current issue features pages by Whitney Bedford, Michael Harrison and Thomas Hirschhorn.
Image: Thomas Hirschhorn, Poor-Racer, Sumner, Christchurch, 15 March 2009. Commissioned by The Physics Room in association with Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu for One Day Sculpture. Photo: Stephen Rowe.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Dark Water at Princes Wharf










Dark Water: the Antipodes Project can be viewed at Princes Wharf on Monday 20 and Tuesday 21 April from 12.00 to 6.00pm and then at Starkwhite's Project Space from 23 April to 14 May 2009.
Images: Cho Duck Hyun, Dark Water: the Antipodes Project, 2009, salvage shots and installation views, Princes Wharf, Auckland, NZ.

Matt Henry: Doppelgänger installation views










Doppelgänger runs to 16 May 2009.
Images: Matt Henry: Doppelgänger, 2009, installation views, Starkwhite, Auckland, NZ.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Paradise is elsewhere


Hye Rim Lee’s video Obsession Love Forever is included in Paradise is Elsewhere at ifa-Galerie Stutgart (17 April – 14 June 2009) and ifa-Galerie Berlin (3 July – 6 September 2009). Curator June Yap says: "In this exhibition artists from the Asia-Pacific region look at notions of Paradise and critically address a never-ending longing for a Garden of Eden.” The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with essays by June Yap and Iris Lenz. Lee is also represented in Leisure, A Disguised Labor? Curated by Manu Park, the exhibition is part of a Korean cultural programme in Hannover (opening 15 April) that includes contemporary art, design and film.
Video: Hye Rim Lee, Documentary, 54 second clip, Broadcast NZ.

Dark Water: the Antipodes Project


Cho Duck Hyun is presenting Dark Water: the Antipodes Project in Living Room 09: My heart is where my home is, a 7 day programme of art events in Auckland (19 - 26 April) curated by Pontus Kyander. In the Dark Water project, a container is fictitiously transported through the Earth, hoisted up from the ground or water and opened to reveal its treasure of the artist’s photo-realistic portraits and other images on canvas. It is a Wunderkammer, revealing and reflecting on the history of individuals as well as general patterns of migration.

Cho Duck Hyun’s project started in 1994 when the original container was unearthed at the São Paulo Biennial after seemingly having travelled from Seoul. Now appearing in Auckland, it has traversed the southern hemisphere, and will later continue its journey to another antipode, Liverpool, UK. After being retrieved from Auckland Harbour on 19 April Dark Water will be on display at Princess Wharf on 21/22 April from 12.00 – 6.00pm, before moving to Starkwhite’s Project Space where it will show from 23 April to 14 May 2009.
Image: Cho Duck Hyun, Dark Water: the Antipodes Project (detail), 2009

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

The National Party, John Key, et al. announce bold new charities initiative...

National's bold new tax policy on charities shows a National government will support private giving and is serious about backing groups doing important work in our communities..

The Hon John Key, wants people who don't need to spend their upcoming tax cuts to donate them to charity, a step he hopes will help develop an American-style culture of giving.

Speaking at a Philanthropy New Zealand conference February 27th, Mr Key said those who "can't bring themselves to spend their tax cuts" should give the money to a charity rather than save it.

The cuts are part of the NZ Government's economic stimulus plans, aimed at increasing household spending in the recession.

Mr Key said though many people needed the tax cuts to pay debt or bills, "I am just as sure there are many who are in a position to donate some.

"I'll be reminding people that if they can't bring themselves to spend their tax cuts, there are many organisations who could benefit."

"This policy will give a big boost to the giving tradition in New Zealand. We want to encourage that culture of giving."

Be bold! Be big! Be philanthropic!

et al.
etal.name

Friday, April 10, 2009

REALITY SANDWICHES


Martin Basher's work features in the artnews projects exhibition REALITY SANDWICHES. The other artists in the show are: Dan Attoe, Daniel Baker, Mark Flood, Dorothy Iannone, John Pylypchuk and Rirkrit Tiravanija. Curated by Margherita Belaief, the exhibition runs in Berlin from 8 - 18 April 2009.
Image: Martin Basher, The Hard Work of Simple Living (Marlboro), 2009 (detail), books, tape, air fresheners, candles, incense, ash tray and cigarette butts

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

IDEO MOTOR at the GBAG



Recordings of church bells will chime every half hour for five weeks from the window of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. The sound installation by Boris Dornbusch replays chimes of anonymous church bells taken from free online sound libraries onto the street over the 24 hour period of the day while the interior space remains empty. IDEO MOTOR will be exhibited at the Govett-Brewster until 10 May 2009.
Image: Boris Dornbusch, IDEO MOTOR, 2009, installation view, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, NZ

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Coming up at Starkwhite


In his first solo show at Starkwhite Matt Henry presents a small grouping of recently completed paintings and sculptures reflecting his interest in art, design and consumerism. Installed in two galleries, each the mirror image of the other, the exhibition plays on the notion of the doppelgänger, exploring the formal similarities and interconnectedness of art and design through the minimalist aesthetic. Doppelgänger runs from 16 April to 16 May 2009.
Image: Matt Henry, Duochrome No.1 from the series "16:9” 2008, oil on linen, frame, acrylic glazing

Saturday, April 4, 2009

FEEDFORWARD - The Angel of History


Stella Brennan’s video projection South Pacific (2007) will be included in the exhibition FEEDFORWARD – The Angel of History at the LABoral Centre for Art and Industrial Creation, Gijon, Spain. Curated by Steve Dietz and Christiane Paul, the exhibition runs from 17 July to 11 January 2010. The lineup of artists in the exhibition includes AES+F, Nancy Davenport, Cao Fei, Knowbotic Research and Rachel Rakena.

“In his essay ‘On the concept of History’ Walter Benjamin interprets Paul Klee’s painting Angelus Novus as an ‘angel of history’ transfixed by the wreckage of the past that is piling up in front of him while being propelled backwards into the uncertain future by a storm (progress). Benjamin’s angel of history yet again seems to capture the current moment in time where the wreckage of political conflict and economic inequality is piling up, unresolved, while globalized economic, political, technological and cultural forces inexorably feed us forward in direction that may or may not represent progress. FEEDFORWARD – The Angel of History will feature artworks that reflect a horrified recognition of these forces of the present and a struggling, even optimistic desire for the future.” Steve Dietz and Christiane Paul
Image: Stella Brennan with David Perry, South Pacific, 2007, Single Channel DVD, Stereo Sound, 10 minutes

Friday, April 3, 2009

The art of business meets the business of art


Starkwhite has been involved in the commissioning of artworks for the corporate world, including Billy Apple’s Credit Held, a site-specific work situated in the reception foyer of Minter Ellison Rudd Watts’ Auckland offices. With this transaction work (art for legal services to the value of $100,000) Billy Apple re-brands the MERW brand, adding value to it by making it over as an artwork.
Image: Billy Apple, Credit Held, installation view, MERW foyer, Auckland NZ. Photograph by Richard Orjis

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Dean Roberts plays Red Memory song-cycle at Starkwhite


On Wednesday 15 April Starkwhite will present a concert from acclaimed Auckland-based musician Dean Roberts which will be performed with a cast of collaborators including Matthew Sunderland (Vocals), Chris O'Connor (Drums, Percussion) and Paul Williams (Cello). Roberts is one of New Zealand’s leading practitioners in the field of contemporary music and has produced a number of albums to critical acclaim. His releases on Staubgold, Mille Plateaux and Kranky Records are regarded as touchstones of contemporary experimental music. He weaves elements of rock, electro-acoustic, minimalism and free improvisation into unusually affecting song cycles that sound equally avant-futuristic and hauntingly ancient, like the ghost of songs past. His album The Black Moths Play the Grand Cinema was described by the Wire Magazine as: “A tremendous achievement where everything fits, less of an attempt to blend genres than a demonstration of how for the truly imaginative, genres remain utterly meaningless.” Roberts plays Red Memory song-cycle at Starkwhite on Wednesday 15 April at 8.00pm. Entry: $10 suggested donation.
Image: Dean Roberts and collaborators in concert