sneak preview: 'Microcosms'

Enjoy's gallery space is this morning being colonised by the sculptural tableaux of Dunedin Artist Max Bellamy. Opening Tonight 6pm!!!

Stop by and join us for art, wine, and general conviviality.

Image courtesy of the artist.

more essay!!!

yikes;

Mark Williams' 'Within you without you', on Louise Clifton's 2007 show 'It's a Wonderful Tonight'

Mark Amery's 'An essay about several published versions of a column republished as a review within this essay', on Louise Menzies' 2007 show 'Shelter or Marquee'

Selina Foote and Sam Rountree-Williams' text on their own 2008 show
'Red Thing Blue Thing'

democratic publishing

Can't resist pointing these new PDF essays out to all you art-bunnies. They're linked to their respective shows at the bottom of the Enjoy archive pages. LOTS more on the way too, a few going way back to 2007. I'll post links as they're finished and posted on-line; to print at your leisure from the comforts of home, or sneakily at work on company ink...

Thomasin Sleigh on Emma Fitts's 2008 show
'Compressed Space'

Tao Wells on Holly Willson & Sarah Rose's 2008 show
'Leading to Form'

Gabrielle Amodeo on Joanna Langford's 2008 show
'Brave Days'

And Bruce E. Phillips on John Ward Knox's 2009 show
'Gains on Losses'

the photographic medium in a post-medium age

A few interesting things happening at Massey in the next few weeks. Not least of which, the upcoming Peter Turner Memorial Lecture with Prof Anne Marsh.

Visiting from Monash University, Melbourne, and drawing on research for her recent book LOOK! Contemporary Australian Photography, Marsh will explore some of the issues that concern photography in the 21st Century. She will address critiques of the post medium condition and explore the influence of digital technologies and photo-installation through the works of several Australian art photographers who engage with the medium of photography in various ways.

Following the leading research of Geoffrey Batchen (who spoke recently at Victoria University), Australian photographic theorists seem to be breaking new ground.

When: 5:00pm, Saturday 21 November 2009, followed by light refreshments.
Location/venue: Museum Building Theaterette (10A02), Massey University, Buckle St, Wellington. Cost: FREE. RSVP (acceptances only) By: Noon Weds 18 November 2009
To: Maree Buutveld, email m.buutveld@massey.ac.nz with "Anne Marsh" in the subject line

STUDENTS GO BIG

There's quite a stir about an upcoming (loosely affiliated Masters) show: 'Place in Space' opens Wednesday Nov 11, 6pm at The Print Factory in Mt Cook, Wellington. It's short, and one not to miss...

An exhibition of large scale artworks in varying stages of completion.

The artworks range from sculpture to video to cross stitch and are as diverse in format as they are in the ideas that inform them. Works include a Morris Minor in the process of an unusual restoration, paintings inspired by the story of Moby Dick, a self sufficient garden, large scale video work and an old clinker converted into a space craft about to attempt an impossible flight.

Including artists Catherine Caudwell, Hannah Edmunds, Andrew Ivory, Shane McGrath Christina Oldfield, Douglas Stichbury, Mike Ting, Johnathon Titheridge and Samantha Wallis.

Word is that kazaamBLAM! is performing at the opening too!

images duly swiped from a press release for the show (thanks!) posted by Jeremy

what's in a name

The current show at Enjoy, and the one directly before it have in one way or another, skipped, dodged and refused to be labelled. That the viewer, upon entering the gallery and experiencing the work (or perhaps even upon reading the press release) may do so anyway, can't, and shouldn't be helped. But the initial seed of reference has not been planted, so as to allow for wider reading and thought.

The terms 'Feminism' and 'Outsider Art' conjure specific readings, meanings, and associations - art historical contexts that even 'untrained' or 'vernacular' art practice is tied to, by way of its exclusion. And rightly so, too, as 'abstraction', 'minimalism' and any number of terms carry baggage (isn't that their function?), though perhaps not quite as heavy. By avoiding these terms, or better to say dressing them down, Enjoy is at once denying that which the gallery is founded on (dialogue (and let's face it, academic art practice and the art histories it's based on)), while at the same time attempting to further it by allowing the work to speak for itself.

At the artists' talk for the Role. Play exhibition, it was stated by one of the artists that feminist work was seldom sufficiently discussed and unpacked, as the concept and term feminism itself tended to swallow the discussion. And, after an artist talk considerably longer and more engaging than most, very little had indeed been said about the actual work itself. Its context, operation, and what it actually did. It's safe to say that 'outsider' art suffers from the same neglect, and is often not given the same levels of critique and thought as it warrants. This is the case in New Zealand anyway, in parts of North America and Europe it can be a different story.

The current show Tea Time seems to call into question the terms themselves that are on visitor's lips upon entering the gallery, while leaving it out of the brief gallery text offered. I believe that this is an effort to afford the work the level of criticism any other show would receive.

image, Ron Dixon's Kriss Kross, image courtesy of Stuart Shepherd (thanks!)

from the archives

A few images from the 2008 archive. John C talking poultry after Chris Brady's Roast Without Equal, and Vivien Atkinson taking it to the streets in asking 'what it is that an artist does exactly'.

images from the Workshopping Performance series 2008, courtesy of Enjoy

20 years of reunification

Built in 1454, the Berliner Dom - as well as various other buildings and sites in the German capital - has recently been subject to a lighting intervention, as part of the Berlin Illuminiert: Festival of Lights. The Festival is part of a wider celebration marking 20 years of reunification and the fall of the Berlin Wall, this November. The festivities spill over, even to the antipodes, with the German Film Festival kicking off 4(-29) November in Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin and Wellington.



images: borrowed from NZLive.com/blog (thanks!)

This Friday in Wellington

Friday 16 October:

A Pubic artwork by Natalie Ellen-Eliza & Rachel Johnstone will be installed atop Mt Albert, Newtown from 10am

The Wallace Art Awards are happening at The New Dowse from 6pm

'Blue Room' opens at the Film Archive from 5.30pm

'Cognitive Shift' - a photographic exhibition opens at 141 Willis St from 6.30pm

The Russian Frost Farmers Gallery has its grand opening from 7pm-late. 2 Eva St (behind Dream Girls off Dixon St).

and 'Source Material' opens at the Adam from 6pm.

That's just far too many places to be at one time. Though it would spell a lot of free glasses of wine if you could time it well.

Good to see Toi Poneke cranking last weekend for Bevan Shaw's Opening by the way.

City Gallery

Is it just me, or is the exterior of City Gallery Wellington's new extension completely heinous?

While putting the ace interiors aside, and not wanting to jump on the 'New Local Architecture Bashing Bandwagon' (refer Wellington Airport Development debacle), I find it looks like a rusty box! I'm struggling to find its appeal, to connect it with the artist's impression (see below), and to imagine how it might contribute to making City Gallery more approachable for the Wellington community (most famous for its intimidating entrance). And oh yeah, thanks for spoiling the view from the formerly tranquil seats of the City Library's upper floors, too.


Browsing CGW's website, they state of the addition: '...simple, bold, yet unexpected, supporting City Gallery’s role to challenge preconceived notions of art and design'.

Images: 'Rusty Box' credit SarahJean365: thanks! & 'External View of City Gallery Wellington's New Tower', City Gallery Wellington: thanks! Posted by Jeremy

Requiem for set

An essay by Rachel O'Neill, on the occasion of the opening of Role. Play , at Enjoy. The show runs until 17 October.

'a pile of rubbish'

Sometimes it's easy to see just why the public enjoys such a hostile relationship with contemporary art. Take Dane Mitchell's wining piece in the recent Trust Waikato National Contemporary Art Award: literally a 'pile of rubbish', as Paul Henry so readily observed both last night and this morning on TVNZ. So after re-hashing Et Al's 'Braying Portaloo' for some years as an example of how art is a waste of time and money (notice how this always gets a mention at the end of Dominion Post articles on contentious art issues), they now have a new point of public reference.

It seems that contemporary art is just too easy to poke fun at, to not understand, and to twist into negative spin; resulting in people being quite content to not even want to engage, or begin to understand it.

I'm not saying that Mitchell's piece is not deserving of the award, or that contemporary art needs to satisfy on grounds of aesthetic of inherent 'value'. Only that this time I can understand where the media is coming from.

image: Collateral by Dane Mitchell. 2009 Judge, Charlotte Huddleston gives her judge's talk. Courtesy of Waikato Museum, 2009 (cheers). Posted by Jeremy

transmission

Some images from Radio Cegeste's first transmission to the Radia Network, from Enjoy the Sunday just gone. A project by Sally Ann McIntyre, with James R Ford's show Too Orangey for Crows as the backdrop.

www.r1.co.nz

www.myspace.com/radiocegeste

www.radia.fm
photographs by Sarah Loh

krazeerock

One from the vault: Krazeerock, 2008 by Gemma Syme. A suped up document of her performance at Enjoy as part of the Workshopping Performance Series. Came across it while compiling the series' catalogue: due out soon!

Enjoy meet Fbook

We've done it, caved: Enjoy has joined FaceBook, aka the global spy network.

Enjoy Face(book)

FBook and other social networking sites seem to be great for galleries, I guess because it provides another community outlet. Good place for social page photographs to end up, links, discussion, video, stuff in general. Much like a Blog, only much more open ended, with show invites, news, and best of all you can see what other folks are up to while at it. Potential to even know an arts community from the other side of the globe. It's funny to see how quickly arts organisations have assumed things like Fbook as if they were always there.

Too Orangey for Crows

A link to James R Ford's off-site work:

A Tweet a Day

Auckland Art Gallery, virtually open

A calm, soothing tour of what the Auckland Art Gallery will look like in 2011. I hate to think of all the effort that's gone into this animation. I'm guessing to keep punters interested, and to convince them that it will open again one day soon.

art for the planet

Like me, it might seem to you that climate change is just too big a thing to change; corporate swine ... However, here's a great chance to engage in your own project, of any sort (provided it can somehow be photographed), to contribute towards a global initiative for 24 October, the International Day of Climate Change Action. 

An invitation has been given to organise projects, events, art, dance, actions, anything that somehow speaks to the issue of climate change, and/or to the goal of having only 350 parts per million of carbon in the atmosphere (currently 387, pre-industrial revolution was 250). High-res images should be submitted to an organisation called '350' who will have them shown on a big screen in Wellington on the day, on the net, and will become part of this global bank of ideas, comments, and protest. This will be happening worldwide, and with NZ's early peek of the morning sun we will once again have the cheeky opportunity to lead the world.

For more info check out the website. 350 is part of an international movement to unite the world around solutions to climate change: mission, to inspire communities across New Zealand to act with unity, urgency and possibility. 

an exhibition of polaroids

Pippa Sanderson's show 'Quest' opens tomorrow evening at Photo Space. I'm interested in seeing an exhibition of polaroids. The idea of the paranormal also intrigues, given the polaroids' instantaneous, consumerist nature.

The Enjoy Reading Room also now has a copy, and others for sale, of The Blue Room: Thirteen artists respond in a psychic way, a catalogue of the exhibition held at Blue Oyster and curated by Pippa.