sign language

an ongoing debacle not worth going into here, but we had to share this image: The Enjoy sign in butterfly guise.

Rita Angus Artist's Residency, 2010

Wellington Institute of Technology is calling for applications for the Rita Angus Artist's Residency for 2010.

The Residency supports an artist to produce a new body of work that reflects upon the interplay between technology and culture. The Residency also encourages the artist to enter into dialogue with the Wellington arts community and to exhibit and discuss their practice. This is an open call to all practitioners, nationwide.

Applications due 5pm, Monday 3 May, 2010 More info

Flour Power

Ruth Cleland is driving back to Auckland today, sigh. Thankfully she'll be back in Wellington for her Artist Talk on Saturday 27 March, 2pm.

Speaking of Auckland artists though, in the last year two of them have left us with 1kg packages of flour -- for one reason or another -- after their shows.

image courtesy of Enjoy

stairwell communication

If there's one thing we love, it's finding notes on the Enjoy door. Thanks for this, and it was a swell opening! 'Moths & Bats' is an exhibition by Devon Smith and Sarah McNeil. On at Bats' Pitt Bar right now...

Opportunities for you!

A couple of quick things you should all apply for. See the world!

First, de Appel in Amsterdam is calling for curatorial submissions to their 2010/2011 programme. They're offering the opportunity to research theoretical issues and developments with their tutorial team, meet artists and curators in the Netherlands and wider, and perhaps a research trip outside Western Europe.

Initiated in 1994 the Curatorial Programme of Arts Centre de Appel wishes to offer young curators a condensed package of experiences and skills that can be used as tools and instruments during the further development of their professional career. De Appel is an internationally oriented arts centre located in Amsterdam that functions as a site for research and presentation of contemporary visual arts through a series of exhibitions, performances publications and discursive events.

They've got a little more information on their site. Applications are due 15 January 2010.

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The Arts Centre in Christchurch has paired up with the Asia New Zealand Foundation to offer an Arts Residency Exchange in Korea. Up for grabs is a fully-funded 3-month residency in Seoul, at the Changdong Arts Studio, run by the National Museum of Contemporary Art.

The Arts Centre don't seem to have the info up on their site yet, so hit up Creative NZ for the application brief.

(Found some stuff about the launch of Changdong's residency programme, with photos.)

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

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!)

Elam information evening

Thinking aboutstudying Fine Arts? Elam School of Fine Arts at The University of Auckland are running information evenings in Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. This is an opportunity to find out more about undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, student services and support, accommodation and scholarships. Join Gavin Hipkins and Derrick Cherrie  between 6:30 and 8:00pm at the following locations: Wellington – Monday 15 June Enjoy Public Art Gallery Level 1/147 Cuba Street www.enjoy.org.nz Christchurch – Thursday 18 June The Physics Room Second Floor, Old Central Post Office Building, 209 Tuam Street www.physicsroom.org.nz Dunedin – Friday 19 June Blue Oyster Gallery 24b Moray Place Moray Chambers Building basement (Blue door, down alleyway opposite Rialto) www.blueoyster.org.nz To register email s.korohina@auckland.ac.nz For programme information contact +64 9 373 7599, ext 86623 www.creative.auckland.ac.nz Image: Peter Stichbury, Zach Klein 2008, acrylic on linen, 80 x 100 cm. Private collection, Santa Monica. Photo: Jennifer French.

art history 101 (NZ)

Most days I walk through the doorway to 147 Cuba Street. This is hard to avoid as it's the only (safe) way to access Enjoy Gallery. I am, like countless other others I imagine, quite attached to 147's eclectic and resonant doorway - an icon that has become synonymous with Cuba Street, and with Peter McLeavey's gallery. One day I remember Arlo Edwards doing Peter a favour and stripping back a few dozen of the countless layers of posters, drawings, and all else plasterable that seems to gravitate and find its way there. After a while he pointed out an old Misery sketch his efforts had uncovered. A testament to the layering of history imbued within this small exterior space. I would argue that without this doorway, Cuba Street just wouldn't be Cuba Street...and where would that leave us?

Anyway, on my way past this morning I noticed this print: a print of a painting of 147's doorway, plastered in 147's doorway (No doubt the humour and/or irony of this action was not lost on the person accountable). The print is of a painting by one Jo Hardy - apparently being shown at the Yvonne Rust gallery in Whangarei - titled Art History 101 (NZ): darkening Peter McLeavey's doorway.

Aside from liking the painting myself, the title raises a couple of interesting questions for me. Like can art history (for that matter New Zealand's art history) be recalled through the history of dealer galleries with equal effect as it can be through those of public art spaces, and forums for art criticism? And to that effect, what does the comparative absence of 'the general public' and its criticism mean for the evolution of these dealer galleries, and furthermore for this hypothetical record of art history? Since Dealers are motivated by the market, and not the public at large, might they be giving the art public what they truly want - what's in demand -without it being packaged and easy to swallow: therefore being more critical and less subjective than our institutions?

Nice painting though Jo.

post and image by jeremy

abandoning amusement

Very little to do with Enjoy; this chap was meant to guard a Japanese amusement park that was never built. 

image: johangf from dark roasted blend

Best in show

This post is not really art or Enjoy-related.
Image: from Crufts dog show in Birmingham, UK.
Supplied caption: Two women stand and their Afghan Hound before going into the parade ring at the Crufts dog show. Photo: Reuters