Streetless

I can't believe MOCA curated an exhibition on street art. Street art is a phenomenon. It is a wonderful temporal thing - the next day it might be painted over or changed afresh with a new work by another artist. Instead, they reel those pieces and the very concept of street art into a contemporary art gallery. One word from me. Outrage.

I believe that one should have to seek the most obscure corners of the urban to find the art that it holds - treasure among too many bland walls. The experience of seeing street art is to get dirty, sweaty, to get into the city and breathe the exhaust fumes, pushing around amongst other city dwellers. Viewing the art out of context within a sterile gallery environment is like pissing on the the genre itself; a flip-side to the equilibrium between 'clean' high art and naturally blossoming 'grubby' art which is primarily a rebellion to any gallery art system in the first place.

Livestream

Right now I'm at a fundraising event for Architecture for Humanity. Only it's no regular event because I'm watching the charity concert with nearly a thousand people all over New Zealand and possibly the world. Imogen Heap has spontaneously come over to Christchurch to help with raising funds.

700 people have packed the live venue in Christchurch. A great turnout watches the livestream event at the University of Auckland several hundred kilometres away. In various other places, nearly 200 feed into the livestream, capturing the efforts of the event, enjoying the music and supporting the cause of rebuilding Christchurch. And there are snacks (at least in Auckland which I helped organise).

What an amazing thing it is to have this made into a grassroots national movement.

For the livestream, go to http://songsforchristchurch.org/archives/164

For updates via Twitter, follow me @BobbShen or @AfhAuckland

Marker

Miniature

I love how these models depict the 'post-human' phase of environments. No people are present in the scenes but every imprint of our messy little existences is left behind. Our spaces are our afterthoughts, the wax imposed on our personal histories. Our cities the accumulated cells of civilisation.

If only urban spaces could be created so easily as these miniature sculptures by Alan Wolfson. Only who am I kidding, these tiny replicas of real looking places are an intense operation in its own right. What I mean, of course, is a relative thing. The creation of the urban spaces depicted by these sculptures in real life takes a whole evolution of growth pains and red tape whereas here, the artist has skipped all of that with a healthy dose of imagination, experience and skill. 'Urban design' is most certainly not 'sculpture' process.

If we were given the chance to bring forth the realm of 'sculpture' into real cities? The reverse of the 3D photographic process that has occurred in these works? Someday we might be able to find out.

Resilience

I haven't posted for quite a while because I've been working on the Christchurch campaign with Architecture for Humanity. It was pretty intense. Flew down there on Saturday, back up on Sunday; 29 hours of getting into the situation, catching the prominent 5.3 aftershock as a sampler of what the Cantabrians have been going through these past months.

We did a Pecha Kucha presentation on what AFH has been doing to Christchurch, and watching the other presentations opened my eyes to the resilience of the community down there. The highlight of my trip was going to New Brighton and doing a basic mapping exercise with the kids there. It was a fantastic way to interact with the kids and we managed to capture a bit of what they have gone through. For example, getting to school is now a lot harder for many, having to bus for ages just to go there for half a day of lessons. Still, we felt the potential of these kids and we know that we can help them bounce back from this disaster through our work.

Quaked

Watch the skating video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2bvozq-KK8

The city, bludgeoned by the earth from below, with debris scattered = awesomely creative skate park. Danger seeking yes, but through this video, see how the constrained environment we make as a society is so different from this disturbed playground for willing skaters. Humans are so bound to this false pretence of absolute order - someday we might need to let go and create a usable chaos to counter chaos.

Soap

Meekyoung Shin is an artificer of sorts - this Korean sculptor creates convincing 'translations' of actual artifacts. The only difference to that of a replicating craftsman (which is a whole industry in its own right) is that she uses soap instead of fine ceramics and burly stones.

The visual illusion created by this art is also a feast to be seen. Flawlessly created, including the rustic details that one might think only time can forge. Perhaps what this work suggests is the distinction between the permanence we instil within such objects - antiques that last for ages - and that which could melt away with a splash of water.

But without having felt and even crushed such an object, it is hard even to peruse a simple concept such as this; in this case, seeing is not believing.

Fallen

A few months after the first main set of earthquakes in Christchurch, I went down to document the damage to the architecture around the region. On one of my breaks, I took a photo of this smart looking statue that overlooked a gardened square. There were quite a few sculptures like this around.

In the news today, I saw the same sculpture and it's ill fate after the earthquake. And this can be said for a lot of the creative legacy in Christchurch - objects and places that make Christchurch what it is. We can only hope that the damaged is treated with respect and care.

Engorged

A while back there was an exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery which was all about food. It seemed like a bit of a frivolous topic, but then who is to judge art for it's frivolities? Can it not be a powerful medium? Lee Price uses the most charming of desserts to highlight over-indulgence and the sheer gluttony of human existence, with a more minimalistic approach compared to Jacquey Fahey.