Genesis

Thesis topic
Beckoning to the Homeland: Drawing upon Chinese Roots in the Auckland Context.

Critical question
What significance has architectural examples that 'beckon to the homeland' have to Chinese (particularly their ancestral roots - the commonality of all Chinese) in Auckland?

Where did this thesis topic come from? Initially it was my curiosity of my family's ancestral roots which drove me to think about these issues. Then I did a two design papers about culture in an architectural standpoint and realised that it is a rich thing to explore. The topic still needs more clarity and as I work more on it and critically think about what I want to focus on, I think it will become a lot more 'doable'.

Have you ever thought about your own roots? Which is the earliest ancestor you know of? Where did you ancestors come from? What rituals/traditions have been retained from their time up until today as you continue practicing them? This thesis raises these issues whilst working on it - the crux of it is, what is the role of this 'culture' here in Auckland, the multicultural mixing pot?

With increasing emphasis put on the multicultural (including within legislation), and various manifestations of different cultures around the city, there is still very little on why it happened and where it could develop as a public space - a communal space. 

Lady

Here's a bit of pre-Banksy feminist guerilla art, going against the general wave of the times.

Hotere

With great sadness I report the passing of Ralph Hotere, one of my favourite artists and an outstanding example of an artist-activitst. Described as the 'warrior artist' he uses his art as an arsenal to fight issues of injustice, destruction of the environment and of deep spirituality.

The courage displayed in his work pervades the ongoing timeline of NZ history - points such as Aramoana,  and activism for being nuclear-free - to artworks of enormous presence such as Godwit/Kuaka, inspired by a Maori chant and the godwits' migration it was originally a piece welcoming people to Aotearoa at the Auckland International Airport's arrivals area. Now the 18 metre long Godwit/Kuaka is displayed at the Auckland Art Gallery for all to see.

Rest in peace Ralph Hotere, you've given us so much. And I hope very much we will see your courage and conviction in all generations to come, not only in art, but with all that we do.

Disparity

Murals have featured a few times on the blog, but none at the scale of Hendrik Beikirch's (aka ECB) latest mural in Busan, Korea. It's street art on steroids, transcending the street to become 'city art' with a scale that rivals Daniel Libeskind's gleaming skyscraper.

Placed on Busan's fisher union building, the 230-foot long mural is manually painted with no guide, relying only on instinct and the gesture of the hand. Depicting a wrinkly old fisherman, it is visual food for thought about the disparity of wealth in Korea (also applicable to many other countries in this day and age). Even the architecture performs the part in this commentary, with a staunch rectangular prism in Modernist white, next to the curve-topped, blue glass towers. The message is that the economic boom of recent times has not reached everyone, despite the hypothetical trickle down effect, and many still live in a harsh world where in old age one must don the protective fishermen gloves.

The mural reminds me of JR's street art, also of large portraits but with a different take. The common theme of using portraiture in highly public art is that it connects to every one of us. The eyes implore our own minds of the issues we do not see or would rather not see.

Higgs

Many of us who are not involved with the science world probably heard about the ground breaking Higgs Boson 'discovery' but had no idea what it is or the relevance of it. I had the pleasure of having an engineering friend try to explain it to me (with fervour) but it was hopeless - I just didn't really get it.

The artist Josef Kristofoletti was given the task of visualising this phenomenon and I get this one! A mural of the Large Hadron Collider, it's a homage to the discovery but also something pretty for the rest of us. Look at how it transforms those budget tilt slab walls! Remember humans built this enormous piece of equipment, but the sheer scale of it is wondrous.

This guy is a human printer.

Rainbow

One of the latest additions to Architecture for Humanity's completed projects is the Collège Mixte Le Bon Berger in Montrouis, Haiti. Community acupuncture projects such as this one are continuing to pop up in the still recovering Haiti, rebuilding the environment better than ever.

'Good design' is a great thing to strive for, especially in the aftermath of disaster. Quality can be seen and felt in all these projects. In this relatively simple school building, the paintwork and colours even express a joy in the work that is to be done there. As cumbersome as it may be, the efforts that go beyond the call of duty are what makes these projects an inspiration.

Kotuku 1

Yesterday I spent the whole day filming and photographing a good friend's beautiful product design project. Created by Kate Ramsay, it is a knitted light fitting and is intriguing at every angle so in a way it was really hard to capture; you were spoiled for choice for shots. 

Once we get past the painful post production process I'll be sure to put up the video but here's a photo of our set up for the shooting. Playing with the light studies I did last year, we painted light with fabric and created a dreamy Rothko/watercolouresque quality as the backdrop and for diffuse lighting. It was great fun! 

This piece is named Kotuku and is the Maori word for White Heron, a famously rare NZ bird that gathers delight whenever people see one. It will be displayed in the Art in the Dark exhibition.

Grow

Now that is how space is made where space doesn't exist. Sure it's new age trompe-l'œil (aka optical illusion) but it has a real presence in a space which seems to be a good squatting place. Go TSF Crew.

Ink

How is ink made? I didn't quite believe a description of this video, that ink making had a very personal touch to it. Were they going to crush up pigment on a stone by hand for industrial purposes? But the mesmerising quality of the process captures something that really makes our printed world the vibrant, textured brilliance that it is today.

A long video, but worth the incredible effort used to make the ink we take for granted. Also check out the blog post about Canon's playful use of ink and sound.

Paris1

On an intense 2 day run around Paris, my brain is saturated with the stuff of creative dreaming. How did Monet come to paint the series of Water Lilies? How did Le Corbusier  and his cousin Jeanneret come up with the innovatively planned Maison La Roche when nothing of it's kind had ever been done before?

The Musée de l'Orangerie houses the famous Water Lilies (Nymphéas) series by Claude Monet. Although I have seen these works many a time in publication, I had never expected them to be so large and expansive. You could actually walk along the works - hung in a beautifully daylit oval room - and experience the landscape that Monet really only dapples the impression of. Although the gesture involved in painting these scenes is interesting in itself, Monet proves one of the most powerful of colorists in the way that nothing really looks like it is supposed to, nor sometimes the colour it is in real life, but when seen through squinted eyes (or in my case, removing my glasses) the paintings transform into a hazy but definite portrayal of the idyllic water lily ponds full of depth and personality.

The museum itself, known for it's focus on Impressionism, used to be a glasshouse built especially for growing oranges - yet another whim of one of France's kings. Models show how over time, this 'Orangerie' has changed and developed to it's current form, so elegantly displaying Monet's prize work as well as the likes of Picasso and Cezanne.

Another highlight of my Paris trip was going out of my way to the Le Corbusier Foundation, housed in the Maison La Roche, a wonderful double residential unit + gallery on a tiny site. Multi-storied in a fragmented way with dramatic ramps and the horizontal windows trademarked by the Modernist Architecture movement, one can really see how it all came together and see how this sometimes dated looking period of architecture was a real milestone for our contemporary practice today. Architecture students were all over the place, drawing the rooms, the facade and pilotis, soaking in the inspiration which made Le Corbusier an architect idol of sorts. And I just found out that the day I went was the day of Le Corbusier's birth! Fitting indeed.

London2

The Tate Modern in London is a total orgy of art for art fanatics like me. After spending pretty much the whole day there and going on all the enlightening art talks, I'm buzzing with inspiration. Pictured above is Do Ho Suh's Stairs 3, an amazing installation made out of light polyester - every lightswitch, stair molding and even the stair lightbulb is perfectly replicated in the fabric.

The thing about the art in the Tate Modern is that quite a lot of the artists I have studied before and even some works, like the Warhol screenprint, I've actually seen before in print. But seeing all of this art in person, up close so you can see every dot and squiggle is amazing and just so powerful at true scale. And with the guidance of the art guide, the Warhol print, the poignant narratives unfold and my interest in art history continues to grow.

Real

When you first look at the painting above, what do you think? Do you see the real life 3D person there posing? Alexa Meade's hyper-realistic acrylic body painting plays with making real life people into the realm of painterly expression. There are amazing possibilities for this technique - reportedly Meade wants to experiment more with video and other media. I can't wait to see where this experimentation will take her! I can't imagine she would get much income from this work in terms of selling art work - the works are more akin to installations/performance art.

Precinct

Today was a crisp (read cold) winter's day, perfect weather to briskly walk around, taking advantage of heating in each spot of the urban environment. I decided to visit the Art Precinct down around the Auckland Art Gallery. For the third visit in a row, the blessed Goldie & Lindauer: Approaching Portraiture exhibition was still up and so was the Local Revolutionaries: Art & Change 1965 – 1986 show. Good exhibitions but does it seriously have to be around so long?? Thank goodness for Brian Brake: Lens on the World. You cannot miss it.

Upstairs the damn Call Waiting exhibition had made itself scarce for a collection of Brake's most outstanding works. I had first heard of Brian Brake from a good friend (also a creative) who said that seeing this exhibition was the feature of her trip to Wellington, even up against the various other shows at Te Papa. Now I know why. The pictures had the ability to bring you worlds away, some closer to home, each selection spanning cultures, history and sheer geography.

Photography never was really about beauty, but capturing the thing behind the thing. The real dedication to this was shown in a short documentary where Brake narrated his own story and philosophy of his art, breathing life into his oeuvre. Funnily enough, a photography show at the John Leech gallery was a sombre photo collection of the Pink and White Terraces. The photos made me think of things beyond the images (lots of terrain) and ponder it's existence if it were to be here today. The gallery staff and I agreed: what wonderful hot pools they would have been!

The other exhibition I was looking forward to seeing was the Damien Hirst mini collection at the Gow Langsford Gallery. The Dead and The Souls. Hirst is really about the drama that bursts from such a theme as existence and fragility, or at least what I read from this very tiny collection (4 skulls, three moth/butterflies and a wall full of prints). Although the pieces are really fascinating in their unsubtle subtleties (look closely at the details when you see them), Hirst still gives too much of a en masse entrepreneur vibe for my personal taste.

The Art Precinct is a strange place. Twisted and seemingly centred around a gunky courtyard with an outdated women's suffrage mural, it's almost hard to see what it has to offer. You have to explore the spaces, find the galleries which, for me, is one of it's appealing (and entertaining) qualities of space. This visit left me fruitful with inspiration but this is not always the case; it is limited in many ways. Sometimes I just wish this precinct would grow the hell up and become a creative well for all of those creatives around the city. I have high hopes for the new extension of the Auckland Art Gallery (opening 3rd September).

Innocence

Aelita Andre has somehow made it to international fame as the youngest of 'great' painters, an abstract expressionist no less. But sorry, wasn't the abstract expressionist ideology so mid 1900s? Why the rebirth? Why a child?

I do have suspicions that hype and some incredibly PR savvy supporters (ie parents) behind the girl made this happen. I do think she is having the time of her life and a fun one at that despite her life not yet really having begun. But listening to the critics and analysts harking on about how she is a natural, that something within her is creating these 'consistent' works, the freedom of expression that lies stagnant within our own age of art. Come on.

Although Aelita does not know it, the style of work that she plays with does indeed have a history, even if she doesn't know about it (which the critics continue to marvel at). Did not Jean Dubuffet and the Art Brut movement crave the blank slate innocence of a child's mind and created art in an attempt to simulate the 'purity', the rawness of being truly free creativity? Well here we have a child, who is painting away happily, four years of age with little direction except a vast amount of prodding encouragement and all the art supplies one could ever dream of! Look at her studio space; that which no other child would be allowed. Is this freedom or molding?

Some of the comments on her art talked of purity, a clarity of thought in contrast to Pollock's murky fields. Everything is a spur of the moment alas justified by this 'consistency' in her oeuvre. One may think that she achieves what no adult artist could (leave alone the fallen wings approach of the Art Brut practitioners). She is influenced though. By the sheer resource that is given to her and the pickled fame that has been introduced by some ambitious art worldian, she has joined the leagues of the controlled. In the video you hear her say: "Welcome to MY space", sounding like some worldly architect. Aelita has already become part of the art gallery institution (her New York debut was last weekend). Innocence is being robbed of her.

So is this going to turn to mush, cheekily I might add, like her paintings? We have to keep in mind that although she is here, in this labelled prodigy status, Aelita can inspire us with her not-a-care-in-the-world fun art experience. Let's not allow the thousands of dollars get in the way of that.

Battle

DSLRs can look like some intimidating weaponry at the best of times, and this humorous mock battle pulls fun at the the battlesque forms of this creative tool. It also brings up a theme that has lingered through creativity since ages ago. Didn't a whole pile of painters pose with their brushes as the sword? Jacqueline Fahey, for example (couldn't find it on the web but it does exist! - brush posing as sword, palette posing as shield). They use their creative flair as fuel for whatever purpose they think is worthy of defending or, on the flip-side, shredding to pieces. Writers warble on about their pens being mightier than swords (which sounds slightly arrogant/derogatory hah). It's really only the amount of effort we put behind our actions that any such tool can become the most effective tools of an allusion war.

Constrain2

Carrying on from the themes of Constrain, here is an interesting project that tries to draw out the invisible Wifi landscape. Immaterials: light painting WiFi uses a rod of pulsating LEDs with long exposure photography to detect and map Wifi presence. This concept is obviously a mere budding technology, but imagine the practical/aesthetic based awareness-of-Wifi systems such a technology could develop into. In an age where the net is inevitably important, I can see this indicator being applied all over our urban lands in the future.

Watercolour

The Tate Gallery in Britain is having an exhibition dedicated to watercolour, the traditional and the more contemporary. Although I really want to go, I am stuck on an island called New Zealand. What an extraordinary insight it must be to visit this beautiful medium, full-fledgedly curated. The image is a photo of Karla Black's 'Opportunity for Girls'.

Chemigram

Some call it photography without a camera, but really, it's merely using parts of the traditional photographic development process and making something really great. Pierre Cordier pioneered the chemigram over 50 years ago and when someone told him he should keep the process a secret for himself, he refused. Now the technique is an open-source phenomenon and even today, chemigram artists share their passion with each other online and otherwise.

Is there ever an exclusive technique? Is there any point in keeping it a secret? Cordier clearly thought it was not worth the price of taking his creation to the grave. Instead, he set forth a seed that has now grown to become a flourishing creative community.

Yawn

Paul Mutant, 2010

Acrylic on canvas

12" x 10"

The familiar face of being banned from creative products on the internet, just because you are not in the right country never seemed like the best way to deal with the situation/bureaucracy/borderline censorship. Paul Mutant touched upon something very personal to all of us who have once been banned from ABC or BBC videos, but I must say, in a rather unoriginal format. He raises the mundane image to high art status. Do I hear 'urinal'?

Fame1

To kick off the collection of famous people snapshots I plan on posting here on the blog, I present Pablo Picasso. Why post the pictures of these creative practitioners? Too often we know the creative product without actually connecting with the actual person. You read a series of books by the same author but you might not even know what the person looks like. Linking the voice to the face, or the body to the painter, adds another layer of significance to the piece. There will be more to come.