Raewyn Alexander Before I Forget, by Jacqueline Fahey (Auckland University Press, 2012), 192 pp, $45 . Venturing into often extremely private territory with honesty and insight, this memoir’s a remarkable read. Fahey’s stunning cover is a painting that suggests the older artist looking back: her younger self’s presented in a little black dress with high […]
Victoriana
David Eggleton Early New Zealand Photography: Images and Essays, edited by Angela Wanhalla and Erika Wolf (Otago University Press, 2011), 208 pp., $50. Susan Sontag characterised photographs as ‘invitations to deduction, speculation and fantasy’, while Roland Barthes asserted that the photograph was ‘a transparent envelope’ — that is, a paradoxical object at once visible […]
Against Fear of the New
Nick Laird New Zealand by Design: a History of New Zealand Product Design, by Michael Smythe (Godwit, 2011), 511 pp., $65. ‘Design’ is a mercurial, not to say deceptive, term. Used as a verb to refer to a process, and used as a noun to the product of that process, it has become amongst […]
Objects Material and Dematerial
Andrew Paul Wood Lalique Vases, edited by Damian Skinner (David Bateman Auckland, 2011) 176 pp., $69.99; Affirmation Dungeon, by Dan Arps (Clouds/Michael Lett, Auckland 2011) 318 pp, $69.95. Lalique Vases, edited by freelance art historian Damian Skinner, is about a New Zealand-based private collection of glassware by the celebrated Art Nouveau and Art Deco […]
Rarity Value
Kathryn Mitchell Ghosts in the Landscape, by Grant Sheehan (Phantom House, Wellington, 2011), 184 pp., $ 150.00. A book collection of big photographs produced in a limited edition of 1050 copies, Ghosts in the Landscape by Grant Sheehan embodies the contradictions that define contemporary photographic practices. Capturing sweeping vistas on a 22 megapixel camera and processing […]
Space as Energy Cannot be Seen
Tom Elliott Grahame Sydney’s Central Otago, by Grahame Sydney (Penguin, Auckland, 2011) 160 pp., $95.00. ‘The landscape surrounding me only pretends to be empty. It is in truth humming with life, with change, with subtle, seductive detail and countless delights.’ The preceding affirmative sentence was written by one of New Zealand’s leading painters, Grahame […]
Metamorphosis
Roger Blackley Fiona Pardington: The Pressure of Sunlight Falling, edited by Kriselle Baker and Elizabeth Rankin, (Otago University Press, 2011) 160 pp., $120. A ‘museological’ orientation distinguishes a range of photography that engages in fresh ways with historical spaces and artefacts. Thomas Struth’s long-term project ‘Museum Photographs’ observed the observers — the audiences that are […]
Dominion of Signs: Three Photo-books
David Eggleton Bold Centuries: A Photographic History Album, by Haruhiko Sameshima (Rim Books, Auckland, 2009, $60.00); Alan Miller — New Zealand Photographs, by Alan Miller (Anglesea house, 2009, $70.00); A Man Walks Out of a Bar: New Zealand Photographs 1979—1982, by Lucien Rizos (Rim Books, Auckland, 2011). ‘The camera sits alongside the axe, the gun, […]
5 (Or More) Things About ‘This is Not writing’ by Julian Dashper
David Herkt This is not writing, by Julian Dashper, (Clouds & Michael Lett, 2011), $39.95. ‘Why should one understand anything? Should we not just experience it?’ – Julian Dashper (p. 75)1. Memento MoriIn September 2010, the first anniversary of the death of New Zealand artist Julian Daspher was marked in New York by exhibition of […]
Late and Early
Peter Entwisle Mary Kisler, Angels & Aristocrats Early European Art in New Zealand Public Collections, (Random House, 2010), 399 pp., $74.99. Angels & Aristocrats is a landmark, a useful reference, and one can simply enjoy its fine illustrations – though it has limitations and flaws. There has been very little published about the old European […]
The Eye and Hand in Action
Jodie DalgleishRichard Parker: Objectspace Masters of Craft, by Richard Fahey (Objectspace, Auckland, 2010), 119 pp., $35.00. Together with curator and author Richard Fahey and photographer Haru Sameshima, Auckland’s Objectspace gallery has produced a thoughtful and generously illustrated exhibition publication and monograph on the distinctive work of Richard Parker. As Objectspace Director Philip Clarke states in […]
The Lightness of Being Bill Culbert
David EggletonBill Culbert: Making Light Work, by Ian Wedde (Auckland University Press, hardback, illustrated, 272 pp., $99.99. Have lightbulb, will travel. Sculptor Bill Culbert embodies the expatriate artist condition. He left New Zealand in 1957 at the age of 21 to attend the Royal College of Art in London and has lived overseas ever since. […]
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