As Promised...

From AUT to Elam and finally Whitecliffe.

Having never really had any experience with Whitecliffe other than the horrid three hour gladiator gauntlet/bang head against wall here/art classes I took there as a small wee child...painting the grey scale and learning how to copy Van Goghs...plus the add on of the freaky Whitecliffe Castle building which used to scare the bejesus out of me (I swear to God it was haunted...and not that cool kind of Harry Potter haunted either, no Nearly Headless Nicks here...) It's a wonder I ever touched a paintbrush again...

So naturally, I was intrigued to see what happens in those studios all the way on the upside of town. So mysterious that Whitecliffe tower...Perhaps not so haunted now that I do not have the rampant imagination of a seven-year-old, alas, the mourning of my seven-year-old imagination...

Keeping on track, Thomas, Simon and I were delightfully surprised at the level of work at the graduating exhibition. I commented on how I thought it was a more enjoyable exhibition than that of Elam, due to simple factors such as:

- There were less exhibiting artists!!! When Elam tries to cram 120 students into a show, the mind begins to wander and the body gets bored of getting around the bloody place. Art-xhausted was what we were after friday night. But this was a rather nice amount, without compromising space etc...

...which leads on to the next factor:

- Space!! I dunno about you, but I was rather confused at some of the presentation of the Elam work...Kind of all over the show, almost as if some of the art grew legs and was starting to breed and multiply, creeping up onto it's neighbouring/fellow artists space as well...But it was rather clear here, that each person had their own space and enough to do what they needed to do as well, which in the end, makes it much easier for the spectator to decipher which is which and what is what...

-And finally, THE FREE STUFF! Yes free stuff was overflowing to the brim, coming away with printed designwork, plenty of wonderfully designed business cards and even an embroidered towel! But mostly it made me remember who each artist was and most of the giveaways seemed carefully considered which I like...(As I'm not always so easily swayed by things of a free nature especially if it's free crap, crap that is free is still crap right??)

Favourites were:

-Lilly Johnson's little worlds. Loved the relation made of each world to a particular surface, be it rug, chair or wall. Such consideration into simple use of colour as a relational tool made this installation so effective. And the photos in the book...nice.

-The letters to Sophie Calle. Mainly just because I like Sophie Calle. Along with that interesting box/video.

-The Basketball guy!!

Words to describe this exhibition:

- Why the Foamboard?? (the ample supply of foamboard in each and every direction, mounting everything that Whitecliffe students could possibly put their hands on...it was as if the stuff grew from the wall...)

- No Neon! (Neon Neon everywhere we look in Auckland, but obviously not at Whitecliffe)

- Painting Drought (apparently everyone thinks canvas is so passe!)

As usual, our roving selves inspect every single detail of each work, and comment on whether it has lived up to specific...shall we say presentational standards? Safe to say, most of it was up to par but we still stumbled across a lot of shoddy shelf work (hmmm I mean...80 degree angled shelves are just as good as 90 right...right???) but here are three that really got us all stamping the ground and pointing our fingers...

What a shame that this painting was spoilt by this one small mistake. Although I don't blame them for wanting to continue with it...

And the bowing of this particular photograph left it angling another couple of centimetres off the wall than it really should be! Elam Flashback!!

And although you can hardly see it in this photo, this wall was wavy!!! A wavy wall?? We weren't too sure whether it was on purpose or not...but after much deliberation, we decided it wasn't part of the work and felt rather sorry for the poor chap who had to display on this distorted wall...I would have struck up a fuss, especially if my work relied so heavily on the wall (these photos were stuck directly onto it). Please correct us if we are wrong and the wall was supposed to look like a tamer version of this, after all we are only human.

Anyway, rant over with, here are some little 'oh look at that!''s:

A little funny on the side, Thomas spotted a design student doing very similar work to what he has been exploring this semester...perhaps they should get together and start some sort of miniature 3d/2d model building clubhouse fun?


And another funny, perhaps a little worrisome...someone has finally cracked onto my artistic intentions...

I also liked the succint statements put up by each artist. They were quick to read in the crowded and somewhat hostile environment that is opening night. Overall, the Whitecliffe posse seemed very pleased with their output and the opening night had a very warm and happy feel to it (nothing to do with the humidity I assure you). What a lovely bunch.

- Agnes