Studio Blues

Alone in a new studio which is very similar in size to that of Claudia's Pittsburgh one. It even has a privacy curtain. And will be shared with another person.

Oh the joys of making art in confined spaces! AUT I miss thee.

- Agnes

p.s Ron Mueck at the NGV!! Excitement factor to the max.

Hello Goodbye

An awkward photograph of the Paper Noticeboard by Nick Spratt, available for FREEEEEEEE if you visit the Sculpture Season at St Paul Street Gallery Three, which I highly recommend you do. It has been lasercut with crescent/fingernail shapes which are fun to pick out and leave around places pretending that they are actually fingernails...William Hsu is showing right now and there will be a new show opening every two weeks charting contemporary sculpture practice from a dematerialisation of sorts to a material production (of sorts).

Onto other news, you may have noticed that the blog has undergone a change! I (Agnes) am no longer lone wolf and instead, am one half of a two part unit that is Claudia and myself. Reasons for this include a shift in circumstances which has rendered us living vastly different lives than that of the last two/three years at AUT. A crossroads of sorts which left me unable to blog regularly for a while now...so it kind of made sense to change the way in which this blog is run in order for it to essentially keep running(and after much thought and prompting from others, I came to the conclusion that I would like to keep it running).

Having communicated this with Claudia, we came up with a new plan (as she has outlined below). I, Agnes, am moving to Melbourne, Australia to higher educate myself in the Arts of the Fine variety, while Claudia, is staying put in Auckland to look for a Job in the Arts category. In a way, we thought it would be nice to document what happens after Art School (what does happen after art school exactly?) and do a compare/contrast scenario. It's the fork in the journey that everyone wondered about upon graduating and this is an experiment that might lend some insight into those who may have to make a similar decision in the future. It's also an experiment that I hope we will both win at. And more importantly, have fun with.

This experiment is commencing around about now. Wish us luck.

- Agnes

Team Time

So Agnes is abandoning our fair shores for the bright lights of Melbourne (some may call this preference of Australia over NZ an almost traitorous act humph).

Anywho a plan was hatched where I would as a now free agent from the institution take up the role of New Zealand represent-or while Agnes covers the Oz side of things. This is also by proxy a way of keeping in contact, as I am a notoriously bad implementer of this and a way of keeping dibs on Agnes.

Thus a glass is raised to Agnes' travels and further education, along with a new joint blog attack.

I will miss you Jignes don't forget us down here in Godzone.
Over and out.

- Claudia

Hong Kong Hustle

Sidewalk Sculpture

Colour Chunks: Macau

The 'First Art Mall'

Right Angle Double Takes

Some of the best of from my short trip abroad.

You can literally hear the exchange of money in Hong Kong but this time round, the city's shiny veneer seemed less attractive than I had previously remembered.

Tried tapping into the local art scene but it proved more elusive than I had hoped, especially over the holiday period, with most events I was interested in attending happening after my presence in the city. The 'art museum' was as I remembered it, chinese antiquities and the like so all in all my HK Art hunt was a complete fail.

Better luck next time?

- Agnes

VW

Perspective Perspective Perspective!


Have been taking mini hiatus' from blogging to figure out some stuffs and tend to other things...it will pick up again in 2010 when things have settled a little.

In forseeable future news, i'm off to Hong Kong (aka the Motherland) for a short while. Does anyone know much about contemporary Hong Kong art? My research thus far has turned up very little. Will do my best to report on what I do find.

In the meantime, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. 2009, you've been too kind.

- Agnes

pop-up

Exciting news! Our fellow painter Kate Bedford (as well as masters student Stella and printmaker Natalia) is showing RIGHT NOW at the Pop-Up Gallery. It's a temporary seven day space in Newmarket, two doors down from a bridal boutique. Interesting choice of location in the newly developed apartment block/train station area which kind of look like prison cells and make me wonder whether at some point someone could have hired a better architect...

Newmarket, I've always envisioned as a somewhat monocultural hub of desperate housewives and consumers, and in the past has housed many Pop-Up fashion stores of similar concept (short-lived, in a bid to sell stuffs). The difference here is that although the artworks are on sale, they aren't on sale (buy two get one free deals etc) which is not only strange but would make the Pop-Up Gallery a desperate christmas shopping destination given it's context. Mind you, I wouldn't mind one of Kate's paintings for christmas...but I digress here. I guess what I'm trying to say is that all the work in the show is very good, don't get me wrong, but perhaps it is let down a little by the package. It is simple, straight up art on wall and lots of it. But what makes it go beyond that? I ask this not only of this particular gallery/idea but of, I guess, the idea of a gallery in general.

However, I'm glad Kate is showing her little bendy painting. It's too special to describe so go along and see for yourself. The Pop-Up gallery resides at 36 Remuera Road. It's open from the 18th to the 24th, 9am-6pm. Come with cash, I wonder if they giftwrap...

- Agnes

Cakes Pt.2

Via Design*Sponge

Painting + Baking = Mondrian Cake

- Agnes