Found

Snapped from a drycleaners somewhere out in the eastern burbs. Thought it was fitting as of the coming wednesday we will be entering install week, and most of us will be furiously cleaning the terrible mess of both floor and wall space that we've been given.

Recent life happenings have not been very exciting as a result of spending every waking moment preparing for this week. This normally involves a lot of time consuming caffienated beverages and spending a lot of money on materials/developing/framing/living/aforementioned caffienated beverages. I think at this point, most of us have the fear of God in us. Nope? Just me then?

Hap-hap happenings will occur in the meantime through the first and second year exhibition this tuesday from 12-8pm at our WM studios on St Paul Street. They have all finished, goddamn you.

- Agnes

Happenings

D.A.N.C.E is back on for 2009! Join us tonight at Cassette 9 for some art and dancing, both of which go well together.

Amber is also doing a performance at RM Gallery at 5.30pm. Woweeee!

- Ag

Breakables

A small respite from the slowcooking pressures of studio led Elliot and me to his parental unit's exhibition opening at Essence Gallery in Parnell.

Peter and Julie Collis are ceramic and glass artists, Peter mostly known for his familiar shaped ceramic vases. But I think it's funny to see the aesthetic similarities between parent and child. Elliot is also fond of organic shapes and strong pigmented colour (mostly with his paint works from last year...)

As for the haps with graduating exhibition preparations, everyone seems to be bunkering down for the upcoming stress-storm, hence the noticeable increase in tumbleweeds on this blog and the tepid writing. For that I apologise, but I do promise that a little bit of silence is necessary in the meantime. From picking up tidbits on the studio floor about what people have got planned for end of year, it sounds like the show is going to be huge. Five Weeks...

Keep Calm and Carry On time.

- Agnes

art of the free variety

Have been busying myself with non-art stuffs for the last week or so. In between watching all seven seasons of Gilmore Girls back to back, I've also been collecting free art things around Auckland. A newsprint off the stacks at Simon Glaister's latest show at St Paul Street and a piece from Elliot Collins and Linden Simmons' show at Rm, which is on right now. However, I lost my copy of Matters 3 from the new artists show at Artspace somewhere...bother.

Graduation count down = Six and a Half Weeks. For now, back to Lorelai and Rory.

- Agnes

Musical Paintings

Music Painting by JUL & MAT from JUL & MAT on Vimeo.

Sweet Jeebus, Elliot, if you are reading, let's attempt something similar with your new high gadgetry video camera?

- Agnes

Cake

On wednesday was the annual meet and greet between the new painting students from year one and those in years two and three. In previous times, it just meant a cup of tea and a biscuit, however, for some strange reason (maybe recession prompted?), this year drew forth a much larger contribution of cake, more cake, tartlets, Amber's famous cheese straws and a trip down memory lane in form of cheerios and tomato sauce (big ups to whoever brought that along).

Although I have no photos of this baking exchange (I had not anticipated such a turn out), I was reminded of it when I discoverd this site today.

Favourite cakes were the ones that involved some sort of serra verb list performance. The pink one above was pushed off a building ledge, while the blue icing on the one below it was filmed in a state of painterly pouring (you can watch the accompanying videos on the site). Also liked the Kafka 'cake' and 'Tracy Emin's entry' (as in the REAL Tracey Emin??)




Cake is art.


- Agnes

p.s. The new first year painters are a friendly bunch, making me nostalgic for my first year experiences...

No Common Sense

Having hermited myself in my house for over a week now, flu-contagious and developing OOS symptoms from staring at laptop screen for hours on end, I thought perhaps it be best to treat myself to natural light by heading to the first of the Year Two exhibitions.

Those of you who remember, it was my year that were the first guinea pigs for this exhibition endeavour and although the work I scrambled to make for my own show last year was absolute crap, I learnt a lot about what not to do for Pilot this year, which means that the Year Two shows allow a greater learning experience for our professional practice paper which is good no??

The shows are also an easy way of acquainting myself with the practices of those in the year below us (like a taster course). And being the first to admit that I'm not familiar with most of these practices, a lot of what I saw came as a huge surprise.

This particular exhibition in Gallery Three called No Common Sense was exactly that, a showing of eleven disparate practices. But in remembering the purpose for these shows is to provide a space for the students to test out what they're doing in studio in a public space, plus the time that they are given to put the show together (a couple of weeks or so), I don't blame them for not aiming for cohesiveness. Nor do I think that it takes away from the quality of the work.

Please forgive me, this is less a review than a noting of observations as there were so many people around, sometimes I couldn't get close to specific works!

Favourites from this show

- The smaller cardboard projection screen structure (4th photo down). Interesting install technique of letting the viewer decide how much information they get through the choice of either full view (front) or partial view (back). This worked well in this small one, not so much in the larger one though.

- Crazy crystalline rock structure things covered in fabric, a surprise from a promising painting student.

- And although I think these were hung a little too high, the Mt Wellington Quarry photos (biased opinion as I used to live close to the area and am therefore very attached to it). Lainy and I were remarking on how terrifying the acidity of the colour green was. Absolutely toxic.

This show is on for one day only!! That day is tomorrow. So have a looksie if you be in the neighbourhood. Also, there are two more shows opening on Thursday, one at Gallery Three 5pm and the other at Cross Street Studios at 6pm.

Am signing off to write more theory. Brain is consistency of mush. Until the next time I feel like procrastinating? Yeah it's a date.

- Agnes