Essays & Articles

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  ADAMS, Mark, 1949-

  9.4.1992 Piopiotahi - Milford Sound, Atawhenua - Fiordland 2006, no.7 (Photograph)

  On a Thursday before Easter in 1992, photographer Mark Adams put his large format camera up on a tripod in the wettest place in New Zealand. In three parts, he re-created the well-known panoramic view of Milford Sound looking northwest from Freshwater Basin. But something is missing from the resultant images. The centrepiece of this glacier-carved fiord (and its quintessential geological feature) is obscured by mist. Gone is the distinctive marker which elevates this landscape above the picturesque to iconic status as a World Heritage Site. The sublime Mitre Peak has become a haunting absence.

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  ALBRECHT, Gretchen, 1943-

  Early Morning Rising (Painting)

  Gretchen Albrecht’s breakthrough into complete abstraction coincided with a move to bushy Titirangi in the 1972-73.

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  AMITUANAI, Edith, 1980-

  Monsieur Murphy Pavihi Tavele, from Dejeuner (Pacific)

  During 2006, Edith Amituanai visited France and Italy as part of a Creative New Zealandfunded five-week project to photograph professional rugby players. Each of her subjects had a Pasifika background, and many of them were her relatives or friends. The theme for her work at that time was “third wave” migration, as the children or grandchildren of people who emigrated from the Pacific Islands to New Zealand in the twentieth century, started to move back out into the world to seek new opportunities.

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  BARRAR, Wayne, 1957-

  Across Spillway to Ohau Canal (Photograph)

  Although Wayne Barrar’s ongoing exploration of the landscape is primarily executed through the lens of a camera, it is from the vantage point of both science and art that he pursues his ideas. Barrar first graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the University of Canterbury in 1979 before later completing a Postgraduate Diploma of Fine Arts at Elam School of Fine Arts in 1996 and an MDes (2005) from Massey University.

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  CAMPBELL, Joyce, 1971-

  Mindanao 1 (Photograph)

  Often using photographic processes to make her installations of images, Joyce Campbell has long been concerned with representing scientific knowledge in her art. While resident in Los Angeles in 2002, she made a series of images titled Marianas and Mindanao, referring to the submarine trenches situated in the north-west Pacific. Whereas the name Marianas derives from Queen Mariana of Austria, widow of Philip IV, as a reminder of the area’s seventeenth century Spanish colonists, Mindanao comes from Maguindanaons, the largest Sultanate historically.

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  CASTLE, Len, 1924-2011

  Blossom vase (Ceramic)

  An espaliered Chinese quince at his parents’ home in Westmere was the basis for the decoration for a series of “Blossom” vases which Len Castle made in the late 1960s.

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  CLEAVIN, Barry, 1939-

  The Garden (Print)

  Not many New Zealand artists can lay claim to having infiltrated hundreds of private homes and public gallery collections with their work.

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  DAWSON, Neil, 1948-

  Chevron (Sculpture)

  The large silvery ball of ferns that floats above Civic Square in Wellington is possibly one of New Zealand’s most iconic sculptures.

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  DUTCH, Ted, 1928-

  Technician (Print)

  Cutting his teeth as a graphic artist when working as an effects animator for British Animated Cartoons in London, Ted Dutch developed his signature figure-drawing style.

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  ELLIS, Robert, 1929-

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  City with Orange River ()

  Aerial mapping work carried out as part of National Service in Britain after World War Two later proved influential for Robert Ellis’s art.

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  FISHER, Charlotte, 1959-

  Fathom (Sculpture)

  The design for this sculpture, originally titled She Shore, was an entry in the competition for a sculpture to be sited at the back of the newly opened Kenneth Myers Centre in 2001.

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  GARCIA-ALVAREZ, Alberto, 1928-

  Collective Mind (Mural)

  The mural on the Western side of the Science Building on Princes Street may be Alberto Garcia Alvarez’s most visible work in New Zealand but, when he completed it in 1980, he was no stranger to working at such scale.

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  GOOD, Roy, 1945-

  An Episode of Events (Painting)

  Playing off a dominant circle shape against chevrons and triangles in a square ground, this work was an experiment by the artist in combining ideas about geometric pattern painting into “one grand pictorial assembly”.

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  HARTIGAN, Paul, 1953-

  Colony (Sculpture)

  Challenged by Art Collection curator Michael Dunn to make his best work for the Engineering atrium in 2002, Elam-graduate Paul Hartigan surpassed his earlier, multicoloured forays into neon. Named the best public sculpture in Auckland in 2006, Colony has its origin in the artist’s memory of drifting in a long boat beneath the vaulted ceiling of glowworm lights on a childhood visit to Waitomo Caves. Despite the quotidian nature of the commission, Paul's sculpture still impresses with its energy and impact, the hectic squiggles of persimmon-coloured light miraculously produced by bent glass tubes mired in cement.

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  HELLYAR, Christine, 1947-

  Armlet (Sculpture)

  Armlets are decorative bands usually worn above the bicep and made from a precious material such as gold or silver. Why then have these three bronze sculptures been given that title?

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  HIPKINS, Gavin, 1968-

  The Sanctuary (Bird) (Photograph)

  By the time Gavin Hipkins staged his exhibition The Colony at The Gus Fisher Gallery in 2002, he had become well-known for his distinctive technique of printing entire rolls of film uncut in continuous strips, known as falls, hung together to provide a dense grid of images.

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  HOTERE, Ralph, 1931-

  Black Rainbow (Maori)

  Well-known for his use of black and his collaboration with New Zealand writers, the celebrated New Zealand artist Ralph Hotere died of pneumonia in Dunedin on Sunday 24 February.

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  HUTCHINSON, Lonnie, 1963-

  Cry Me a River, triptych (Pacific)

  Made out of bitumen-impregnated paper, this cruet set of concertina fans won’t cool anyone off. Hanging like three little piupiu on the wall, patterned by kowhaiwhai shapes and titled after an American torch song, the installed work gives a wave in the direction of the artist’s Ngai Tahu ancestry while fanning the flames of land loss grievance. Contributing to a content trickling down from the Māori love story explaining the origin of the Waiau and Clarence Rivers in the South Island, the artist works the construction association inherent in her material. Once called tar paper, the basic black builder’s paper cut-out is simultaneously doing steel-capped heavy duty and pirouetting as lightweight decoration. It is meant to form a waterproof membrane in a roof or walls but, carved up by a stanley knife, it makes an alluring play of light and shadows.

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  JENKINSON, Megan, 1958-

  Prudentia endeavours to construct a Model of Plato's Ideal State with the Building Blocks of Tombs of the Dead Kings (Photograph)

  Cutting out photographed sets of printer’s type with embroidery scissors to form the names of New Zealand’s biggest corporations in 1986, Megan Jenkinson presciently depicted the flimsy basis for the sharemarket speculation which would lead to the crash of October 1987. As Brett Wilkinson, a young executive with Rainbow Corporation, would later explain, “The listed companies [were] geared up and reported valuations largely based on dubious valuations. It was one giant pyramid game.”

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  LEE, Jae Hoon, 1973-

  Trekking (Photograph)

  Every year, thousands of tourists flock in summer to Nepal, a landlocked country in Southern India between China and India.

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  LETHBRIDGE, John, 1948-

  Black double ended series 280/35 (Drawing)

  Helensville-born folk singer - and erstwhile editor of Craccum - Peter Cape was as famous for his beautifully produced art books as he was for the classic kiwiana songs “Taumarunui on the Main Trunk Line” and “All Black Jerseys”. In the last decade of his short life he published four surveys of New Zealand painting and crafts based on interviews done with artists as part of his job as arts and religion editor at Radio New Zealand. Prints and Printmakers in New Zealand was published in 1974, during the heyday of printmaking in New Zealand.

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  LYE, Len, 1901-1980

  Roundhead (Sculpture)

  Artist Len Lye may have never visited The University of Auckland in his lifetime, but his dynamic presence now leaves a powerful impression on our campus.

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  MCLEOD, Andrew, 1976-

  Pink and Green Abstraction with Dragon (Painting)

  Andrew McLeod is renowned for his magpie eye with complex compositions combining eclectic images into detailed arrangements. It is the sort of eye that can be richly nourished in the digital era of Wikipedia and Google image search, where anyone can be an instant expert and new obsessions can be quickly sated with a wealth of visual material, although all this is little use without the finely honed sensibilities of a mature artist. Combined with this ease of information accessibility is the ability to cut-and-paste or manipulate a variety of sources using computer-aided design programmes. All this may make it easier to be an artist with an eclectic set of influences, from children’s book illustrations to the gothic visual culture of black metal music, although an everexpanding set of options does not necessarily make work any easier.

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  MONTEITH, Alex, 1977-

  1020 metres in 26 minutes: Waitangi Day Auckland Harbour Bridge Protest (Video)

  Unlike with many of Alex Monteith’s other video projects, the critically slow pace of the event that forms the subject of her video work, 1020 metres in 26 minutes Waitangi Day Auckland Harbour Bridge Protest, grounds the viewer in familiar territory, allowing the location and the subject of the video to be immediately unravelled. Simultaneously however, the viewer is also drawn into the curious and somewhat dizzying landscape that is formed where the adjacent screens meet. Passages of the Harbour Bridge, segments of land, sky, clouds, sea and automobiles roll across two disparate yet intimately connected fields of vision.

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  NEAL, Alexis

  Treasured (Maori)

  Mixed media artist Alexis Neal is consistently drawn to depicting objects of taonga as she sees them possessing a wairua or spirit beyond their physical presence. The treasures included in the semi-circular mezzotint entitled Treasured (1997) include ear pendants, a carved piece of bone and a shell necklace. These are not cheap, throw-away items of jewellery purchased from a ubiquitous mall jewellery store but are objects to be worn, treasured and adored.

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  PARDINGTON, Fiona, 1961-

  Little River Hei Tiki, (female, Ngai Tahu) (Maori)

  Pregnant with mystery, this huge image of a hei tiki glowing against a dark background is magnetically attractive. It is one of a range of Cinderella artefacts – those deemed by curators as too imperfect to exhibit – brought to light by Ngai Tahu photographer Fiona Pardington. Working towards her MFA at the Elam School of Fine Arts in 2002-2003, she trawled through collections of her iwi’s taonga at Auckland Museum and Okains Bay Mäori and Colonial Museum on Banks Peninsula. It took her up to 18 months to seek and obtain permission from each relevant hapu to photograph their taonga for this project.

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  PERYER, Peter, 1941-

  Fork and Spoon (Photograph)

  Developing an abiding love for the natural and life sciences during two years of medical intermediate studies at Otago University in 1961 and 1962, Peter Peryer moved back to Auckland and finished his bachelor’s degree majoring in English and Education.

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  PULE, John, 1962-

  Nofo a koe Ka fano a au (You stay I go) (Pacific)

  Journeys have been a constant theme in the work of John Pule, who arrived in New Zealand at the age of two from the village of Liku, Niue, and has gone on to exhibit extensively around the world. A self-taught artist, Pule draws his influence as much from poetry as art history and a variety of Pacific traditions, partly due to his parallel practice as an accomplished writer with three published novels and much poetry to his name. Painting grew out of his practice as a writer and language continues to play an important role in his art, which is often interwoven with his own autobiographical texts.

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  ROSS, James, 1948-

  Figure (Listening) (Drawing)

  Existing in the middle ground between abstraction and figuration, James Ross’s pastel drawings play host to a range of organic forms.

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  SCHIERNING, A.d., 1976-

  Untitled (Sculpture)

  The University of Auckland campus is now home to two new art works which are part of the public art trail, initiated by the Advisory Panel for Public Art at Auckland City Council.

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  SCHOON, Theo, 1915-1985

  Manaia Mania B (Print)

  Printed by Theo Schoon in Kees Hos’s studio in Auckland in 1965, this collograph was made by gluing the cut-out patterns onto wood, and then applying ink with a paintbrush before pressing paper down on top. Captured by Bauhaus ideas which emphasised the equality of art and craft, Schoon had studied only briefly at the Rotterdam Art Academy and Canterbury College School of Art, before beginning his own journey of intrepid exploration of artistic media.

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  SMITH, Maurice K., 1926-

  'I'conoclast (Painting)

  As well as meaning a destroyer of religious images or sacred images, the word “iconoclast” can be used to describe a person who contravenes established or traditional principles and laws. A champion of vernacular design in architecture who has lived in Massachusetts since 1958, Maurice Smith has been described as “too radical for [New Zealand’s] conservative establishment” by his former colleague Tony Watkins.

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  TUCK, Barbara, 1943-

  Terrace Refugia (Painting)

  It was in the mid-1960s that Barbara Tuck studied at the University’s Elam School of Fine Arts. And during her time at art school, Tuck developed her skills and stylistic approach to art. Fifty years on, this style combines multiple narratives, aerial perspectives and eye-catching, dreamy colours. Her heady landscapes are magically mystical, glinting at magpie onlookers.

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  VIVIEAERE, Jim, 1947-2011

  Beacons (Sculpture)

  The iconic upturned boat form of the Fale Pasifika is a landmark on campus. Designed by Ivan Mercep of Jasmax Architects at a cost of $6 million in 2004, the Fale has won several architectural awards. Collaboration with architectural theorist Albert Refiti ensured that Pasifika artists were involved in its construction adding layers of cultural meaning. Traditional Tongan lashings in brown and black coconut coir from Fiji by Filipe Tohi conceal steel plates and bolts at the main intersections of the roof structure on the interior. Outside the building, the work of Tongan artist, Tumoi Kaloni, forms a high archway entrance to the malae or greeting area, which is paved with a grid of tiles with applied arrows by Tania Euruatua Short to form a work entitled Accidental and Deliberate Voyages in the South Pacific. Described as a cartographically inspired pattern, this treatment of the malae’s surface was intended to evoke the presence of the ocean connecting Pacific peoples.

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  WALTERS, Gordon, 1919-1995

  Untitled (Painting)

  The emergence in the 1950s of Gordon Walters as one of our most important pioneers of abstract art, along with the likes of Don Peebles and Milan Mrkusich, signalled an important cultural transition in New Zealand. As critic Francis Pound has argued, it was a shift away from the literary influences of the nationalist landscape painters towards the flat planes of architecture and design, from the rustic countryside to urban modernism.

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  WILLIAMS, Mervyn, 1940-

  Midas Finds his Soul (Print)

  Established in 1964 by Auckland gallerist Kees Hos and philanthropist Dr Walter Auburn, the New Zealand Print Council flourished for over a decade before slowly going into eclipse. Guaranteed exhibitions in the nation’s major public galleries as members, artists quickly joined. Mervyn Williams, a Whakatane-born artist who had studied painting at Elam part-time in 1957 and 1958, but who never completed his diploma, was one of the first to take up membership. Working as a dinnerware designer for Crown Lynn in West Auckland alongside Frank Carpay, he had met immigrant artist Ted Dutch who taught him how to make serigraphs or silkscreen prints.

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  WILLIAMS, Mervyn, 1940-

  Midas Finds his Soul (Print)

  Established in 1964 by Auckland gallerist Kees Hos and philanthropist Dr Walter Auburn, the New Zealand Print Council flourished for over a decade before slowly going into eclipse. Guaranteed exhibitions in the nation’s major public galleries as members, artists quickly joined. Mervyn Williams, a Whakatane-born artist who had studied painting at Elam part-time in 1957 and 1958, but who never completed his diploma, was one of the first to take up membership. Working as a dinnerware designer for Crown Lynn in West Auckland alongside Frank Carpay, he had met immigrant artist Ted Dutch who taught him how to make serigraphs or silkscreen prints.

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  WOOLLASTON, Toss, 1910-1998

  Taranaki Landscape (Painting)

  Out on his bicycle selling Rawleighs products door-to-door in Greymouth in the sixties, Toss Woollaston could only dream of becoming a fulltime painter.

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  ZUSTERS, Jane, 1951-

  Untitled (triptych), 2. Two Selves (Painting)

  Living and working in Italy for six months in 1984 immersed Jane Zusters in the NeoExpressionist works of the Italian artists of the Transavant-guardia as well as the triptych format of the Renaissance altar painting. In particular she admired the success that Mimmo Paladino had in establishing the connections between disparate elements in the same painting.

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  ZUSTERS, Jane, 1951-

  Untitled (triptych), 1. Pushing It (Painting)

  Living and working in Italy for six months in 1984 immersed Jane Zusters in the NeoExpressionist works of the Italian artists of the Transavant-guardia as well as the triptych format of the Renaissance altar painting. In particular she admired the success that Mimmo Paladino had in establishing the connections between disparate elements in the same painting.

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