National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries

Auckland Writers & Readers Festival 2012

The Auckland Writers & Readers Festival, on from the 9-13 May, includes the following arts related events. Note that all three artists (Colin McCahon, Graham Percy and Dick Frizzell) either studied or worked at the Elam School of Fine Arts.

McCAHON AND THE MICRONAUT
Martin Edmond and Gregory O'Brien will discuss the process involved in writing Dark Night: Walking with McCahon (Edmond, 2011) and A Micronaut in the Wide World: The Imaginative Life and Times of Graham Percy (O'Brien, 2012). Date: Friday 11th May 2012
Time: 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Venue: ASB THEATRE, AOTEA CENTRE

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE IMAGE: DICK FRIZZELL
This event is the 'live version' of Frizzell's 2011 book of the same name.
Date: Sunday 13 May 2012
Time: 10:15 a.m. - 11:15 a.m.
Venue: AUCKLAND ART GALLERY AUDITORIUM
References:

• Edmond, M. (2011). Dark night : walking with McCahon. Auckland, N.Z.: Auckland University Press.
• Frizzell, D. (2011). It's all about the image. Auckland, N.Z.: Godwit/Random House New Zealand.
• O'Brien, G. (2011). A micronaut in the wide world : the imaginative life and times of Graham Percy. Auckland, N.Z. : Auckland University Press, 2011.

Victoria Passau

Fine Arts Library

posted @ Thursday, May 03, 2012 3:51 PM | Feedback (0)

Beadle's decimal coins

At a time when the University is doing an inventory of its cultural collections, it’s relevant to note that we are also the repository for many fascinating paper archives. One such is The Elam Archive, held at the Fine Arts Library, which contains the papers of Professor Paul Beadle, head of Elam from 1961-1977. Among his papers is a comprehensive collection of newspaper cuttings and correspondence on the debate surrounding the design of New Zealand’s coins, providing both an insight into the design process and the politics of this contentious competition. (Passau, 2012, p.28)

In celebration of Records and Archives Week (RAW), Ingenio has published "Beadle's decimal coins" (p.28) written by Victoria Passau, Client Services Librarian at the Fine Arts Library. This article explores Professor Paul Beadle's involvement in the 1964-1965 decimal coin design competition and can be read here.

Ingenio is The University of Auckland's official alumni magazine and is available in hardcopy and online. The Autumn issue also includes a staff profile of Janet Copsey, University Librarian (pp.24-25)

Reference:

Passau, V. (2012). History: Beadle’s decimal coins. Ingenio (Autumn), 28.

Fine Arts Library

posted @ Tuesday, May 01, 2012 4:03 PM | Feedback (0)

Niche Magazines at the Fine Arts Library

NEW YORK CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL WEEKLY BREEDER
New York and San Francisco, 1971-1974.
Ken Friedman, Stu Horn, Tim Mancusi, and Bill Gaglione.

"The N. Y.C.s. Weekly Breeder was started by Ken Friedman in homage to Ray Johnson's New York Correspondence School as a single Xeroxed sheet of collaged newsclippings and short, Fluxus-inspired articles sent out weekly. Mail artist Stu Horn took over the magazine briefly, before passing it along to Tim Mancusi and Bill Gaglione in San Francisco, who expanded it into a "dadazine" for the Bay Area Dadaists and their mail art activities. They published seven issues in an edition of 200 copies, distributed for free, with contributors such as General Idea, Lowell Darling, Robert Cumming, Futzie Nutzle, Monte Cazazza, and Ray Johnson." (Allen, 2011, p. 279)

FILE
Toronto, 1972- 1989 (voI.1, no. 1-no. 28).
General Idea (AA Bronson, Felix Partz, and Jorge Zontal).

"FILE magazine-or megazine, as it was frequently called-was published by the Canadian collective General Idea. It served as a vehicle for the group's eclectic, evolving interests and activities, from the Canadian mail art scene to elaborate preparations for a campy "fake" beauty contest known as the 1984 Miss General Idea Pageant, to new wave and punk music. Appropriating Life magazine's red and white logo-an act of cultural piracy for which Time Inc. later threatened to sue-the magazine denaturalized dominant cultural categories of gender, class, beauty, and artistic production-and questioned the role of the media in upholding such categories." (Allen, 2011, p. 260)

Facsimile reprint: General Idea, FILE Megazine. Ed. Beatrix Ruf. Zurich: JRP Ringier, 2008. (AVAILABLE AT THE FINE ARTS LIBRARY) (Allen, 2011, p. 260)

posted @ Thursday, April 19, 2012 11:59 AM | Feedback (0)

Fine Arts Library new acquisitions

The Fine Arts Library has just received a great selection of DVDs and sound recordings. They include the insightful and moving documentary Bill Cunnigham, New York , about The New York Times most beloved street fashion photographer and Ai Weiwei’s Fairytale which documents the project, of the same name, shown at Documenta 12 in 2007.

Ai, W., & Zuoxiao, Z. (2007). Fairytale [videorecording]. Paris: bdv.

Bennett, S., & Waiheke Community Art Gallery. (2011). Headland where nature meets sculpture : a documentary about Waiheke Island's Sculpture on the gulf [videorecording]. Auckland, N.Z.: Rongo Productions.

Björk, Barney, M., B, A., & Chernick, A. (2007). Matthew Barney no restraint [videorecording]. United States: IFC Films.

Chapman, J., Chapman, D., Eikmeyer, T., Knoefel, T., & Rummel, T. (2009). From hell to hell original recordings [sound recording]. Nürnberg: Verlag für Moderne Kunst.

Chelpa Ferro (Artistic Group), & Nader, C. (2009). Chelpa Ferro. Videobrasil cole*cão de autores = Videobrasil authors collection [videorecording]. Brazil: Associacao Cultural Videobrasil.

D'Cruz, J., Banksy, Ifans, R., Fairey, S., & Madman (Firm). (2010). Exit through the gift shop [videorecording]. Australia: Paranoid Pictures : Madman Entertainment.

Mirza, K., Butler, B., Cunningham, D., & Shrigley, G. (2003). 'Where a straight line meets a curve' [videorecording]. London: Filmarmalade.

Novaczek, R. (2006). Ruth Novaczek selected film/video 1990-2005 [videorecording]. Bisbee, AZ: David Sherman.

Preibsch, S. (2003). Late birds [videorecording]. England: Filmarmalade.

Press, R., Gefter, P., Denmark, R., & Brown, B. A. (2011). Bill Cunningham New York [videorecording]. New York: Zeitgeist Films.

Provost, M., Moreau, Y., & Tukur, U. (2009). Séraphine [videorecording]. N.Z.: Rialto distributor.

Rivers, B., Butler, J., Brocklehurst, J., Klein, Y., Helliwell, I., & Tobin, A. (2001). Hi-fi rise sonic cities from another timeline [videorecording]. S. l.: Semiconductor Films.

Shrigley, P., Harris, K., Liess, J., & Shrigley, G. (2007). Grese, West, Atkins, Hindley, Ruda & England An interview with Patricia Shrigley [videorecording]. United Kingdom: Marmalade Publishers of Visual Theory.

Please ask at the desk to view these items.

Victoria Passau

Fine Arts Library

posted @ Wednesday, April 04, 2012 10:13 AM | Feedback (0)

Jill Kennedy: Eyes on the Moon

An exhibition by Jill Kennedy is on display at the Gus Fisher Gallery until the 28th of April. Kennedy, a Glasgow-born artist, utilises found images to create collage-like animations with a humorous edge. The Fine Arts Library holds two of her earlier video works entitled New Educational Series (Kennedy & Payne, 2010a) and One Minute Enlightenment (Kennedy & Payne, 2010b). These are on long-term loan from The University of Auckland Art Collection.

Eyes on the Moon
9 March 2012 to 28 April 2012
10am - 5 pm (Tuesday - Friday)
The Gus Fisher Gallery, The Kenneth Myers Centre, 74 Shortland St

posted @ Wednesday, March 28, 2012 8:30 AM | Feedback (0)

Titokowaru's dilemma

The Fine Arts Library has just received Titokowaru's dilemma (2011) a catalogue accompanying the exhibition of the same name by Christchurch lithographer Marian Maguire. Titokowaru's dilemma is the third in a series exploring New Zealand history through the lens of Ancient Greek myths and legends.* Maguire's latest works pair the Māori prophet Riwha Titokowaru of Ngā Ruahine alongside Socrates.

The catalogue includes essays and poems by a number of respected authors including Jame Belich, Keri Hulme and our very own Distinguished Professor Dame Anne Salmond of the Department of Māori Studies and Professor Elizabeth Rankin of the Department of Art History.

Titokowaru's dilemma  (2011) will be on the Fine Arts Library's New Books display until early next week.

References:

* Maguire's previous lithographic series are entitled The Odyssey of Captain Cook" (2005) and The Labours of Herakles (2008).

Maguire, M., Rankin, E., Belich, J., Tiso, G., Salmond, A., & Hulme, K. (2011). Titokowaru's dilemma. Christchurch, N.Z.: PaperGraphica.

Victoria Passau
Fine Arts Library

posted @ Tuesday, March 27, 2012 2:54 PM | Feedback (1)

E.H. McCormick Research Library: Complementing our collections

posted @ Tuesday, March 13, 2012 5:40 PM | Feedback (0)

Paper-jams: artists between the covers (9 March-28 April)

In artists' books, text often has visual attributes that redirect the reader's attention away from the linguistic text to the visual text. Some texts border on illegibility. Yet illegibility, the Condition in which materiality overwhelms content, also signifies. Works that take self-reflexive materiality as their subject, such as altered books, challenge the conventions and ontology of the book...They can also be sculptural, pushing the boundary between the book and the work of art. Artists' books emphasize the differences between the conventional codex and their own interventions. Their self-reflexivity is split between their own real but unusual material forms and the idea of the conventional codex, constantly alluding to and exploring this difference. Artists' books exaggerate features of the codex, reflecting the materiality, technology and reading practices of the conventional book through their imaginative lens. (Strizever, 2010, pp.v-vi)

Paper-jams: artists between the covers, curated by Andrew Clifford, opens at The Gus Fisher Gallery this Friday (9 March). The show, while "acknowledging the substantial history of text in art...looks sideways from that legacy to foreground those artists who address the page as a physical and political context rather than focusing on the content of the words contained within.” (Clifford and The Gus Fisher Gallery, 2012). Click here for further detail.

We are excited to announce that several artists' books from the Fine Arts Library's Artists' Book Collection are to be exhibited including works by Dan Arps, Peter Madden, Teri Moon and Fiona Jack (full list). The Fine Arts Library has also loaned three photographic prints by Allan McDonald. These works capture some of Christchurch's charity bookshops prior to the devastating earthquakes of 2010-2012.

Paper-jams: artists between the covers
9 March 2012 to 28 April 2012

THE GUS FISHER GALLERY
The Kenneth Myers Centre
74 Shortland St
Auckland CBD   
www.gusfishergallery.auckland.ac.nz

References:

• Clifford, Andrew and The Gus Fisher Gallery. (2012). Paper-jams: artists between the covers. Events. Retrieved March 8, 2012, from http://www.creative.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/home/about/galleries-and-collections/gus-fisher-gallery/events/template/event_item.jsp?cid=469253
• Strizever, M. Visible texture: Artists' books, 1960--2010. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, United States -- Pennsylvania. Retrieved March 7, 2012, from Dissertations & Theses: Full Text. (Publication No. AAT 3414197).

Victoria Passau
Fine Arts Library

posted @ Thursday, March 08, 2012 2:28 PM | Feedback (0)

Elam at Antarctica

Two photographic works by Megan Jenkinson and Joyce Campbell and a slideshow of Dr. Ruth Watson’s research are on display at the Elam School of Fine Arts. These were created by current Elam staff and capture the experience gained while visiting the Antarctic. Jenkinson (2005/06) and Campbell (2006/07) visited the continent as Antarctic Artists Fellows*, while Watson made the trip in December 2011 as a part of an Antarctic studies programme.

A selection of ephemera and publications, relating to Jenkinson, Campbell and Watson, are also on display in the Fine Arts Library.

*The Antarctic Artists Fellowship, running since the 1997/98 season, provides the opportunity for New Zealand artists to explore Antarctica through their artistic practice. A number of Elam Alumni have been Art Fellows including Nigel Brown (1997/98), Virginia King (1990/00), Anne Noble (2001/02), Phil Dadson (2002/03) and Jae Hoon Lee (2011/12).

Selective bibliography:

• Brown, N. (2001). Southern convergence : Antarctic art (New ed.). Wellington, N.Z.: Pemmican Press.
• Brown, N., Manhire, B., & Orsman, C. (1998). Homelight : an Antarctic miscellany. Karori, N.Z.: Pemmican Press.
• Dadson, P., Clifford, A., & Gus Fisher Gallery. (2004). Philip Dadson : polar projects : 29 September - 13 November 2004. Auckland, N.Z.: Gus Fisher Gallery.
• Jerram, S. (2007). Claims on beauty. NZ Journal of Photography (65), 8-20.
• McNamara, T. J. (2009). Snapshots lifted to captivating images. New Zealand herald, B8.
• Noble, A., Porter, G., & Wedde, I. (2011). Anne Noble : ice blink : an Antartic imaginary. Auckland, N.Z.: Clouds.
• Were, V. (2008). Volatile imaginings. Art news, 28 (2), 72-75.

Victoria Passau

Fine Arts Library

posted @ Thursday, March 01, 2012 3:10 PM | Feedback (0)

"Fashion is Fun"

“Fashion has always existed in relation to art and has frequently been interpreted through the philosophical and conceptual tenets of art practices and theories. Artforms as diverse as history painting, sculpture, portrait painting, printmaking, sign painting and commercial art and photography have variously depicted, created and promulgated fashion” (McNeil, 2011).

posted @ Friday, February 17, 2012 2:03 PM | Feedback (1)