Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Leigh Melville Updates from The Venice Biennale - Performers in Action
Performance art was one of the themes that emerged from this year's Biennale, a bold or noisy exhibition certainly enhances your chances of getting noticed in the sea of art that seems to emerge from every doorway and palazzo in Venice. Queues outside your exhibition also garner much interest and conversation. Some of the biggest queues were for Britain, where the line seemed to snake right back to the gates of the Giardini, and for the USA, where the wait was made more interesting by the clatter of an overturned British Centurion battle tank. The American pavilion showed work by Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla, titled Gloria. The work composed four parts and somehow I convinced the Husband to queue alongside me. I don't mind queueing in Venice (sometimes), there is always so much to see and take in, if you don't mind inhaling the cigarettes that much of Europe seems to persist with.
Outside the pavillion an athlete wearing a USA track and field uniform clambered aboard the tank and ran on a treadmill, causing an almighty racket and grabbing the attention of those far and wide. Inside the building we were ushered into a room where a gymnast performed amazing feats atop an airline seat carved out of wood. In the last room you could make a real ATM withdrawal which caused an organ to play.
A feast for the senses but the Husband definitely needed a large Pinot Grigio after all that.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Video Preview: Martin Hill Collection/Michael Seresin Collection/Photographs
You can watch A+O Director's James Parkinson, Hamish Coney and Ben Plumbly discuss next week's suite of sales in the latest video preview above or watch a higher res version here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgpyiNOJuDg.
Stuff cover Photography Festival and Seresin Collection
Here's a link to an article on the Stuff website today covering the Seresin Collection and this Tuesday's Gravity Festival:
Home Magazine Design Awards/Opening Preview
We had one of our best opening previews last night which we held in association with the Home Magazine Design Awards function for 2011. About 150 art/design/ceramic lovers enjoyed more than a few glasses of Daniel le Brun and some great company. Home Magazine editor Jeremy Hansen announced the winner as Sam Haughton/IMO for his A2 stool whose brief was to create "a light,cost-effective and colourful seat."
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Leigh Melville Updates from The Venice Biennale - New Zealand Exhibition Officially Opens
Hundreds gathered last night for the official opening of the New Zealand exhibition. As Michael Parekowhai intended the exhibition came alive with the playing of the red piano, accompanied last night by opera singer Aviale Cole. It was a superb evening.
Yesterday many of us had a first look around at the Giardini and there have been lots of animated conversations among us here, sharing what we have seen, what you must see and what you have seen that you wished you hadn't. For those not so keen on the art, the people watching is pretty good too.
This morning we will visit the curated exhibition at the Arsenale, no doubt a trip that will inspire many more conversations.
Leigh Melville
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Leigh Melville Updates from The Venice Biennale
It was an early start here in Venice this morning for the blessing of Michael Parekowhai's Venice Biennale exhibition On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer. For those patrons who thought they had seen it all Michael had a surprise in store. He Korero Purakau mo Te Awanui o Te Motu: Story of a New Zealand River, the intricately carved grand piano, now stood centre stage in vibrant red inside the Palazzo Loredan dell'Ambasciatore. I can only imagine what it is like for Michael Parekowhai to see the culmination of years of work finally installed in Venice. New Zealand's presence is being noticed by many, the way to the exhibition through cobbled lanes is signposted with some ingenious bright yellow stickers on the ground so we are not quite so dependent on the ever-present maps.
Outside the Palazzo, in a beautiful walled garden, Chapman's Homer, the standing bull, looks so at home I suspect he may want to stay, and, so may I!
Leigh Melville
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