The Trubridge Returns

Coral/Floral

By New Zealand designer, David Trubridge

In a Reflective Mood

www.davidtrubridge.com

Room with a View

Image Courtesy SKYCITY.

The SKYCITY Hotel and the SKYCITY Grand are two of my favourite Auckland hotels. For one thing, they're located just a sneeze away from Queen Street and Viaduct Harbour. They also have great views over the inner city - and I'm always a sucker for an aerial view of architectural rooflines and on top of that, every room displays New Zealand original art. I like that SKYCITY have amassed a stunning art collection and that they entrust parts of it to their guests. When you stay in hotels frequently, it's very easy to become jaded of the whole business; but for me at least, the SKYCITY hotels have that little extra visual interest (not to mention rooms of a generous size), that get a big tick from me. www.skycity.co.nz www.skycitygrand.co.nz

From the Art Sign Series

Riccarton Rotary Market, Christchurch

Do I sense something hopeful and unduly optimistic about this sign?

August 2009 Ajr

Architecture in Shadow

Another set of photos from Christchurch Art Gallery - looking up from Alchemy (the cafe) to the towering rooflines to capture shadows and reflections. There have been occasions when I have found the actual gallery structure more enticing than the works on show within the galleries. I get endless visual pleasure from chasing reflections around the glass facade. Perhaps I ought to find something more productive to do with my time? www.christchurchartgallery.org.nz

Prison Architecture

When you think of well known 19th century Canterbury architect, Benjamin W Mountford, you’re most likely going to think of Christchurch Cathedral, Canterbury Museum and the very beautiful Canterbury Provincial Council Chambers as highlights of his architectural legacy. It is unlikely that you’ll be thinking about prisons and cell blocks. But the old Addington Prison is yet another fine example of Mountford’s Gothic Revival architecture.

The Mountford Cell Block was built in 1874 – constructed in 60cm thick concrete, which at the time was a relatively new material. When it opened it housed both sentenced and remand prisoners and later, it also served as a woman’s prison and then a military camp. The prison was finally closed in 1999 and it stood empty until 2006 when the building was purchased by an enthusiastic couple, who have since renovated the protected building and converted it into backpacker accommodation.
I was out walking with a friend the weekend before last – exploring the backstreets of Addington – and when we came upon the old gaol, we took it upon ourselves to go in and get a feel for the place. The people in charge of the backpacker operation were more than happy to show us through – turns out they get plenty of curious passers-by keen to look inside. From the huge original gates that have been incorporated into the external landscape, to the protected drawings on cell walls created by former prisoners, it’s a real treat. Another friend talked about feelings of ‘bad karma’ but I never took that from the building at all. Rather, to me, it has an almost cathedral-like feel to it – not surprising I suppose when you consider than Mountford did in fact design Christchurch Cathedral. I found the interior beautifully proportioned and with its all-white paintwork, its splendid timber staircase and its beautiful ceiling and stained glass features, it’s hard to even imagine it as a prison - more of a monastery to me. That said, as a paying backpacker guest, I would want to make sure that the thick steel cell doors definitely had a key on the inside!

One quirky additional fact that amused me: The prison’s first gaoler was one Edward Seagar, who was also Canterbury’s first police sergeant and Sunnyside Mental Hospital’s first warden. Clearly he was a man who liked to be in charge of the keys! Anyway, if you feel like a night in lock-up, check out www.jail.co.nz

A Small Church Moment

I am so pleased with this photograph!

I took it when I was out walking last weekend with a friend. We wove our way in and out of the back streets of Addington, here in Christchurch and that's where we came upon St Mary's Anglican Church. But rather than taking the conventional shot of church door, stained glass windows, a steeple perhaps, I was completely captivated by this startling late afternoon tree shadow creeping up the rear wall of the church, arching over the park seat. To me, there's almost an animate quality about it. I took several photos of it but I like this one the best.

A Sign of the Times

Once there was a time when you could almost guarantee that every church door in the country was open twenty-four hours a day, every day. Not these days. Vandals, thieves and trouble-makers have put paid to that and, if this sign I photographed last weekend is anything to go by, it now seems churches have to 'advertise' the fact that their doors are open. I'm not a religious person but I do think this is a sorry state of affairs. I love photographing church architecture and I'm often frustrated when I can't get inside a beautiful church. I did however, love this little sign in its own right - and let's not forget the handsome, blocky little shadow it's casting across the church forecourt.

Billboard of the Week

Christchurch

September 2009 Ajr

Dance Feast

Image courtesy Body Festiavl 2009.

Today marks the start of the 2009 Body Festival, which is being staged here in Christchurch. Unfortunately the weather is foul – wet and freezing cold – so everyone will be hoping it clears in time for tonight’s launch in Victoria Square, which kicks off with a world record attempt at the largest-ever line dance. Beyond that, the festival programme includes everything from contemporary dance to ballet, Indian classical dance, speed dancing, flamenco, jazz, salsa, tap and a whole host of dance classes that include everything from the Charleston to Maori poi dancing. One of the highlights will be the debut season of the new Christchurch-based contemporary dance company, Southern Lights (pictured), who will perform three new works. www.thebody.co.nz

Art on High - Another View

I like the three-way intersection of Lichfield, Manchester and High Streets here in Christchurch. There's always something happening there - both visually and physically - and I often sit there waiting for people and photographs. It's also a great corner for changing billboards and poster hoardings; and it's home to Phil Price's kinetic sculpture that provides ever-changing opportunities for a snap. It's here that you'll also find the Physics Room Kiosk that I wrote about earlier this week.

Cool Cars - 55

One Fabulous Turquoise Chevrolet Impala - Spotted outside Hoyts in Christchurch.

Signs of the Times

My weakness for signs is well known here.

I photograph them frequently

Always looking for the quirky or the well-designed

The unusual or the misspelled.

I particularly like finding groups of signs that either 'support each other' thematically, or colour-wise; or, as in this case, form totally 'incongruous couplings' that make me smile and think of the nature of chance. I snapped these in Gloucester Street, here in Christchurch.

StreetscapeNZ - 46

The Octagon-George Street

Dunedin, South Island

May 2009. Ajr

Self-Portrait - 10 - On A Lawn

Caught in a net

Of Shadows

Central Christchurch

September 2009 Ajr

The Latest Kiwiana Range

I'm very much liking the new range of New Zealand Kiwiana stamps featuring all those quirky things we know and love so well - the summer caravan, sausages, old push lawn mowers, fish and chips, kiwifruit, cricket on the beach and State Highway 1. As a keen letter-writer from way back, I always choose my stamps with care and I always ask for specific stamps to put on my letters. These ones will be top of my list.

Architecture - The Old and the New

I’ve lived in Christchurch for the last twenty years (almost) and in that time, I’ve never found it to be a particularly progressive city when it comes to contemporary architecture – especially in the commercial arena. Perhaps it is too hung-up on its clichéd ‘English’ image. That said, it does boast some of the finest Victorian Gothic architecture in the country; and some of the finest large Edwardian and Victorian homes. Many of its best commercial buildings are also from the Victorian and Edwardian period, although some would say that the 1960s and 70s also produced a reasonable tally of excellent Modernist buildings. I’m not arguing.

I have a habit of roaming about the city with my camera and I’m always photographing buildings and architectural details – little slithers of buildings, a column here, a set of windows there, a façade over there, a roofline beyond. I love the negative spaces between buildings and the way one high-rise might reflect against another. I love the shadows some structures cast; and the way others ‘interact’ with surrounding trees. The two images I’ve featured here are two examples that I snapped last weekend – a modern building in central city that I photographed from a distance, capturing just the upper section of it poking above a host of other buildings (not shown) in the foreground; and the wonderful brick building on Oxford Terrace that is now home to Otautahi-Our Place. I was particularly drawn to the way it rose up proudly amid a tangle of shadows cast by the neighbouring trees.

Twin Arts

I'm featuring these two terrific photographs - supplied by inform contemporary jewellery, Christchurch - not just because they feature Sharon Fitness's fun, funky silicon jewellery that's currently showing at the gallery; but also for the photographs in their own right - quirky, fun, imaginative images taken by Sharon herself, that perfectly convey the spirit of her jewellery pieces. These two glow-in-the-dark brooches, photographed amid frosted winter grass, are in stark contrast to the summery pieces I featured here last week - images (also by Sharon) that turn the brooches into 'wild flowers' poking out between blades of grass. Sharon's exhibition at form - Jiggle, Wiggle, Wobble, Bounce - continues until October 3. www.informjewellery.co.nz

Art Space

I'm not entirely sure what I feel about this latest work on display in The Physics Room Kiosk on High Street - if I feel anything at all in fact. It's entitled "Blade in Phone" and has been created by one Eddie Clemens. It's on show until September 24 if you want to amble along and scratch your own head. www.physicsroom.org.nz

Cafe Sunday

Pausing for Lunch at Mondo during my city walkabout last weekend

StreetscapeNZ - 45

Main Street, Clyde

Central Otago, South Island

May 2009 Ajr

Billboard of the Week

Love this new Air New Zealand billboard in Central Christchurch

Shoe Shuffle

Heels are Back

The Higher the Better

This by NUDE

Black is Black

It's no exaggeration to say that 95% of my wardrobe is black - mostly because I live in the delusional world where people believe black is slimming. That said, I also love black for its solid ability to make every other colour so much more alive. Given that I also love words, typography, signs and the colour hot pink (which I NEVER wear), this image was always going nto be a winner for me. It's part of the sign for high fashion store Victoria Black in Christchurch, which I have of course 'fiddled about with' on Photoshop. It's just one of the things I do when I should be doing more productive things.

Bright Lights

Christchurch. September 2009 Ajr

Internationally acclaimed New Zealand designer, David Trubridge needs no introduction - certainly not on this blog! I have after all, featured his immensely popular lighting design 'Coral/Floral' (and a close 'cousin') more often than is probably decent, in all manner of locations. This is one I snapped when I was out and about walking around the city about ten days ago - the en masse department store approach. www.davidtrubridge.com

Cool Cars - 54

One Bright Yellow Holden - Spotted in Ashburton, South Island, NZ

The Architecture of Construction

I photographed this little shed on the construction site of the new council buildings in Christchurch, just across the road from Christchurch Art Gallery, in Worcester Street. It's a classic example of one of those unexpected and arresting compositions of colour and form that most people walk past every day and never see. I am always excited by construction sites - there's so much happening, such a tangle of machinery and materials, shadows and reflections. I was drawn to this simple, 'blocky' little building by its unassuming proportions and the striking blue-orange contrast of paint and sky. And of course.....the crane ...below.....

Turning Construction on its Head

I've photographed more cranes than I care to admit to. It's a weakness. I love their towering forms etched against the sky. Come to that, I love everything they stand for - building, architecture, development, future, progress...... I was admiring glassware in Form at Christchurch Art Gallery last weekend, when I happened to catch a glimpse of this crane across the street on the council construction site - reflected in the glass exhibition shelf. Far too interesting to pass up.

Hearts, Lungs, Lace

I love it when you think you know even just a tiny bit about someone and then you are surprised to discover a whole other side to them that you never knew existed. That happened to me last week when I visited my friends, Rudolf and Robyne at PUG Design Store here in Christchurch and came face-to-face with a cabinet full of exquisitely-crafted works by Jennifer Hay, who I have always known to be an arts curator and writer, not an actual maker-of-things herself.

Jennifer calls herself a textile crafter rather than an artist but to me, her miniature stitched treasures have all the attention to detail, all the deft craftsmanship, all the beauty and originality of any ‘artwork’ I’ve seen lately. The cabinet installation is called Quacksalver and the tiny embroidered and beaded purses, bags, brooches and pendants are all made of silk printed with Victorian anatomical drawings sourced from Gray’s and Quain’s Anatomy text books. A Quacksalver explains Jennifer, is a charlatan, someone who invents medicines and cures and boasts about their efficacy. She’s chosen both anatomical drawings and Victorian advertisements for medicines and cure-alls as the starting point for her works; and she’s then meticulously stitched, embroidered and beaded the finishing touches.
Her interest in anatomy started when she came across an old medical book in a second-hand shop. “I was fascinated by the shapes and colours and the intimacy of the human body reflected in the illustrations,” she said. “It wasn’t until I was some way into the work that I remembered my brother actually has a PhD in anatomy.”

Jennifer has been working with textiles for the last two years, predominantly silk but she’s now exploring other fabrics too – and the three dimensional possibilities and the creative manipulation of fabric to create a wider range of work. “Dr Tibbald’s Collar” (green folds; above) and “Mrs Tibbald’s Collar” (cream and white folds) hint strongly at new directions influenced by Jennifer’s current interest in the Japanese aesthetic principle of wabi-sabi – often described as “a beauty that is imperfect, impermanent, incomplete.” Like many things Japanese, wabi-sabi is an enigmatic concept but for a simple understanding think asymmetry, modesty, imperfection, simplicity and natural processes and you might get half way to understanding what it means. In the meantime, if you haven’t been along to PUG to see Jennifer’s ‘small perfections,’ I suggest you get there before the end of October. It's a visual pleasure. www.pugdesign.co.nz

Meet the People - 42 [Showtime - 5]

Another in the Series Meet the People – Ordinary and Extraordinary New Zealanders Doing Interesting Things – Craig Douglas freely admits that he “didn’t know one end of a bull or a horse from the other” before he started Christchurch’s International Rodeo. But he does know excitement and drama. He does know how to put on a show. He does know how to think big and make dreams realities. Craig, 38, is the man behind Douglas Webber Group, the event management team who created what is now New Zealand’s biggest indoor rodeo, which will run for its third year in November, in conjunction with New Zealand Cup and Show Week. Craig came to rodeo after a spontaneous visit to the Waimate Rodeo. Until then he had been staging major motocross events. He had been racing in motocross events himself from the age of 12 and when he saw freestyle motocross on television in USA, he decided he had to bring it to New Zealand. The rest, as they say, is history. The Crusty Demons of Dirt arrived in 2003 and since then Craig’s event management career has “taken off in all directions.”

“Anything I’ve ever done has been at the absolute edge of possibility,” he says. “I thrive on a challenge and dumping 45,000 tonnes of dirt inside Christchurch’s $40-million Westpac Stadium was just the sort of challenge I love. I could see instantly that an indoor rodeo would be the perfect finale to the biggest agricultural event in the New Zealand.” And finale it is – with all the elements of an 8-hour outdoor rodeo condensed into two action-packed indoor hours featuring speed, big screen television, LPG-propelled fire jets and flame throwers, 144 head of stock, 32 daredevil cowboys from four countries and a whole ton of pre-show organisation. “We build a satellite city for 144 animals, a whole arena and everything that goes with it between 6am Friday and opening time 6pm Saturday. It’s fast-paced action from start to finish,” says Craig.
Photo Courtesy Christchurch City Council, NZ Cup and Show Week
The rodeo features four disciplines – saddle bronc riding, bareback bronc, barrel racing (female only) and bullriding. And it’s a terrifying thrill a minute when you pitch a 70kg man against a 1,000kg bucking bull. The crowd loves it and the 8,000 tickets sell fast. For Craig, the whole rodeo business has been a huge learning curve but he’s proud of the fact that his event is endorsed by the RSPCA and that people just keep coming. He also enjoys the people he works with. “The first thing I noticed about the cowboys was how well-presented and how down-to-earth and honest they are. They’re all incredibly professional. They’re people of the land and a great bunch to work with.” www.rodeogp.co.nz www.nzcupandshow.co.nz

Jiggle, Wiggle, Wobble, Bounce

So you thought jewellery was all about gold, silver and gemstones? Well, think again because Sharon Fitness is just one jeweller exploring a plethora of new materials that bring a whole new meaning to contemporary jewellery. I think these three photographs – courtesy of inform jewellery in Christchurch, where Sharon has her latest exhibition – say it all. Colourful, tactile, original and fun.

Sharon, who graduated from Auckland University’s Manukau School of Visual Arts with a Bachelor of Visual Arts majoring in contemporary jewellery in 2007, has already had a number of successful exhibitions in high profile galleries like Masterworks, Objectspace and Fingers Contemporary Jewellery. I’m not surprised. Her work is distinctly different. It’s new, fresh and fun and people are invariably drawn to it – whether it’s in a gallery display case or on someone’s garment. What’s it made of? Can I touch it? What does it feel like? All common questions when you wear a piece of Sharon’s vibrant silicon jewellery.
“I create silicon jewels that are fun by design; encouraging the wearer to interact with the object, negotiating how it is worn and how it appears to the outside world. This in turn encourages play and interaction between wearer and observer. These floppy, changeable objects offer new possibilities for adorning and viewing jewellery, creating temporal art experiences for random audiences,” says Sharon.
They’re definitely conversation starters and for Sharon, the pieces have a life of their own. “My practice revolves around play, fun and random happenings. I work with silicon because it offers the flexibility, changeability and tactility I need to produce playful wobbly wearable beings. I like that they have a life of their own, that they prompt the wearer to jiggle wiggle wobble and bounce along with them.” www.informjewellery.co.nz

Barry's Provocative Unpublished Minutes - 66

"Ear"

One More work by our leading New Zealand printmaker as we edge closer and closer to the big 100! To see others in this terrific series (exclusive to this blog), click on Cleavin in the label line below this post.

Soak, Steam, Spa

Images Courtesy Polynesian Spa, Rotorua

I never tire of Rotorua's Polynesian Spa - that luxurious, steaming retreat on the edge of Lake Rotorua where I have enjoyed numerous soothing soaks to ease weary muscles. The complex now has 27 pools, including 13 delicious private pools, several of which open directly onto the lakefront, so you can lie back and watch the natural geothermal steam rising off the opposite lake edge. The pools, especially the Priest Spa shown in the bottom image, are famous for their curative effects for ailments like arthritis and rheumatism - or just your plain old sore muscles from too much sightseeing or exercise. www.polynesianspa.co.nz

Turning on the Lights

Christchurch. September 2009. Ajr

Last weekend I roamed around central Christchurch with a friend for about four hours. It's something we do often, taking in the big and small changes in the cityscape, looking at window dressing design, checking out new products, laughing at billboards and advertising spaces, watching people, looking at artwork, visiting galleries and pausing here and there for coffee and snacks. All this, ostensibly, in the name of exercise. It's a ton of fun and, more often than not, a real education. I don't think nearly enough people roam about their own towns or cities - not with open eyes at least. The multiple layers of visual imagery, the architecture, the quirky surprises that come with people and places - all too often taken for granted and overlooked. I love that 'shining the light in dark corners.' It's how I come to know a place when I travel but just as much, it is how I come to know my own place. Oh....and this cafe? The Contemporary Lounge, upstairs in Ballantynes, where they really do know how to 'shine the light.'

Billboard of the Week

Spotted in SOL Lanes

Christchurch

September 2009 Ajr

One Pink Finger

This is Digitus Impudicus by Sean Kerr.

Currently showing at Christchurch Art Gallery.

I'm not sure I have anything more to say.

www.christchurchartgallery.org.nz

From the Food Files

Denheath Custard Squares!

Say No More.

Words, Words, Words

Christchurch. September 2009. Ajr

Blax Espresso Bar on Montreal Street here in Christchurch has long been a favourite coffee spot of mine - well, until my favourite barista, Darryl went walkabout. Sadly it's never been quite the same since he left. However, I called in last week and found the winds of change have blown through again. Much of the adjacent deli has gone - or at least been shifted into the back corner - and a new seating area with mirrored walls, snappy red seats and a blackboard filled with words have arrived. I like words. I make no secret of that passion. And not just because I'm a writer by profession and intrigued by the expressive power of words; it's also about the actual visual beauty of words - the typography, the shapes, the curvatures and of course, the spaces between - those rich breeding grounds of allusion and thought. By chance, the team at Blax have topped this wordy expanse with another of my favourite things - cheese boxes, more than that even, cheese boxes covered in words! The cafe itself may not have quite the zing and atmosphere it used to have but I will return - if only to sit and gaze at this wordy wall and allow my thoughts and memories to bubble up between the chalked-out list.

Len Lye - The Book

Image Courtesy Govett-Brewster Gallery & Len Lye Foundation

And so to another stunning publication from Govett-Brewster Gallery, this time in partnership with the Len Lye Foundation. Co-edited by the gallery’s Len Lye curator, Tyler Cann and poet, writer, critic, Wystan Curnow, ‘Len Lye,’ the book showcases one of New Zealand’s most inspirational and influential artists, throwing fresh light on the incredible diversity of his career. Len Lye (1901-1980) is best known in New Zealand as a kinetic sculptor but his international reputation was built around his experimental work in film. Poet, painter, experimental filmmaker and sculptor, Lye was born in Christchurch and travelled throughout the South Pacific and Australia, later working his passage to Britain on a steamship in 1926. He moved to New York in 1944. His work has featured in over 50 major exhibitions worldwide including in Paris’ Pompidou Centre, New York’s Museum of Modern Art and London’s Tate Modern. For this new look into his life and work – the most comprehensive visual presentation to date – over 1,000 new photographs were created and hundreds of them have been included in the book. The publication coincides with the largest and most comprehensive Len Lye exhibition ever, currently showing in the heart of Melbourne at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. In addition to all of that, I love the fact that Scottish poet, Alastair Reid declared Lye “the least boring person who ever lived.” Len Lye, the book is available through bookstores nationwide and it will be officially launched at the Govett-Brewster Gallery on September 25. http://www.govettbrewster.com/

StreetscapeNZ - 44

Queen Street & Mayoral Drive

Auckland
April 2009. Ajr

Signs of Art

Christchurch. September 2009. Ajr

I'm not sure what it is about the word ART but I find myself driven to photographing it - often, over and over! Maybe it's about the multiple resonances the word has for me personally; maybe it's about the fact that this one tiny, three-letter word packs such a powerful punch - for so many people in so many ways. I'm not going to analyse my attraction to the word beyond that. I'm just going to bring you my latest ART sign - this one imbued with so much more by virtue of the accompanying words. I ground to a halt underneath it - at Riccarton Rotary Market. Suffice to say, I wasn't driven to photographing the goods for sale underneath the sign.

The Art of Buildings

Christchurch. September 2009. Ajr

We're a little sparse on detail here given that I photographed this work from at least six feet away, but I hope it gives a tiny hint of the beauty of Sukjoon Jang's binary-like photographic slithers of the stone buildings within the Christchurch Arts Centre. South Korean Jang was artist-in-residence at the Arts Centre earlier this year and many of her works are currently on show on bus stops and billboards around town - I featured some of them here last week in fact. I particularly like this series and the way the works turn the architectural heft of our Victorian Gothic stone buildings to something ephemeral and delicate. The location of this work too - tucked away under the elaborate staircase in the huge clocktower - is a nice surprise. It's like discovering a small glowing jewel in a dark corner.

It's all in the Title

Christchurch. September 2009. Ajr

I photographed this work last week in The Kiosk, that terrific little miniature exhibition space that stands amid pedestrian walkways at the juncture of High, Manchester and Lichfield Streets in central Christchurch. It’s gone now. I’m not sorry. The rather amorphous looking, glazed (ceramic?) mass had me scratching my head. Apart from its rather pleasing colour, nothing about it ‘sung out to me;’ I could make no associations to anything in the interior filing cabinet of my visual storehouse. Then I went around the other side of The Kiosk and saw ‘Adam Willetts: Sludge Beast from the Cosmic Nostril,’ written across the top of the glazed box. Quite frankly, the title and the reflections of the city beyond grabbed my attention far more than the work itself – which, if I’m at my cynical best, looks like a studio accident that the artist then decided to use anyway, christening it with the first title he could think of that somehow described it. I’m looking forward to a more arresting Kiosk placement next time round - it is after all, one of my favourite ‘gallery’ spaces. And if you'd like to see other works that have been displayed in The Kiosk, click on Kiosk or Physics Room in the label line below this post. The Physics Room website also has a comprehensive list (with photos) of all recent exhibitors. www.physicsroom.org.nz

Small Moments of Greed

Hokey-Pokey Cheesecake

An Afternoon Sin

In Sumner

Showtime 4 - Putting on a Show

It’s been a long time since I went to an A&P show - Agricultural & Pastoral for those overseas who may not know what an A&P show is. But as a kid growing up in the Waikato, they were part of the annual calendar. I wasn’t a farmer’s daughter but A&P shows have a way of luring in entire communities wherever they are held in New Zealand – and in Australia. My last association with A&P shows was as an agricultural journalist in the Wairarapa about 20 years ago – reporting on show events, interviewing stud farmers, photographing shearers and wood-choppers – all the fun of the fair as they say. And then last year, when I was in Melbourne and its rural environs for three weeks – that’s Australia by the way, not New Zealand – I visited the Kyneton Show. What a treat. Everything much the same as our smaller rural shows – the cows, the poultry, the horses, the dogs, the machinery demonstrations, the side shows and ferris wheels – with the added bonus of something distinctly Australian – red dust and a poisonous snake display.

This year, I’m priming myself for a return to the A&P show scene – yes, already – for the Canterbury A&P Association’s annual show, which has been delighting visitors every year since its inception in 1862. The association was granted the rights to host the Royal New Zealand Show until 2012 inclusive and that has inspired a new level of excellence among livestock competitors and judges alike. It’s the most prestigious agricultural event of the year – over 120,000 people attended in 2008 - and whether you’re a food and wine lover, a daredevil or an animal fan, you’re going to find something to please. There will be over 7,000 livestock and feature competition entries, a grand parade, and around 600 trade exhibits; and during the three days of the show over 3,000 horses, 1,000 sheep, 900 cattle, 300 alpacas and hundreds of other animals from dairy goats to sheep dogs, converge on Canterbury Agricultural Park at Wigram, in Christchurch. It’s all part of New Zealand Cup and Show Week, the 10-day festival that contributes over $27-million to the local economy. If you want to check out this year’s programme and get yourself some of the first tickets, check out http://www.nzcupandshow.co.nz/ and there’s additional info at http://www.theshow.co.nz/ This year’s Royal New Zealand Show will be held on Wednesday, November 11, Thursday 12 and Friday 13th. All images courtesy Christchurch City Council, NZ Cup & Show Week.

Shoe Shuffle

Red Shoe

With Roses

Merivale Mall
If you're a shoe fan click on Shoes in the label line below this post to check out others I've featured in recent months

Thinking of Japan

Last weekend when I was cycling around the inner city, I took a side track down Poplar Lane and was delighted to find this Japanese chef at work outside a new 'hole-in-the-wall' Japanese restaurant and sushi bar. A number of people, including me, stopped to ask him what he was making - cheese balls as it turns out, which seems decidedly un-Japanese to me but who am I to quibble? I was just delighted to find something new and interesting in the area. For all the good that Poplar and SOL Lanes have done to invigorate the city by night, they are, more often than not, empty, cold and uninviting by day. I've never seen a crowd in there yet....well.....maybe in summer but that's only at the bars; retail foot traffic is virtually negligable. In the end, I forgot to note the name of this little Japanese place, which is a perfectly good excuse for me to go back there today to sample the food. It reminded me of the cute little eateries that filled the back lanes in Japanese cities. No matter where I went, I was never far from a tiny restaurant or sushi bar where I could almost guarantee tasty food and attentive service.

Billboard of the Week

Christchurch Town Hall

August 2009. Ajr

Cool Cars - 53

One Red VW Combi Van - Spotted in a Christchurch back street.

One Morning at ......

mondo

High Street, Christchurch

August 2009 Ajr

Barry's Provocative Unpublished Minutes - 65

"Information."
Another in the ink-jet print series by one of New Zealand's leading printmakers

Bennett Reflections

Christchurch. August 2009. Ajr

It’s been a while since I brought you any works by Christchurch sculptor, Graham Bennett so here’s one that I snapped at The Art House as I biked passed the gallery last weekend. I was captivated by the shadows as much as the work – no slur on Graham’s sculpture, that’s just the way I am. If you click on Graham Bennett in the label line below this post, you’ll be able to see other beautiful Bennett sculptures and he also appears in my Artist Studios series. www.bennettsculpture.biz www.thearthouse.co.nz

Art in the Back Lanes

Christchurch. August 2009. Ajr

Further to my post about Korean artist, Sukjoon Yang and 'art in the streets' earlier in the week, here's some more new art (of a different kind) in the streets. These two pieces have beeen created in Poplar Lane and I love the injection of colour set off by the rust-red brick walls. I'm not going to prattle on about the beauties of street art; I always seem to be doing that. Suffice to say I am celebrating the placement of these two works.

Art in the Streets

Art has once again taken to the streets in Christchurch. I like that. I’m a great believer in art ‘going out to the people.’ I love the unexpectedness of coming upon a work of art in the everyday environment; and, placed among the flotsam and jetsam of our everyday existence, it has so much potential power to make us reassess our approach to art. I’m one of those people who actually sees art everywhere, in every corner of every street and I still believe most people move through their daily lives with their visual stimuli completely numbed over, missing a million visual miracles. That’s largely what this entire blog is about – communicating the small visual treasures that I see and experience everyday.

SO…. when someone like Korean artist, Sukjoon Jang ‘formalises’ art in the environment, I get very excited. Jang was artist-in-residence at the Christchurch Arts Centre in April-May this year and her large work, “Toyland” has been on show in the windows of SOFA Gallery in the Arts Centre for several months. Its stained glass, jewel-like colours give this grand old building a subtle visual lift. From a distance it looks like its always been there – just like stained glass; but when you get up close, you notice that Yang has compiled a colourful photographic montage of ‘a thousand’ coloured doors that she photographed in Christchurch industrial areas. Singly, the images are nothing special, but fused together into her enormous jigsaw-like montages, they take on a glowing new life. Who knew our industrial areas could look so good?
Now Sukjoon Yang’s works have ‘marched’ beyond the Arts Centre to colonise the advertising spaces of notice boards and bus stops. I love the idea – and the way her large photographic prints (“social landscape photography” she calls it) are lighting up otherwise dull corners of suburbia.

StreetscapeNZ - 43

Main Street

Lawrence

Central Otago, South Island

May 2009 Ajr

The First Day of Spring

I do believe today is official the first day of spring

Always a visual overdose in Christchurch.

Here? Some scenes from Hagley Park

That wonderful 185-hectare green oasis in the heart of the city

And Just to Confuse You.........

A Winter Window
High Street, Christchurch
August 2009. Ajr