Barry's Provocative Unpublished Minutes - 102

"Settling Old Scores"

One of New Zealand's top printmakers casts a creative eye over culture and chaos. For more in this ongoing series, click on Cleavin in the label line below.

Remembering Autumn

Another Day

Another Leaf

In Scarlet

April 2010. Ajr

Billboard of the Week

Words on Walls

Horizontals and Verticals

Auckland

May 2010, Ajr

Spring

A Bud

A Leaf

A Promise Spring 2010. Ajr

Almost Art

Water Fountain

In a Tauranga Park

Bay of Plenty

June 2010, Ajr

From the Collection

On a recent visit to Auckland, I had plenty of time to discover more of the sometimes hard-to-find public art that no body seems to promote in any real, cohesive way - say in a small booklet the way Wellington does - but every so often, I came upon things unexpectedly. The works shown here are not actually public works, they're from the Price Waterhouse Coopers Collection and are displayed in the $171,000,000, 33-storey tower block designed by Stephenson & Turner Architects at 188 Quay Street.

The building has the largest floor plates of any in New Zealand and was opened in 2002 by Prime Minister, Helen Clark. The blue work above is 'OKO' by Gregor Kregar, whose works, strangely, I kept encountering right throughout New Zealand on my recent road trip. The yellow sculpture is 'Yellow Construction 2002' (no surprises there), by Graham Snowden. The works was commissioned in fulfilment of the Works of Art Floor Area Bonus granted by Auckland City Council.

Revised Text: Thanks to a knowledgable reader, I can now expand upon the below uninformed waffle and state that the neon work above is by one of New Zealand's most celebrated artists, Bill Culbert (b.1935), who left New Zealand in 1957 to study at the Royal College of Art in London. Culbert, who lives in the South of France and London, returns to New Zealand regularly. Light has been a constant theme in his sculptural installations.

[This neon work however, remains a mystery. I'm thinking Paul Hartigan but perhaps I assume too much; he surely can't be the only artist using neon as a medium. Regardless, I like the way it circles whimsically through the solid entrance to the Price Waterhouse Coopers building. And naturally it looks much better at night when its form is more strongly outlined].

www.pwc.com

StreetscapeNZ - 91

Tory Street

Wellington

May 2010. Ajr

The Intensity of Autumn

Vibrant Autumn Gold

All the Richer

Against Wet Day Skies

Raupara Road

Blenheim

Marlborough

May 2010. Ajr

High Speed Thrills

Imagine travelling 80kmph in this Towards this! That's what happens when you step into a Huka Falls Jet Taupo June 2010. Ajr www.hukafallsjet.com

StreetscapeNZ - 90

Queen Street

Auckland

May 2010, Ajr

Auckland - Another Architectural Perspective

Two Views AUCKLAND

May 2010, Ajr

Wharf Architecture - Auckland

There's a delicacy and a fragility about this building on the Auckland waterfront that I rather like. The light, shimmering green and blue polycarbonate cladding an appropriate foil to the hefty wharf beams, the chunky machinery and the boats that moor along side it.

It takes the water into the architecture too - a sense of the transparency of the ocean; a perfect marriage to its environment and yet a contrast at the same time. Thanks to an Auckland reader, I can now confirm that this extension to the Voyager NZ Maritime Museum, completed in 2009, was designed by Auckland architect, Peter Bossley of Bossley Architects, as a memorial to New Zealand yachtsman, the late Sir Peter Blake, who was shot in the Amazon in 2002. The building was designed as an exhibition space for NZL32, the yacht that first won the America's Cup for New Zealand.

Into the Deep

Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World

Auckland

www.kellytarltons.co.nz

The Hilton - A Photographic Study

Top Image Supplied by Hilton Auckland

I struck a perfect day, the day I paid a return visit to the Hilton Auckland recently and as I was early for my lunch appointment in the hotel's WHITE restaurant, I wandered outside photographing that very distinctive architecture - inspired by the cruise ships that berth alongside it on Princes Wharf.

The pool of course, always gets attention, suspended as it is, between the two buildings (only one of which is occupied by the Hilton. The other is an apartment complex). Although the sun was shining the day I visited, it was mid-winter and no one was swimming.

The Hilton Auckland was opened in 2001. Dan Kwan, architect/interior designer of TriBeCa, Singapore was responsible for the design of the hotel's restaurant WHITE and the bar, Bellini; and Catherine Stormont of HBO&EMTD was the interior designer for the original hotel rooms - although they're been upgraded since. The architects for the actual building were Leuschke Group, Auckland, who were awarded a Property Council of New Zealand Building Award for their work here in 2002.

http://www.hilton.com/

This is not the Hilton. This is a shot taken at the Hilton, looking across the water at the beleagured Queen's Wharf site - site of the current controversy over plans for building "Party Central" for Rugby World Cup fans.

Barry's Provocative Unpublished Minutes - 101

"An Attack on the Proposed Music Conservatorium" Our favourite printmaker returns with another wry imagining, as Christchurch toys with the idea of a university music conservatorium in the heart of the city's historic Arts Centre complex. To see the other 100 images in this ongoing series, click on Cleavin in the label line below this post.

One Cathedral, One Lamp

It's Sunday

And it's been a long time since I delved into my church architecture files.

This is a shot I took recently of the very beautiful, Church of the Sacred Heart in Timaru. I had planned to go inside and take some interior shots but the place was teeming with school kids, so I changed my mind. I'm not a religious person but there is a certain spirituality in these gigantic places that I like to enjoy in silence. It was a cold, grey day when I visited, so of course the sky in this image has been unnaturally doctored. I wanted to highlight the needle-thin lamp post leaning in to the cathedral. There just seemed to be something timorous and weak about this modern addition to the landscape when set against the bulk and heft of the Basilica - which, by the way, was designed by prolific church designer, architect, F.W. Petre (1847-1918), who I have written about here numerous times before.