One White Book

I love the look of this new publication put together by New Plymouth's Govett Brewster Gallery which celebrates the gallery's landmark exhibition by Peter Robinson in 2008. Peter Robinson: Snow Ball Blind Time - the exhibition, marked only the second time the Govett Brewster had given over its entire gallery space to one artist. Occupying the entire 574 square metres of the gallery, Robinson's show took 18 months to create. The only other time one artist has been commissioned to create a single work for the entire gallery was in 1970, when Leon Narbey's Real Time took command of the building. This new book - more than an exhibition catalogue - traces Robinson's exploration of materials and ideas through the eight major projects since his formative ACK installation at Artspace, Auckland in 2006, which was seen as a pivotal change of direction in his artmaking practice. Born in Ashburton, Canterbury in 1966, Robinson currently lives in Auckland, where he is Associate Professor at Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland. He has held residencies in Germany and Australia, represented New Zealand at the 2001 Venice Biennale and was awarded the prestigious 2008 Walters prize for outstanding contributions to contemporary art in New Zealand for his work at ACK. The above book is now available through bookstores throughout New Zealand. www.govettbrewster.com

Whiter than White

"Snow Ball Blind Time" Peter Robinson. Images Spplied by Govett-Brewster Gallery.

I met someone recently with a fear of polystyrene foam … …something to do with that queer squeaky noise it makes when it’s rubbed. I was intrigued. It made my fear of heights seem tame. I felt ordinary. This may seem an inane and whimsical introduction to an exhibition that is being hailed as “a great moment in New Zealand art history” but I like to view the world via personal associations and I don’t think Auckland artist, Peter Robinson would mind that.

His current work at New Plymouth’s Govett-Brewster Art Gallery – “Snow Ball Blind Time” – is a phenomenal exercise in the creative use of polystyrene – ‘acres’ of the stuff spilling throughout the gallery in a snow-white master-stroke of snappy wit and “comic giganticism” and reading as a single, vast spatial drawing. It’s only the second time since the gallery opened in 1970 that one artist has colonised the whole gallery with a single commissioned work.

It’s all about democracy, freedom, social responsibility, the environment and reckless global consumerist excesses but for me, it’s also about the inherent beauty of an everyday material most of us would overlook. Its pristine, all-white, ethereal loveliness a cunning ‘face’ for Robinson’s ever-wry wit and cutting social criticisms. I love it – but what a nightmare to photograph! www.govettbrewster.com

Small Talk

Dunedin Public Art Gallery, August 2008. Ajr

The Dunedin Public Art Gallery was closed when I passed through the city yesterday (on my way to Karitane), but I did pause long enough to snap this splendid banner of a Peter Robinson painting, advertising one of the current exhibitions, “Small Talk.” www.dunedin.art.museum