For those of us living in The Provinces, while loving our
lifestyle,
there is often a feeling of - well, yes, jealousy when we read of
all the treats available in the big centres.
So the chance of immersing oneself in Culture at the recent Wellington
International Festival of Art was something to be planned for and long
anticipated by many of us country bunnies.
And I am glad to say that it was not an anticlimax, but more like being a
child let loose in a sweet shop.... the main problem being one of limited
capacity and too much choice.
It did not seem possible to see everything that was on offer since I was
only there for ten days and many things overlapped , so I had to make some
choices and I offer an impression of my experiences.
The festival lived up to its name - International being a key
word, as is reflected by the fact that I listened to the opera in
German, saw Don Juan based on the French author
Molière acted by Swedish actors (in Swedish), enjoyed a New
Zealand performance based on an English poet, even watched some
Australian performers..... and many others.
The centre of Wellington was in festival mode, but it was not in your
face’ with posters and decorations - it was nice to be surprised as
you turned a corner and came across a huge red gate made of rubbish, or
found a street performance taking place.
Visual arts
The visual arts were strongly represented. The outdoor structures (these
days the word sculpture seems inadequate) were interesting and
sometimes challenging.
Silky flags
My favourites were the tall silky flags that cropped up in different places
- a contribution by an English artist who had brought some of them from
the showing in Cornwall to celebrate the eclipse there a few years ago.
These flags were enormous and long’ rather than the usual flag shape, and
they were displayed in large groups in carefully chosen areas. One group
was on the waterfront, another on the hillside above the city and another
along a long jetty on the eastern side of the harbour. Were they a
moveable feast? They seemed to appear in places we had not noticed the day
before and the Wellington breeze was perfect for them.
Sculptures on the waterfront
Other sculptures were scattered around the waterfront, so that a stroll
along to see the dragon boat teams practising was interspersed by a sudden
discovery of a new challenge.
Picnic tables
Sometimes of course we were not sure if we were looking at Art or not -
the best example of this being the picnic tables set up outside the
Library. My companion and I had a mild argument about these; he was not
convinced that they were indeed sculptures as they looked exactly like the
real thing except when close up we could see that they were made of
concrete. When we returned another day we found that a small fence had been
put up by the three seats asking people not to sit on them as they were
sculpture and fragile - and the centre one had indeed been broken,
lying in a pile. Probably it had broken by one of the enthusiastic
audiences who gathered to watch one of three free midday performances,
such as The Golden Holden, which were taking place most days in
the Civic Square just in front of these pieces.
Henry Moore in Te Papa
The "Big" Sculpture Exhibition of course was the Henry Moore in Te Papa.
An excellent collection of fifteen works of various sizes, materials and
styles . The space was well used to display these works with enough room to
be able to see them from a fair distance and walk around to see most of
them from all sides, but it would have been nice to have had more
information in the catalogue. People could also have been encouraged to
look at the work outside in front of the Museum and to visit the Botanic
Gardens and see the Moore sculpture outdoors there. Huge sculptural works
are hard to appreciate from photographs both because of scale and because
you need to be able to experience the three dimensional aspect, so this
chance to see the later work of this incredibly significant artist was
valuable indeed.
Sydney Nolan - Ned Kelly
The main painting show was the Sydney Nolan - Ned Kelly series. I
think people are either fans or not - it is hard to find people who can
remain luke warm about these works, but to see a whole series together
with a video and a well curated explanation of the story and of Sydney
Nolan's background was an exciting experience.
Painting mainly in the 1940s, it is amazing how innovative Nolan was and
what use he made of the basic house paint Ripolin when he began painting
while in the Army service in the North of Australia. It was interesting
too to note that Picasso had also used these paints - and to observe that
they have not apparently deteriorated at all, unlike the early Artists
Acrylics’ of almost the same period.
Highlights of the fifteen art exhibitions visited
Altogether I managed to visit fifteen visual art exhibitions, so it is
impossible to detail them all. The highlights for me were the three
contrasting exhibitions at the Dowse, New Zealander John Edgar's
Calculus, Lalique Glass (French) and British Rubbish.
The contrast of the three meant that everyone should find something to
please them and someone as eclectic as I am just revelled in them all -
aesthetic and intellectual joy from the stones of John Edgar, nostalgic
appreciation of the beauty and skill of the glass, and the challenge and
amusement of the British recycled rubbish.
Peruvian paintings of Cabellero at the Academy
This exhibition was also a delight, especially for those who like paint -
the artist's skill and use of colour in these huge canvases were almost
overpowering and the evocation of an atmosphere that spoke strongly of Peru
was remarkable.
Dorothy Blumhardt - potter
Across from the Academy at the Museum of Sea and City we found a wonderful
show of Dorothy Blumhardt's work. Again a video filled in any gaps in the
visitors' knowledge of this remarkable potter.
Art from the Pacific included work by Robyn White
The Pacific was not left out of these exhibitions either - at Pataka Porirua
Museum of Arts we saw a wide ranging exhibition of Robyn White's work; strong landscapes of
New Zealand, family scenes, spiritual paintings and prints and work done
during her life in Kiribas. Again a wonderful opportunity to see examples
of a good range of her work.
Exhibitions of Quilts and Kites gave the opportunity to see that Craft
these days is often well up there with Fine Art, but perhaps not as
pretentious as some.
The Portrait Competition and Randerson's Portraits of New Zealand
Writers
At the Portrait Gallery we saw the selection of the Portrait Competition
entries. This was of very varied quality, as might be expected, and of a
huge range of styles but gave an interesting insight into the New Zealand
people of today. Also on view were Randerson's Portraits of New Zealand
Writers - strong work, giving an interesting glimpse of the artist's
interpretation of the writers' characters.
To a theatre every night
I chose to see mostly dramatic works that I felt would be challenging and
different - and in this I was successful. I was challenged by most of them,
in different ways. Physically, Picnic was most demanding since
the night that we had booked for was very wet. The adverts had said that
the show would go on - outdoors - whatever the weather and it was only
drizzling when we went into the fenced area to take our places. By the end
of the performance it was bucketing down and a wild mischievous wind was
playing with the canvas and the sides, driving the rain in different
directions.
The play was basically a farcical black melodrama, and as such amusing and
dependent on timing, but the special interest was in the presentation as
two separate plays. The audience was divided into two - A and B - and the
idea was that while "As" were seeing the front’ with the play proper, the
"B" audience were on the other side of the stage scaffolding (screened
off) watching the back stage antics. At half time the audience was supposed
to change over and the cast then performed exactly the same plays again to
the changed audience. I know of at least two people who did not realise
that they were supposed to change seats and so were mystified to see the
whole play over again...
When I saw it in the pouring rain, sitting in the pool of water that soon
collected in the plastic seat, I was filled with admiration for the actors
doing various gymnastics under such conditions and the audience that
stoically sat it out.
At the end the cast came out and applauded the audience.
Far Side of the Moon or Leitmotif.......
Many other works were fashionably multi-media productions, such as Far
Side of the Moon or Leitmotif....... using mime, dance,
music, video and photographs in various ways. I enjoyed them, but felt
that there was a danger of technology becoming of more importance than
structure or content.
Inland - Douglas Wright
Even Inland, the Douglas Wright piece, left me feeling that too
much had been crammed in. Maybe its my age, but I would have preferred less
speech and more concentration on the brilliant dance. While the use of
video (especially in the dog sequences) was dramatically superb it left me
uncertain whether to watch the dancers or the images. If I get the chance I
want to see this again as there was so much that I did not really
appreciate at the first viewing - perhaps with such rich fare (unlike food)
we do need to have second helpings.
I did go for instance to see Lord of the Rings for the second time
during this week as one of my friends had actually not seen it, and I know
that I got more out of it the second time round.
Rosenkavalier
However, I did not feel that I would want to go again to see
Rosenkavalier at the Opera House. While the music was entrancing
and the costumes were superb I was disappointed in the production, even
allowing for the problems of staging in the Michael Fowler Centre, and I
did not find the soprano voice replacing the castratti made for good duets
when put together with the other soprano.
The World's Wife
But I could find no fault with the production or any aspect of The
World's Wife. With only three actresses, two musicians (all New
Zealanders) and a small stage, the evening was a fast, funny, demanding,
dramatic and witty repast. It left me fully satisfied and full of
admiration for the way the poems of Carol Ann Duff (English) had been
dramatically interpreted.
I hope that I have conveyed something of the variety of things at the
Festival - ranging across time and place, and across so many styles ....
Now back to mow the paddocks where the grass grew exponentially while my
back was turned.
