The Dream

I like horses.

I like these horses.

I would quite like one.

Which I could ride around on.

Take to work and the like.

Maybe I should get a farm first.

The Takahe

There are two takahe in this photo. I would even venture to say that they are a pair.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find the two takahe in this photo.

The Country

Tomorrow I'm heading away for a few days.

Going back to somewhere near this place.

Should be fun.

The Baches

One day, many years ago, I lugged a 4x5 with a 6x12 back around the coast.

I took some photos.

These are those photos.

The Momento

This arrived in the PO Box today.

It's a little magazine.

Actually two issues arrived today.

But this one is extra special.

Good on ya Jodi.

You only get a copy if you are a member of PhotoForum. But you probably won't get a copy of that issue if you join now.

I might get around to reading it sometime.

Postscript - Mark Leonard Watts got in touch with me and suggested it would be nice to let everyone know that the cover image is his (as are a number of others in the publication). It's titled Bishoujo 1 (beautiful girl 1) 2009 and you can see more of his work on his website.

The Community

I'm currently in a group show at the Hirschfeld Gallery, City Gallery Wellington.

Here's the press release.

Documenting communities – both human and otherwise
City Gallery Wellington announces group show
Community Garden in the Hirschfeld Gallery

The art gets a little wild at City Gallery in May when a community of native stick insects move in as part of the next Hirschfeld Gallery exhibition Community Garden.

Jenny Gillam will bring two different species of native stick insects into the gallery, visiting each day to care for her subjects, nurturing the insects she has housed and watched closely over the last few months. Working with Massey University scientist Dr Steve Trewick, Gillam will monitor and record the behaviours of each species inside their specially designed vivarium.

A series of graphs on the wall will chart the stick insects’ positioning in relation to different types of foliage (which serves as both their food and camouflage), and the interaction between green and brown species. This process will allow artist and scientist to present and observe the movement patterns of the insects and will offer the audience another reading of ‘community.’

Gillam is one of four artists exhibiting in the new exhibition Community Garden in the Hirschfeld Gallery, which runs 7 May to 20 June, and focuses on documenting and broadening the definitions of community, the local environment, and communal behaviour.

Rob Cherry’s work A Beautiful Day for Walking Away traces a line around the perimeter of the gallery. The work is made from found plastic objects, which the artist has gathered from a local beach, Evans Bay. Detritus from the local rubbish dump blows and collects along this shore, and Cherry has completed a series of projects where he amasses objects of a particular colour for a set period of time. This work is the result of 16 half hour periods, total 8 hours of collecting – the equivalent of one working day.

Andy Palmer’s photographs are from a series focused on the Community Gardens at Tanera Park in Brooklyn. He visited the gardens monthly for a period of 15 months, photographing the same two views each time. These site portraits form a chart of the changes over time, showing Palmer’s interest in tracing the evolution of a cultivated site, the relation between urban and ‘natural’ environments, and the landscape as a site of production.

Wayne Barrar’s six works come from a series addressing biohazards in New Zealand. Here the focus is Koi carp, an introduced species that causes severe problems in New Zealand waterways, particularly in shallow lakes where they create their own landscapes, affect water quality and compete with native species. His work documents the efforts being taken to remedy the impacts of these fish through reducing numbers of Koi carp.

The four artists explore ideas of community, of behavioural change, and of the impacts made on the environment by both humans and non-humans.

Community Garden Wayne Barrar, Rob Cherry, Jenny Gillam and Andy Palmer Friday 7 May – Sunday 20 June 2010 Hirschfeld Gallery, City Gallery Wellington

The Forestrytown

A few years ago I popped into Kaiangaroa.

It's a bleak town.

I felt a bit like a voyeur. Even though there was no one to voyeur at.

Wouldn't mind going back and shooting it properly though.

The Impetus

The other day I bought this book.

I based my purchasing decision largely on the title. But also on the fact that Harvey Pekar was involved.

All those years ago, when on my OE, Macedonia became one of my favourite countries. Primarily, I think, because I was on holiday. I wasn't travelling or feeling I had to move on. I had the best part of a week there with very little to do.

So I did very little.

I spent a few unhurried days in the capital, Skopje.

I got accosted by a gang of kids. The girls in the gang refused to be photographed. I got proposed to.

I wandered around and took photos.

After a couple of days I headed west to Lake Ohrid.

I fell in love with the place.

Everyday I went to the same store for bread and cheese. Every evening I went to the same restaurant for pizza or pasta.

I wandered around the ruins of the citadel.

And pretty much everyday I walked out along the lakeside to a lovely Byzantine church.

It was a beautiful, peaceful spot, overlooking Albania.

I liked just sitting there. Staring. Reading. Sometimes inside the church. Usually outside.

One day, being so hot, I went for a swim in the lake. I suspect it was that which caused me about 8 weeks of minor, but annoying, gastro-intestinal issues.

Not having any means of transport beyond my feet, and knowing that I had been everywhere and seen everything in town, it was really pleasant being able to get up around 10am and wander down to the lakefront with my bread and cheese, and stare.

After Ohrid, I went back to Skopje and then on to Athens. Fully rested and prepared for a further 6 months of travel.

Macedonia, the book, has opened my eyes to a history I was entirely ignorant of. The joys of being a tourist is that you don't always see what's under the surface. And it seems that there was an awful lot under the surface that I missed.