The Travelling

I think I'm staying here tonight.

Not this specific building.

But this city.

The Distance

We were near here on the weekend.

When I say near, I mean we were within driving distance.

We did pop into Palmerston North and Thermostat - and had a nice little gathering of Wellington escapees.

But we were headed for Wanganui and galleries and people and chat and music and lots of tea.

The Release

Media Statement
For immediate release
14 October 2009

Andy Palmer at Suite

Photographer Andy Palmer’s upcoming show Belonging & Becoming is tackling the topic of appropriation.

Palmer is taking a bold step – as a photographer – of posing the age old question of the right of the photographer to ‘claim’ something as their own.

His works are photographs of distinctly Maori objects, primarily carvings, in public spaces, which Palmer collected on his travels around the North Island. While his work is a celebration of Maori culture, Palmer is also asking his audience to consider them as part of a wider New Zealand culture too. Asking at what point does public art become the property of the public?

Much of Palmer’s earlier work can be read as an examination of history – his own, and New Zealand’s – occasionally overt, but usually as a subtext within a broader theme. Belonging & Becoming can be seen as an extension of this exploration.

Belonging & Becoming will show at Suite from 21 October until 7 November along with …a poorly remembered childhood by David Boyce.




Media Statement
For immediate release
14 October 2009

2009 Waikato Art Award finalist to show at Suite

New work by China-based New Zealand artist David Boyce will open on Wednesday 21 October at Suite.

... a poorly remembered childhood has grown from David’s interest in issues of identity and memory and from revisited places that were significant in his childhood, or that may have significance.

Boyce, whose work has been exhibited in New Zealand, China and the US and who was a finalist in this year’s Waikato Art Award, has created a series of small, intimate and dream-like images that explore childhood memories and also ask questions of the meaning and fallibility of memory.

All the images are from Christchurch, where he was born, and where he left in 1985. The photographs, which have been taken from the eye level of a small child are cultural memories – Christchurch’s war memorials and statues; others are personal - sports fields, picnic spots and Christchurch’s botanical gardens, all places he spent time with friends and family. Some images are important to him, but he doesn’t remember why. That part of the memory has gone. Only an essence remains.

Hong Kong curator and writer on photography Davina Lee, writes, “Boyce’s blurred images evoke the imperfect recollections of childhood, trapping remnants of memory, real or imagined within landscapes that were once familiar”.

Other critics, commenting on earlier works have noted his “particular ability to perceive and manipulate beauty from the most unexpected and mundane of sources”.

Preparations are underway to show ... a poorly remembered childhood in China and Europe within the next year.

…a poorly remembered childhood will show at Suite from 21 October until 7 November along with Belonging & Becoming by Andy Palmer.

And, in case you missed it, the invitation.

The Greenery

These are from an unrealised, though still contemplated, series of works.

The title of which I refuse to divulge as it's kind of didactic, even though the images themselves aren't (necessarily).

The Floral