Archive >> August 2010

Shift in Aid Delivery

“In an effort to get more value from taxpayers’ dollars, the government wants better co-ordination between development agencies in the Pacific,” Johnny Blades writes for the Guardian….

Brooke Fraser: Something in the Water

The msuic video for Brooke Fraser’s 2010 hit, Something in the Water.

Mammoth but fragile

Australian scientists have found that eggs from the giant flightless moa were miniscule and vastly disproportionate to the bird. Eggshells identified by DNA as belonging to the two largest,…

Ah Van Switches Sides

New Zealand Warriors utility Aucklander Patrick Ah Van, 22, has signed a one-year contract with West Yorkshire rugby league team Bradford Bulls. Of Ah Van’s switch, Warriors chief executive…

International Expertise

Palmerston North midfielder Nick Roydhouse, 22, who transferred from Hartwick College to play football for Syracuse University in New York, is profiled by local publication The Daily Orange. In…

Art Attack in Basel

Influential art journal Art Forum notes a first time edge presence at the Liste 01 Young Art Fair in Basel. Wellington’s Hamish Mckay Gallery showcased artists including Ricky Swallow,…

“Freewheeling, irrepressibility & incoherence.”

Pioneer of postmodernist NZ art, Richard Killeen, featured in Art Asia Pacific. Killeen’s recent works revisit the “cut-out” form with which made his name in the late 70’s. Deceptively…

4WD Bellissima!

Contemporary artist Michael Stevenson is representing NZ at the 50th Venice Biennale 2003 – the oldest and most prestigious art event in the world. Described by the NZ Selection Committee as “a…

Modernism revisited

NZ born Northern Territories (Australia) based artist Peter Adsett recently exhibited at the Grant Pirrie gallery in Redfern, Sydney. Adsett describes his More Rot series as a purely abstract visual representation of…

Barr & Barr

Wellington curators and strategists Jim Barr and Mary Barr head the survey by London art magazine Contemporary of 21 international collectors. An essay by William McAloon features work by Ronnie Van…

Readymade mule at Basel

Et al.’s exhibition ‘altruistic studies’ – a “non-peopled, computer-generated performance” – installed at the Basel art fair in early June, their fourth at the international show, has once again sparked curiosity about…

Gift giving with film

Auckland-born artist Sriwhana Spong, 29, celebrates her Balinese heritage in “distinctively grainy ‘amateur'” Super 8 films like 2005’s Muttnik and its sequel Nightfall, works which have been exhibited throughout the world. Interviewed…

Illuminating the Canal

Artists Francis Upritchard and Judy Millar’s installation spaces at this year’s La Biennale di Venezia “reflect Birnbaum’s theme of Making Worlds with intense microcosms, one in an intimate former residence, the…

Millar in colour

Painter Judy Millar explains her international reputation over her local to Art World: “I’m in the curious position that no one really gets what I’m doing, and they never did.” In…

“Crazy guy” gets his dues

Kinetic artist and New Zealander Len Lye, who “waltzed through several art movements, genres and countries” and who is becoming widely recognised as a major contributor to the story of 20th…

Yuk Yum

NZ artist Denise Kum to take up residency at Adelaide’s Experimental Art Foundation, bringing in her plastic shopping carry-bags her unique brand of toxic materialism, mixed media and cultures – popping…

Shopping with Billy Apple

Ground-breaking NZ artist Billy Apple featured in The Tate Liverpool’s Shopping exhibition. Apple’s work appeared alongside Roy Lichtenstein, Man Ray and Andy Warhol in a retrospective of “a century of…

When, Will I, Will I be Famous

SMH art critic Peter Hill muses on art, fame and celebrity, praising the playful personas of NZ artist Patrick Pound. He compares Pound to English YBA chief Damien Hirst: “For a…

Taranaki to Toronto

Gregory Burke has been appointed to the position of Director, The Power Plant Art Gallery at Harbourfront Centre Toronto commencing September 2005. A native New Zealander, Gregory Burke is…

Top Shots

The photographer who captured Sir Edmund Hillary’s ascent of Mt Everest hosts a retrospective at Lab X in Melbourne. Alfred Gregory documented Hillary and Tenzing’s feat in a series…

Exploration of light

NZ art luminary Bill Culbert staged his second solo exhibition “Black and Light” at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Soundan Lane, Sydney. “In this exhibition, Culbert uses the three-dimensional form of…

Readymade mule at Basel

Ideas of transformation

Upper Hutt-born painter Shane Cotton recently held a three-month residence at Sydney’s Artspace where he prepared works for upcoming 2008/09 shows at Gow Langsford Gallery in Auckland and Kaliman Gallery in…

Censored views

The work of New Zealand photographer and artist Bruce Connew features on the cover of the latest issue of UK literary magazine Granta (#105, Lost and Found, Spring 2009). Censored 2008…

Up-and-coming Upritchard

Artist to watch Francis Upritchard features in the 48th issue of Object magazine. “An exciting talent … Upritchard’s art locates value in the personal and the imperfect … finds a…

Mad for glamour geeks

Auckland artist Peter Stichbury’s acrylic portraits of stereotyped “yearbook” characters feature in the latest Art World magazine, with his 2000 work ‘Juvenile’ taking the cover. “Stichbury is highly regarded for creating stylish,…

Gimblett at the Guggenheim

New York/Auckland artist Max Gimblett features in the latest issue of Art World, in an article by collaborator John Yau about the influence of Asia on the artist’s work….

Possibilities in names

Porirua-born artist Michael Parekowhai’s latest sculpture will soon be unveiled at Sydney’s Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Art World eports. “The sculpture is a groups of ten boys dressed up as American Indians, each…

Digging a little deeper

The work of Auckland-based digital and multimedia artist Lisa Reihana is deconstructed in the winter 2009 issue of Art & Australia by feature writer Jon Bywater. Titled ‘Mana and Glamour’, the…

All Things Wild and Innocent

One of our most internationally prominent artists, NYNZer Max Gimblett exhibited at San Francisco’s Haines Gallery in April. The 30 year New York resident’s refined and harmonious canvases are created…

Crunching genetics

Roger Hellens from New Zealand’s Plant & Food Research has identified the genetic code for Golden Delicious apples meaning growers will be able to produce crunchier, juicier and healthier…

Constitution Conundrum

Former Labour deputy Prime Minister Dr Michael Cullen is calling for an end to the British monarchy. This month Cullen, who stepped down from Parliament when Labour lost power…

Urban shark attack

New Zealand filmmakers Andrew Todd and Johnny Hall are making a horror film inspired by a road trip which took them through the town of Oamaru. They describe…

Mudgway then Melbourne

Cambridge jockey James McDonald, 18, has became the first apprentice to win a Mudgway Stakes with Keep The Peace winning in the group one feature at Hastings. It was…

Clement’s Double Life

“One of the reasons I went into comedy and acting was that I was sick of being shy,” Flight of the Conchords star Jemaine Clement tells the Guardian’s Killian…

Catwalk curves

Designer Caroline Marr’s label The Carpenter’s Daughter returns to New Zealand Fashion week this year showcasing her Winter 21 collection for women with curves. Specialising in “Clothing for Curvy…

Gore filled retribution

A supernatural horror film made by New Zealand director David Blyth made its European premiere at this year’s Fright Fest in London. “A controversial cult film in the…

Guardian Wins Red Dot

For the second year running, Massey University honours graduate and designer Annabel Goslin, 22, has won a prestigious Red Dot Design Award for her sports face protector. Last year…

Rugby and Much More

The arrival of a 25 metre-long New Zealand rugby ball on Circular Quay “within cooee of the Sydney Opera House” marks one year until the 211 Rugby World Cup…

Claim to Fame

On a barista training course at Auckland’s Allpress Espresso, the Guardian’s Chris Mugan learns the flat white-making mantra: “stretch, whirlpool, surf” in the city that claims the iconic drink…

World-class Dining

“Auckland’s subtropical climate, Polynesian culture, unpolluted waters and cosmopolitan buzz have combined to create a world-class dining scene,” according to the Guardian’s food writer Kevin Gould. Gould is particularly…

Book award winner

Auckland historian Dame Judith Binney’s Encircled Lands has been awarded the New Zealand Post Book of the Year. Encircled Lands explores the history of the Tuhoe people’s journey for…

Speed Queen on Salt

Christchurch-born Miriam MacMillan is the third New Zealander and first New Zealand woman to earn a “2 MPH hat”, which she claimed driving a 2.1 litre Honda CRX at…

Ride of Your Life

Heli-biking in Queenstown is “an exhilarating experience and a must for anyone visiting” the southern city, recommends the Telegraph’s Tarquin Cooper. “Visit New Zealand for rest, relaxation and rugby;…

Inspired in Jodphur

Author of young adult novel The Bone Tiki, New Zealander David Hair, will launch his latest book Pyre of Queens, published by Penguin Books India, in Bangalore. Hair, who…

Reassuring the fans

Academy Award-winning director Peter Jackson is optimistic The Hobbit will still go ahead “sometime soon” and that Warners was “making progress untangling the MGM situation”. In an interview…

Atom Spy Claims

New Zealand-born DNA pioneer and Nobel Prize recipient Professor Maurice Wilkins was investigated by MI5 as a possible atom spy who had passed US nuclear secrets to the Russians….

Ever the cameraman

Christchurch-raised film instructor Ian McIver, currently an adjunct instructor at Solano Community College and Napa Valley College in California, is leading a 12-class film discussion series at the Cameo…

She Wants to Go to Chelsea

New Zealand women’s football captain Hayley Moorwood, 26, has joined English club Chelsea FC. Moorwood, who was also attracting interest from Chelsea’s London rivals Arsenal, was thrilled at the…

Smiling Assassin Woos Investors

John Key, nicknamed “the smiling assassin” during his time at global exchange in London, is now using his trademark beam to woo billionaire immigrants, foreign investors and high-end tourists…

Celebrating clumsiness

“Maori get pigeonholed into the idea they’re spiritual and telling stories like Whale Rider and Once were Warriors, quite serious stuff, but we’re pretty funny people and we never…

Fascinating portrait

South Auckland-set film Matariki, directed by Reefton-born Michael Bennett, has been selected to screen at the opening weekend of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in the Contemporary World…

Real farms promoted

A large selection of New Zealand farmland, businesses and property will be on display in North Yorkshire in October, as part of a national road show from real estate…

Studying the Drain

New Zealand’s best and brightest expatriates are costing the country US$1, each through foregone tax and costs of government services such as education, according to World Bank research. Though…

Smeltz to Turkey

New Zealand striker Shane Smeltz, 29, is leaving Australian football team Gold Coast United having signed a two-year deal with Turkish Süper Lig club Gençlerbirligi S.K. The reigning A-League…

Death of a genius

Thames-born scientist and obstetrician Sir Graham Collingwood Liggins has died at the age of 84. Liggins was described as one of New Zealand’s greatest scientists who undertook groundbreaking obstetrical…