Shane Foley’s “Tide and Tide” exhibition is based of archival images of Auckland‘s waterfront from the nineteenth and early twentieth century. They are of images of foreshores, beaches and building, most of the which have disappeared,
Several of the works make reference to Auckland’s history so “Campbells Point at Judges Bay” ($7500) includes `Kilbryd’, the large Italianate home of Sir John Logan Campbell. In this painting the artist has shaped much of the view making the foreshore beach a series of flat planes while the cliffs below the house have been sculpted with gentle curves of lawn.
Shane Foley Heaphy’s View, St Georges Bay, early 1860’s
In her “Heaphy’s View, St Georges Bay, early 1860’s” she has carefully constructed two houses in the foreground while two background houses owe much to Braque’s “Houses at L’estaque”.
Shane Foley Settlement, St Georges Bay 1867
With “Settlement, St Georges Bay 1867” ($3800) the houses seem like surreal addition, the boxlike shapes placed in the carefully formed landscape consisting of folded landforms, where the fence lines are made from abstract curves.
With “Trees at Shelly Beach, Pt Erin 1914” ($1900) she has depicted one of the now forgotten buildings which could be found on Auckland’s waterfront. This was the salt water, tidal baths at Pt Erin which were demolished for the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
Other buildings from the period include “West End Rowing Club at St Mary’s Bay 1914” ($4800) and ‘The Jetty, St Mary’s Bay. 1950’s’ ($4800) where the eerie white buildings stand out from the background.
There is a slight tension in viewing these works, as the past and present merge and the abstraction the artist uses distances our view, giving them a dream-like aspect.
Paul Moon, The Art of Colonisation: Images of Europe’s encounters with New Zealand, by
Ugly Hill Press
RRP $55.00
Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
Paul Moon’s “The Art of Colonisation” is the latest in a number of books which have looked at New Zealand art from a political and social perspective. This reinterpretation of the history of art involves re-examining, challenging, and recontextualizing traditional art narratives through a modern, often critical lens.
He has chosen twenty works, mainly well-known, which record the development of New Zealand and the intersection of explorers and colonists with the indigenous people.
The works range from Isaac Gilseman’s “A View of Murderers Bay (1643) though to Marcus King’s “The Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi” (1938). The years between the dates of these works has produced a substantial amount of written and visual material which records the colonization and development of New Zealand.
Part of that material is the art which was produced at the time. Some of it is personal records, simple sketches and paintings, other works are commissioned works for specific purposes. Moon and other writers have noted that the art of this period is inherently political, serving as a reflection of power, identity, and social values of the time regardless of the artist’s intent.
Moon notes of this period of art production “This was the realm of art, where images of imperial activity and its consequences ranged from disturbing to calming, scientific to whimsical, superficial to intimate and paternalistic to outright injurious”.
By choosing what to create, who sees it, and how it is displayed, much of the art of this early period in New Zealand’s history gives a colonisers viewpoint rather than that of the indigenous.
The first artwork Moon refers to is Isaac Gilseman’s “A view of Murderers Bay” which is a record of the first fateful encounter of European explorer with Māori. Gilseman’s view as Moon recounts was “an image of European cultural and racial narcissism in this period.
William Hodges ‘A view of Cape Stephens in Cook Strait with Waterspout”
Subsequent images Moon refers to include a mixture of landscape, images of indigenous and European constructions and portraits. These include Herman Diedrich Sporing “A fortified village” (1773) and William Hodges ‘A view of Cape Stephens in Cook Strait with Waterspout” (1776)
Even art that seems apolitical, like portraits or landscapes can be seen as political acts because it is produced in a specific social context, reflecting the established, mainstream standards.
William Ashworth “The Emigrants
So even the relatively innocuous portrait of the Mackay family which was commissioned from the artist William Allsworth is shown after Moon’s research, to display the artists or at least the patriarchs attempt to provide a better pedigree for the family . The tartan which many of the family are wearing is red, white and black whereas the tartan of Clan Mackay is actually blue, black and orange. Moon points out other inaccuracies in the painting as well.
Charles Heaphy “View of a part of the town of Wellington
Such minor matters seem to take on greater importance when rather than details related to family they relate to a town. In referring to Heaphy’s “View of a part of the town of Wellington (1841) Moon quotes the Presbyterian Minister John Lang writing about the town at the same time – “it consist of the verist of refuse of civilized society… their usual articles of barter are either muskets and gunpowder or tobacco and rum.. most of them live in open concubinage or adultery with native women”.
Heaphy’s view of Wellington, one of many he produced for the New Zealand Land Company however shows a relatively ordered settlement with stock grazing and well tended pastures.
Augustus Earle’s “Distant View of the Bay of Islands”
Augustus Earle’s “Distant View of the Bay of Islands” (1827) provides Moon with an image which “represents a common view at the time that Europe was at the centre of the world’s values and development” with the artist placing himself at the centre of the image, surveying his domain.
There are several paintings Moon refers to which were painted around the turn of the century which were part of the nation building images which of the time. Among them is Kennett Watkins “The Death of von Tempsky at Te Ngutu o te Manu” which depicts soldier in dramatic pose yet hides the Māori figures in shadow.
Marcus King “The signing of the Treaty of Waitangi”
The final image in the book is Marcus Kings “The signing of the Treaty of Waitangi”, painted to celebrate the centenary of New Zealand. Here the image is filled with symbols and flags of the British Empire with little representing Māori.
In the lower left hand, the artist has included a figure turned to the viewer who seems perplexed or appalled at the scene.
In his introduction Moon writes about the “bumpy marriage between art and colonisation…the offspring of this relationship was visual portfolio of imperialism – part record, part propaganda and part prescription …tracing the progression of art’s intricate allegiance with Europe’s colonisation of New Zealand. It is a visual portfolio which still needs to be clarified, reflected on and understood.
Judith (Susan Bullock) and Bluebeards (Lester Lynch) Image: Thomas Hamill
Bluebeards Castle
By Bela Bartok
NZ Opera & Auckland Arts Festival
Aotea Centre
March 13th & 14th
Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
In Bela Bartok’s original staging of Bluebeards Castle, the newlywed Judith enters her husband’s dark, foreboding castle where she is faced with seven locked doors that she is forbidden to open. In this version by Daisy Evans, it is a single trunk which holds the memories of the couples past lives which Bluebeard remembers while Judith herself seems to become lost to him.
For this production director Daisy Evens created a new Judith who is somewhere between an older woman with dementia and a woman facing her own psychological breakdown and who along with her husband can be seen as displaying the Freudian concepts of sexual trauma.
The castle can be seen as symbolic of Bluebeard’s soul; a dark mind filled with secrets that threaten to reveal his true nature. The opera itself can be seen as an allegory for the loneliness of the human soul, the impossibility of truly knowing another person, or the conflict between rational and emotional.
Bartok was writing the opera at the same time that Freud was engaged in studies into psychoanalysis and elements of this have seeped into Bartok’s thinking which aligns with Freud’s theories of exploring the unconscious mind, hidden sexual desires, and psychological trauma.
Bluebeards Castle like other Symbolist art works, replaced traditional dramatic narratives with dark, subjective internal journeys, mirroring the Freudian focus on repressed emotions and dreams.
Despite Bluebeards protests she removes the symbolic items from the chest and in doing so she discovers events from Bluebeards past, events she needs to recognise if she is to fully understand him. He also needs to acknowledge these events if they are to be a truly understanding, loving couple.
In opening the chest for the seventh time she discovers the three women of his past, one found in the morning, one at noon and one at sunset, Then with Judith, his fourth, the bride he found at night, having fully understood her husband she joins the women leaving Bluebeard in perpetual darkness.
The seven memories in the trunk contain the relics of the couples past that Lester Lynch’s Bluebeard remembers with joy and anguish, while Susan Bullock’s Judith emotionally engages with her former self, as lover, bride and mother.
References are made throughout the opera about the power of light to overcome darkness and symbolic of this the stage was studded with two dozen domestic lamps which flickered on and off at various points.
Like the story of Bluebeards Castle, the music is mysterious and riveting, providing a background soundscape which seems to continually shift as the various events of the opera are revealed.
Throughout the work there were sequences where the music provided particularly unsettling sounds, while there were other times when the orchestra was able to symbolise the idea of light flooding into the darkness of the castle. There were some exquisite passages particularly the blaring drama of the organ which was like a palpable force and the swelling of the strumming harps.
It was the emotional richness provided by the two singers which helped maintain the tension along with their creation of character though their acting. Bullock displayed a voice of amazing power while Lynch plumbed great depths as he revealed his inner thoughts.
This production was a stunning display of acting and singing along with an inspiring performance by the Auckland Philharmonia under the direction of conductor Brad Cohen.
A Place in Sultan’s Kitchen (or How to Make the Perfect One Pot Chicken Curry)
By Joshua Hinton (and Dominic Hinton)
Auckland Arts Festival
Rangatira, Q Theatre
Until March 15
Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
Making a one-pot chicken curry is so easy. The recipe is really straight forward. Slice up some onions, some potato, some chicken and a bunch of spices. It’s not that hard. It’s the chicken curry recipe Joshua Hinton’s nan, “MehMeh” made him for years and he is going to make it for us.
He is good at making it. He stands at his little cooking bench. Chopping and sprinkling and pouring. And just like in those TV cooking shows you also get to see shots of him doing all his chopping and mixing from above.
It feels as though Josh has invited you into his kitchen to have a personal chat as he reminisces, letting you into his cooking secrets and tales of his family.
He starts telling stories about his relatives and their journeys last century. From Iran to India to Australia, the family caught up in the British invasion of Iran in 1941 and then the Bombay Fire of 1944, when a British freighter loaded with explosives destroyed part of the Bombay Docks and the city.
These are some of the mixed-up tales his nan has told him, about her early life. They are a bit like the lives and the cultural mix of hundreds of immigrants. They are a mix of Persian (Iranian), Indian, Sri Lankin, Zoroastrian, English, South African, Bahia and Jewish.
The cooking becomes something of a metaphor for his life and his people before him, a mixture of memories, events and family tales. The cooking and the recipes are his cultural history, binding memories.
While Joshau makes his chicken curry, his brother Dominic controls the lights, sounds and special effects as well as doing “MehMeh” s voice. Dominic also makes an appearance at the end of the show playing his guitar as the two of them sing a song about their family.
The show is a gentle exploration of a refugee family’s life, the various threads finally knotted together with the two brothers lives living in Australia. There are big, events, various wars, family movements, obvious and insidious racism but more joy than sadness, as Josh reflects on his family’s life.
Josh’s life as person of mixed heritage living in Wollongong has its surprises, being the only brown person in the school photograph and its gives rise to variations on the old trope about “where are you actually from”.
And then at the end there’s a meal of chicken curry in the Q Theatre foyer.
In the hands of the Australian company Circe the world’s most romantic ballet is re-imagined as a circus spectacular, full of Circa’s signature physicality and shot through with cheeky humour and a thoroughly contemporary energy.
The audience is swept away by this tale of swans and hapless princes sparkling with quirky touches like the sequinned flipper-wearing duck army and a burlesque black swan. There are sumptuous aerials performances, jaw-dropping acrobatics and many feathers.
The show has been seen around the world and a review of Duck Pond in The Guardian by Lindsey Winship was enthusiastic.
“Australian company Circa are masters of modern circus, often eschewing obvious exhibitionism, and instead weaving acrobatic skills with a dance and theatre sensibility to make mood pieces.
The name is a parody of Swan Lake and it borrows from the famous ballet – shards of Tchaikovsky’s score feed into Jethro Woodward’s soundtrack – and also from another fairytale, the Ugly Duckling. So we get a love triangle of sorts between a prince, an ugly duck and a vivacious black swan. The conceit might seem to promise a more conventional narrative, but it delivers something a little different. The mood is understated, classy, colours of black and gold, a clan of performers in shimmering velvet catsuits. The music is a constant underscore rather than a game of set-ups and climaxes.
There is a lot of beautiful skill on show. Acrobats climb up human towers; flyers somersault between bases. Their formations of three are especially inventive: ornate arrangements of bodies in fine-tuned equilibrium, toes anchored on hips, lower backs, shoulders, anywhere they can get a foothold. There are some lovely moments of flow between couples who lift and fling, curl and unfurl, balance and counterbalance. Bodies tie themselves in knots on the trapeze; others soar on the silks. The ugly duck is revealed to be a swooping swan; the black swan has a dominatrix moment walking over a man’s bare back in red stilettos. But there are lulls too, such as a pillow fight that turns into an anticlimax.
Story-wise, director Yaron Lifschitz puts a couple of nice twists on the Swan Lake narrative but it lacks a big emotional payoff. Low-key lyricism, rather than transactional tricks for applause is Circa’s way and Duck Pond is a lovely show, with warmth, skill and some wow moments.”
This week you can experience Helios, a breathtaking, larger-than-life artwork created by renowned UK artist Luke Jerram. Arriving in New Zealand for the first time, Helios is both a scientific wonder and a multi-sensory artwork, offering a rare opportunity to visualise the beauty and complexity of our closest star.
The globe measures six metres in diameter and was created at a scale of 1:230 million, it is constructed from approximately 400,000 images of the Sun’s surface. These images combine photography by astrophotographer Dr Stuart Green with data from NASA solar observations. Internally lit, this spherical installation allows for a safe yet awe-inspiring examination of the Sun’s extraordinarily detailed surface, revealing features such as sunspots, spicules, and filaments.
Named after the ancient Greek and Roman sun god – symbolic of time and life. Helios blends real solar imagery with animated lighting accompanied with an immersive surround-sound composition by Duncan Speakman and Sarah Anderson, creating a powerful and unforgettable experience.
Luke Jerram’s multidisciplinary arts practice involves the creation of sculptures, installations and live artworks. Living in the UK, but working internationally, Jerram creates art projects which excite and inspire people around the world.
One of his recent projects Echo Wood is a collaboration between the artist and charity Avon Needs Trees It is an extensive new artwork made from 365 living trees.
The native trees will slowly grow into a vast 110-metre-wide design. Blossoming at different times of year, pathways and avenues will be created to guide visitors on a journey through the forest towards a central circular gathering space, formed from 12 English oak trees. Echo Wood will take a century to fully emerge – but will endure for generations.
Co-commissioned by National Trust, Cork Midsummer Festival, Liverpool Cathedral, Old Royal Naval College and University College London.
In her recent concert at the Auckland Town Hall Julia Bullock sang a group of songs which she considered as having an “American” sound. These included George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein and Margaret Bonds. Bonds is a pianist / composer who Bullock has championed for several years a major black composer who was overlooked for many years primarily due to systemic racism and sexism in the classical music industry, exacerbated by the loss of her manuscripts and a lack of publication.
Bullock included three settings of poems by Langston Hughes – “The Negro speaks of Rivers”, “Winter Moon” and “Poeme D’Automne” which gave voice to black aspirations in the 1920’s. With Bullocks singing of “The Negro speaks of Rivers” she provided a fine sense of the Negro spiritual, the softness of her delivery veiling a strong, insistent voice and a slowly developing dramatic force. Her voice delivered an emotional and haunting tone capturing the essence of heritage and endurance.
“Poeme D’Automne” was an astonishing song in which images of falling leaves and the colours of autumn were linked to the human body. She sang this with a surging operatic voice providing and intense and emotional sound.
“Winter Moon” was a short piece, but it showed that Bond was not just writing music to accompany the words of the poem, she had the ability to write dramatic meaningful music.
She sang Stephen Sonfheim’s “Somewhere” as though it was an anthem for the displaced and disadvantaged – a piece very relevant today’s America. There was also the poem “To Julia de Burgos” by Bernstein, a vibrant piece of music which spoke of an angry revolutionary adventure in which she projected the words as though a personal statement.
She also sang a couple of George Gerswin songs, “Somebody from Somewhere” and “Summertime “from “Porgy and Bess”.
She also sang “La Conga Blicoti” a vibrant, Afro-Cuban jazz-influenced song performed by Josephine Baker with the Lecuona Cuban Boys, which features a distinctive conga rhythm.
She also sang Billy Taylor’s “I wish I knew how it feels to be free” like a requiem or funeral lament, very appropriate as a song for freedom.
There was also “I have Two Cities” by the French composer Henri Varna and lyricist Geo Koegar with lines such as
Manhattan is beautiful,
But why deny it.
What enchants me is Paris,
All of Paris
Which she sang as a hymn to Josephine Baker.
The concert opened with the Auckland Philharmonia playing Erich Korngolds “Theme and Variations” and closed with them playing Kurt Weill’s “Symphony No 2”.
Bullock has an affinity for the outsider artist which has led to her interest in Josephine Baker who made the journey from the US to Europe where she made her name while the two composers became outsiders under the Nazis and were forced to move from Europe to the US.
Korngold who was a major composer in Austria influenced the style of composition and singing in the 1920’s and 30’s with operas such as “Die Tote Stadt” while Weill was influential in bringing Bertolt Brecht’s work to the public with works including “The Threepenny Opera”.
This week you can experience Helios, a breathtaking, larger-than-life artwork created by renowned UK artist Luke Jerram. Arriving in New Zealand for the first time, Helios is both a scientific wonder and a multi-sensory artwork, offering a rare opportunity to visualise the beauty and complexity of our closest star.
The globe measures six metres in diameter and was created at a scale of 1:230 million, it is constructed from approximately 400,000 images of the Sun’s surface. These images combine photography by astrophotographer Dr Stuart Green with data from NASA solar observations. Internally lit, this spherical installation allows for a safe yet awe-inspiring examination of the Sun’s extraordinarily detailed surface, revealing features such as sunspots, spicules, and filaments.
Named after the ancient Greek and Roman sun god – symbolic of time and life. Helios blends real solar imagery with animated lighting accompanied with an immersive surround-sound composition by Duncan Speakman and Sarah Anderson, creating a powerful and unforgettable experience.
Luke Jerram’s multidisciplinary arts practice involves the creation of sculptures, installations and live artworks. Living in the UK, but working internationally, Jerram creates art projects which excite and inspire people around the world.
One of his recent projects Echo Wood is a collaboration between the artist and charity Avon Needs Trees It is an extensive new artwork made from 365 living trees.
The native trees will slowly grow into a vast 110-metre-wide design. Blossoming at different times of year, pathways and avenues will be created to guide visitors on a journey through the forest towards a central circular gathering space, formed from 12 English oak trees. Echo Wood will take a century to fully emerge – but will endure for generations.
Co-commissioned by National Trust, Cork Midsummer Festival, Liverpool Cathedral, Old Royal Naval College and University College London.
Auckland Theatre Company and Auckland Arts Festival
Until March 22
Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
Set in the 1960s, Waiora explores the dynamics of a Māori family – John (Regan Taylor), Sue (Erina Daniels), Amiria (Rongopai Tickell), Rongo (Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne) and Boyboy (Te Mihi Potae) – who have moved away from their East5 Cape marae looking to create a new life and new opportunities for the adults and children in a South Island mill town. They are in search of the Kiwi dream but have uprooted themselves from Waiora, their homeland.
The tensions between the older generation and the youthful members of the family are seen early on with patriarch John singing O Sole Mio while Amiria and her teacher friend Louise are singing a Beatles song. It’s a scene which leads to the development of disagreement on a range of issues.
Alongside the generational divide we discover separations within the family itself which has an estranged son working in the big city and another son, Boyboy who has been suspended from school.
A major theme revolves around the success of highly regarded John at the mill and his expectation of becoming foreman. This notion of Māori success in industry and business is juxtaposed with the lives of the two privileged Pakeha in the play. Louise, a teacher from a wealthy family and Steve, the mill owner.
Much of the play deals with issues related to colonialism, dislocation from the land, language and the spiritual dimension. These are issues which are still important for Māori and pakeha. Merely confronting these issues is not a solution, how much compromise, concession and negotiation must occur.
Cutting across the stage is a bridge by which all the characters must move. It acts as a potent symbol of the bridge needed to solve the problems of racism and opportunity in New Zealand.
Central to the play is the acting of Regan Taylor as John. He articulates all the aspirations and objectives of the family as well as the problems of not recognising some of the contemporary social issues. Some of his monologues were brilliant, drawing various themes together, conveying the personal, historic and spiritual.
While the play appears ot be rooted in the day-to-day life of the family we become aware of another dimension – wairuatanga or the spiritual life. Several white clad figures move in and around the family seemingly part of everyday but also existing as European equivalents of guardian angels or the Greek mythological figures who bridge the gap between the immortal and mortal.
The play has a rich musical landscape created by Hone Hurihanganui and Maarire Brunning-Kouka consisted of waiata, haka and contemporary sounds.
The entire cast work well together creating a witty, emotional and honest approach to the issues as they each show how they are caught up in an historic, social, and spiritual bind which offers few solutions – that is for the audience to come to terms with.
Brandon Reiners and Ana Gallardo Bobainaw Photo credit: Stephen A’Court.
Macbeth
Auckland Arts Festival
Royal New Zealand Ballet
Co-production with West Australian Ballet
Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre
4-7 March
CREATIVE TEAM:
Choreography – Alice Topp Set & Lighting Design – Jon Buswell
Costume Design – Aleisa Jelbart
Dramaturgy – Ruth Little
Music – Christopher Gordon
Conductor – Hamish McKeich
String Ensemble – Musicians of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Then
Dunedin, The Regent, 13-14 March
Christchurch, Isaac Theatre Royal, 18-21 March
Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
The Royal New Zealand Ballet ‘s new Macbeth, is a contemporary interpretation of one of Shakespeare’s most ruthless tragedies which is as relevant now as it was four hundred years ago. As in many of his plays Shakespeare explores the intense, often tragic tension between the individual and the state, showcasing how personal identity, ambition, and morality clash with political power and societal duty. In his plays state authority and sovereignty, demand conformity, yet individuals seek autonomy or challenge the status quo, navigating complex power structures.
He explores the Machiavellian rise to power and the devastation that two individuals can inflict on the state.
This is all achieved in this production through the choreography, the sets and the music.
The sets designed by Jon Buswell are essentially minimalist while the lighting, also by Buswell is more complex. At some points the lighting is focused on the main characters, at other times shadows and darkness dominate.
Created by internationally director / choreographer Alice Topp the ballet unfolds in a ruthless modern world shaped by political ambition, media manipulation and the fatal seduction of power.
She says, “Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s great tragedies, exploring themes as current today as they were when first written,” says Alice Topp. “An epic story fuelled by political ambition, passion, desire for power and the burden of guilt, its potency endures. Our Macbeth is set in a hierarchy-hungry, high-society city, where political storms, media frenzy and personal ambition collide.”
The music for the work has been composed by Christopher Gordon and features both recorded and live music. One hundred and twenty-nine musicians contributed to the recorded music while an octet of strings from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra provide live music. The musical landscape provides full orchestral sound with driving, unrelenting tempo that echoes the character’s anxieties.
Gordon created a series of musical themes designed to reflect the characters as well as the mood of the various sequences of the ballet. His complex music consisted of big band music, electric dance music, funk, film music and references to composers such as Phillip Glass.
At the centre of the ballet are the two malevolent Macbeths (Brandon Reiners and Ana Gallardo Bobainaw) who dance their solos, pas de deux with moves which indicate corruption and self-centeredness.
The visceral language of the choreography is used to explore the characters psychological pursuit of power and duplicity.
The classical poses and movements which are normally used to display romantic connections were subverted so that these movements create a disquiet which reflects their own inner turmoil. When the two of them dance their elaborate almost ritualistic dances they seem to be abusing each other in erotic displays.
While the sets are minimal, they are often dominated by tables surrounded by protagonists who engage in discussion and planning. These balletic movements around the table recall Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite’s “The Scenario”, her witty take on a boardroom meeting,
As the three witches / influencers Kirby Selchow, Ruby Ryburn, and Shaun James Kelly are an excellent melding of the comic, the supernatural and the intruding media with the endless writhing, gesturing and guttural sounds.
Laurynas Vėjalis as Duncan, Dane Head as Malcolm, and Kihiro Kusukami as Banquo gave strong displays which contrasted with the spikey dancing of Reiners and Bobainaw.
There were a few occasions when the audience was given some indication of the story with texts projected onto screens, including a few lines form the play itself but there were other times when the audience could have been given more useful indications of location and event.
New Zealand Arts Review 