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Reviews, News and Commentary

Olafur Eliasson: The Leonardo da Vinci of our time

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Olafur Eliasson. The glacier melts series

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Olafur Eliasson, Your Curious Journey

Auckland Art  Gallery

Until March 23, 2025

Reviewed  by John Daly-Peoples

Much of the work of the Danish / Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson focusses on issues around the impact of changing climate on our lives and our impacts on the environment. In his current exhibition “Your Curious Journey” at the Auckland Art Gallery the most obvious of his works which address these issues is “The Glacier Melt series 1999/2019”. In this series of 15 paired  photographs the artist shows several; glaciers in Iceland ten years apart showing the extent of the glacier melt. The works are a clear visual documentation of the way in which warming temperatures are changing the nature of the environment. While they provide physical evidence of climate change they are also a metaphor for the issue and many of his other works are metaphorical or medications on the nature of the issues.

Eliasson is the Leonardo da Vinci of our times combining art and science with each of the disciplines informing the other providing observations and insights.

The title of the exhibition “Your Curious Journey” could be applied to the set of photographs as we witness the glaciers journeys of expansion and retraction, alerting us to the fact that climate change is part of the evolutionary journey of our past and future.

Linked to that work is  one of the newer pieces, The Last Seven Days of Glacial Ice “(2024) where the progression of  a melting block of ice over seven days has been rendered in bronze. The melted water has been captured in seven glass globes which are exhibited alongside the bronzes, The original block of ice is condensed to a shard of bronze and a globe of water but in reality the ice has disappeared, like some magic trick

While these and other works have a polemic quality to them, all his works are concerned with aspects of aesthetics -and scientific enquiry – light, structure, colour and movement. This mix  of science and art can also be seen in “Double Spiral” where a long steel tube   coils around itself creating a double helix in reference to the structure of DNA

One of the works which encapsulated all of these  aspects is “Movement Microscope” (2011), a  16-minute video set in the artists studio / office in Berlin where the everyday activities of the staff become an elaborate dance routine and simple movements are elaborately observed.  All the movements and interchanges are heighten by the inclusion of a group of “performers who move at a reduced pace, seemingly moving as though their recorded movements have been filmed at a slower speed.

We observe his designers and artists communicating ideas,  working on designs, constructing works, sharing meals, their constructed works now on display in the gallery.

His largest work :”Under the Weather” hangs above the gallery atrium and appears to flicker and change as the observer moves beneath it. The images created are like weather patterns or brain scanner. The illusion of movement is created by an optical effect of two patterns similar to the auditory intersection of the Doppler Effect. Similar effects  can be seen “Multiple Shadow House”.

Olafur Eliasson. Yellow Corridor

One of the more impressive works is at the  entrance to the show. “Yellow Corridor “is an version of a  work the artist has created in m any locations, flooding an  area with yellow light which effects our perceptions of colour and form. The almost blinding light of the lit corridor recalls the quote of Robert Oppenheimer who described the Atom Bomb as brighter than a thousand – which also links to Eliasson’s  “The Weather Project”  which featured a massive  sun located in the Tate’s Turbine Hall.

Eliasson also plays with water and in “Beauty (1993), films of  misty water, illuminated by projected light create a mini Aurora Australis and  with “Object defined by activity (then) a fountain of water is rendered as an almost solid figure by the use of stroboscopic light.

“Still River” brings the issue of climate change down to a local level with three large cubes of ices, slowly melting in the gallery. The ice is frozen water taken form the Waikato River at Lake Whakamaru. We witness the ice melting, see the drops of water falling into the collection tray and hear the sound of the ice cracking and the water melting. We can also see in the water the residue contained in the water – the chemical, effluent and soil and other contaminants.

It provides a physical reminder of the process of the natural world and the ways they can be disrupted.

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A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Triumph Returns

Image. Stephen ACourt

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Royal New Zealand Ballet

Choreography – Liam Scarlett

Music – Felix Mendelssohn

Music Arranger – Nigel Gaynor

Set & Costume Design – Tracy Grant Lord

Lighting Design – Kendall Smith

Conductor – Hamish McKeich

Orchestra – Auckland Philharmonia

Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre (until Dec 8)

Then Bruce Mason Theatre, Takapuna

OK, Shakespeare started all this theatrical fantasy stuff more than 4 centuries back when he developed some of the Greeks’ allegorical reflections on love and its mythical interpretations by writing A Midsummer Night’s.

It has a convoluted and fantastical plot that epitomises the suspension of disbelief and is perfectly suited to the meandering minds of creatives.   So they did.

A young Felix Mendelssohn had an initial stab at expressing it musically before King William Frederick IV convinced him to enhance his music further as accompaniment to a theatrical staging where it became a favourite of the Prussian court.

I have no idea what William Blake was on when he expressed Shakespeare’s work visually a century later, nor the mindset of various theatre and even movie directors as the original was variously interpreted until eventually becoming a stock in trade for theatre over a couple of centuries.   Little wonder then that it would evolve much later into a significant full-length ballet that is commonly attributed to Georges Ballanchine – apparently a fairly tame interpretation by contemporary standards.  Eventually The Royal New Zealand Ballet was to be congratulated on collaborating in 2015 with the fairly progressive Queensland Ballet in a completely new interpretation devised by the even more weirdly wonderful and progressive mind of the late Liam Scarlett. 

Mendelssohn’s original incidental music was skillfully re-arranged and expanded by former RNZB Music Director Nigel Gaynor and, with an innovative set and a costume design by the distinguishd Tracy Grant Lord, the result was a full-length two-act contemporary ballet that audiences greeted with joyous rapture.

A subsequent 2021 season was rudely interrupted by Covid and this Dream only played in Wellington.   However it has finally toured nationally and reached Auckland where those earlier plaudits can ring even more true today.  This Midsummer Night’s Dream is something that makes one wallow in pure enjoyment.

Yes, of course the threads of serious Greek allegory on humankind are not lost, but it is the telling of the tale that makes this production so outstanding and to marvel at what Liam Scarlett, and the team he headed, has produced.

Firstly, lets look at Tracy Grant Lord’s set.  This combines colour and texture that, when coupled with Kendall Smith’s lighting, results almost as if an additional dimension has somehow been added to the stage. There is a depth and a height and a breadth that I could swear somehow exceed the theatre’s stage dimensions.  This dimensionality is exploited to the fullest in the choreography and the costumes that somehow reinforce the set rather than the other way around.  It is night.  It is a woodland.  It is ethereal.  It is enchanted.  It is a place where subtlety, confusion and a comedy of errors are rife.  It is actually the inside of someone’s mind.

That is largely achieved and certainly enhanced by Nigel Gaynor’s sympathetic musical arrangement of Mendelsson’s sumptuous score and which itself defies traditional convention.  Off-stage voices are introduced under Hamish McKeich’s baton and I could swear I heard someone humming along during the triumphal Wedding March.

The ballet opens with an imperious Oberon (Joshua Guillemot-Rodgerson) and his compellingly superior Queen Titania (Ana Gallardo Lobaina), assisted by his energetic and whimsical sprite Puck (Shaun James Kelly) who attempt to influence and even thwart the course of true love via the use of a supposedly magical pixie dust.  When sprinkled this confuses things a bit and just about everyone on stage loses track of who is love with whom.  There is whimsy and humour around each and every corner and the characterisations are superb – none more so than Bottom (Calum Gray) who magically develops a donkey’s head and tail.

The characterisations are superb, the detail in the dancing shows real connections and Liam Scarlett’s stunning choreography is built around fluidity and motion that blurs fantasy with reality and gives us something unexpected at each turn.  Just as one is starting to relax after a particular marvellous pas de deux, for example, this Dream slides effortlessly into something equally ethereal albeit several feet in the air serving only to amplify, elevate and unify the whole.

Plotwise … no, I won’t bother you with the complexities … suffice to say it all becomes totally confusing but love wins out in the end.  Of course.  And the donkey is human underneath it all – a message for all of us.

This Midsummer Night’s Dream is indeed a sparkling, spectacular ballet of sheer theatrical magic that is a Christmas treat for audiences everywhere

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Dorothy’s trip to the Wonderful land of Oz

John Daly-Peoples

John Daly-Peoples

Destination Sydney recently manged a unique  promotion which has highlighted Sydney as a cultural destination and the arts and architecture on offer.

Dorothy Smith  a 102-year-old from San Francisco visited Sydney  completing her bucket list dream of visiting all seven continents.

Two young men, Ammar Kandil and Staffan Taylor who produce Yes Theory, a YouTube channel with almost 9.3 million subscribers, met Dorothy in October 2024 while filming a story at The Redwoods Retirement Village in Mill Valley, California.

They discovered Smith had always dreamed of visiting all seven continents. She had been to Asia, South America  North America, Antarctica, and Europe but never made it to Australia.

Kandil and Taylor partnered with destination NSW and Qantas  to make her dream come true and organised a flight to Sydney .

“It’s never too late for an adventure, just try and see and I think you will be surprised how well you do.” she said in a video Yes Theory shared about her trip yesterday. “You either rust out or wear out. I chose to wear out.”

Smith’s visit involved a Sydney Harbour cruise, a koala and kangaroo encounter at Sydney Zoo, touring Sydney Opera House and Bondi Beach, the Botanic Gardens and the Museum of Contemporary Art.

The video of her visit which has had 500,000 views online highlights the opportunities for older travellers and their ability to have art experiences over walking tours, ski slopes and surf beaches.

Julia Mehretu, Haka and Riot

The MCA currently has a major exhibition of works by Julie Mehretu an Ethiopian artist now living in the US. She is one of today’s most acclaimed living painters and the exhibition which blurs distinctions between abstraction and figuration. One of her works, Haka and Riot which evolved from photographs of children held in US detention centres refers to exorcism or a dancer performing the haka.

They also have New Zealander Kate Newby’s installation “Hours in Wind” in the Sculpture Terrace on the top floor of the gallery.

The other major exhibition on in Sydney during  her visit was “Magritte” which features one hundred works by the artist – paintings of clouds, hats, pipes and apples among the most recognisable images of surrealism. Renowned for his deadpan, realist style, the Belgian artist depicted ordinary objects and everyday settings, revealing them to be mysterious and enchanting.

Rene Magritte

“Magritte”  journeys from the artist’s first avant-garde explorations and commercial works in the 1920s, to his groundbreaking contributions to surrealism, his surprising provocations of the 1940s, and the renowned paintings of his final years, before his death in 1967.

With her stop at the Sydney Opera House Smith could have seen the current production of Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” or even a concert by the New Zealand band Crowded House.

Smith said she loved visiting Sydney, saying the city was beautiful and the people were so friendly.

“The people are charming, the food is good, the scenery is just wonderful, and even the weather is nice,” she said. Although she didn’t expect the city to be quite so developed.

The Sydney Opera House was a particularly special place to visit, with Smith being more than twice as old as the iconic building.

For Dorothy’s Sydney experience watch it here.

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A thrilling “The Planets” from the NZSO

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The Planets

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Auckland Town Hall

November 23

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

One of the disappointing aspects of the NZSO’s recent “The Planets” concert was the short duration of the first work on the programme.

The Finnish composer Kaije Saariaho’s  “Asteroid 4179: Toutatis” was performed for four minutes, but many in the audience would have been delighted if it had run for twice or three times that length.

“Asteroid 4179: Toutatis”, is named for an actual asteroid, a two-kilometre rock fragment which moves between Mars and Jupiter. The work is a confluence of science and art with the music sounding like music many composers have used for the soundtracks of science fiction movies or to create otherworldly sounds Her ethereal sounds which represent the movement of the asteroid were mysterious and saw her turning scientific notations into music.

The composer was trying to describe the pattern of Toutati’s movements, its chaotic orbit, its unfixed north pole and its complex pattern of rotation so we had music which described the various ellipses, parabolas and  cosmic curves tracing out celestial journeys.

The work contained  multiple combinations, of strings and huge sounds from the full orchestra . Many of the sounds were unusual with shimmering strings, eerie sounds  from  the wind instruments  and even fleeting sounds from the harp.

Christian Tetzlaff

Christian Tetzlaff gave an electrifying performance with his playing of Elgar’s Violin Concerto and he seemed to become one with the violin, It was not just his bowing arm but his whole body which appeared to be affected by the music.

He opened with some  ferocious bowing but this soon morphed into playing which was not much more than a whisper with Tetzlaff gently rocking as though playing a lullaby, taking him into a state of reverie.

There were times when the bow met the strings with a piercing sound,  while there were other passages when the bow barely touched the strings.

Several times his feverish playing was matched by Gemma New’s demonstrative conducting where she conducted with her body and not just baton and hands. Then there were times when violinist and conductor appeared to be linked in a dance, their bodies  swaying in harmony.

There were many passages in the work which were extremely taxing for the violinist but Tetzlaff handled these with style and self-assurance. At times he was sharply focused with some aggressive playing, as though he was trying  to outrun the orchestra  before changing to a more serene mode, melding with the orchestra.

With the slower second movement he was like a different violinist, the torments of the first movement replaced by an  engaging romanticism  Before the spirited finale he effortlessly dashed off a spirited theme with some grand gestures.

That Gustav Holst composed his The Planets suite early on in the twentieth century saved a lot of problems later on. Pluto was not discovered until 1930 so was not one of the planets which the composer included in his work. So, with Pluto now being dropped as one of the planets his work doesn’t have to be seen as an oddity just one of the great British musical works of the early twentieth century.

Under the brilliant direction of Gemma New the orchestra managed to give each of the sequences a thrilling interpretation, exploring their emotional and narrative themes. At times New seemed carried away by the music performing little dances and jigs, her hands and arms tracing out the music as though replicating planetary arcs.

From the relentless marching sounds of Mars, The Bringer of War through to the almost spiritual Neptune there was an urgency and  drama from the orchestra.

Jupiter featured an onslaught from the full strings along with an array of percussion including bells and triangle which added to the intense atmosphere.

Emotional and expressive playing by the violins, cellos, and double basses introduced Venus along with percussion instruments – gongs, triangles, bells, timpani, celesta and drums, which provided a serene and imposing atmosphere.

Saturn gave us the sombre sounds of the double basses  and  plucked cellos and  this then changed with a nice contrast to harps and double bass.

The opening harps and organ of Neptune, created an enigmatic sound with the  orchestra joined by Voice New Zealand Chamber Choir which was beautifully expressive, becoming another instrument  to finish the work in style,

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APO’s Romantic Journeys

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Johannes Moser

Auckland Philharmonia

Romantic Journeys

Auckland Town Hall

November 21

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The opening and closing works on the APO’s Romantic Journeys programme featured travelogues from Tchaikovsky and Schumann. Tchaikovsky Capriccio Italien is a record of one of his  trips to Italy whileSchumann’s Symphony No.3 ‘Rhenish’ was written in response to a journey along the Rhine and a visit to Cologne.

Tchaikovsky travelled many times to Italy, partly to escape the Russian winter and it was on one of these trips that he was inspired to compose his Capriccio Italien partly inspired by Carnivale, of which he wrote – “seeing the public raging on the Corso, you are convinced that no matter how strangely the joy of the local crowd manifests itself, it is nevertheless sincere and unconstrained,”

A  blaze of horns opens the work,like a curtain being lifted to reveal a colourful panorama of landscape, cities and spectacle. There are some slow and precise passages before we hear traces of folk music which introduce a sense of Italian life with lively  and charming dance melodies and bugle calls.

This was followed by a fast-paced tarantella-like sequence with the lively strings and woodwinds allowing the composer to capture the ebullient moods of the people as they danced through Carnivale  from dawn to dusk.

Throughout the work with its changing, colours and tempos there is a sense of the composer delighting in parading these sounds which would be new to a Northern European  audience

Schumann’s Symphony No 3 (Rhenish) is a portrait of the Rhine but it can be seen as part of the nationalist ethos which had been developing since the end of the Napoleonic  Wars and was particularly strong in the Rhineland.

From the opening fanfare, there is a sense of celebration of the land, the buildings and the people. The Rhine is central to this depiction and the music paints a picture of the flowing river indicated by the sinuous sounds and overlapping melodies of the orchestra.

The work is like a musical diary depicting the changing landscape as the composer passes through towns and villages capturing his changing impressions.

The voluptuous second movement also has landscape images – clouds, fields and activity, all highlighted with bursts of dramatic brass while the third continues with descriptive passages which are increasingly jaunty.

The fourth movement is  full of majestic sounds and is a description of the composers visit to Cologne Cathedral, the largest in Germany. The building was still in its unfinished state, surrounded by scaffolding, the two massive spires yet to be installed. It would still have provided an impressive scene and the music conveys that sense of size and grandeur, with traces of liturgical and choral music. The full range of the brass instruments provided  the orchestral texture and the movement climaxed in a massive, repeated fanfare for brass and winds.

With the finale, the vibrancy of the first movement was revisited emphasising the rhythms, giving the music a headlong movement that drove the Symphony to its thrilling, conclusion.

Between the two descriptive works the orchestra played Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme with German / Canadian cellist Johannes Moser who replaced Edgar Moreau.

Moser glided  effortlessly through the work revelling in the interplay with the orchestra in a tantalising display which emphasised aspects of the sophisticated composition. He made use of the various solo sections  to show an understanding of the work as well  displaying his extraordinary technical skills.

He was able to combine, as did Tchaikovsky, an understanding of the romanticism of the Rococo theme as well as debt to Mozart which gives the work its spectacle in the way that cello and orchestra intertwine. The theme was dissected and re-formed in different guises with Moser seemingly finding new opportunities in the melodies as well as exploring its tones, and textures.

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NZ Trio’s Untamed Hope

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

NZ Trio. Amalia Hall, Somi Kim and Ashley Brown

NZ Trio

Triptych 3: Untamed Hope

Auckland Concert Chamber

November 17

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

NZ Trio as well as being one of the finest groups of players in Australasia are also one of the most innovative and inspiring with their stimulating programmes. This was clear in their latest concert, “Untamed Hope” which featured four women composers from New Zealand, England, Germany and the USA with works spanning three centuries.

The title of the concert, “Untamed Hope”: probably alludes to the fact that at least three of the  women were constrained in some way by the environments in which they began their musical careers. Their hopes of being able to be in the concert hall on equal terms with their male counterparts was largely tamed by that environment.

The opening work was English composer  Ethel Smyth’s Trio  in D minor, a work  written when she was twenty-two having left the England to study in Leipzig.  At the time she met many contemporary composers including Clara Schumann and Brahms.

The first movement could even have been written by Brahms, which was apparent in the  sinuous playing of Somi Kim who was accompanied by delicate melodies from the strings. Initially violin and cello were in harmony with the piano but then their playing began to diverge, with each of the instruments developing their own musical themes.

Parts  of the second movement seem to be based on a folk song (French or English) with theme passed between the three instruments, all suggesting a soulful introspection as well as displaying the composers sophisticated writing.

Third movement entitled “Leid” had many aspects of the “song without word” with hints of a Scottish dance melody played by Amalia Hall

The dramatic finale saw a long  passage by the piano with the strings entering, playing a Hungarian-like tragic theme.

Eve Bedggood’s Ukiyo 浮世 –The Floating World relates to the Japanese concept of “the floating world” which evokes an imagined universe of wit, stylishness, and extravagance, a state which was often experienced through theatre, song, stories  and pictures.

Bedggood says of the notion of “the simplicity of just existing  and immersing yourself in the floating world or sense of calm is something I think music and other art forms can evoke”.

Much of the work had musical images of floating, flowing and meditation states with the work opened with dark rumbles from the piano suggesting sombre depths with strains of the violin and cello making interventions .

We heard exciting glissando from the Amelia Hall’s violon and careful, controlled repetition from Ashley Brown cello, while many of the sequences  saw an almost minimalist backing with the scudding sounds of the strings hovering above.

The work was like a reverie, the various themes creating dreamlike images much like those of many Japanese prints of an earlier period.

The American Joan Tower’s “Trio Cavny” opened with some tingling high notes from the piano with the violin and cello responding with equally high-pitched sounds creating a taut musical mood.  A following sequence saw Somi Kim creating crashing waves of sound leading to a tension between the three instruments which then played independently of each other before arriving at a point of intense harmonisation.

The music ranged from the soundtrack of a horror movie to a musical version of the Doppler Effect to the sounds of sympathetic voices in  minimalist mediation.

The final work on the program was Fanny Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in D Minor. It is a beautifully conceived work with the violin and cello flowing around the energetic displays of Somi Kim

Amalia Hall provided both a delicacy and sharpness with her playing, contrasting with Ashley Browns sedate cello.

The introspective and reflective  second movement which opens with  a romantic  sequence from the piano contained elements of waltz tunes  while the third suggested elements of German folk song.

In the final movement the three players displayed a vigorous drive and energy, beginning with some  mesmerising playing by Kim before Hall and Brownjoined in creating an eloquent dialogue, leading to repeated motifs to end the work with an optimistic conclusion

The group announced that cellist Ashley Brown will be leaving the group to take an appointment as Principal Cellist with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra next year. He  has been involved with the trio since its founding twenty-three years ago and his presence with the trio will be greatly missed.

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The passion and drive of Alexander Gavrylyuk

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Alexander Gavrylyuk

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Alexander Gavrylyuk

Auckland Town Hall

November 16

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Opening the NZSO’s latest concert “Alexander Gavrylyuk”, conductor Vasily Petrenko spoke about the three works on the programme and what he saw as the  links between them. The three composers had all left their native homes – Lera Auerbach and Sergie Rachmaninov from Soviet Russia and Bela Bartok from Hungary to escape the Nazis. He also noted the three composers search for freedom of expression and the nature of transformation in the three works.

The major work on the programme was Rachmaninov’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” which has some interesting history or mythology to it  . The nineteenth  century violinist Nicolò Paganini was such a virtuoso, that many believed he had made a pact with the devil. Rachmaninov seems to have subscribed to that view as he  includes a reference to  the medieval melody Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) and some of the darker elements in the music reflect those diabolic aspects.

This drama and other elements were highlighted by pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk in a perfect performance that showed a perceptive approach to the music

He displayed a mastery of stylish playing, able to ignite the orchestra with his passion and drive.

His playing technique: changing tempos, charging through themes and varying the tonal qualities added to the excitement of the playing and appeared to enliven conductor Vasily Petrenko well as the orchestra.

Hunched over the piano his playing was by turns delicate, whimsical and ferocious. There were times when his sounds were like rippling water while at other times they were more like gushing torrents.

This was brazen and adventurous playing which slowly revealed the technical and emotional depths of the work moving from the childlike to the theatrical and  onto the grand and funereal.”

Breugel “The Fall of Icarus

The first work on the programme had been Lera Auerbach’s “Icarus” which tells of the myth of Icarus who ignored his father Daedalus and flew too close to the sun, causing the beeswax securing his wings to melt and him to fall into the sea.

The composer said of the work “What makes this myth so touching is Icarus’s impatience of the heart, his wish to reach the unreachable, the intensity of the ecstatic brevity of his flight and inevitability of his fall.”

The opening strings and brass provided a sense of take-off and the exhilaration of Icarus. This was followed by a galvanised orchestra and flutes suggesting flight. Sounds of alarm from  the orchestra signalled the coming disater  and Concertmaster  Vesa-Matti Leppanen brilliant little solo took a dreamlike diversion which became increasingly tense. This led to the insistent brass heralding Icarus’ fall.

The final sequences could be seen as the composer’s response to Bruegel’s painting “The Fall of Icarus” where the action of the event is reduced to a leg just visible, poking up  from the water . The pulsing strings suggested the vibrancy of the sun which is a counterpoint to the disaster, the quivering sounds a refence to Icarus’ fall into the water and the scattering of feathers. The work ends with a gentle requiem suggesting Icarus becoming a mythic hero.

The final work on the programme was Bartok’s five movement Concerto for Orchestra

It was his last major work and can be seen as some sort of musical autobiography of his last few years having had to leave his native Hungary and settle in the US

Composed a couple of years after his escape from Hungary it traces out his journeying from a bleak Europe to a new life, moving from a dark period in his life to one of  freedom and light. The music reflects this moving with ominous and threatening sounds through to lively and energetic melodies.

The work opened with sombre music punctuated by the flutes and raucous brass. Anguished strings confronted by ferocious brass, woodwind and percussion and the continued presence of the flutes sounded out the call for  freedom.

There was a sense of evolving events and narrative and about remembrance and loss with whimsical passages as well as a constant sense of oppression and mystery.

While there were references to horrors and drama of WWII the work is filled with inventive  music which was constantly evolving with a carnival-like sequence, playful sounds as well as hints of folk melodies  and strains of Eastern music.

The success of the work was in part due to the focused conducting of Vasily Petrenko with his lively and energetic approach and his precise direction in shaping the music’s dramatic sounds

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This Doll’s House Sizzles

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Laura Hill (credit Tatiana Harper)

A Doll’s House Part 2

By Lucas Hnath

Directed by Paul Gittins

Design John Parker

Costumes Elizabeth Whiting

Lighting Jane Hakaraia

Production/SM Teresa Sokolich

With Laura Hill, Stephen Butterworth, Danyelle Mealings, Maya Dalziel

Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, Auckland

14 Nov to 1 Dec 2024

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

A Doll’s House, Part 2 runs about 90 minutes with no interval and is a bit like a well-cooked, multi-course series of tastes – or tapas if you will.  It is a meal that sizzles and left me feeling delightfully sated.

Each taste is marvelously well-prepared and each is impeccably presented.  Chef Hnath’s initial offerings covered ground prepared by others although he put an individual tweak to each and ensured they were delightfully delivered in ways that addressed time-proven issues of women’s independence, choice and self-fulfillment. 

His chief protagonist Nora Helmer arrives through the same door through which Ibsen had exited her 15 years previously.  But now she bears the scars, world-weariness and hard-won wisdom of a woman who has emphatically found and secured her place in the world as a clearly successful writer.  She is confronted by the worldly-wise Ann-Marie , Nanny to her abandoned children, an older woman who has looked, listened and learned much.  Ann-Marie is able to match Nora when it comes to verbal sparring and their discussion, debate, and general discourse delves into independence, freedom, patriarchies and the expectations of society.  And what that means.  But up to this point Hnath’s menu largely provides tastes with which we are familiar – albeit extremely well done with lashings of aspiration and confidence and some magical energy exchange between the two women.

Humour is never far away, arguments are sophisticated and standpoints and circumstances are outlined one after the other.

However well-presented these standpoints are and just as I was thinking I had heard most of their supporting arguments previously and had mistakenly arrived at a law moot, Hnath introduces Nora’s perhaps-former husband and not quite-ex Torvald.  His arrival is somewhat unexpected to the two women and now the meal and its courses becomes successively tastier.  New garnishes are added – subtly at first as incomprehension, resentment and self-doubt became apparent between all three.  But liberal sprinklings of emotion that initially bubble to the surface and then burst forth as spicy aromas that grow as they are savoured.

And that is the crux of Hnath’s play.  I sat enthralled as each new dish was served raising questions about family, marriage and responsibility.   Again, hardly new arguments, but assembled in dramatic combinations.

The dialogue is fast and vibrant – some of it using very modern vernacular. There is confusion and disagreement and miscomprehension that is sharp and pointed.

Director Paul Gittins is the interpreter of Hnath’s dishes and adds depth and nuance to each.  Designer John Parker enhances them with a simple set that is little more than a platform containing three or four chairs, a small table and an omni-present door frame that acknowledges where Ibsen left off.  Its very simplicity allows Gittins’ cast to better explore and extract light and shade.  Elizabeth’ Whiting’s costumes hint at Ibsen’s period, but nor are they of the present.  Timeless and script-driven are terms that spring to mind.

Rightly so, Laura Hill is billed as the ‘star’ and makes a compelling Nora as the chemistry between her and others is abundantly clear.  Her initial interactions with a remarkably strong Maya Dalziel as Nanny Anne-Marie and then with Torvald reveal the maelstrom that lurks beneath the surface of their worlds.

From being initially nervous and confused Torvald’s emotions soon take over and A Doll’s House 2 really starts to sizzle.  His Torvald is achingly sympathetic one moment, a blustering tyrant the next and ultimately a confused soul.

Their calm and rationale daughter Emmy (Danyelle Mealings) attempts to metaphorically and literally patch up the father-she-never-has-known as a voice of balanced reason but her voice is largely ignored, becoming almost that of a rather more dispassionate audience.

In conclusion one can only applaud.  This is an actor’s play that provokes its audience to empathise with different perspectives and director Gittins allows his universally strong and highly experienced cast to do so.

It is rather like that tapas meal where each course sizzles making A Doll’s House Part 2 a delight and, for me, one of the standouts of Auckland theatre in 2024.

As advised in all the pre-promotional material, familiarity with Ibsen’s 1879 original is not essential, but there are direct and indirect references and clues to it are strewn liberally throughout Hnath’s 21st century sequel. One might think of them as yet another layer of satisfaction – or a hidden dessert if you prefer.

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Reviews, News and Commentary

Luise Fong’s “Nexus” examines the body and the cosmos

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Luise Fong, Pathology

Luise Fong, Nexus

Bergman Gallery, Auckland

Until November 30

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

When I reviewed the work of Luise Fong in the “Cultural Safety” exhibition at the Frankfurter Kunstverein in 1996 I noted that her surfaces had much in common with an exhibition in the adjacent Jewish Museum which was displaying lampshades made from human skin.

Works from that time such as Pathology Sample ($5200) which refers to the examination of tissue and the wider aspects of death and mutability are central to Fong’s work. These images allude to the body and the forces—physical, psychological and social which affect it.

Luise Fong, Omni

While there is a focus on the body in her works there are wider connections which  encompass the nature of the cosmos as well as with works such as Small Orbit  8 ($6800). This contradiction or ambivalence between the microscopic and macroscopic infuses much of her work. This other worldliness is also suggested in the two photogram works included in the show where objects are transformed into strange shapes as in the UFO Series X ($3000).

There is also a sense of this ambiguity in the ethereal sounds of the Icelandic musical group Sigur Ross which have inspired the artist.

With many of the images such as the sperm-like streaks of paint in Omni ($9800) , the cellulear forms  in Pool ($7700) or the planetary shapes in Orbit ($6800) we are aware of the artists manipulating the painted surface, creating other surfaces and changing our perceptions.

Luise Fong, Twilight III

Some of her more recent work extends the notion of skin with work which look more like fabric, reflecting her Chinese/Malaysian heritage and her interest in textile design. With work such as Twilight III  ($3200) with its vibrant reds and oranges as well as other with dramatic blues, colour plays an important role. These images which can be seen as displaying planetary shapes, and solar flares are also suggestive of MRI s scans of the body, returning her work to its origins of thirty years ago.

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Reviews, News and Commentary

Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery

A Whanganui biography

By Martin Edmond

Massey University Press

RRP $65.00

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Whanganui’s Serjeant Gallery has just reopened after having been closed for ten years with  an opening season entitled “Nō Konei | From Here” (Until 11 May 2025). The exhibition features over 200 artworks, spanning four centuries of European and New Zealand art history. Filling the gallery’s newly expanded exhibition spaces, works range from traditional gilt-framed paintings to contemporary practice in a variety of media.

Coinciding with the opening is the publication of “Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery” which tells the gallery’s 100-year history.

Written by Martin Edmond the book charts the Sarjeant Gallery’s early years and its development as a collecting and exhibiting institution that is now recognised as one of the major New Zealand’s art galleries.

The gallery  which is one of the most elegant and imposing buildings in the country is located at a central point in the city and has been of significance to the development of the city.

Henry Sarjeant whom the gallery is named after had lived in the area since the 1860’s and had  a lifelong interest in the arts, visiting the major galleries of Europe during a number of trips abroad. When he died in 1912, aged 82, he left property valued at £30,000 in trust to the Wanganui Borough Council for the purpose of building and maintaining an art gallery. The design of the gallery was won by Dunedin architect Edmund Anscombe and the building was constructed in the shape of a Greek Cross and  faced with Oamaru stone.

The Governor General, the earl of Liverpool, laid the foundation stone on 20 September 1917, and on 6 September 1919 the Prime Minister, W. F. Massey, officially opened the gallery.

Frank Denton, The Sarjeant Gallery, 1926. Collection of Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery.

While the gallery was the dream of Henry Serjeant Martin Edmond notes that it was Sergeant’s wife, Ellen who was the driving force after his death.

“Ellen Sarjeant was a remarkable woman and without her we probably wouldn’t have the gallery we do today. She was almost 40 years younger than her first husband, Henry Sarjeant, the benefactor of the gallery; the eldest daughter of one of his close friends. It would be interesting to have some insight into the dynamics of their marriage but they were very discreet. It’s possible that he had the money and she had everything else: the drive and enthusiasm, the artistic insight, the business sense and the administrative skills. He would have seen this and I suspect their partnership was intended to transform the city the way the Sarjeant has. Ellen was among those who oversaw the building of the gallery; she was, with her second husband, John Neame, the initiator of its first acquisitions, both in New Zealand and overseas.”

The importance of Bill Millbank (Director 1978 – 2006) in developing the galleries status in his time at the gallery was a period when the institution became an important institution in developing a major programme as well as curating exhibition of national importance.

Edmond notes that the while Millbank initially had no real interest in the arts this changed with his travels overseas.

“crisscrossing Europe in a Kombi van, visiting galleries and churches, looking at art ‘all the time’. There was a revelation in Toledo, in front of an El Greco, when Milbank understood a hitherto obscure (to him) connection between these works and a painting he had admired on his weekly visits to the Sarjeant. He wondered, naively, if the Sarjeant painting was in fact by El Greco. It turned out to be the aforementioned Gethsemane by New Zealand artist Lois White.

Among the significant exhibitions that Millbank was responsible for was the first exhibition of “The Given as an Art-Political Statement” by Billy Apple in 1979. The exhibition included a controversial intervention by Apple, where he removed the sculpture “The Wrestlers” (Raffaello Romanelli) from its prominent position and replaced it with photographs of the sculpture on the surrounding walls.

He also initiated Te Ao Marama: Seven Māori Artists which showcased contemporary Māori art and travelled to Sydney.

Millbank was also responsible for the development of the Tylee Cottage residency which has seen over sixty artists make use of the programme including Laurence Aberhart, Mervyn Williams, Bronwynne Cornish, Adrian Jackman, Anne Noble  and Jade Townsend

Edmond also writes of the pivotal role of Gordon Brown  who was the first full time director between 1974 and  1977).

The book has the subtitle of “A Whanganui biography” and Edmond rounds out both history of the gallery and its place in the city’s history as well as the directors of the institution. He includes many incidental aspects of the city’s history both of artistic as well as general interest.

He includes the D’Arcy Cresswell drama where the poet was shot and injured  by  the  Mayor Charles Mackay who had made homosexual advances towards him in the mayoral office. The incident brought Mackay’s 11-year career as mayor of Whanganui and as a major supporter of the gallery to a shocking end.

While the galleries new extension has been many years in planning and execution it was hampered early on by the mayor Michale Laws. He had Goebbels-like approach to culture, seeing the “arts community consisting mainly as bludgers and elitists”. His attempts to stop the building was a low point in the city’ s artistic history.

Threaded through the gallery’s history are accounts of the developing collection including donations, European buying sprees and local acquisitions. Over its 100 year the  gallery has acquired a number of important works as well as establishing a fine collection of local artists including Edith Collier.

It is a compelling read full of lively, far sighted and dubious characters along with interesting accounts of the development of a public institution.

The book is generously illustrated with many works from the Sarjeant’s rich, varied and important collection. It also provides a full list of all the staff since the gallery’ inception as well as all the artists who have been Tylee Cottage residents.