Cultural Elsewhere
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RICHARD MEIER'S GETTY CENTRE IN LOS ANGELES (1999): Architecture, art and anger
10 May 2010 | 6 min read
High in the hills overlooking Los Angeles, The Getty Centre offers a commanding view. “Yeah, on a clear day you can see smog forever,” says a droll Angelino as he stares into the blue-grey gauze which lies lightly over his city on this typically perfect, dry day. That said the Getty, as it is commonly known and which opened 18 months ago, is beautifully appointed on a... > Read more
UTE LEMPER INTERVIEWED (2003): The ice maiden cometh
23 Apr 2010 | 10 min read
Midnight on a warm Wednesday in New York City, the Gotham of the Great Republic. The German cabaret maven has come home early from a recording studio across town so, sure, she has plenty of time to talk."I'm not an early sleeper," she laughs, somewhat stating the obvious.This is singer and actress Ute Lemper, once memorably described as like a "Valkyrian dominatrix" whose... > Read more
FRIDA KAHLO (1907-54), THE ARTIST AS SUBJECT: The pain and passion
12 Apr 2010 | 4 min read | 1
Pain. The word rings like a refrain in any discussion of painter Frida Kahlo. Her pain is writ large on the pages of even the most meagre of biographies: the crippling polio at age 6; the horrific bus accident at 18 and the more than 30 operations she endured as a result; the emotional wounds in her marriage to the great Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, 20 years her senior, whose serial... > Read more
JOHN PSATHAS INTERVIEWED (2000): Rattle of a complex man
10 Apr 2010 | 5 min read
After John Psathas won best classical album of 1999 at the New Zealand Music Awards in March, nothing happened. No arts writers called wanting to profile this prolific composer, sales of the album Rhythm Spike on the independent Rattle label didn't jump, and no critics decided to belatedly acknowledge this exceptional album which, on initial release, had only one print review. Even... > Read more
John Psathas: Calenture Part One from Rhythm Spike (piano Dan Poynton, guitar Neil Becker, percussio
LIVERPOOL AND AUCKLAND (2009): A tale of two architectures
22 Feb 2010 | 6 min read | 1
As the vessel pulls away from the pier, the soundtrack is predictable: the 1964 hit by Gerry and the Pacemakers Ferry Cross the Mersey, Gerry Marsden’s paean to this, his hometown of Liverpool. What is less expected on this short trip across the River Mersey and back is the commentary which sketches in the fascinating history of the Wirral Peninsula opposite where thousands once came... > Read more
SPOTLIGHT ON SYDNEY ART GALLERIES (2009): Small and sometimes imperfectly formed
1 Feb 2010 | 3 min read
For a quiet suburban street in Waterloo where small workshops sit alongside brick homes and the occasional eatery, there are a few meters of Sydney’s Danks Street fascinating for their art -- and the flinty undercurrent of gossip and innuendo. When John Ioannou opened his Agathon Galleries opposite the Danks Street Depot with its excellent restaurant and art arcade -- which includes... > Read more
JACK BODY INTERVIEWED (2001): From street to string section
5 Dec 2009 | 5 min read | 1
The music skitters off the disc as the Greek fiddle player takes to the tune at alarming speed, the notes slewing into each other. The piece is Horos Serra, recorded for a 1973 collection, and it captivated Wellington composer Jack Body so much that he transcribed it. No mean feat, given the density and difficulty of the piece which lasts a little over three minutes. "The rhythmic... > Read more
Jack Body: Long-ge
THE VENICE BIENNALE 2009: Art for art's, and its curator's, sake
26 Oct 2009 | 6 min read
Should Venice sink beneath the sea, it is possible the city could be reconstructed exactly by referring to the millions of photographs tourists have taken of every palazzo, piazza, corner and calle. On any given day -- in bitter winter or the smelly humidity of summer -- Venice is crammed with visitors snapping and filming. Venice’s decaying elegance, arguably an art... > Read more
SIR HOWARD MORRISON; ONCE IN A LIFETIME (Rajon DVD): The bright lights and bad nights
25 Sep 2009 | 3 min read
In my blog at Public Address I noted the sad coincidence: I started watching this three-part interview with Sir Howard Morrison on Tuesday. On Thursday night I heard that he had died. I also noted there that among the things I had scribbled in my notebook while watching just the first part where he speaks of his childhood was, "When Sir Howard, now [?], passes on we will perhaps... > Read more
Howard Morrison Quartet: Sere Si Mandolino
THE POPE VOTE: Angels and Demons, black smoke, white smoke
23 May 2009 | 7 min read
Dan Brown's Vatican-based thriller Angels and Demons typically raises lots of questions: notably why would you buy the book now when you can just go see the movie? But to give Brown his due, he writes a cracking story which in the film fairly belts along -- and has as its backdrop the arcane mysteries of a Papal Conclave, the time when old red-frocked cardinals get behind locked doors and... > Read more
LAM CHING-YING (1952-97): The fearless vampire killer
8 May 2009 | 2 min read | 1
Those who knew Hong Kong actor Lam Ching-ying describe him as disciplined and often severe, generous to his colleagues, but so private that when diagnosed with liver cancer in mid-1997 he didn't even tell his closest friends. He died that November, aged 45, and his pallbearers included actor/director Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan. At his request, his ashes were flown to the United States... > Read more
Bai Hong: Listen Up
ET.AL AT THE 2005 VENICE BIENNALE: Reporting on the site office
1 May 2009 | 4 min read
Pity the Welsh, and not just for their poor rugby team. At this year’s Venice Biennale their artists were at a site so removed you probably only found it if you got on the wrong boat heading out of town. In a city of bewildering lanes, many exhibitions were as elusive. Even those from Iran and Afghanistan -- their banners draped along the Grand Canal -- proved difficult to locate.... > Read more
COLIN McCAHON IN MELBOURNE: Context is everything (2001)
2 Apr 2009 | 6 min read | 1
It can happen anywhere: in Miami you hear OMC's How Bizarre, on late-night television in London Smash Palace turns up, in a Japanese park you come across Maori carvings, in Hong Kong a woman is wearing a bone pendant of familiar design ... This not the shock of the new, rather the frisson of the familiar.Our culture, inchoate some say, resonates powerfully to us as New Zealanders in these alien... > Read more
JUST FIVE YEARS AGO: AMERICA IN CRISIS (2004): Land of the Free and Home of the Afraid
24 Jan 2009 | 11 min read
The cover of New York's weekly Village Voice in early June encapsulated the feeling in a single image. It was a variation on Grant Wood's famous painting American Gothic, the portrait of the elderly, pitchfork-bearing Iowan farmer and his spinster daughter. But rather than representing the Puritan ethics and hard-working dignity of the Midwest as Wood's 1930 painting intended, in the Voice... > Read more
HELLO KITTY, WANT MY MONEY?: The rise of Japanese pop culture
1 Dec 2008 | 5 min read
If you took the idea to the marketing department it would go nowhere. Imagine the pitch: “Hey guys, here’s an idea, just run with me on it for a minute. We create this little blue cat thing for, I dunno, comic books, magazines and who knows, maybe even movies. Then we put its picture on every piece of merchandising we can think up.” But blah-blah? “Yeah, good... > Read more
SHIRIN NESHAT, IRANIAN PHOTOGRAPHER AND FILM MAKER INTERVIEWED (2004): Fundamental truths
30 Nov 2008 | 10 min read
The Iranian-born photographer and film maker Shirin Neshat left her homeland in 1974 to work in the United States and now, after a terrifying interrogation on her last trip back six years ago, has reluctantly accepted the description, "artist in exile". Her homeland - once dominated by the Shah and politically oriented toward the West - is now an Islamist state which went through... > Read more
STEVE REICH'S CAREER CONSIDERED: From taxi driver to concert master
20 Nov 2008 | 6 min read
It’s a rare composer who can simultaneously alienate and enthral distinct sections of an audience: Igor Stravinsky unintentionally managed it in 1913 when he premiered The Rite of Spring before an outraged crowd and there were fistfights in the aisles of the Theatre des Champs-Elysees, and so did Alban Berg the same year in Vienna with his Altenberg Lieder. But as the 20th... > Read more
NIGEL KENNEDY INTERVIEWED (2003): At last, a man for all seasons
8 Nov 2008 | 6 min read | 1
For the former bovver-boy of classical music who gave it quite a kickin' he's, like, clockin' on a bit. Knoworrimean? He's like, 46 now. But it's cool man because, you know. Whatever, s'all cool. Awright then? Nigel Kennedy - now back to his full name after a brief rock-like digression into surname-only territory - is in the Etruscan Room of the luxurious Home House in London. It's 8pm at... > Read more
MAXIM SHOSTAKOVICH AND MSTISLAV ROSTROPOVICH INTERVIEWED (1988): An encounter with genius
28 Oct 2008 | 8 min read
In the beginning it didn’t look like things would come together at all. The much anticipated press conference with conductor Maxim Shostakovich and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich was in doubt. Rostropovich was apparently studying his scores and Shostakovich had indicated he didn’t want to do it alone. Stalemate. Both artists were in Wellington for the 1988 International... > Read more
ELVIS PRESLEY, AN ESSAY ON THE MAN 15 YEARS GONE (1992): The once and future King
17 Oct 2008 | 6 min read
This year, 1992, Elvis Presley - the first and only king of rock’n’roll - has been gone 15 years, yet, ironically, he often seems more alive than ever these days. Living Colour may insist Elvis Is Dead and Public Enemy rightly rap, “Elvis was a hero to millions but he never meant shit to me.” But that is now - and Elvis was then. As Native American... > Read more