Janice Giles is one of the creatives I have met since moving down to Tauranga. I’ve seen her work in local galleries, I’ve listened to her speaking poetry and I’ve stood on a stage at The Incubator sharing my words with her and the world. Janice is multi-talented and an acknowledged visual arts creative. She has another exhibition “Vuja de” of her printmaking, coming up at Imprint Gallery at the Historic Village, Downtown Tauranga. Vuja de (To experience something familiar in a different way’) New works, mostly monoprints. Commences Sunday, 3rd October at Imprint. ARTbop asked Janice to…
Author: ARTbop
Even now I try to avoid being the person who has to draft the first draft. It’s so much easier to be the “reviewer”. The privileged person who checks, amends and upgrades the first shabby attempt. It’s like hindsight. It’s always so clear to see what should have been done, what’s been done wrong, not done or avoided. And it’s so easy to say so even though if you’d been drafting the first draft you probably wouldn’t have done any better. It’s a quiet Sunday evening and I have given myself the luxury and privilege of commenting, of reviewing something…
It must be lockdown. I must confess. No, not to having twenty thousand double length toilet rolls under the bed in the spare room. I will confess to several tins of chick peas in the hall cupboard but it’s the biggest bag of standard flour I’ve ever bought in my life that I have to confess to – 5kgs. In my defence, when I finally went down to the supermarket after the faces got grimmer and the numbers got larger, it was all that was left there, unless you wanted wholemeal flour, which I didn’t. I put the bag into…
“Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren (22 January 1946 – 8 April 2010) was an English[1] impresario, visual artist, performer, musician, clothes designer and boutique owner, notable for combining these activities in an inventive and provocative way. He is best known as a promoter and manager of bands the New York Dolls and the Sex Pistols.” (Wikipedia) At the time most probably the above is not how Malcolm McLaren would have been described; the instigator and purveyor of punk more likely. Interviews show how alternative he and the Sex Pistols really were. Wikipedia reveals the breadth of his talent and ability. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoKI5fh0FqA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbB-SB3ZTJ4…
Then it was so out there. So alternative. So different and frightening – the punk style of Vivienne Westwood. Most probably terrifying because it wasn’t just fashion it was one of the front pieces of an anti-establishment wave. Fashion and tailoring that referenced bondage gear or looked as if it had been eaten in the washing machine. Without Westwood, McLaren and other divergent creative talents we’d all still be wearing little white cardigans over our summer frocks. You wonder when Westwood and Malcolm McLaren started their chain of shops with names like Let it Rock, Too Fast to LIve, Too…
The train slides into Papakura. It’s one of those old trains and it pulls dirty vinyl red seated carriages. The boys walk over the dirty over bridge. Some get in Range Rovers, big new SUVs, Mummy’s BMW or Audi. He walks out of the station past the Police Station and the entrance to the grubby Countdown. Across the road past the spot in the carpark the drug dealers like because it’s so dark but so accessible. He walks up the ramp past the cars and as he opens the door she starts to close down the computer. He sits and…
Flower growing is the perfect occupation for a writer. Out there in the paddock bent over the lines of neatly mulched plants picking out any weed that dares to try to join the selected team. Hoeing the unmulched lines; decapitating those unwanted little specimens appearing on the soil fringe. Cutting foliage for market. Cutting flowers for sale. Standing at the kitchen bench stripping stems of foliage and making fragrant bunches and all the while the words, the patterns of words, the stories and their pictures and people appear and come together. It’s the same with poems. They just appear wanting…
The final chapter of Nick Scott’s crime novel “Temple’s Job”. The long and winding story of crime, heartache, scientific experimentation and revenge. Read on to find the final fate of the participants. The journey back to Christchurch was uneventful, and Ian’s mind drifted back to the beatings he received from his father. His father’s idea of suitable discipline for almost every act that he thought was unwanted. In his father’s eyes that had covered a wide range of normal childish behaviour. Mark Liston needed something to show him the extent of what he had done and what he’d intended to…
Trifecta sounds so much more exciting that “threefa” . we’ve two film reviews from Nick Scott and Rosemary Balu has reviewed the Danish language (with subtitles) The Killing on TVNZ on demand. I try to be as supportive as possible of “local” but I just couldn’t watch whatever series of Broadwood it’s up to. I haven’t seen the earlier series and maybe they’re different and better but I tried. It’s not like “One Lane Bridge” where I was hanging out for the next episode and was stunned by performances.. With Broadwood I just couldn’t do it. Part of this may…
Q&A with printmaker Noa Noa Von Bassewitz who will be showing her work at the Imprint Gallery, The Historic Village Tauranga from 13th July 2021 1.Who are you? I am Noa Noa Von Bassewitz a contemporary artist, with Maori and German roots. I am a Wellington based print maker, working primarily on paper, but not exclusively. I am mother to four boys, my eldest is 21 and my youngest is 8. By training I am an anthropologist and teacher. Humanity fascinates me, our cultures and value systems, symbols and practices, that which makes us tick as human-beings. My art…