Kiwi artists share stories of home
New Zealand is represented at the 2009 Venice Biennale, which opened in Italy this week, by two eminent artists of differing mediums and methods but with a common interest - their birthplace and favourite Kiwi foods.
Painter Judy Millar and sculptor Francis Upritchard were both brought up on different islands of New Zealand but share a passion for the sea and a popular Kiwi staple - fish and chips.
The two Kiwi artists, who are in Italy for six months while their work is exhibited at the world’s most significant visual arts event, share an insight into some of their favourite places and points about home - Aotearoa New Zealand.
Francis Upritchard
Born in New Plymouth on the West Coast of New Zealand, Upritchard is in her early 30s and currently lives in London.
She has exhibited extensively in New Zealand, Europe and America since graduating from Canterbury University’s Ilam School of Fine Arts in 1997.
In 2006, Francis Upritchard was the winner of the Walters Prize - New Zealand’s most prestigious contemporary art prize.
A three-month hometown residency at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, in 2007-08, resulted in the exhibition ‘rainwob i'. A further residency at Artspace Sydney produced ‘rainwob ii’.
These exhibitions continued Upritchard’s exploration of utopian drives through fragments of real and fictional histories that are retrieved, reworked and reinvested with new meaning.
Upritchard has just released a new book Every Colour By Itself which is a visual journey through 39 of her modelled figures, each detailed with psychedelic surfaces and a handmade quality.
Q: What is your favourite place in New Zealand?
A: New Plymouth.
[New Plymouth is a vibrant city in Taranaki on the west coast of the North Island, and recently rated as one of the best places in the world to live according to an environment-based competition endorsed by the United Nations.]
Q: Where would you recommend visitors go in New Plymouth?
A: The Govett-Brewster Gallery, the mountain, the sea, Pukekura Park.
New Plymouth and Taranaki
Mount Taranaki or Mount Egmont, towering 2518m above the city of New Plymouth, has one of the most symmetrical volcanic cones in the world. The Taranaki region is a popular destination for movie-makers and artists with a picturesque environment that combines an unspoilt coastline contrasting mountain, lush farmlands and world famous parklands. New Plymouth’s Pukekura Park covers 52ha and the collection of exotic specimen trees, indigenous bush and rare plants makes it one of New Zealand’s Gardens of National Significance.
Govett Brewster
The Govett-Brewster, Upritchard’s favourite cultural spot, is New Zealand’s premier contemporary art museum and is recognised internationally for its global vision and commitment to the Pacific region. Two of Upritchard’s works, 'Horse Man' and 'Rainwob Tree', which relate to her New Plymouth childhood, are owned and exhibited by Govett- Brewster.
Q: What do you like about Govett Brewster?
A: The programme is amazing and has been for years. It’s a rare treat to see Len Lye's 'flip and 2 twisters', and - as far as I know - Govett -Brewster every second year has it running.
Q: What is your favourite thing to do in NZ?
A: Walk.
[One of New Plymouth’s key attractions is a coastal walkway - a 7kilometre path that forms a sea-edge promenade along the entire length of the city - named the world’s best environmentally sustainable project for 2008.]
Q: Is there any particular walk in NZ you would recommend?
A: The walk into Lake Daniels in the Lewis Pass, because it's only a few hours to the lake, and the forest and river are amazing.
Q: Name your favourite eating out spot.
A: Any good fish and chips.
[Fish and chips are New Zealand’s preferred takeaway and often feature freshly caught local seafood including snapper, tarakihi, gurnard, hoki, lemon fish and blue cod.]
Q: Who is your favourite fashion designer?
A: Karen Walker.
[Karen Walker, New Zealand’s best known fashion designer, has a reputation for original, effortless and unpretentious style. Her designs are stocked in more than 250 stores throughout the world. Walker has three flagship stores in New Zealand and another in Taipei. She shows her latest collection each season at New York Fashion Week, has permanent showrooms in London, New York, Tokyo and Sydney.]
Q: What about your favourite shop in New Zealand?
A: Any charity shop south of Christchurch.
[Charity shops are generally called ‘op shops’ in New Zealand - short for opportunity shops run by organisations like the Red Cross, Salvation Army, church groups and hospice. There are hundreds throughout the country offering clothing and items at bargain prices.]
Judy Millar
Born in Auckland in 1957, Judy Millar is considered one of New Zealand’s foremost painters.
Central themes in Millar’s large scale paintings include the relationships between canvas and paint, static and movement, and the place of painting in art history.
Millar studied at the University of Auckland Elam School of Fine Arts, gained a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in 1980, and a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in 1983. In 1989, she returned to the University of Auckland to study the writings of Italian feminist authors.
In 1991 Millar gained an Italian government scholarship and spent a year in Turin researching the work of Italian artists from the 1960s and 1970s. While in Turin, she became increasingly convinced that painting could still be a vital part of the contemporary artistic landscape.
She returned to her home on Auckland's west coast at the end of 1990 to develop her painting practice. In 2002 she won the Wallace Art Award. Between 1994 and 2008 Millar has held more than 20 solo exhibitions in New Zealand and overseas.
Today Judy Millar has joined a growing band of international cultural commuters as she travels between her studio in Berlin and New Zealand.
Q: What is your favourite place in NZ?
A: That's easy, where I live at the end of a 10km dusty road on Auckland's West Coast - perhaps one of the most untouched beaches on the planet and a place where the rest of the world ceases to exist.
Q: What is your favourite thing to do in New Zealand?
A: I like to get in the surf on one of Auckland's West Coast beaches, a very dangerous activity but the closest thing you'll get to swimming in slightly chilled champagne.
Auckland’s West Coast
The dramatic west coast of Auckland with its wild, untamed beaches, dramatic scenery and alternative lifestyle is a favourite haunt for artists. Most of west Auckland is within the boundaries of Waitakere City - New Zealand’s first eco city committed to protecting the environment and making the area a clean, green place to live. An artists and artisans trail detailed in Art out West lists the many potters, goldsmiths, textile artists, glass workers, painters, sculptors and woodturners who live and work in the region.
The west coast has also been well captured on film with one of New Zealand’s best known movies, The Piano directed by Jane Campion, shot at the now world famous Karekare beach.
The long black sand beaches of the west coast, including the popular surf beach of Piha, are just a short drive from Auckland city via the Waitakere ranges where a regional park includes more than 16,000ha of native rainforest and coastline. The 250km of walking and tramping tracks provide access to beaches and offer dramatic elevated views to the wild west coast and back to Auckland city.
Q: Name your favourite cultural spot in Auckland?
A: The Pacific Hall in the Auckland Museum, here you see the finest examples of Māori art that you'll probably ever see, entering the meeting house always gives me goose bumps.
Auckland Museum
Auckland War Memorial Museum is a popular destination for tourists, commanding a spectacular view across the cityscape and Waitemata harbour, and set in the expansive Auckland Domain. The museum has three expansive levels telling New Zealand’s history through wars, the country’s unique natural history and priceless Māori and Pacific treasures.
Daily Māori cultural performances offer visitors a good insight into the story of New Zealand through traditional song and dance.
Q: What is your favourite eating out spot?
A: That would be a wood-fired barbeque in my garden but perhaps that
doesn't count so next would be picking up fish and chips from the
Auckland fish market and driving to one of the inner-city beaches as the
sun goes down - the freshest fish eaten with the smell of the sea.
Auckland Fish Market
Auckland Fish Market in the central city is the best place to see New Zealand’s freshest seafood straight from the fishing trawlers. As well as a huge range of popular varieties like snapper, tarakihi, gurnard, crayfish and mussells, market retailers also stock lesser known species, considered delicacies by seafood-loving Kiwis and international visitors.
A seafood cook school also operates at the market and is a popular attraction with tourists keen to sample and learn about NZ’s wide variety of seafood.
Q: Who is your favourite fashion designer?
A: World - daring designers who don't look at what others are doing, brave enough to do their own thing and go out on a limb.
World clothing
The World clothing label, established in Auckland in 1989 by Denise L’Estrange-Corbet and Francis Cooper, has developed into one of New Zealand’s leading fashion houses - most widely regarded as being "avant-garde".
Q: Name your favourite shop.
A: Unity books in Wellington where I always find books not seen anywhere else.
More information:
New Zealand artworks headed for Venice
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