What we said
By David Simpson
We've been blogging a lot over the last six months, and unsurprisingly, the earthquake appears to have been on our minds a fair bit. Here, in no particular order, are some of our outpourings.
Renaissance Town
Christchurch seems abuzz with demolition and construction crews working throughout the city at the moment. Over 2000 tons of demolition material is removed from the CBD daily. Just as post-quake Napier is depicted in Roland Hipkins' excellent painting of Napier, Renaissance, Christchurch has become New Zealand's renaissance town.
Learning from New Orleans
So your city's broken, the arts community is in disarray, and – after close inspection by experts in hard hats and hi-vis vests – it turns out your long-held faith in the role of art in post-quake Christchurch is suffering from stress fractures, subsidence and some kind of spiritual dry rot. What do you do?
Didn't get to sleep last night
The title of Jim Speers's sculpture rang true yet again the other night. But this time it wasn't aftershocks keeping me and half the neighbourhood awake – it was a roadwork crew.
Chocker
In the first few published critical responses, there's been a bit of talk about how much art has been packed into the impressive spaces of the new Auckland Art Gallery.
Cranes
Every work reproduced on this website that is still protected by copyright is cleared for use and we have been using our enforced closure to seek new permissions and clarify existing ones.
Ode to Shag Rock / Rapanui
We had followed its progress. Reduced to easily half its size after February 22, Shag Rock was made Shagpile as well as something ruder.
Be still earth, be silent
After a particularly shaky night*, Francis Shurrock's Be still Earth, be silent, be still and be silent is looking pretty good.
Uttër Drech at Christchurch Art Gallery
Bunker Notes Newsdesk, 25 August 2011: The biggest public art event in the country has been happening for months in Christchurch Art Gallery without anyone realising, organisers claimed today.
Some things never change
One of the good things (yes, surprisingly there are a few) about being closed is that staff are doing all kinds of interesting behind-the-scenes tasks.
Death of a library
The fate of our sister organization, the Central Library, is still far from clear. It sits just within the dreaded cordon, whereas we are lucky enough to be just outside it.
Snap
They call it the 'yellow volkswagen effect': once you see one, you see them everywhere. It's been a little like that for me following Justin Paton's short-lived, terrific and – it turns out – strangely prescient exhibition De-Building, which opened to great acclaim on 5 February and closed forever on 22 February, for obvious, afore-mentioned reasons.
Danger: Art!
The CCC/CERA workers occupying the Gallery are clearly not underestimating the powers of our femme fatale in bronze, Ex Tenebris Lux.
All off water
We Christchurch folk have probably always been a bit smug about our delicious artesian water...
Post-traumatic sustenance
'I think that art can add to the healing of a city in a post-catastrophe environment...'
More crucial, not less
'I think in periods of crisis and directionlessness the arts are more crucial, not less.'
The Places We Belong To
Cycling into work along Ferry Road each morning I pass one of those new ads perkily announcing that 'The Christchurch We Love is Still Here'. And each morning I imagine getting off the bike and performing a firm correction. Something along the lines of, 'The Christchurch we love is still here, but some very big bits of it are being knocked down.'
This Blog is Starting to Smell
The Portaloos are leaving! According to recent reports, the City Council plans to have the trusty units off our streets in a couple of months. And everyone seems to agree that that's good news.
Gazumped
'Art today longs to be topical, outward-looking, connected, responsive to site and situation. And it spends a lot of time fretting that it isn't. But an event like the earthquake short-circuits this logic horribly.'
The Bright Stuff
Before the quakes, we thought of our Outer Spaces programme as something extra – a nice complement to all the art going on inside. At present, however, with the building still occupied, the Outer Spaces are our Only Spaces, and any new addition to them counts for a lot more than it might have a year ago.
Banded bricks
I used to bike down Durham street past the old Canterbury Society of Arts Gallery every morning on my way to work ...
Bridge of Remembrance 1937 and 2011
As the city changes, it's a good opportunity to revisit some of the less well-known items in our collection.
When green is the new brown
You can't polish a turd – or so they say, but full credit to the Christchurch City Council for trying.
Volunteer guides reconnect at Sunday sessions
Our dedicated team of 42 volunteer guides dearly miss their work at the Gallery.
Tips for Trying Times #1 (an occasional series)
1. NEVER go to bed in anything you wouldn't want to wear in the middle of the street.
2. NEVER put the cornflour at the front of your pantry and ALWAYS close the pantry doors.
3. DON'T drive down Madras Street north of Bealey Avenue (contender for The Bounciest Liquefaction-enhanced City Street award), but if you do...
Ah, the good old days...
One of the strangest things about Christchurch's post-quake afterlife is how quiet and empty those once-bustling central city streets have become.
The ghost of studios past
In preparation for the next issue of Bulletin, Gallery photographer John and I have been out photographing some of the local artists who will be taking part in Rolling Maul when we reopen.
New Gallery Space for Christchurch
Christchurch's visual artists have been doing it tough of late, but there's at least one bright spot on the horizon with the opening of a new gallery, Chambers@241, on 20 July.
Who watches the watchmen?
John Robert Godley (1814–1861) and William Rolleston (1831–1903), two key players in the history of Christchurch, both tumbled off their perches on 22 February.
When Dallington was green (not red)
It has dirty yellows and dun-greens, under silvery mid-winter light. You might even call it drab, a deliberate exercise in the un-picturesque. It's Dallington many decades ago, as seen by Russell Clark – a painting which, on an ordinary day, you might find yourself walking right past.
It's a very gourd sign
One painting I was very pleased to see again recently isn't from the Gallery's collection, but will be very familiar to many Christchurch people.
It's a gallery Jim, but not as we know it...
The flight-deck of the Starship Christchurch Art Gallery.
Space for reflection
This week saw us begin the return of Petrus van der Velden's Otira paintings and drawings to public and private collections throughout New Zealand.
Calling time
The total collapse of Lyttelton's Timeball Station last Monday was just plain heartbreaking to see.
A message from the ancestors
The most memorable sculptures of 2011 were made five hundred years ago.
Manchester Street
Manchester Street, Christchurch by Louise Henderson was painted in 1929 and shows a streetscape that remained largely unchanged until the earthquake of 22 February.
Words to build on
Disasters mean loss and loss means remembrance and remembrance means memorials and monuments.
Godley House
The Press announced today that another iconic Banks Peninsula building is to be demolished, Godley House at Diamond Harbour.
Earthquake Gallery shop footage
Comment is superfluous here really, but we thought we would show what the scene was like in the Gallery shop on the day of the earthquake.
Helping out
As well as working at the Gallery, staff have been out in the field, helping colleagues and members of the art community.
Emergency HQ
I'm keen to let you all know how Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū fared after the major earthquake here. It was a wild ride on Saturday, for sure, and it will take some time for parts of Christchurch to clean up. However, our Gallery has emerged unscathed as a building. In fact, we're so safe that we're being used as civil defence HQ at present.
Library unscathed
While some buildings in Christchurch suffered a lot of damage in Saturday's earthquake, others, often close by, escaped with none. Within the Gallery library, some shelves and filing cabinets were emptied, but this tower of books was exactly as a I left it on Friday afternoon.
I draw no grand conclusions from this other than the self-evident truth that earthquakes and their effects remain entirely unpredictable.
Tim Jones
Librarian
Alternative spaces
As Jenny mentioned in her last post, the Gallery is now being used as the Civil Defence headquarters.
Coming back online
As the recovery operation continues around the city, here at the Gallery we are now one step closer to opening.