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Rattlers

Rattlers

That's the name my son gives to the aftershocks that regularly shake our St Albans home.

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From the bottom of my heart

From the bottom of my heart

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Happy birthday

Happy birthday

Colonel Harland Sanders was born today in 1890.

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Ouch

Ouch

When re-construction and 'business as usual' collide...

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Ascension in Venice

Ascension in Venice

I've long admired the work of Anish Kapoor, an Indian-born British artist, who shows all over the world. I first saw a work of his in a touring show of modern British art around 1984 at Queensland Art Gallery where I was working at the time (I think it went to the former National Art Gallery in Wellington as well - those were the days). Fine powder in primary colours covered abstracted shapes and fanned out slightly on the surface of the floor; it was quite wonderful.

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Subsidence

Subsidence

The whole of New Zealand gets that sinking feeling, in this recent addition to the collection (it's the sketchbook for this), by Tony de Lautour.

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Freeville school misses...

Freeville school misses...

Ron Mueck, Joanna Langford's Up from the plainlands, Andrew Drummond's Counter Rotating and Earthing Device, and Max Gimblett.

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e-poetry

e-poetry

This term the Gallery is running Ringmaster: Stories from Christchurch Art Gallery, a writing competition for 8 to 18 year olds.

Collection
Hills from Annat

Douglas MacDiarmid Hills from Annat

After a stint at the Wigram Air Force Base in Christchurch with the Royal New Zealand Air Force during World War II, Douglas MacDiarmid found the need to get away to the country for a well-earned sketching holiday. It was here that Hills from Annat was completed. He said of this time:

'I had been able to lay my hands on the last covered wagon in the South Island, also to hire a fine white mare. Off we drove in a flourish then for a month, Blanche, Buddy, me. We were headed for the rolling country where the Canterbury Plains are not yet hills finishing as Alps. At no more than a clip-clop pace it is possible to approach with peaceful observation, meditation merging as no motor vehicle will allow.'

In the vast emptiness, 8 January - 21 August 2016

Notes
More crucial, not less

More crucial, not less

'I think in periods of crisis and directionlessness the arts are more crucial, not less.'

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