B.
Dear Mr Bulletin
Behind the scenes
For some unknown reason, the Bulletin inbox appears to be more susceptible to spam than the rest of the Gallery's mail system, which frequently withholds fairly important messages from me. Doing my usual trawl through the inbox today it occurred to me that the emphasis of Bulletin's spam appears to have developed over the last year or so.
We started with fairly regular invitations to purchase mail-order brides, which were gradually replaced with invitations to purchase Viagra, presumably on the assumption that said bride was less than impressed. These developed into invitations to purchase heavy-duty painkillers – the marriage apparently really not a success by this point. At the moment, we're being encouraged to invest in cheap property. It's a little like watching a soap opera character's life playing out at high speed by raking through their trash. I can only wonder what phase of life they will be entering next.
Tony de Lautour Landscape 2002. Acrylic on loose canvas. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery, reproduced courtesy of the artist
Amongst all this, however, it's always a pleasant change to find out what people think of the Gallery's output. We're unlikely to invest in your waterfront development, but we're always keen to get feedback, or suggestions for articles you'd like to see in Bulletin. Email us, write to us, or just pop in to the Gallery.
But first, I have an acquaintance who has become stuck in a foreign land with no access to the necessities. I have a bank transfer to arrange.
Related
Collection
Tony de Lautour Landscape
The long mountain chain in Tony de Lautour’s Landscape references how the Southern Alps form a backbone for New Zealand’s South Island. However, this is not a traditional landscape. Exploring the idea of location, de Lautour has coiled this ‘spine’ into the symbol for ‘at’ – a standard feature of email addresses. The numbers around the mountain continue the theme, suggesting dates (location in history) or even altitude readings (location in space). Landscape combines references to real, remembered and imagined worlds. Adrift in the centre of a large black unstretched canvas, the painted @ continues de Lautour’s recent use of other familiar symbols, often associated with commerce, such as the MacIntosh ‘apple’ and the copyright symbol.
De Lautour was born in Melbourne. He studied at the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts in 1988 and lives in Christchurch. He has exhibited regularly throughout New Zealand since 1990. In 1995 de Lautour received the Premier Award in the Visa Gold Art Award.