Notes
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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.
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The Picturesque
Leaving certain earthquake-damaged buildings as picturesque ruins has been the subject of debate in Christchurch recently.
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What I'd like to steal from the AAG
There's a whole lot of new exhibition space in the just reopened Auckland Art Gallery, and a whole lot of art hung (and sometimes shoehorned) inside it. But if the two small rooms containing the promised gift of Julian and Josie Robertson were the only spaces to see, a trip to Auckland in the near future would still be compulsory.
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Infinite Gesture
"Tradition is not reproduced. It is thrown and caught. It lives a long time in the air."
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The Pruitt-Igoe Myth
The Pruitt-Igoe social housing development in St Louis, Missouri is often held up – or beaten down – as the case of modernist social housing gone bad.
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Gallery Guides leading Brian Brake tours
A short walk along the boulevard from the Gallery, Canterbury Museum has reopened its doors to the public. One of the opening exhibitions is Brian Brake: Lens on the world developed and toured by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and presented in partnership with Christchurch Art Gallery.
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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.
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Care Package (Part 3)
And so now that you've heard the story of the mystery black box that turned up on our doorstep, and the big blow-up bunny inside it, and the fact Jim Barr and Mary Barr have given it to the Gallery to put some bounce in our eventual re-opening celebrations, it's time something else got mentioned.
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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.