Censored

Bruce Connew's new exhibition I Must Behave includes his work Censored, recently a finalist in the Waikato Art Awards. Censored is undoubtedly a major work by one of New Zealand's foremost photographers. It will also be published in the May issue of Granta.

Here's what Bruce says about it:
"While in Zhongshan, China, during May 2008, I bought a copy of National Geographic magazine's May 2008, pre-Olympic Games, special issue on China. The magazine was plastic sealed. I cut it open back at my hotel. I removed the plastic, and leisurely thumbed my way through the fresh magazine, reaching page 46, and couldn't help but notice two-and-a-bit lines on the left-hand page excised with heavy black ink. Ah, censored, I deduced, and just 80-odd days out from the Olympic Games. Angled against the light, I could read the excised words, " . . . the Japanese invasion to the Cultural Revolution to the massacre around Tiananmen Square in 1989." Oh dear, that was curiously provocative of National Geographic. I thumbed some more. I came to a page that felt thicker than the others, and figured it was a three-page fold-out; but no, it was a double-page spread that had been glued together. Astonishing - this magazine was turning out to be a collector's item.

I moved along. Two more double-page spreads glued together. I must have spent an hour carefully prising them apart. They had been glued around the bright, red-ink border of each double-page, as if the border had been made for the task, and then the censor had pressed his/her glue stick in a full-page, neatly-formed, marvellously symbolic, diagonal cross that, when prised apart, tore at the printer's ink, immortalising the censor's work, and a government's meaning. This is when I discovered National Geographic had been truly, and improbably, confrontational. Each glued double-page spread dealt with a sensitive, political issue, using, mostly, art works by Chinese artist, some of which had been previously banned."

Victor Berezovsky's "Portal"

In February Victor Berezovsky will begin the installation of his Portal (pictured above) on the facade of the Freyburg Pool in Wellington's Oriental Bay. Portal is designed to draw attention to one of Wellington most iconic twentieth century buildings, and to reference the activities that take place inside.

Smoking with Gordon Crook

The three prints by Gordon Crook included in May Contain Nuts give the flavour of a new series of work that will be shown at the gallery in March 09. The central motif of Gordon's new exhibition will be smoking in all its many forms.

Anna-Marie O'Brien and the Rabbits

The Meeting of the Anti-Natal Class and New Father's Support Group by Anna-Marie O'Brien, look like sweet rabbit paintings. The titles of Anna-Marie's work are always important. They provide the key to their real meaning...

Megan Hansen-Knarhoi's Prayer Hand Pigeon

I asked Megan Hansen-Knarhoi about her work Prayer Hands Pigeon Pooing Prismatic Promise in May Contain Nuts
She writes, "Praying hands are a universal symbol of hope, and simultaneously as a white dove a symbol of peace. The pigeon on the other hand is considered the dirty rodent of the bird world. The rainbow symbolises the covenant between God and man "the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh". (Genesis 9:8-17) It is also symbolic of the seven subtle, interfacing bodies of multidimensional human consciousness as well as being a sign of diversity and inclusiveness, of hope and of yearning & international cooperative movement & freedom, and popularized as a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender with the freedom flag. Here the Prayer Hand Pigeon shits out a rainbow of crosses, another potent symbol. Being poopped on by a bird is supposedly good luck, but in our western world of over use, and over indulgence perhaps all this symbolism is just a load of shit?" Prayer Hand Pigeon is a series of finely crotcheted crosses, and a cross stitched prayer hand.

More Hybrids by John Roy

It's the last weekend of Here and There and I'm looking at the largest Hybrid in the exhibition. A friend just came in and wondered if the figure wasn't more than a little introverted. With his gaze hidden by the building, the figure would seem to be using it as a periscope - staring into some internal void. And generally John's work is introspective - the way that good art sometimes is. It quietly thinks about the contemporary world and our place in it.

Talking to John Roy

We talked to John Roy about his latest exhibition Here and There.

MNG: You've often used rabbits in your work before. Why rabbits?

JR: I like to use rabbits because they say so many different things depending on the viewers reading of the work.

MNG: Your work has often engaged with architectural forms. But the Hybrids are a little different. Metaphorically all buildings are an extension of ourselves in that they are the product of human projects and labour. Is this what you are referring to, and what's the significance or meaning of the Hybrids?

JR: I see the Hybrids as a fusion of people and buildings - people being modified by the environment they live in.

MNG: Anything you want to say about the holes or perforations in your work?

JR: I like holes. I think of them sometimes being windows , other times I see
them as drawing with light and dark. A hole is the blackest black you can get, and at the same time it can let the light through.

MNG: And the soldier rabbits? Are soldier rabbits an actual breed...

JR: I used the soldiers as I liked the army in disguise aspect. I also liked the way the wall rabbits are abstract shapes and patterns from a distance, it is not until you get closer that you can tell what they are.