The decade in art, from Quasi to the Turner Prize and beyond
We get a handle on the artists and artworks that shaped this decade in Aotearoa.
As
2019 draws to a close, the four nominees for this year’s Turner Prize
subverted the competition – they asked to receive the award as a
collective. Meanwhile, at Art Basel Miami Beach, a banana taped to the
wall sold for US$120,000 and the media went ape. Is it time to suspend
judgment? Is it collective action that counts today, or cool bananas?
The Spinoff Art’s coeditors Mark Amery and Megan Dunn review the high
points of New Zealand art over the last decade.
2019 Mata Aho Collective Kiko Moana
Mata Aho, Kiko Moana, documenta 14, 2017.
Mata Aho (Erena Baker, Sarah Hudson, Bridget Reweti and Terri
Te Tau) is a collective that produces monumental fibre-based works and
is currently showing new work at the National Gallery of Canada. In
2017, Mata Aho, Nathan Pohio and Ralph Hotere – all Māori – were the
first New Zealand artists selected for
documenta 14, in Kassel, Germany. Mata Aho’s installation there,
Kiko Moana, made from ubiquitous blue tarpaulin, embodying the idea of a taniwha built for poor weather, went on to the Royal Academy’s
Oceania exhibition and was acquired by Te Papa.
2018 Luke Willis Thompson autoportrait
Luke Willis Thompson, autoportrait, Hopkinson Mossman Gallery, 2017.
Produced during Thompson’s residency at London’s Chisendale Gallery,
autoportrait is
a
black-and-white,
silent-film portrait of Diamond Reynolds, who broadcast live on
Facebook the moments after her boyfriend Philando Castile was shot dead
by police in Minnesota in 2016.
Autoportrait was nominated for
the Turner Prize in 2018. But London’s BBZ collective protested in
T-shirts reading “Black pain is not for profit”. Their accusation? That
Thompson, of mixed Fijian and European heritage, is a “white-passing
male.”
The Spinoff’s Decade in Review is presented in partnership with Lindauer Free*,
the perfect accompaniment to end-of-decade celebrations for those
looking to moderate their alcohol content (*contains no more than 0.5%
alc/vol).
2017 Michael Parekowhai The Lighthouse
Michael Parekowhai, The Lighthouse, 2017.
Funded by realtors Barfoot and Thompson, Parekowhai’s
million-dollar state house on Queens Wharf became a beacon for debate
about the housing crisis. Inside, a giant stainless-steel statue of
Captain Cook is surrounded by Southern Hemisphere constellations drawn
in neon – the stars of Matariki resting at his feet. In
Metro,
critic Antony Byrt wrote: “It simultaneously memorialises Māori
resistance, pays tribute to our shared histories of navigation and
migration, honours our egalitarian past, and acts as a gesture of
permanent subterfuge in the heart of our property-obsessed city.”
2016 Ronnie Van Hout Quasi
Ronnie van Hout, Quasi, Christchurch Art Gallery, 2016.
From
Comin’ Down to
Walking Boy,
Van Hout proved to be a dab hand at divisive public sculpture.
Quasi, his giant hand, first landed on the roof of Christchurch Art Gallery in 2016. Not everyone clapped, but they did look up.
Bravo
also to Christchurch Art Gallery which delivered record-breaking
visitor numbers for its Ron Mueck exhibition after the 2010 quake. Then,
following the devastating 2011 quake and being commandeered as a civil
defence centre, the gallery ran a dynamic offsite programme.
Quasi would clap, if he had a twin.
2015 Lisa Reihana In Pursuit of Venus (Infected)
Lisa Reihana, In Pursuit of Venus (Infected), Auckland Art Gallery, 2015.
The defining Pacific work of the decade. Based on the French neo-classical wallpaper
Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique (1804–5),
Reihana’s panoramic video animation reimagines first encounters across
the Pacific – Captain Cook’s ‘drawers’ are dropped on screen!
Incorporating art, film, costume, theatre, and dance, the work debuted
at Auckland Art Gallery to popular and critical acclaim, before heading
to the 2017 Venice Biennale, then Sydney, Toronto, San Francisco, Cape
Town, Jerusalem, Honolulu, Tallinn, Hobart, Adelaide, and Paris.
2014 Simon Denny The Personal Effects of Kim Dotcom
Simon Denny, The Personal Effects of Kim Dot Com, Adam Art Gallery, 2014.
Adam Art Gallery staged the first major New Zealand solo show
of the audacious Simon Denny, whose work explores neo-liberal tech
culture. Originally presented in Vienna,
The Personal Effects of Kim Dotcom
recreated the inventory of items seized by New Zealand police (acting
on behalf of the FBI) during their raid of the outlaw internet
entrepreneur’s mansion. It includes a jetski, a Predator statue,
oversized monopoly cards representing seized bank accounts and plastic
bags of shredded banknotes.
2013/2014 Shannon Te Ao Two Shoots that Stretch Far Out
Shannon Te Ao, Two shoots that stretch far out, single channel video, 2013-14.
In his video
Two Shoots that Stretch Far Out, Te Ao
reads a waiata to animals – a donkey, a swan, rabbits, geese – creating
one of the most lingering, emotive artworks of the decade. It was the
only New Zealand work selected for the 2014 Sydney Biennale and won Te
Ao the 2016 Walters Prize.
2012 Susan Te Kahurangi King
Susan Te Kahurangi King, Untitled, 1966.
Dan Salmon’s documentary
Pictures of Susan captures the
extraordinary life of Susan King, who stopped talking as a young child
but produces prolific idiosyncratic drawings featuring discombobulated,
carnivalesque, cartoon characters and rhythmic line pile-ups that have
dazzled the art world. Subsequently profiled in the
Guardian and collected by New York’s Museum of Modern Art, she’s the best New Zealand artist you’ve never heard of.
2011/2012 Gapfiller, Christchurch
Gapfiller, the Pallet Pavilion, 2012.
This canny collective of artists, designers, architects and
thespians was born of the citizen action of earthquake recovery.
Gapfiller populated Christchurch’s post-quake rubble with a wealth of
artist and community-led projects, ranging from the mobile disco
Dance-o-Mat to the
Pallet Pavilion. It helped change the way art was viewed – pity that Gerry Brownlee wasn’t listening.
2010 Tao Wells The Beneficiary’s Office*
“We
need to work less so we consume less,” said artist Tao Wells. For two
weeks, in a Wellington CBD office, he promoted “the opportunities and
benefits of unemployment”, and it worked. In the media, Wells was
pictured in iconic
Lenin-as-businessman pose,
while former finance minister Roger Douglas fumed about him. After Work
and Income found out about this Creative NZ funded art project, his
benefit was cut. “To be both dependents on that system and to so
publicly expose the issues around that system was very brave”, wrote art
critic Chris Kraus. Cut to 2019:
the median income for creative workers is $15,000 per annum. Now that is brave.
* Mark Amery was a curator on this project.
Honourable mentions:
FAFSWAG’s epic annual vogue balls, the theatre, the moving
image… taking over from the Pacific Sisters in bringing their swagger to
wearable, danceable arts the Pacific way.
Francis Upritchard, Wetwang Slack, The Curve, Barbican, 2018.
Francis Upritchard’s figurative sculptures, shown everywhere, and called out by
Lana Lopesi.
Yona Lee, In Transit (Arrival), Te Tuhi, 2017.
Yona Lee’s
In Transit installations, making their way from Pakuranga to Lyon.
Lemi Ponifasio/Mau, Standing in Time, 2017. photographer: Christophe Raynaud de Lage.
Lemi Ponifasio’s audacious dance works, a staple of international festivals.
Yvonne Todd, Creamy Psychology, City Gallery Wellington, 2014.
Yvonne Todd’s survey
Creamy Psychology complete with a frock room showcasing the collection of vintage and celebrity gowns used in her photographs.
Link to original article in Spinoff.
