Great news! With this announcement the value of the Shannon Te Ao work I purchased at the fundraiser auction for political prisoners Tame Iti and Rangi Kemara in 2012 has gone through the roof! Just kidding, it has welcomed many guests into our whare and we'll never part with it. But Shannon's contribution to that event throws into relief a larger issue: all of the finalists were deserving and the process of the decision is aesthetically miserable. The mode of the art prize has always been wrong, but it seems particularly worn out and dilapidated now that artists like those in the show are quick to note the communities involved in the production of their work, often including each other. I welcome the Walters' attention from international curators/critics/judges to Aotearoa-based work; I welcome the opportunities for artists to financially survive and thrive and get access to new opportunities; I welcome the focussing of domestic attention on the value of the artistic production taking place, but I can't help but feel it's time for an alternative format that better reflects the values of most artists working today, who don't calculate worth on an expert whim, but with a much greater sense of accountability to the broader community. In any case, congratulations Shannon and to all the artists. xx
Wells Tao Danny Butt, agreed, art prize money use to go also to people who didn't have jobs already in the industry. If the papers headline was "Massey Lecturer and artist wins Walters Prize" instead of just "artist', to see our democratic institutions fighting against, for example Te Ao Protest against " Transfield who also ran the offshore detention centres that house asylum seekers in Nauru and Manus" at some Biennale recently ", We would all win then. But you and your kind (university employees) have stayed silent on that issue.
Danny Butt I'm
not sure what your point is Tao but I wrote and presented about about
the Transfield/Biennale situation at length and Shannon was a signatory
to the open letter from artists to the Board. I'm fine for substantive
critique but any further unsubstantiated attacks will be a block. Cheers
Wells Tao not sure why you'd think that was an attack, just an observation. I'm sorry you don't get my point. I'll just leave it then.
The Guy ( Shannon Te Ao, who I've met several times, been to his house for tea and like and respect) is paid (I think, I don't know for sure, I heard he had a job a Massey I don't know his individual contract) 5 figures to be an artist ( again speculative, I do know that he was and may still be a land lord, that he owned a house with his partner in Nelson, very rich rent area, good for him), you'd think it would be kind of him to acknowledge his sponsor when he's out being an artist, not to mention that I'm contending that under the education act of NZ, 1989, to not do so is illegal.
- Tertiary Union did a conference on it two years ago, Massey did a three day conference on it this year.
I've been promoting the issue routinely like a broken record, over the four year on my Blog and Wells Group Facebook page, that you subscribe to with your like. You don't like? ( I have no idea if Danny Butt likes or not, but what a fantastic name!) What's not to like?
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