After calamity ... may we be strong.

 

Maori rebel flag: Aotearoa

Ralph Hotere

Cruciform II Ralph Hotere - from Human Rights series

Colin McCahon

Tīkoki ana te waka o Aoraki!
Ko Rūaumoko e ngunguru nei!
He parekura! He parekura! He parekura e!

Ko te motu whānui tonu kua pani.
Kei te hunga kua riro ki te pō, moe mai rā.
Kei ngā makorea, he aha rā he kōrero mō koutou?

Ko te Atua hei whakawhirinakitanga atu mō koutou
hei aupehi i te mamae, ā ngākau, ā wairua.
Kia piki te ora, piki te kaha ki a koutou katoa.

The canoe of Aoraki rocks!
It is Rūaumoko, earth shaker, rumbling!
Causing great calamity! 

The nation mourns.
To those who’ve breathed their last breath,
Rest in peace.

To the survivors, what words can we possibly say?
Let the Creator be your support in this time of pain.
Be strong, get well soon.

"Te Papa expresses its sympathy for the people of Christchurch" is the title of a post I found this morning on the blog of the Te Papa Museum in Wellington , NZ's capital city. The Maori culture is wonderfully represented in this excellent museum... I'm adding this as well....

In the Wellington Foyer, Level 2 of the Museum there is now a place for staff and members of the public to express their condolences. On display is a small boulder of pounamu, symbolising aroha – love and support – for the earthquake victims, their families and friends. It has a tangible connection with the South Island – Te Wai Pounamu – as it was sourced from the Arahura River, Westland. This variety of pounamu is known as kawakawa – as are the leaves of mourning placed on the case in which it sits.

If you would like to help with the Christchurch Quake Appeal, you can do so through the Red Cross, Mayoral Fund and Salvation Army to name a few. There is also a donations box at Te Papa. All donations will be passed on to the emergency services.

A Museum publication

Alembic (The sea) -Ross James

Lava field - Grant Keith

South Westland - Russell Clark

Pam Debenham 1984

Richard Kileen 

All images above form the Te Papa online collections. Below images form Christchurch Art Gallery.

Doris Lusk - Yachts on Littleton Harbour

Doris Lusk - Canterbury Plains from Cashmere Hills

Its always fascinating to view work that comes from a particular region... despite the universality of ideas, medium and forms of art there is much to be said for pouring over the collected works coming from a particular part of the world ... it can offer another layer of experience that can be incredibly useful for gleaning insight into a place and its people.


The artist below, Ray Crooke, painted memorable works from the islands of northern Queensland and the Pacific. After viewing his work a certain yearning to visit comes over me. I found an interesting Qld State Library reference to his work here. I really hope to get to Cairns and the north this year ... the recent cyclone has left many with an incredible task ahead of them. To anyone who's trying to rebuild my thoughts go out to you... wherever you may be!

Ray Crooke

Ray Crooke - Island song

Ray Crooke

Before I head off I want to mention this astonishingly watchable film I saw with friends last night. The title of this post - "After calamity... may we be strong" - is fitting.  INSIDE JOB offers up a  brilliantly constructed analysis on what brought us to our knees globally in the Global Financial Crisis ... and poignantly makes links to the most vulnerable in this story of global consequence ...those who suffered loss of homes, livelihoods, opportunities, accees to education... the homeless and impoverished ... and for what... the greed of a few and the benefit of the top 1%.  I thought this film might be arduous... it was actually compelling and a must see... and this morning I read that the future of food is being gambled on in the same way the sub-prime housing market was. I'm just getting my head around that... there'll be more at the homage to the seed blog as soon as possible on that! This is an emerging story!!!

Inside Job is up for an Oscar... I dont know what other films it's up against... no doubt other very deserving docos... can I just say... if you have not seen this film... see it.... whether or not it wins an Oscar...

we all need to know the background to this story .... and the biggest shock for me... some of the very same people who architected the avoidable fate of so many in 2008 are back in key position in US GOVT etc. WHAT IS THIS??????

This affects all of us... artists have had a big wake up call along with everyone else. People are thinking twice about how they spend their money ... this film will make you think a few more times too!

Have a good week ... and as a wonderful blogosphere friend says:

Be safe all.  Be strong.  Be smart.  Persist.

visit Mlle Paradis here

PS I promise I'll post something lighter next time. I have finally got some huge tasks out of the way and my paints are sitting there staring at me... its been 6 weeks since i was in a position to paint... and Im missing it badly!

Sea Angels via Mapping the Marvellous

 A very quick post...
... have you heard of sea angels?

Sea angels (Clione limacina)

Sea angels (Clione limacina) – one of the images in Richard Kirby‘s new book Ocean Drifters: A Secret World Beneath the Waves featuring high-magnification photographs of plankton, the microscopic marvels that inhabit the sea around the British isles. They underpin the whole marine food chain, provide the world with oxygen, and play an essential role in the global carbon cycle.

If you pop over to the wonderfully named blog 'Mapping the Marvellous' you can read much more like this and explore the wonderful world of links to be found here to cartographers, journals, institutions, museums, marine and wildlife, natural history and life science, wunderkammer and more. Great visuals and brilliant links.

One link I visited just now was Atlas Obscura which took me here and here (a post from Apartment Therapy).

from the blogger's apartment

Naturhistorisches Museum, Bern

Time to go trawling? ...you never know what you'll find through Mapping the Marvellous!

mappa mundi - 'sheet of the world'

map: ORIGIN early 16th cent.: from medieval Latin mappa mundi, literally ‘sheet of the world,’ from Latin mappa ‘sheet, napkin’ + mundi ‘of the world’ ( genitive of mundus).


The past two posts have contained maps and this one is no exception except here we go back centuries and see historical and imaginative works that contain absorbing histories. These images all come from the admirable Jane Librizzi at The Blue Lantern weblog. Click on the title of each image to go to the excellent posts at this blog.

The Walled City of Paris























Parma: Walled City of the Etruscans - 15th Century fanciful map of an old city dating back to the Bronze Age, c 3000 BC - June 4th Post. One of the commenters to this post on the Blue Lantern referred to the Etruscan Museum outside Florence which I remember making a point of going to a long time ago, having lightly touched on this wonderful culture during school days and having a lingering fascination years after seeing the lively frescoes and artifacts in text books.



















Image below found at www.themysteriousetruscans.com



Tomb of the Bulls Detail, Tarquinia


Fanciful Cities: Franco Fortunato - 5th June post contains wonderful images and information that includes references to the artist Fortunato, the Italian poet and writer Italo Calvino and the family of Jane Librizzi from weblog 'Blue Lantern'.

long white clouds...

Portrait of Katherine Mansfield: Anne Estelle Rice, 1918 Te Papa Collection. 
I found the excellent biography by Claire Tomalin of Katherine Mansfield who was an eminent New Zealand born writer living in London around the the time of the Bloomsbury's, in particular Virginia Woolf, and also DHLawrence - both of whom became intimate friends. A few days before picking up this book 2nd hand I was taken very much with this portrait at Te Papa. Finding the biography with this painting on the cover in an out of the way junk shop in a remote mountain village on the South Island was a treat. I gained a glimpse of the time in which she lived, both the colonial life of NZ and her prominent family's place in that and then the life of London and Europe which was the setting for much of her not so long life after the 'antipodean' childhood. Her father came to be a benefactor of Te Papa I realised tonight when looking at images. Interestingly whilst Katherine was alive family ties were very strained between them - support was offered up to a point - the artist's life was not "done"... not with this family and their desire for social eminence in the young NZ colony.

A Te Papa publication on its art collection

'Geneology III' Gordon Walters 1971

'Nought and crosses', series 2, no. 4 Colin McCahon

'Misiore' - Michel Tuffery 1988 woodcut on Tapa

'Reap what you sow'  Richard Killeen 1979 screeprint

'The dreaming of Gordon Walters' Richard Killeen 1995

'Meryta sinclairii: Puka' Sarah Featon 1919


Just back from the 'Land of the long white clouds' this afternoon and its far too soon for me to have downloaded photos and sorted them so... here's a small selection of wonderful works form the brilliant 'Te Papa Museum' in Wellington to set the mood for this short sojourn in a lovely part of the globe. I chose these images from the collections online at Te Papa.
My mind is overflowing with recollections and impressions of 12 days absorbing the atmosphere of this place. Certain colours, elements and images keep drifting back - the mood is lingering and I ponder quite how to talk of it.
But now its very late and tomorrow contains many errands and tasks... so I will soon be back, hopefully with photos after the culling takes place. NZ has very, very winding roads - some photos I took with my right hand leaning out of the car on various slightly scarey corners whilst the left hand was firmly holding the wheel and concentration was focused on negotiating the challenging road. This is why I will no doubt cull a few photos...point and click has its limitations...!
I've missed friends in the blogsosphere these past 12 days BUT it was lovely to be outside, walking through wonderful locations and barely spending a moment at a desk. All fresh and ready to go again now... talk soon!

Master teachers from the early 20th century

Currently showing at MOMA in NY is a major exhibition Bauhaus: workshops for modernity 1919 -1933. This morning whilst visiting the excellent blog Little Paper Planes I was prompted to look into the weblinks which I found most worthwhile.The page below is a timeline in images and notes which allows for a comprehensive yet brief overview. From there I went on to look at various sites, one or 2 detailing the period the Bauhaus was located in Dessau where various Master teachers were given houses designed by Walter Gropius to live in and work in. Klee resided next door to Kandinsky with their respective families and was known to conduct free painting classes in his home-based atelier, as well as carrying out more formal duties at the Bauhaus. 

'Introducing the Miracle' - Paul Klee 1916

The following workshop below is from an extensive program running for the duration of the exhibition. As you can see it is on this weekend...Oh to be in NY! There are repeats of this and other workshops over the next few months.To read about the Master's houses click here. 

New in October - Paul Klee 1930

Lyn Meyer-Bergen - student in Paul Klee at Bauhaus

Visit the excellent website of important Bauhaus Master Gunta Stolzl teacher here. Stolzl was an influential weaver and also a painter. Her textile work is shown below.

God save Vivienne

'the only reason I'm in fashion is to destroy the word "conformity". Nothing's interesting to me unless its got that element' - 

Vivienne Westwood

'I like wearing a safari suit for shooting tigers in'

'its so important to look to the past. because people did have taste, and they did have ideals of excellence, and those things are not going to come unless people look to the past.'

excellent weblink to Westwood's 2004 Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition.

Read about Westwood's life here on Wikipedia.

This is an image from a video of Jonathan Ross interviewing Vivienne Westwood. To view go to Westwood's latest incarnation as political activist in response to global warming at the website Active Resistance where there are 6 videos to watch on the current preocupation for this extraordinary woman who says passionately on this video - "my duty is to understand the world I live in...because understanding it you have to help the world...what can I do...this gift of life... you have to ask what can I do!"