New work by Sarah Florence

We recently had a brilliant Gallery library volunteer, Sarah. Here she is at her past exhibition of paintings at Unitec, where she is a student. The work behind her is a Henry Darger-like take on children's book illustrations. There are some disquieting, though subtle, undercurrents of violence here (in the best tradition of fairytales) yet colourful and playful enough to be hung in a childs room!

Thank you for all your hard work as a volunteer Sarah.

To be or not to be.....online

We have published online, extracts from our latest catalogue for the exhibition Turuki Turuki! Paneke Paneke! on the exhibition page of the website. There is mixed thoughts on this with some uncertainty as to whether this will increase or decrease revenue. Should a smaller or larger selection of the catalogue be included?

Obvously, being a big fan of online publishing, I believe it is a good thing and personally it does entice me to buy as i still love the 'real thing'. However, as i know i am biased, I'd be interested to know how any of you out there feel about this.

Does publishing part of a catalogue online entice you to buy?

Does publishing the whole catalogue online stop you from having to buy the catalogue?

What do other art/museum institutions do?

If anyone has any research/links/thoughts on this send them my way. I'd be very grateful.


(Click here or the image above to view the catalogue online)

NZ interactive

I have been thinking about creating an interactive web exhibition, or specific artwork for the website for a while now and as yet have not found any artists working this way (let me know if you are out there in NZ).

Then, I was shown for the first time the interactive digital art of Karl D.D. Willis over the weekend. It is an "interactive installation which invites the participant to write, draw, and trace images in real physical space using a series of light sources"(Karl D.D. Willis). Creating all sorts of amazing imagery.

Some of you may have seen 'Light Tracer' when it was profiled in the news a few years ago but for those that haven't here is a link to more information on it.

He has also been working on a project called twelve pixels which explores

"the role of the mobile phone as a device for creative expression"

Have a look at it here.

An amazing kiwi talent out there creating cutting edge works that could fit in an art gallery as much as in a science museum. It makes me reconsider what is art and what is science. With the web becoming more 'interactive' and 'social' it reminds me of a science museum. Especially for children or teens, those kind of museums were always the most fun, does art have a place in this type of activity?

If you are out there Karl how about creating something for our Auckland Art Gallery website to take this a bit further :)

you have to give it a try hey!!

Behind closed doors

Here's a few more photos taken by the brilliant Jennifer French of the currently closed Main gallery building of the Auckland Art Gallery. It shows gallery and back of house spaces after they have been emptied of artwork and staff.

I think it looks so beautiful, i really love these images. An exhibition in themselves!

My old shared office space!