The Pursuit of Venus (infected)

From the Creative New Zealand newsletter

 
The Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa has approved and is pleased to announce Lisa Reihana as New Zealand’s artist for the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017.

Reihana’s panoramic video in Pursuit of Venus [infected] will travel to Venice. It will be presented at its immersive scale and rendered to its full resolution, with additional scenes included.  A new series of photographic works will also be commissioned.

The Arts Council is also pleased to announce Rhana Devenport as the curator for New Zealand’s presentation and Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki as a significant contributor to the project.

In Pursuit of Venus [infected] is a filmic re-imagining of the French scenic wallpaper Les Sauvages De La Mer Pacifique.

In Neoclassical France, entrepreneur Joseph Dufour used the latest printing innovations to produce Les Sauvages De La Mer Pacifique (1804), a sophisticated twenty panel scenic wallpaper. Mirroring a widespread fascination with the Pacific voyages undertaken by Captain Cook, de Bougainville and de la Perouse, its exotic themes referenced popular illustrations of that time.

Two hundred years later, Lisa Reihana has employed twenty-first century digital technologies to animate Les Sauvages De La Mer Pacifique. Enlivened with the sights and sounds of dance and cultural ceremonies, a vast video panorama is populated by a myriad of people drawn from across New Zealand and the Pacific.

Challenging historical and contemporary stereotypes, in Pursuit of Venus [infected] returns the gaze of imperialism with a speculative twist that disrupts notions of beauty, authenticity, history and myth. It is designed for multi-channel projection to create an immersive cinematic experience.

Alastair Carruthers, Commissioner for the 2017 Venice Biennale, says “in Pursuit of Venus [infected] has already captured a huge New Zealand audience and international attention with its sensuous reimagining of people, place and time.  In Venice 2017 Lisa Reihana will present a further evolution of her vast and beguiling vision, with new accompanying work.  The exhibition will be irresistible.”

Amazon killed the bookstore, and now ....

From Wired

Amazon Killed the Bookstore. So It’s Opening a Bookstore

Bookstore owners already loathe Amazon for gutting the cost of books online and driving so many brick and mortar shops out of business. Now, the online retailer is both beating them and joining them, with the opening of its first physical bookstore today in Seattle.

Amazon Books, as the new store is called, will be like any other Main Street bookstore (remember those?), except that Amazon will use the troves of data it collects from its online customers to stock the shelves. That means its book displays will feature real Amazon book reviews, and the store will showcase books that have amassed the most pre-orders online. The books will also come with Amazon’s trademark low price tags.

It can afford those cut-rate prices, of course, because Amazon Books is as much a bookstore as it is a billboard. Amazon’s not suddenly betting big on the bookstore business, and it certainly doesn’t need the store to be a success in order for Amazon to succeed. It’s better to think of Amazon Books as a giant advertisement. If it makes a little extra money for a $294.7 billion company, all the better.

The one silver lining for the book enthusiasts forced to watch their industry turn into a gimmick is that, according to the Seattle Times, Amazon is hiring from other retail stores and libraries that may be struggling. Well, silver lining for those hoping for Seattle-area book store jobs. For Seattle-area book store employers, it’s probably not pleasant watching their employees get poached.

For now, Amazon says the store won’t be serving double duty as a warehouse or pickup center, and the vice president of Amazon Books, Jennifer Cast, tells the Seattle Times the company doesn’t yet have plans to open a second location. “We’re completely focused on this bookstore,” Cast said. “We hope this is not our only one. But we’ll see.”

A new TS Eliot cat

From the Dominion Post

Cats, the hit Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, could be set for a new feline character after the discovery of a long-lost poem by TS Eliot.

Fans of the musical, currently playing at the London Palladium, will be familiar with the tales of feline favourites such as Macavity, the mystery cat. But now Cumberleylaude, a gourmet cat with a predilection for salmon, duck and the finest French wines, could be added to the plot, Lord Lloyd-Webber has suggested.

The development comes after the discovery of a new poem by Eliot, who wrote Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats on which the musical is based, written six months before his death in 1965.
Cumberley, the real-life cat that inspired the character, belonged to Anthony Laude, a 20-year-old from Cambridge who invited Eliot round for dinner after corresponding with the writer.

After dining at Laude's home, Eliot, then 75, wrote to thank his host, adding that he "also enjoyed meeting Cumberley, a particularly fastidious eater without doubt, but a dignified and beautiful cat. His character struck me so forcefully that I felt I had to write a few words in honour of him."


Attached to the letter was an 18-line poem telling the story of Cumberleylaude, a "gourmet cat" which roamed the houses on his street looking for the best food. While the creature was desperate for "salmon, or duck, or expensive French wines", Eliot notes he "did very little to earn his dinner and board".

The poet concluded the neighbours' patience would wear thin, and Cumberleylaude would be forced to revert to chasing mice for its dinner. He wrote: "Then monocle and cane he will have to discard / And realise that hunting isn't so hard."

Laude died, aged 60, in 2003, and his copy of the poem was auctioned for charity. However, a carbon copy has been retained by Eliot's estate.

Lloyd Webber aims to bring a production of Cats back to Broadway, and sources close to the impresario said that he had not yet decided whether to change its line-up. Asked whether it could include Cumberleylaude, he said: "We hope that Cats will return to Broadway next year, so who knows?"

New Zealand a safe luxury destination

From the New Zealand Herald

Geopolitical concerns may see an increase in high-end cruise ships plotting a course to Southern Hemisphere.

Cruise ships such as Azamara Quest are smaller than the megaliners and the average stay in port is usually longer, meaning more spending onshore.

A luxury cruise industry veteran says New Zealand stands to benefit from global instability that is making cruising difficult in some parts of the world.

Larry Pimentel, president and chief executive of Azamara Club Cruises, said the outlook for his company's parent, Royal Caribbean, was rosy with one rider.

"Geopolitics - if anything that could derail, that's generally it."

Azamara is Royal Caribbean's boutique line for high-end passengers and is coming to New Zealand waters during the next three summers, where he said there would be rapid growth in the coming years.

Apart from being high on the bucket list for its passengers, part of the motivation for coming to New Zealand was to avoid trouble elsewhere in the world said Pimentel, who has headed Cunard Line and has more than 25 years of experience in the sector.

"I remember having this conversation with itinerary planners and saying 'Let's go to New Zealand, let's go to Australia where we're less likely to have geopolitical nightmares that we can have in Europe'," he said while in Auckland.

Egypt and Tunisia were off the map for itinerary planners, the Black Sea region was unstable and the flood of refugees to southern Europe presented big problems for cruise lines.

"Now with the migration it's very problematic because you have thousands of people taking small craft. Ships have an obligation under law to pick them up - it's very precarious because if we pick them up a country can say we don't wish to have them and we have to repatriate them by law."

He said it was likely fewer ships will cruise around the eastern Mediterranean.

"I would say the eastern Med would be very complicated."

Pimentel said Azamara surveyed its passengers more than two years ago to find out where they most wanted to go.

"We have a very affluent guest and it turns out that New Zealand was one of the top of the bucket list and that was because of the natural and organic beauty and the fact it is so remote for most that they hadn't seen it but everything they knew about it was very positive."

WOW -- great memories revived.

Copyright © 2015 WOW, all rights reserved.

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Thanks, It's Been A Fabulous Season We’d like to pass on our thanks to the more than 54,000 people who attended the 2015 World of WearableArt Awards Show in Wellington, New Zealand. And of course, special thanks to all of the fabulously talented designers whose garments were showcased on stage. This year, Peter Wakeman of Nelson took out the Supreme Award with 'Diva's Dreamscape', winning $30,000 NZD. Make sure you read about his  extraordinary journey towards being a WOW finalist in the feature article below. The runner up to the supreme award 'Deadly Beauty' was won by Fashion Design student Xi Zhang from Donghua University, Shanghai, China. To see a summary of all the WOW 2015 Award Winners, click here.  Finally, make sure to take part in the survey found below - you could WIN two premium tickets to the 2016 edition of the World of WearableArt Awards show. Enjoy! The WOW Team From Garage to Glory The first year Peter Wakeman entered WOW, he cut things a bit fine getting his entry in on time. So competition director Heather Palmer gave him a call.. Read More

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​	Watch: 2015 Show Highlights Re-live the unique show experience of the 2015 World of WearableArt Awards Show, where garment design and creativity meets theatrical performance in a completely magical and unexpected way! Watch

Latest review for Island of the Lost

"I sent this book to a friend who was in jail. He thought it was a very good book"

From the Amazon.com site.

One wonders whether it was sent in the hope that the reader would find clues about how to:

(a) escape

(b) survive in ghastly conditions

(c) get along with his fellow inmates

But it did get five stars! 

Fakes can be more interesting than the real thing

I love Lindauer paintings of Maori chiefs.  Not only are they realistic, but they bring history to life.

The Alexander Turnbull Library does, too.  Unfortunately, however, they bought a fake one.

Here is the news release from stuff.co.nz:

The Alexander Turnbull Library has admitted it paid $75,000 of public money for a forged Lindauer portrait.

The national heritage collector, based in Wellington, bought the painting in 2013, despite being warned by an expert before the purchase that is was likely to be a forgery.

It bought the portrait of Hoani or Hamiora Maioha, signed G. Lindauer, at auction.
Gottfried Lindauer (1839-1926) painted hundreds of portraits of leading Maori figures, many of which are in public collections.

Before making the purchase, the library got the advice of colonial art expert Roger Blackley, of Victoria University, who told them it looked likely to be a fake. However, it went with the advice of its own experts, and went ahead with the purchase.

On Monday, chief librarian Chris Szekely admitted the library and its in-house experts had made a mistake.

"After having the painting forensically examined, the painting is not what we believed it was," he said.

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So, how did they learn the awful truth?

It all comes down to science and an author who knows her stuff.  According to another report, from TV3:

The forgery was confirmed when Auckland Art gallery conservator Sarah Hillary inspected it this year as part of preparations for a book on Lindauer.

She found the painting contained titanium dioxide, which was not available when Lindauer was painting, and that the brushwork was rough compared with Lindauer's careful strokes.

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H'mm.  But is all lost?  Can the fake be more interesting than the real thing?  Who painted this rather charming portrait of a handsome young chief?

New Zealand's most famous forger was a man by the name of Karl Sim, who died in 2013. He had copied 62 artists including, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Lindauer and Goldie.

 Here he is.  Isn't he lovely?

When he died exactly two years ago (24 October 2013) at the age of 89, his sister found a list of paintings he might have forged inside a dictionary of artists' signatures.

Born and raised in the Manawatu, he became notorious in the mid-1980s when, known as Karl Sim, he was brought to court for forging the works of C F Goldie and Petrus van der Velden.

He was convicted on 40 counts, fined $1000, and ordered to paint the Foxton Town Hall and public toilets as part of 200 hours' community service.

Sim then changed his name to Carl Feodor Goldie so he could legally sign his Goldie works.

But did he paint the Lindauer in question?  Maybe the experts will let us know. 

And, when they do, they could hang it back on the wall, with a really interesting label underneath.

No surprises in the iBook bestseller list

iBooks US Bestseller List- Paid Books Week 10/18/15

1.	See Me by Nicholas Sparks – 9781455520596 – (Grand Central Publishing)
2.	The Survivor by Kyle Mills & Vince Flynn – 9781476783475 – (Atria/Emily Bestler Books)
3.	The Martian by Andy Weir – 9780804139038 – (Crown/Archetype)
4.	The Murder House by David Ellis & James Patterson – 9780316337977 – (Little, Brown and Company)
5.	Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling – 9781781105849 – (Pottermore)
6.	Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter – 9780062429063 – (William Morrow)
7.	Killing Reagan by Bill O’Reilly & Martin Dugard – 9781627792424 – (Henry Holt and Co.)
8.	Foreign Affairs by Stuart Woods – 9780698195028 – (Penguin Publishing Group)
9.	The Girl in the Spider’s Web by David Lagercrantz – 9780385354295 – (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group)
10.	The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins – 9780698185395 – (Penguin Publishing Group)
11.	Make Me by Lee Child – 9780804178785 – (Random House Publishing Group)
12.	After You by Jojo Moyes – 9780698152045 – (Penguin Publishing Group)
13.	Wrong by Jana Aston – 9780692527771 – (Rutherford Press)
14.	Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling – 9781781105856 – (Pottermore)
15.	Twilight Tenth Anniversary/Life and Death Dual Edition by Stephenie Meyer – 9780316268684 – (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
16.	Dance Upon the Air by Nora Roberts – 9781101146286 – (Penguin Publishing Group)
17.	All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr – 9781476746609 – (Scribner)
18.	The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah – 9781466850606 – (St. Martin’s Press)
19.	Grey by E L James – 9781101946350 – (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group)
20.	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling – 9781781105863 – (Pottermore)

NZ Bookshop Day at the Women's Bookshop!

CELEBRATE NEW ZEALAND BOOKSHOP DAY - Saturday 31 October 2015 Prizes, personalities & parties in the bookshop!  An amazing line-up of wonderful people will sit reading in our bookshop window all day on Saturday 31 October! 10am Michele A’Court (comedian & author) 10.30 Theresa Gattung (businesswoman, author & philanthropist) & Pip Greenwood (leading corporate lawyer) 11am Jacinda Ardern (MP & member of Labour Shadow Cabinet) 11.30 Alison Mau (broadcaster, journalist & author) 12pm Bianca Zander (novelist) & Jaquie Brown (TV presenter & author) 12.30 Amanda Billing (actress, star of ATC’s Lysistrata) 1pm Dr. Siouxsie Wiles (microbiologist & Head of the Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab at Auckland University) with her daughter Eve 1.30 Kate De Goldi (novelist, reviewer & children’s book advocate) 2pm Sue Orr (novelist, short story writer & reviewer) & Paula Green (poet, reviewer & creator of popular blogs NZ Poetry Box & NZ Poetry Shelf) 2.30 Anne Kennedy (award-winning poet & novelist) 3pm Wendyl Nissen & Paul Little (journalists, authors, publishers, & promotors of healthy products) 3.30 Stephanie Johnson (award-winning novelist & reviewer) 4pm Kim Evans (baker extraordinaire who has recently opened a Little & Friday down Douglas St, 2 minutes from the bookshop!) 4.30 Charlotte Grimshaw (award-winning novelist & reviewer)

DISCOVER A BRILLIANT BOOK YOU MAY HAVE MISSED – for only $13!!

Champagne Party at 5pm! Come back to the shop at 5pm for a glass of champagne & the announcement of the 50/50 WOMEN WRITERS SURVEY RESULTS, along with the FIVE winners of the top 50 books. All welcome! Colouring Competition Be in to win a book prize pack & $500 Booksellers Tokens! Pick up a free colouring sheet from us (or download it from www.booksellers.co.nz) & bring it back completed to the bookshop by 5pm on NZ Bookshop Day (Sat 31 Oct). Our winner will receive a book prize pack & will go forward to the National Competition ($500 tokens) judged by Jo Pearson, author/illustrator of All Good: A New Zealand Colouring Book.

An Evening with Geraldine Brooks Presented by the Auckland Writers Festival & Hachette Publishers, the wonderful Geraldine Brooks will speak about her brand new historical novel The Secret Chord.Tuesday 17 November 7pm, Maidment TheatreBookings: maidment.auckland.ac.nz

See you on Saturday 31 October – come & support your local independent bookshop! Carole, Tanya, Patricia, Andrea & Zoe

CONTACT US: The Women's Bookshop 105 Ponsonby Road, Auckland www.womensbookshop.co.nz books@womensbookshop.co.nz (09) 376 4399 Follow us on Facebook Know someone who loves books as much as you do? Click here to forward this email to them!

Tosca and WOW

I love Wellington audiences.  They are so exuberantly enthusiastic, and yet so well behaved.  We went to the magical World of Wearable Art (WOW) in the weekend, and the NZ Opera production of Puccini's famous opera, TOSCA, last night.

For both performances, the house was absolutely packed.  Not a single empty seat.  Throughout each show, the audience was raptly quiet, with just the occasional mass intake of breath or muted laughter to break the silence.  But then, when it was appropriate, the spectators went mad -- clapping, shouting, exuberant stamping of feet.   

The St James Theatre, where Tosca was presented, does not have a wide or deep stage -- though the upperworks are very high.  The designer took full advantage of this, with soaring scenery, many vertical panels, and a minimum of clutter on the floor.  In the first and third acts platforms were erected, the first with the artist's easel and the almost complete painting of a blonde, blue-eyed Madonna, and the last with a fenced outer wall, like the perimeter of some infamous war prisoner camp.  And, to suit, the time the opera was set in was brought up to the mid-twentieth century, complete with menacing Mafia henchmen.

Irish scientist-turned-diva Orla Boylen was Tosca, while New Zealand tenor Simon O'Neill was Mario Caveradossi.  Both have heavenly voices, which soared effortlessly over the unrelentingly brilliant sound produced by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.  They are both in their forties, with a certain amount of middle-age spread, but they used this to great effect, to give an endearing impression of a mature couple who are absolutely devoted to each other -- an image that the audience took to their hearts.  If anyone ever wanted a happy ending, it was this Wellington crowd.

But of course romance was foiled by the sadistic Scarpia, the role held by New Zealand baritone Phillip Rhodes, who was perfect in voice, acting, and appearance.  He played the ultimate preying Lothario, and has the dark good looks to suit, along with the lingering bedroom eyes.

The final scene, always a difficult one, was handled superbly.  The audience laughed when Tosca instructed Mario to fall carefully when he was shot -- "You don't have the stage experience that I do" -- and gasped with horror when the shot turned out to be real.




Personally, I was very pleased not to hear a scream and a thud after Tosca leapt from the prison wall.  Meaning that Orla Boylan lives to play yet another brilliant soprano role.

And, as I said, the applause was delirious.

And as for WOW.  Anyone who has the chance to watch the non-stop, scintillating spectacle that this show offers, and turns it down, hasn't lived.  Believe me, it is not just a parade of amazing costumes. It's an Experience.