Two kinds of crabs, and an amazing journey of endurance, love, and life
Not only are these "robber" crabs remarkably large, but they are wonderfully colored, in a rainbow of patches and designs. No two are the same.
And then there are the blue crabs, and the marvelous red crabs. They feed on seeds and leaves, which they drag down into their burrows. Because of their constant foraging, the forest on Christmas Island is different. There is hardly any undergrowth, so that walking through the bush is like walking through the ruins of a medieval cathedral.
But there is much more to the story of the red crabs of Christmas Island. Their annual migration is one of the wonders of nature.
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. 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.”
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?"
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."
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..
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!
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.
*****
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.
******
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.
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.
