Author: Peter Peryer

This author has written 889 articles


Stations of the Cross

Recently I was invited to take part in an exhibition based on the Stations of the Cross.
Surprisingly perhaps I said yes. I was brought up a Catholic but am no longer a Christian.

The exhibition will be on at the Gus Fisher Gallery in Shortland Street in Auckland.

Fourteen artists have been invited to take part in this show. I was given station number 12, the Death of Christ. I know that in this photo, Trinity, I have interpreted it rather liberally.

This image will soon be printed up in an edition of 15. Any enquiries about this can be addressed to Paul McNamara.

Meanwhile, this image, Whitebait, which I posted a couple of weeks ago, is now about 2 weeks from being available, again in an edition of 15. 4 prints have now gone.


Tecomanthe in Christchurch

Tecomanthe is the name of the flower in this photo, a photo from a couple of years ago. The actual print that I made, in an edition of 15, is not very large, a large hand would cover it.

Tecomanthe, the plant has an interesting history. It was discovered in 1946 on Three Kings island off the northern tip of New Zealand. A rambling climber, the botanists on the expedition found only one specimen. The island’s vegetation had been badly knocked around by goats that had been released there as food for future shipwrecked sailors. They have been exterminated.

I have heard reports that the original plant is now not in great health, ironically, suffering from the shade of the regenerating forest. Fortunately the plant has now become popular in gardens in the warmer parts of New Zealand.

In conjunction with the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth and the Parks Department there, last year we had this large version of Tecomanthe made and put up on a wall in the main street.


Recently, after several months, it was taken down. Now another one has gone up in the foyer of the Christchurch Art Gallery.

This Sunday at 2 pm, at the Christchurch Art Gallery, I will be giving a talk about my recent work.


Travel Tales

A snap I took on the journey south. The ferry sailing was ‘cancelled owing to technical difficulties’. Handy phrase I thought. (A friend says that he uses it with his girlfriends) I decided to be philosophical about the delay, after all it gave me extra time in Wellington.

There were further travel surprises in store for me though, half way across the Haast Pass, in what must be one of the most remote parts of New Zealand the automatic transmission in my car started to falter, second gear failing to engage. Heart in mouth I managed to make Lake Hawea, limped on to Wanaka, then Cromwell and eventually to Alexandra. Since then my car has been in a garage that specialises in transmissions. Hopefully tomorrow I will have it back but I’m not too confident. To go to Invercargill I had to rent a car for the weekend.

On Friday I bought a good secondhand mountain bike. This is a popular area for mountain biking and it seems a shame not to take advantage of that. I haven’t had a bike for decades, certainly not a modern one like this which has something like 27 gears. From memory my last bike didn’t have any gears, I remember when bikes with 3 gears came in. These new gear systems take some getting used to. At present I’ve only got as far as wobbling my way around the 3 and a half acres of this property but I am about to hit the beautiful river trail to Clyde which runs alongside this house.

A Day at the Races

Last Saturday I drove the two and a half hour trip south to Invercargill where, last year, I was artist-in-residence for 4 months. I had to go there because it was a good friend’s 50th birthday party, I had to pack up some of my belongings and hand over the keys of the William Hodges residency where until the end of November I had been living, and on Sunday I hoped to go for a flight in an historic aircraft before returning to Central Otago. The wild weather prevented this last option.

The birthday was held in the Fantasy Room at the racecourse, a room directly over the birdcage and the finish line. The Fantasy was a famous Southland racehorse so don’t get the wrong idea. The party started at 12.30 pm. I was there shortly after. I am always punctual, although I tell people that it is because I don’t like to miss out on anything.

First surprise was the woodchopping competition taking place near the carpark. Here are some women competing for the underhand chop. I was impressed. Slamming a razor sharp axe hard down between your feet is not for the fainthearted.

Inside, in the first race that I saw a magnificent beast, ironically called Ultimate High, crossing the finish line, with one of its four legs all awry, sort of flapping. Soon after an ambulance pulled up in front of him (?) and it wasn’t long before with the help of a vet, his inert body, covered with tarpaulins or some modern version, lay over his body, except for the offending leg sticking out.

Four or five races into the afternoon, during one of the breaks, there was a lingerie parade! So sorry that I didn’t take any photos of this guys. I was too busy looking perhaps.

So, wine, death, sex. I felt as if I was a Roman at the Colliseum.

Cromwell

The local shops. This really is semidesert here. It would not surprise me to see a stagecoach go by with whooping Indians in pursuit. This is like the landscape of the American movies that I was brought up on every Saturday night at Ohaeawai Hall, in deepest postwar Northland. This scenery and architecture feels so familiar.

Hung out my washing this morning, sat down, flicked through the Sunday Star Times, did some much needed tidying up, and helped by the dry 32 degree wind, was able to bring my washing in, not only dry but sort of stiff and crunchy.

Settling in here is progressing, although of course there are always problems associated with travel. It takes time and patience to settle in to a new home.


Alexandra Again

Yesterday I made a posting about the views from my new home.

Here are some more details. Firstly, a rather rough image from a book published about my work published in Germany about 10 years ago. I laid this book on the concrete outside the kitchen door. This image is of the Alexandra Clock and I took it in 1988. Don’t particularly like the word ‘took’.

Below is a picture of the Laurence Aberhart photo that I mentioned. It is cropped. The right and left hand sides have been shaved off.



A View from the House

Here is a view from my balcony over the township and the new bridge in Alexandra.
On the hill in the background, tiny and rather indistinct is their famous clock. I’ll photograph this again I’m sure, and put it on this site.

Just visible is the Clutha, one of the biggest rivers in New Zealand, reaching the sea at Balclutha on the east coast, just below Dunedin.

Behind and under the new 1958 bridge is a pylon from the original one built in 1882. Laurence Aberhart photographed this, in fact it’s on the cover of the latest Auckland Art Gallery publication, On Show.

Below is a photograph of the architect of this house, taken about 3 years before he came to Alexandra by bus to undertake this commission.

This is a catalogue from a Plischke exhibition at the City Gallery in Wellington
in 2004.

Henderson House, Alexandra

This is my home for the next year. It’s a house designed by Austrian architect Ernst Plischke, in 1950. A couple from Alexandra, here in Central Otago, Russell & Barbara Henderson, commissioned him to design them this home on some land over the river, the mighty Clutha, overlooking the town.

Russell Henderson died in 1998 and Barbara Henderson is now in a rest home nearby. Every Tuesday she visits her studio that she maintains in a separate building on the three acres that this house sits on.

Philanthropists, they set up a trust so that this house can be used by artists who would like to come to live here for a specified period of time. There are no limits on media. The first resident was Vincent O’Sulllivan, writer. I am the second.

This residency cannot be applied for. It is offered along with a generous allowance.

Plischke lived in New Zealand from 1939 until 1963 when he returned to Austria. He died in 1992.

The house is made from stone that was cut from the site. The louvres visible in the photo help with ventilation, very necessary in Central Otago which has the highest (and the lowest) temperatures in New Zealand.

Antlers

On the West Coast, near Franz Josef Glacier I came across this impressive
arch made of deer antlers. It spanned some gates.

Below are some drawings showing different sorts of antlers. Whenever I am in
Fiordland, which has been quite often over the last few months, I
hope that it is true that there are still some survivors of the 10 Canadian moose that were released there in 1910. Recent dna analysis of hair found caught in branches in 2002 looks promising. A moose cow was shot by a hunter in 1951. He was subsequently remorseful.


Southern Studies

Today I was in Invercargill, at the Southland Museum & Art Gallery.
It was quite a big moment for me because I have an exhibition of 31 photos there at present. I hadn’t seen the show before and there was no opening. The show began on Jan 8th and is on until March 2nd.

I’ve had minimal contact with the gallery lately, largely because the four staff members who I usually dealt with have all recently left, nothing to do with me I hasten to add. I hadn’t seen any installation shots so I was rather apprehensive when I walked in. In fact I had to take a friend. The last time I saw the show was when it was laid out on the floor of my New Plymouth studio.

The room had a number of visitors who seemed to be quite absorbed in looking at the photos which I took to be a good sign however I was worried that I would overhear some derogatory remarks so I had to force myself to stay as long as I did. I don’t find it easy being so exposed to the public, in that way I’m in the wrong job.

Eventually I did lose my nerve and just before bolting I grabbed this image as quickly as I could before I got out of there. Unfortunately I must, in my haste, have moved the camera. I can see camera shake.

I’d love to be able to direct you to their website but it is only half a page long and alas, makes no mention of my show at all!

Inadequate websites are not uncommon among galleries in New Zealand but most surprising example is the Govett-Brewster in New Plymouth. Even though they claim to be a contemporary art gallery, in fact the ‘leading contemporary museum in the country’ and liberally use words like ‘groundbreaking’ they have a site that is bordering on being woefully unpleasant to navigate. Try it for yourself.

Newer Posts
Older Posts