Field Theory: A post about art (sort of)
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Haydn's [sic] passage "filled with statues of the great players from Wellington's sporting past" could look something like this. I am just warning you, that is all.
Ew, busts! No I was thinking more like the sculptures outside baseball parks in the States. And I was really only thinking of one or two.
As for Weta, I would be loathe not to describe them as artists. Max Patte for example has created some very nice things for the waterfront. It's just that in this particular case they have designed something awful. Very very awful
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Sue,
Bernie Fraser !
maybe an artistic recreation of bernies corner at athletic park? -
maybe an artistic recreation of bernies corner at athletic park?
Athletic Park is now a retirement village but apparently there is a Bernie's Corner in it.
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The tripod is:
- relevant to Weta's industry;
- site-specific;
- self-mocking;
- playful.I thought they were just channelling Louise Bourgeois.
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An idea that might work in film is unlikely to work the same in bronze. This should be a no-brainer.
Weta aren't just about digital special effects. They have skilled and talented model-makers, whose work has extended from film sets to the public.
They have the technical ability to make stuff, but not necessarily the artistic vision.
Hamilton's extremely cool Riff Raff statue is a Weta work, but it's pretty much a literal representation of Richard O'Brian as Riff Raff.
Weta's strength in original work seems to be the sort of cheeky sci-fi and fantasy model work, like the tripod in Courtenay Place and the sort of stuff you see for sale in the Weta Cave.
When it comes to actually creating sculptural art, Weta just doesn't seem to have an impressive body of work.
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Zardoz in Chch...
Take, for example, the Canterbury Heroes...
please do take them...
...and what's worse, I believe the corporate-minded goons who now run the Arts Centre actually think that these "disembodied notables" fulfil their brief to provide "public art" to the community... -
Christchurch art critic Andrew Paul Wood on the Weta statue:
Would someone please explain to me why the fuck Weta is doing this and not an artist? Why is Weta taking bread out of the mouths of New Zealand’s sculptors with this unimaginative pseudo-Fascist tat? Sadly it appears that art in this country is getting assimilated into entertainment, which means New Zealand audiences and patrons are going to have some very strange expectations of our artists. I would rather see the most hackneyed Neil Dawson (a giant lacework rugby ball probably) than this uninspired piece of Hitleresque nonsense.
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Christ, if you set `rugby statute on the waterfront' as part of the first year course at Canterbury or Auckland you'd probably get something better than this.
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Take, for example, the Canterbury Heroes, Sir Miles with the giant head in particular. Haydn's passage "filled with statues of the great players from Wellington's sporting past" could look something like this. I am just warning you, that is all.
AT least it wouldn't look like this......grrrrrrrrr.
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That sculpture looks like something you'd buy. from one of those "gifts for men" shops at the mall for your rugby-loving uncle, the afternoon of his 60th birthday.
It is art for people who don't like art.
It's art designed by an advertising executive. In fact I'm pretty sure I saw that same concept in a TV ad somewhere. Was it for the promotion of the six nations in the northern emisphere? Something like that.
It is five metres high and it is horrible.
What the man said. And I agree that if we really, really must have it (that's 300k the Wellington ratepayers are never getting back) it should be on the stadium concourse.
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I do congratulate Richard Taylor on having an idea that makes the Wellywood sign seem desirable in comparison though.
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Gio: I think I vaguely remember the ad you're talking about. There's also this.
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There's also this.
If I may be allowed to cross threads for a moment, I propose an objective measure of the quality of a work of art: if it has the words "iconic" or "legacy" attached to it, it's crap.
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if it has the words "iconic" or "legacy" attached to it, it's crap.
Works for me; perhaps "celebration" as well.
I watched the video of Taylor introducing the work to the media, and noticed that the maquette rotates on a stand. I hope the finished work will do the same.
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Sue,
I watched the video of Taylor introducing the work to the media, and noticed that the maquette rotates on a stand. I hope the finished work will do the same.
but only rotated by wind... right ;)
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Gio: I think I vaguely remember the ad you're talking about. There's also this.
Why all the lineout art? It's not even our strong point. Could we have a statue of stoic defence?
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Works for me; perhaps "celebration" as well.
I think this one is going to be the celebration of an iconic legacy.
Why all the lineout art? It's not even our strong point.
It would if we were allowed to use the surging undead. Time for a new ELV?
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It would if we were allowed to use the surging undead. Time for a new ELV?
By the next World Cup Brad Thorn may have started looking like the undead, after all.
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Why all the lineout art? It's not even our strong point. Could we have a statue of stoic defence?
The scrum also rises...
...and noticed that the maquette rotates on a stand. I hope the finished work will do the same.
That's a roundabout way of saying
a Lazy Susan, right?
or was it a more streetwise invitation
to - "sit on it and rotate"?
... in the words of Jean-Luc Picard
"Maquette so!" -
The Melbourne Cricket Ground has statues outside the stadium and I think it works well. They're an appropriate size (not 5m!!) and also make sense at that venue.
I know it doesn't do to be like Australia, but in this case, works for me..
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Another consideration about this sculpture; especially if it’s going to be put between pubs and the harbour.
It looks very climbable.
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Andrew Paul Wood said:
Would someone please explain to me why the fuck Weta is doing this and not an artist? Why is Weta taking bread out of the mouths of New Zealand’s sculptors with this unimaginative pseudo-Fascist tat? Sadly it appears that art in this country is getting assimilated into entertainment, which means New Zealand audiences and patrons are going to have some very strange expectations of our artists. I would rather see the most hackneyed Neil Dawson (a giant lacework rugby ball probably) than this uninspired piece of Hitleresque nonsense.
See, this annoys me, probably as much as Weta doing this sculpture annoys Mr Wood. He seems to have a built in assumption that getting a job that pays you to use your skills means you are no longer an artist.
I'm sure this likely offends many of the very talented visual artists who work at Weta.
I do hope Mr Wood realises that while starving in a garret may have created some great works of art it is not, in itself, a necessary condition for being an artist.
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I do hope Mr Wood realises that while starving in a garret may have created some great works of art it is not, in itself, a necessary condition for being an artist.
The likes of Andrew Drummond, Neil Dawson and Bill Culbert aren't exactly starving in garrets. They're just producing stuff that looks a lot more interesting than that Weta sculpture.
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The likes of Andrew Drummond, Neil Dawson and Bill Culbert aren't exactly starving in garrets. They're just producing stuff that looks a lot more interesting than that Weta sculpture.
I have no particular comment to make on the actual sculpture as presented, but the idea that the people working at Weta aren't artists is wrong. I know a couple of people who slaved away on the various movies and got their jobs precisely because they had fine art degrees.
No doubt because it's produced at Weta it might tend to be a certain style of artwork, but that doesn't mean it isn't done by an artist - Weta employs many.
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I have no particular comment to make on the actual sculpture as presented, but the idea that the people working at Weta aren't artists is wrong. I know a couple of people who slaved away on the various movies and got their jobs precisely because they had fine art degrees.
Possession of a fine arts degree is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for being an artist.
Also, there's a difference between sculpture and set design. (Demarcation issues, as the guild of philosophers sez.)
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