ARTDICK

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“Newman’s paintings look easy to copy, and maybe they really are. But they are far from easy to conceive, and their quality and meaning lies almost exactly in their conception… The onlooker who says his child could paint a Newman may be right, but Newman would have to be there to tell the child exactly what to do. The exact choices of color, medium, size, proportion – including the size and shape of the support – are what alone determines the quality of the result, and these choices depend solely on inspiration or conception.” (Clement Greenberg, After Abstract Expressionism, 1962)

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“When painters feel the need to make a shift toward self-discovery, they turn to black and white for a time.” (Barnett Newman)

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“Individual or group, we are traversed by lines, meridians, geodesics, tropics, and zones marching to different beats and differing in nature. We said that we are comprised of lines, three kinds of lines. Or rather, bundles of lines, for each kind is multiple. We may be more interested in a certain line than in others, and perhaps there is indeed one that is, not determining, but of greater importance… if it is there. For some of these lines are imposed on us from outside, at least in part. Others sprout up somewhat by chance, from a trifle, why we will never know. Others can be invented, drawn, without a model and without chance: we must invent our lines of flight.” (Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus)

From a larger collection of photocopy works, two of which were used as the album cover for Jeff Henderson’s “Fuck You You Bureaucratic Fucks” recorded live at “Wayfarer Gallery Presents: A Festiva of Enjoyment” (Enjoy Gallery, 2002) and released by Postmoderncore Records in 2004. Henderson is a free-jazz/drone saxophonist from New Zealand, who I highly recommend checking out. Some of these prints were also included in the exhibition “Dick Whyte: Retrospective” (91 Aro Street Gallery, Wellington, 2005). Further variations were later published as a comic in “Solar” (Issue 1, 2008).

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“An active line on a walk, moving freely, without goal. A walk for a walk’s sake.” (Paul Klee, Pedagogical Sketchbook)

Many thanks to Alex Greenhough. Instructions for a rearrangement: Take any objects in a social space and rearrange them, in order to alter the perception of that space for subsequent viewers. A marker of human existence. A trace of consciousness. This rearrangement was constructed on Adams Terrace in 2006.

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“1998… we were walking along together and moved some stones on a path at Victoria University. I never did finish writing my notes towards a definition…” (Alexander Greenhough, 2010)

Instructions for a rearrangement: Take any objects in a social space and rearrange them, in order to alter the perception of that space for subsequent viewers. A marker of human existence. A trace of consciousness. I think this “rearrangement” took place somewhere near ‘The Mill’ on Victoria Street in Wellington, New Zealand. Thanks to Tao Wells for being there to capture it.

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“It is not difficult to see how Greenberg’s own program for color-field painting and his ideas on the development of modernism leave little room for an explanation of Newman’s zips. In effect, they are the elements which support Greenberg’s ideas the least. In the rare cases when he describes the zips, he does so briefly and asserts that Newman’s art is not really geometrical and that there are other, less noticeable factors that are more important to an interpretation of his work.” (Samantha Krukowski, Was Greenberg Blind to Barnett Newman’s Zips?)

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Early abstract/experimental/avant-garde film made on VHSC, documenting a video feedback performance in 1999. Restored in 2011 from a poorly degraded VHS copy. Part of a suite of videos made in 1999. See more of my films on Vimeo.

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Early painting of mine from 2000 made from pouring a bottle of black ink on an old piece of wood. Afterwards I varnished the wood to fix the ink in place. At the time I was drinking heavily and reading a lot of Charles Bukowski and always associated this painting with his book “Women” for some reason.

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