Steve Lovett

Blog question:How has Steve Lovett's practice evolved over the period of his professional career?

For this week we had one of my favorite lecturers Steve Lovett come in to give us a presentation on his artworks and art practices. Although i did not attend that weeks lecture i had help from Alli who helped and explain in detail what had happened on tuesday and also gave me her notes to look at. For me personally i find steve's art and practices reallyinteresting because first of all how he is currently my drawing lecture for this semester.

Also because i know he has a great knowledge of art and artists and so i was very excited to see how Steve expresses and shows us the definition of what he calls Art.

In his first slide during his lecture wich Steve titles "what do i do when im not here"he talks about the concept of the passing of time, the transition and the loss of time. he talks about how printed images are the idea's he works around. And to him thats the idea of developing an understanding of the world, in this slide of art works Steve shows me that he has a lot of contemporary portrait work in his arwork that to me shows that steve has interests with identity

For this artwork (mother and daughter what can we say 1997), I really like that idea of how we only know ourselves through second person, and through our dialogues and interaction through our friends, lovers, families, and colleagues is an interesting concept. This artwork for me seemed to give that feeling of wanting and dealing with these feelings.

but coming back to the question i couldnt really answer it because i didn't attend the lecture that day and i wasnt really sure. but by looking at emit i found that steve began to use a more formal art convention rather than political style of work he began out with. Like with this image i think that he uses a different style of technique like for example the holes in the image, to me this give's that kind of 3 dimensional look to it. but i like the way hes used space the colour and its form.

Francis Hansen

Blog question-choose at least two things from francis hanson process list and explore in reletion to her practices



Last tuesday we had my drawing lecturer from last semester Francis Hansen come in and talk about herself her family and her art practices.She talks about how she tries to balance her life as an artist azwell as being a mother and how she combines her ideas around her surroundings with her family and her major.she talks about her 4 steps in her process of art making,and in each of these steps she has these list of methods.

I also really liked the idea of how she uses the gathering, composing and experimenting to her advantage for her ideas and art practices.during the lecture francis talks about how she has a passion for collecting objects,she like's to collect objects that she finds she can work with. wether she likes the shape of its form, the look of it or simply for material's use.the thing i find interesting about francis hansen's work is that she is very creative and original. I like the idea of her recycle use of materials aswell.She talk's about how she bases her work around the things that take place around her every day life.

I like the way she also tries to present her work in relation to where she is going to display them. and again i find that very original.Overall i didn,t really enjoy the style of her artwork but i like the idea of how she uses recycling to create her work.

Eldon Booth

Blog Question:Discuss Eldon Booths exploration of reality and illusion



This weeks topic was on moving image by Eldon Booth.this was my first time meeting Eldon on tuesday's class. because i had never done moving image before i found it really interesting to have Eldon Lecture us and how he began as an art student at M.s.v.a where we are now.Eldon talks about how he has a love for writing scripts, and how he dedicates his work on his interests of the idea in the difference between 'reality and fictionIn the Lecture i found Eldon very interesting to listen to, He talked about how he Graduated from M.s.v.a in 1999 and for me I find that cool because it gave me an idea of where my life could lead to with this course and How interesting the things i could do with a degree in B.v.a at the manukau school of visual arts, and also if he can do it than i can. In the lecture he showed us two of his short films that showed us the idea of reality and illusion for the veiwer



The first film he showed us was "Extract from Withdrawl".I really liked the idea of how he used family members as his cast for the short film instead of using hired actors. to me that was a good idea bacause he didn't have to waste any money on hired actors and would also be more comfortable being aruond family than people u don't no.In the film you see how the time slowly going on and on and you start to see the actors age, starting form the beginning is a young teenager(brother) who is seen smoking drugs, hanging out with his friends and also seen catching the train and then how it shows an old man (Grandfather) who is seen lying in the hospital bed.I liked how he uses split screen to show the two different timelines in the day and show the copmarison of the Grandson and Grandfather.He also talked about how he used the 'Amateure' style of filming using natural sound/music and the following behind them filming.much like a documentary where the veiwer is in the place of the camera and to also get to know both charaters through there actions.



For the second short-film he made a drama/documentary style of film. In the lecture during this film he talked about how a documentary on 20/20 inspired him for his style of this documentary. he talks about how he really liked the camera angles, sound and lighting that was used in that documentary and had decided to use similar ideas for his short film .but overall i like his work and find moving image very interesting

Dion Hitchens

On Tuesday we had Dion Hitchens come in to our class to show us and explain his art work and practices. Although he was only in class for an hour, one of his artworks that I found really interesting was the maunga artwork that is displayed in Manukau. He talked about how he had built the monument in his back yard making it out of stainless steel and had to use a crane to move it from his backyard to Manukau. The thing that I find interesting about that particular piece of artwork is that I’ve always known about the sculpture and I always see it at Manukau every time I’m there but now I actually no who created it “Dion Hitchens” and it amazes me because he is currently my lecture for sculpture and so every time i see him i no that he created this sculpture. He talked about how the image of his sculpture was inspired by this mountain in Tahiti called maunga and also how Auckland city is where the largest population of Polynesians Live, and so now not only do I no who created it but I also no about the significance backround of why this sculpture had being created the way that it was.

Being Maori /Asian he talked about how his practices are based around his culture. also in one of his artworks he says that even though he loves his Maori culture and background his religious faith comes from his Asian descent being of Buddhist faith.

For collaberation one of his artworks that I also found interesting was the “Tiki Wanaga” which was a sculpture that is currently hung up at the Onehunga community centre and library. For this artwork he collaborated with Charles Koroneho , Each piece of Sculpture is made from aluminium and lashed with fibreoptic cable that lights up in blue and white. His sculpture was inspired by traditional Maori objects used by Priests to obtain Knowledge, it also represented the combination of traditional Maori art and new technologies

Failing,Falling,Flying by Rebecca Ann Hobbs

We attended the failing falling flying exhibition by Rebecca Ann Hobbs at the A.U.T Art gallery on St Pauls street on the 27 of July. For me personally I didn’t really find much of her work that interesting, because I couldn’t really relate to her artwork. Although one of the images at her exhibition that stood out for me the most was called 90 Degrees. I found this piece of work really interesting because it shows us how the male on the image is lying down face up looking inside the skirt of the woman who is seen standing on the photo. For me that image is kind of feminist in a way but imp not sure. After looking through her exhibition we got together and listened to her and how she brought about the images she has at her exhibition Rebecca talks about the word absurd and for her it holds the idea of “strife to find meaning in this world, but how she has never been able to find it “. She talks about how she had been inspired by the idea from Sisyphus, who had been punished by God to push this huge rock up this hill, once Sisyphus was at the top of the hill God would then forcibly roll the huge rock back down the hill and would be repeated for eternity. Rebecca then talks about how a lot of her earlier works were just muck around work because the fact that they didn’t really have much meaning to them and that’s why the names of her works at her exhibition are very simple and literal

The second exhibition that we attended was at the auckland art gallery. The walter's prize was a 50,000 doller reward that had been selected for four nominees. In my opinion I thought that none of them should have won because of the fact that all there works were really crap and I simply had no interest in them.but because we had to choose one of them I think that Fiona Conner's work “Something Transparent” should have won the walter's prize award. I found it really interesting because of the fact that she had made an exact replica of the ceiling above her work using plastic and acrylic. It was an awesome piece of artwork

He taonga Maori Auckland Museum

The Hotunui marae

Over 1000 taonga are displayed in the main Maori galleries, He Taonga Maori (Maori Court) and Te Ao Turoa (Maori Natural History Gallery) and many more are held in storage. These Taonga are the ancestral representations of all the major tribes of Aotearoa. The Taonga provides the Moari people with a little glimpse of their past, the history and the people that came before them. In the Maori court the one thing that really stood out for me was the Hotunui Marae.The Hotunui marae was built in 1878 which it was carved by Wepiha Apanui and his father Apanui Te Hamai waho. Hotunui was originally a wedding gift from Ngati awa to Weipiha's sister Mereana who was marrying a Ngati Maru leader, now it stands in the auckland museum to this present day. A Marae is a sacred place for Maori's. it is a sacred place which serves both religious and social purposes in maori societies, which carries great cultural meaning. In Maori society, the Marae is a place where the Maori culture can be celebrated, where the Maori language can be spoken, where inter tribal discussions, debating and obligations can be met .Also Marae's are for when family occasions such as birthdays can be held, and where important ceremonies, such as welcoming visitors or fare welling the dead, can be performed.The word marae is found in many languages in the Polynesia example Malae (Samoan and Hawaii) and Mala'e (tongan) and you find Malae's or mala'es in Samoa, Tonga and Hawaii, its just not structured or built the same way. also In Tahiti Marae were dedicated to specific deities or leaders of the people, and also connected with specific lineages said to have built them during the 1994 restoration of Taputapuatea Marae at Ra'iatea by archaeologists from the tahiti museum. so you find Marae's not only in aotearoa but also all over the pacific nation. overall the Marae at the museum shows the real significance of maori cluture and the way they have been using sculptue to theiir cultural heritage to design such a beautiful building that they call the Marae.

Tongan style.

artists- Lingisiva ‘Aloua, Kolokesa Kulīkefu, Noma‘Ofa-ki-Nu’usila Talakia’atu, Manuēsina Tōnata, Hūlita Tupou

Curated by: Kolokesa Māhina-Tuai & Manuēsina Māhina

This exhibition that we attended (Tefisi style) at the fresh gallery was held in Otara. Fresh art gallery is made and viewed for young pacific Islanders, it allows young artists who are mainly local to view their artwork not just anywhere but in otara. Tefisi gallery was about 5 tongan New Zealand-based women artists who had something to show about were they come from and their cultural heritage. Each piece of artwork that they had made and displayed was about their labour, time and of their Tongan tradition, Tefisi style is just about the art practices of tongan woman who use these talents and skills that they have been passing on for generations to create embroidery and crochets sheets, pillow cases and dresses. the dresses that was designed in the Tefisi artwork was used and designed to be worn in churches, funerals, christenings and other special occasions.. The dresses can also show a persons status, like number nine of the exhibition list where u have an outfit that was specially made for Sepitema - a special Sunday in September that is dedicated to woman who have reached the equivalent of men's lay preacher, where they renew their governance with God . Also to wear a kiekie (waist ornament) is also an important part of the formal attire for Tongan's to wear at church for example the Tongan Methodist church. The real uniqueness of these pieces of art work is that embroidery is applied to clothing,giving that distinct look known to the Tongans as Tefisi style. and the embroidery is now done on cotton sheets unlike the traditional ways which it was done on cloth made of bark, also known as tapa cloth.embroidered pillowcase was used in January 2001 by Kolokesa's late father during the period prior to his passing. It was also used to decorate the pillows for her sons wedding when he got married in 2007.