Author: Cathy

Kate van der Drift

A photographic artist I admire is New Zealander Kate van der Drift because her photographs have an enduring luminous beauty, and display soft, painterly reflections.  I am interested in landscape and van der Drift’s work makes you reflect on the environmental change of landscape.  Her subject matter focus is often around the Hauraki Plains region, close to the Coromandel Peninsula, and the township of Thames, a place that I have a childhood connection to.

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Kate van der Drift’s recent photography uses camera-less light-sensitive material within a set time period, on a chosen site.  By placing photographic paper (unexposed colour negatives) into a river for weeks, she achieves a mixture of element reactions between chemicals, water, pollution, sediment, organic matter, bacteria and algae.  

Her work makes the viewer aware of how this wetland forest ecology has changed due to time, colonisation, farming practices, and industrial uses, e.g., Thames was the most highly industrialised town of its size in New Zealand until recently, because of its gold-mining and forestry.

Van der Drift’s photographs below portray liquid type movement that appeals.  The myriad of colours, such as burgundy, blue, purple, and pink resonate, and remind me of the large-scale, poured mixed media paintings (see below) of Australian artist Dale Frank, whom I also greatly admire for his use of colour.

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Darren Glass

The Pinhole photography of New Zealander Darren Glass yields a soft and mysterious quality. Some images are large in scale, and minimal, and centered inside a disc shape, which in turn, is inserted within a black velvet-looking background.  This creates interest, and the viewer is drawn into an inner light-filled circular void. His subject matter often evokes nature, a light-filled moonlit shape of a rainbow or a mountain scape. 

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By throwing a frisbee-type invented pinhole camera, Glass has created an interesting style of photography that produces a type of abstracted, almost painterly artwork.  Some images shine with a neon-type sculptural light quality. The object or scene Glass has produced (see below) spins with movement, and colour, instead of sitting quietly and still like his above photographs.  

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John Hilliard

John Hilliard, (born 1945, England) is a Conceptual Artist.  He started his photography career by capturing images of his ideas and showing them as conceptual installations on chosen sites. 

Hilliard was able to show a type of movement within his images.  He explored distorting, blurring and manipulating the photographic process and its results, both in black and white, and then in colour.  

I find his large-scale, mural type photographs (see below) printed on canvas and vinyl, powerful with creative narratives.

Movement Discovery. When I photographed the detail of fungi mushrooms as daylight was rising, I also played with the idea of creating movement. I like how I achieved movement with the mushrooms dissolving into abstraction, leaving a painterly, feathery-type rush of colourful motion.

I also created another image that morning displaying movement, where the subject matter of a house, a power pole and some palm trees deconstructed by breaking apart, and shifting into pieces.

Week 2: Thursday, 22nd April. After my second week in the photography studio, I have uncovered many ideas and interests. I have a passion for nature, enjoying both open and voluminous spaces, and the tiny details of natural, organic objects. I adore good design and architecture (old and new), and find long elegant curves that twist and turn, just as beautiful as straight, diagonal angles and three-dimensional forms. I am fascinated by reflective and repetitive patterns, and interlocking shapes in art and architecture.

Photographic Wall Display: Week 1, By Cathy.
Themes: Digital Camera / Pinhole Camera. / Black & White Photography / Colour Photography / Glass Reflections / City Architecture: Old and New / AUT Marae / AUT Buildings / Albert Park, Landscape & Sculptures / Street Trees, Wrought Iron, Patterns / Suburb Nature: Fungi / Walks / Beach / Graveyard site.

Photographic Wall Display: Week 2, By Cathy
Black & White Photography / Buildings, Sky Tower / Roof, Skylights, Glass.

Photographic Wall Display: Week 2, By Cathy
Glass reflections / Construction sites / Buildings: Old and New / Sculptures / Suburb Walks: Bridges / Beaches

DISCOVERING and UNCOVERING: I have been using photographic and video processes to encounter, discover and uncover my immediate environment. I have found objects that are inspirational for their shape, form, line and colour right under my nose, and in my immediate environment. Not only do I like to consume fried mushrooms with fresh herbs on buttered toast, but I like to view them in their wild natural state too. (Click on my ‘Fungi Photographic ART Project’ Video below)

https://youtu.be/oywMP3-pWZ0

Discovering old and new buildings, and sculptures in the CBD of Tāmaki Makaurau.

Discovering new vistas and shadows on a familiar neighbourhood walk.

Week 2: Wednesday, 21st April. Today I explored the CBD of Tāmaki Makaurau as a detective early in the morning, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, because I was surrounded with slightly less movement and traffic sounds.

I wanted to capture a different morning light, and experience the feel and mood of the place at the beginning of the working day. Although, the many construction workers in front of my camera appeared to have already clocked up a number of hours, and possibly needed their morning tea.

As I started to investigate my thematic concept: ‘Construct and Deconstruct Change’, I wondered if I could uncover new vistas as a detective. Suddenly I was a documentary detective photographer, lurking in alleyways, and choosing new pathways that I had never seen before. I followed the rearranged footpaths next to the Albert Street underground Railway Link construction space, and discovered and uncovered sites beneath the road.

The sound of the construction machinery was loud, and the workers were as busy as bees making a hive of reinforcing structural steel strips. I constantly tried to be safe and not get in the way, by looking this way and that, left and right, up and down, and I found corners where I could squeeze through to photograph. Machine noises were pumping in and out of time with each other.

On my city walk as a detective, I noticed a beautiful linear pattern within a smooth marble wall. I had fun changing my body stance into a lunge and snapped just twice. As the light was fairly dim here, I thought I was just photographing shiny grey marble with cream splashes, but I was surprised and intrigued to see my body reflection caught in a number of ways.

I uncovered other city sights of construction that I possibly would never have noticed previously. Looking up, I enjoyed witnessing vistas through see-through glass skylights framed within steel structured roof designs.

Stained coloured glass windows within churches, and contemporary glass artworks (see below), are soft and luminous. Beautiful light patterns and tonal shadows glow, and grow across other surfaces, creating a myriad of flickering colours. I am reminded of Aotearoa’s emerald rivers and forests when I see contemporary style buildings that have green coloured glass within black aluminium framed joinery.

I am interested in good design and architecture. There are many inspirational, international architects. Here are a few of my favourite with their unique buildings: (i.e. Charles-Édouard Le Corbusier: ‘Villa Savoye’, 1931, France / Philip Johnson: ‘The Glass House’, 1948-49, Connecticut, USA / Frank Lloyd Wright, ‘Fallingwater’, 1935, Pennsylvania, USA / Frank Gehry: ‘The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao’, 1997, Bilbao, Spain / Zaha Hadid: ‘Heydar Aliyev Centre’, 2007-12, Baku, Azerbaijan).  A New Zealand architect firm and building that I admire is: Fearon Hay Architects, ‘Te Kaitaka — ‘The Cloak’.

Week 2: Tuesday, 20th April. For the second time, we returned to the dark room to continue to discover through experimentation the process of using a Pinhole Camera. This time we could venture further a field into the CBD and select a range of places and objects, to expose the light to our paint can cameras.

Centuries old theatre buildings and their architectural details (inside and out) spark my interest. As a past theatrical performer, it was a career highlight to perform for European audiences in richly ornate, and historical theatres (such as in Vienna, Berlin and Amsterdam). A theatre always has a mysterious history or story to tell.

The Civic Theatre still exists on the corner of Queen and Wellesley Streets. Yet, two other significant Auckland theatres (St James Theatre and His Majesty’s Theatre), both originally on Queen Street have been unfortunately demolished. I still retain special memories of performing in these three historical buildings.

Facade decoration is attractive to me, because I like textured surfaces. The outside shell of ‘The Civic Theatre’ above, displays character and symbol wall relief projections, patterns with perforations, and intricate patterns that repeat.

I like how natural materials such as wood, handmade ochre/red clay bricks, blue granite, and Oamaru sandstone, can provide a traditional warmth to a building. By exposing interior structural materials such as black iron and steel next to the brick wall work, and adding large reflective panes of glass can create an attractive modern industrial feel.

This striking portal below has a combination of materials such as a carved wooden Pare (Lintel)), glass, and steel, that combines traditional Māori art with modern design.

I enjoy seeing views within views, such as a window view in a painting, or negative gaps and spaces inside sculpture and architecture. I like the mystery of being drawn into an arched portal entrance, like a large gate or door, because it makes you wonder where the door or path beyond leads to.

Discovering Artists that utilise Photography: Janet Lilo, Michael Snow

Janet Lilo (Born 1982, Auckland, New Zealand) I was drawn to Janet Lilo’s three channel video work titled: Right of Way, 2013, in the Auckland Art gallery Toi o Tamaki exhibition: Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art, because of the video’s dynamic introductory still photograph.

I have a distinct dislike for the massive power pylons that follow the Southern Auckland motorway Northbound into the city.  They also cross across the edge of the Manukau harbour and my suburb, heading out West, towards Avondale, (Lilo’s home suburb), because simply, they are visual pollution.  Perhaps it is too costly to bury them, yet they disrupt the skyline, and are obstructive and ugly, even though they give power to thousands. 

Therefore, I was interested in my own response to Lilo’s video work because her created scene of three reflective close-up pylon power line images, strongly lit against a blue sky, was not ugly, but powerfully beautiful.  Perhaps, her display of two Tino Rangatiratanga Maori flags (designed in 1990 by Linda Munn, Jan Smith and Hiraina Marsden) flying from the pylons, is a social comment about the power structures, (and struggles) within Aotearoa’s society.  As these flags are not flying from the top of the pylon, perhaps she questions the place of many ordinary indigenous people (in particular Pacifica females) in today’s society.

I find Lilo’s documentary work intriguing, as she reconfigures ordinary images appropriated from online platforms, to state her own memories and understanding of her local neighbourhood and place, that of West Auckland.  I am also inspired by the large scale of her photomontages, and the thematic connections with music. I like how she utilises musical imagery, song titles or lyrics from such popular cultural icons as the rap artist, Tupac Amaru Shakur, (stage name: 2Pac), and rock musician, Pat Benatar.

Lilo, Janet. Right of Way, 2013, three-channel video, high definition (HD), 16:9, colour, silent.

Lilo, Janet. Hit Me With Your Best Shot (The Remix), a mixed media photo-montage installation. 

Michael Snow (born 1928, Toronto, Canada). Michael Snow is an interesting avant-garde artist, who has pioneered many new techniques in film.  He has combined his many talents as a painter, photographer, sculptor, installation artist, filmmaker and musician to produce radical, and inventive works such as the film: Wavelength, 1967, (using one camera zoom shot).  

Snow created a feature-length experimental film: Corpus Callosum, in 2002, using a digital mix of animation and live-action.  As a filmmaker, Snow has an ability to manipulate reality and illusion, making the actors and animated artwork move simultaneously together.  He even showcased himself as the director, as his voice was heard speaking within the film.

Snow’s theme of a walking woman (as inserted above in the film still as a black silhouette image in the wall) is reused within his painting, photography, sculpture, digital video and installation artworks.  I am interested in exploring this idea of continuously evoking a thematic message, or object or concept within my art, that shows exploration, and a connection across a number of visual artistic platforms.

DISCOVERING – UNCOVERING – RECOVERING’ – 16th April, 2021. Part 1: Detective exploration around my neighbourhood in Tāmaki Makaurau. Finding new sights, smells and sounds at an unfamiliar place: an early Tāmaki Makaurau graveyard site with a view.

DISCOVERING – UNCOVERING – RECOVERING’ – 16th April, 2021. Part 1: Detective exploration around my neighbourhood in Tāmaki Makaurau. Detective hunting on a familiar walk to a quiet, secluded beach, beneath the graveyard site.

‘DISCOVERING – UNCOVERING – RECOVERING’ – 15th April, 2021 Part 1: Continue to discover and explore a part (Central Business District: CBD) of Tāmaki Makaurau as a tourist.

As I walked around the CBD I discovered many contrasting buildings and sculptures, some with old constructions, and some with new. I reflected upon the development of architecture in Tāmaki Makaurau, and was impressed with some contemporary buildings.

Some building and sculpture planes looked thin and flat like a piece of paper, until you shifted your body position to discover their edges and volume of form from different angles.  

I am interested in history, and Albert Park has many histories, and is now a domestic and tourist destination for events and visits. There are reinstated cannons that were once buried after the war, a Band rotunda, traditional statues, and newer sculptural art works, all spaced out amongst the brightly coloured annual garden beds. It has a visual art connection through the protected trees to the Auckland Art Gallery, Toi o Tāmaki.

Neil Dawson, Throwback, 1988, Concrete and Steel. I like how Dawson’s D-shape sculpture stands proudly amongst the large trees. Its body mass is immense, bold and striking! Even though the half oval frame material is made of heavy, solid concrete and steel, it sits happily tilted on an angle, an engineering feat. I like seeing a window view through sculptures, and it has many gaping portals to see both the green garden beyond, and the surrounding concrete jungle of Tāmaki Makaurau.

Nature is inspiring to me, so I am interested in gardens and plant life, and in particular the trees in Albert Park. Historically, the oak trees at Albert Park were planted in 1908 by a group of American ‘Great White Fleet’ officers from the United States of America Navy. After viewing the 112 year old trees and listening to their leaves breathe in the breeze, my detective eyes discovered a self-seeded plant growing out of its Palm tree host as I walked by.

DISCOVERING – UNCOVERING – RECOVERING’ – 15th April, 2021. Part 1: Detective exploration around my neighborhood in Tāmaki Makaurau. Familiar walks can always find new sights… it is the third day in a row that I have stumbled upon fungi growth! I wonder if they are poisonous. This time I discover a large city of golden mushrooms growing on a compost pile next to a construction site!

Detective work on my walk reveals many constructions, from bird nests, spider web homes, to fungi cities. I live in one of the oldest and earliest European settler suburbs of Tāmaki Makaurau. Now, many older style buildings have been remodelled and reconstructed, yet some have been completely demolished, and new architecture is creeping in. ‘Something Old, Something New’ is my suburb’s motto.

I like how the criss cross scaffolding bars create a volume covering the majority of pictorial space, and how their lines contrast against the soft watercolour painted sky.

‘DISCOVERING – UNCOVERING – RECOVERING’ – 14th April, 2021 Part 1: Discovering how to use a Pinhole camera.

My first trial with a Pinhole camera (reconstructed from a litre paint can), was exciting. Yet I was apprehensive, having no photography education. I definitely felt like a novice, or an experimental scientist in the dark room watching my photographic paper turn from a shiny, white colour (blank with no image), to a black solid colour (still with no image).  It was a learning curve, as I had removed the tape and left it off the pin-hole for approximately three and half minutes, because the sun was brightening up the rainy day. The brighter the light, the longer you needed to expose the image. Unfortunately, this length of time was far too long, and it totally over-exposed my first attempt. 

Moving back and forth from the dark room to the scene I had chosen, I started to make progress with my negative-making by dividing the time in half. After exposing my pinhole to the light for one minute, I finally then trialled 30 seconds, and a negative image emerged.  Wow!  What magic, and what fun! 

This dark room experience made me think about the history of photography, and what photographic advancements will occur in the future.  The first camera obscura with a pinhole was recorded in the fifth century by a Mohist (Chinese) philosopher named Mozi.  In the Renaissance period, the camera obscura supported an artist to understand perspective, and then later the photographic camera began its technological development in the early 1800s.  Throughout my life, the art and science of photography and film has rapidly evolved with new technological developments.

‘DISCOVERING – UNCOVERING – RECOVERING’ – 14th April, 2021. Part 1: Discover being a tourist again by utilising the digital smartphone to capture the present.

As a domestic tourist on the second day in the CBD of Tāmaki Makaurau, I found great pleasure in the afternoon just leisurely walking at my own pace, locating objects of interest.  I was not overly concerned about the time or felt that I needed to rush, in comparison to my morning effort. 

Therefore, after our Pinhole camera lesson, I focused on capturing the straight, silhouetted shapes of high-rise buildings with defiant edges up against the sky using a digital format.  I find enjoyment observing the shape and colour changes of the sky.  Earlier in the day the dull mass of grey clouds rained heavily, but by late morning the sun had broken the bright, white foggy light, shifting and opening it to blue.  I am often struck by the beauty of nature changing.

The sculptures at Albert Park were also silhouetted when I arrived, because of the light conditions, and where the sun was positioned. I found it quite difficult to angle my body in the right direction to take a good shot, because my smartphone screen was too dark to see the statue.  It was also hard to see the Britannica shrine as Queen Victoria’s front image was dark from where I was standing, therefore the sun’s glare made her silhouette against the sky.  Albert Park’s statue of Victoria was the first of four in Aotearoa’s four main cities.  The artist F.J. Williamson sculptured her gazing down at her subjects and surveying her domain. She was set high on a plinth in her bulky, ruffled Victorian garb.  I wondered what Prince Albert’s statue would have looked like, after all, the park was named after him.  Perhaps he would have been smaller, and lower beneath his Queen, (and his wife Victoria).

As a detective I noticed a name connection on a beautiful old building located in Queen Street on my daily bus-ride ritual.  The façade read the ‘The Queen’s Head’, and I thought about this wordplay. I realised that this building was not situated at the top of Queen Street, (like your head is situated at the top of your body). I also wondered about the English tradition that incorporates a monarch’s title in some of the titles of their public houses, such as ‘The Queen’s Head’, in Queen Street.  I considered how the head in some cultures is regarded as sacred.  Yet, the head has been removed, and glorified, both in some historical battles, and in some present day terrorist actions. Queens, Kings and Heads of States have also beheaded their own subjects or enemies throughout history.  I also thought of Don Binney’s painting revealing only the head of Queen Victoria in a landscape.  During the twentieth century, many New Zealanders celebrated Queen Victoria’s birthday, naming it Empire Day.  How times have changed, as this day is no longer celebrated, nor remembered.

I moved onto noticing a bold and imposing sculpture of the first Governor General of New Zealand, another colonial past presence, relocated to Albert Park in 1922.  I questioned the smallness of a Maori pou statuette slightly behind Sir Governor Grey’s legs, and at his heel, like a dog in tow.    

DISCOVERING – UNCOVERING – RECOVERING’ – 14th April, 2021. Part 1: Detective hunting and collecting information in my neighborhood of Tāmaki Makaurau. Stopping to appreciate life within my geographical place, and focusing on each present moment to view new shapes and shadows (another set of fungi in a front garden)! It certainly is the season for fungi fun and growth as most wild mushrooms only appear in Autumn.

I am inspired by nature, and I am amazed to discover on my detective walks how much there is to know about planet earth, if one just takes the time to really look.  It is delightful discovering wild fungi in my home place, instead of just identifying neighbourhood garden plants being strangled with weeds. 

Does the appearance of fungi on the slopes of Maungakiekie volcano mean that I live on healthy soil?  Fungi seem to mysteriously surface and grow quickly as Autumn changes Summer’s warm nights. The cooler dark climate, with warm days is perfect for fungi feet. 

Wild fungi creates a healthy ecosystem by breaking down the soil’s decaying plant and animal matter.  Humans could not grow food without fungi, and yet they are thought of as plant type structures because they grow in soil.  Instead, they are more like humans, as closer aligned to animals, because they do not get their energy from photosynthesis, like plants.  They grow by breaking down carbon-based compounds in their environment.

I am enjoying finding different varieties on my detective walks, but struggling to identify and classify them correctly with their botanical and common names.  Many are now introduced species, and not endemic to New Zealand.

To me, fungi have a soft delicacy and lightness of being, forming strange shapes with colour patterns and ranging in size from large to microscopic.  Some fungi are deathly poisonous or have psychedelic, hallucinating properties.  Others are utilised in daily life such as consumed, or added to antibiotic and insulin medicines.  A type of fungi is also the yeast that rises in bread and brewed in alcohol. 

I like how I have photographed my discoveries close-up, to emphasise the fungi detail of shape, colour and form.  By positioning my body low to the ground, I have captured their skirt frills, and line and spot patterns, and curved stalks beneath.

On my detective walk around my neighbourhood I have always appreciated and noticed the lineup of very old trees such as the coastal loving Pohutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa). Yet, this time, I just stopped and observed the twisted branches. The rough textured grey bark invited me to touch its dents and folds. This tree trunk has enlarged and widened at the bottom with thickset offshoots growing up and dividing into more trunk-like branches. Some branches extend low to the ground, making you want to climb, sit or swing on them.

In the 1800’s this area was a rich forest source of Kauri. Now, the kauri wood fills many neighbourhood houses, from floorboards to walls.

‘DISCOVERING – UNCOVERING – RECOVERING’. Part 1: Discovering a part (Central Business District: CBD) of Tāmaki Makaurau as a tourist.

Walking around the city of Tāmaki Makaurau (a fertile isthmus, and a land where I was born), I strangely felt like a tourist with a camera in the hand, even though I knew the area well. The Auckland metropolitan area or CBD is the economic powerhouse, like a pumphouse or pumping station, full of fluid movement and life.

Following, or leading as a pair, and turning either left or right after a coin toss result, my peer and I unearthed many discoveries along new pathways. For me, I noticed an old haunt such as The University of Auckland’s layout and structure had dramatically and physically changed since the early nineteen nineties.

I started my tourist journey by documenting architecture, old and new. I focused on locating points and angles, dark and light shadows, and reflections that stretched skyward. Stopping and starting, looking up and down, I had to rearrange my body position to capture the best shot. I discovered many plants (often weeds such as ivy hiding fleshy fungi) crawling up man-made structures. Unfortunately the smartphone screen often became dark in the bright sunlight, and the image was hidden just as I clicked.

We each noticed and photographed different aspects and angles on our circular pathway. We headed up towards Symonds Street, walked down onto a snake-like bridge above the motorway, then ended up in Albert Park by passing tree-lined streets. We only covered a minute part of the CBD, but we were fully engaged searching for interesting and odd shapes and sounds, and listening to the city talk.

It was stimulating to click and collect documentation at our own pace, and focus on shooting snapshots at a range of levels. I was struct by the amount of newly constructed high-rise buildings growing in competition, and pushing up against, or replacing some of the old architecture. Some contemporary builds shone striking designs, their steel structures holding precious cargo of shiny glass planes. Yet, many were not that pleasing to the eye.

By the time we reached Albert Park, I had strengthened my relationship with my buddy, my camera and the city. I was doing a lot of noticing!

I like the juxtaposition between the old and the new architecture, and how the buildings now represent a different age, culture and spiritual value. I like how their bodies lean towards each other, as if for company. The church was built as tall as possible for aspiring worshippers to be close to heaven. The century old Gothic church, beautifully adorned with texture and patterns and solid in stone, seems rooted to the ground. Yet, it can not compete to reach the heights of heaven, compared to its contemporary twin tower apartment block neighbours, that are streamlined and light-looking, and very height driven.

‘DISCOVERING – UNCOVERING – RECOVERING’ – 13th April, 2021. Part 1: Discovering a part (my home place) in Tāmaki Makaurau as a detective. Walking home in the suburbs, and slowing down to notice details such as light and dark shadow contrast.

Walking home from the bus stop, I noticed my shadow dancing in front of me, and the stretched-out shadow of a power pole in the afternoon sun, and more mushrooms!

One is never quite sure what the lens will deliver, therefore photography is exciting to me. Today as a photographer explorer (a tourist in the city and a detective in the suburbs), I enjoyed taking risks into the unknown, and I re-discovered the city by uncovering new details. Cathy, 13th April, 2021.