Issue One: The Garden Party
NZ$5.95 | Reviewed by Amy Brown

Hue & Cry is a very attractive addition to New Zealand’s journal scene. Alongside the likes of Sport, Landfall, Bravado, Takahe, White Fungus and Glottis, it doesn’t appear a bit redundant, its focus being more on aesthetics generally, particularly relating to the visual arts, than simply literature. From its offset printing and burst bound spine, to a well chosen photography inset and carefully designed layout (each contributor’s pages have a specific design to suit the form or content of their work) it is obvious that an equal number of artists as writers have been involved in this project. The fact that it is on sale at more galleries than bookshops (in Wellington it’s available at Enjoy, on Cuba Street, and in Auckland at Gambia Castle, on Ponsonby Road) reinforces this point.

By Bob Harvey
Exisle, AU$55 | Reviewed by Andy Palmer

ACCORDING to the press release which accompanied my copy of Wild Beast, Dean Buchanan is “one of New Zealand’s best-known artists”. Prior to a recent Nightline article, his was not a name I was familiar with. I could suggest somewhat tongue-in-cheek that they meant ‘one of Auckland’s best-known artists’. More likely though it’s because, as a quick flick through the book reveals, Buchanan’s painting holds no real interest for me personally.

Media Release/Advertisement
Our friends at irreverent Wellington-based arts and culture magazine White Fungus recently launched their eighth issue. The mag, which also recently celebrated its third birthday, has grown from a free photocopied handout to a print publication distributed around the world, but editor Ron Hanson says its roots remain firmly in Wellington. “We’re interested into tapping into stuff that’s going on all over the place, but we’ve actually managed to connect to other cultures through the magazine without actually having to physically leave Wellington.”

How do you get into Te Papa’s national art collection, asks MARK AMERY, of Toi Te Papa’s ‘Recent Acquisitions’.

Rick Alexander photographs;
Introduction by Peter Ireland
RA, NZ$75 | Reviewed by Andy Palmer

ABOUT ten years ago the book A Century of Images was released. It was a loose history of New Zealand photography taken from the archives at Te Papa. Amongst those represented were the familiar, both names and images, and the unknown. The opening image is a dramatic shot of a sand dune, with beautiful textures, lovely tones, and heavy vignetting, which while looking recent, could have been taken at any point in the last 100 or so years.