Edited by William McAloon
Te Papa Press, NZ$130 | Reviewed by Andy Palmer

OVER the last few years a number of New Zealand museums and art galleries have released books detailing their collections. In Art at Te Papa, we have a mighty tome showing off the art collection of our national museum.

Like the recently reviewed Seen This Century this is essentially a list book, albeit on a larger scale. And as with any list book readers will probably disagree with those included and those excluded. Not being one with a great knowledge of the Te Papa art collection, a quick flick through suggests that this is a pretty comprehensive survey.

Enjoy Public Gallery
April 23-May 16 | Reviewed by Thomasin Sleigh

I WAS A bit late for John Ward Knox’s artist’s talk which was programmed promptly for 5:15 to 6:00pm, followed by the opening celebrations proper. It turned out that this was okay, because Knox didn’t speak linearly about the work in the show but tangentially and openly about thoughts and experiences which had occurred to him over the days leading up to the exhibition. The space of the artist’s talk was democratic, in the sense that it was opened up intellectually to chance encounters, private musings and loosely connected happenings. These thoughts could be tied tentatively to the actual physical work of Knox’s exhibition, or they could be left shifting between the physical and the philosophical – not quite catching fully on either.