Art reflections – superb displays
Mentioned in Dispatches:
November 26 is being advertised as the last chance for you, as a member of the public, to comment on the future of the The Founders Theatre. As long as the Philistines and grinches do not derail the process, the Momentum proposal for a theatre in the former Hamilton Hotel building will proceed.
The Founders, however, is an iconic piece of architecture, a key structure in Hamilton’s growth as a city, and culturally so much more significant than a paddock where blokes have a good old stoush before they change in an architectural cowshed and head for the pub.
We have a singular responsibility, and that is to continue to participate in the ongoing debate on the future of the Founders, focusing on real needs, not ephemeral distractions like parking.
We need both buildings. We also need strong arguments from real people like you to persuade the Philistines of the value of the arts and the buildings which house them to a city they are now claiming as theirs. It is, actually, ours.
Here are key links: www.hamilton.govt.nz/our-city/artsandculture/founders-theatre/ Pages/default.aspx
To make electronic submissions go to: hamilton.govt.nz/founders
Paper submission forms are at the city libraries and Creative Waikato HQ in Alexandra Street.
And!!Oi! They have been around for years, our bonny brassy beauties. Come Christmas and their trucks begin patrolling the streets with flugelhorns and trombones poking out the back and cornets and trumpets competing with tubas and drums as they run through the most popular repertoire in living memory … They call Come, all ye faithful! See shepherds watching their flocks by night while away in a manger three kings sing to encourage good King Wenceslas to wander through the snow … even though we are in the middle of summer, and it is not only the Sallies. It is also our competition-winning Hamilton City Brass. They will soon be in your street, but take note. To start the season they are celebrating with their Joy of Christmas Concert at the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin in Grey Street at 2pm on Sunday, December 3.
What: Waiclay National Ceramics Exhibition and judge’s comments
Who: Rowley Drysdale, Waiclay guest selector and judge, 2017 When: Saturday, November 18 Where: Waikato Museum
Curator: John Parker
Reviewer: Sam Edwards
More minds have been exercised by discussion of the arts than the All Blacks have ever had spectators. For most people, reacting to works of art in all their infinite manifestations is essentially visceral. That does not provide a stable platform for discussion, simply a loud hailer for the one who shouts the loudest. Listening to teacher, potter, and judge of this year’s Waiclay entries, Rowley Drysdale, talk about his reactions to the exhibits, and the background which leads him, as he said, ‘‘Through the objective and into the subjective …’’ was a delight.
The fundamentals of an artwork include originality, and the way that originality brings one into a dialogue with the work and has conversations about it. As Drysdale also commented – and he did, generously, revealingly, and perceptively during the morning’s conversation, ‘‘… the lubricant for good practice is good critique …’’ and critique comes from audiences, from peers, and from critics.
Drysdale’s peripatetic critique, in which he interacted with works, their originators, and their audience, was a wonderful example of that rarest of artistic birds, an artist who can be knowledgeably self critical and help others develop that same awareness.
This was a superb exhibition of ceramic art, and one which will have many viewers conversing extensively with the entries, and with other viewers. There will be the inevitable latte lappers whose wit is as sharp as the warmed over trim milk they ingest, but most of you will find this exhibition really stimulating and enjoyable – and you have until February to enjoy it more than once.
What: Celebration and Surprises Who: The Auckland Welsh Choir When: Sunday 19 November 2017 Where: St Andrew’s Church, Cambridge
Conductor: Diana Williams Rhodes Reviewer: Sam Edwards
Diolch am yr angerdd a’r cerddorfa fy ffrindiau (translates for di-Gymraeg as ‘‘thanks for the passion and musicianship my friends’’).
The Auckland Welsh paid their first formal visit to Cambridge to sing to us in St Andrew’s church. It is a beautiful building, but not the easiest for choirs to show their best voice. Conductor Williams Rhodes was unfazed, the choir adapted with truly professional musicianship, and the nearly full house audience enjoyed a repertoire which opened so musically appropriately, and a capella, with the early 17th century madrigal Musica die ganz lieblich Kunst
– Music, the most lovely art. The choir was true to that promise, and performed lovely Welsh folk tunes, a singalong
Land of My Fathers in Welsh which raised the hairs on one’s neck, and spirituals. Love songs – included an 18th century lump-in-throater accompanied by a true Welsh harp, and over a dozen other works ranged from Williams Rhodes’s own evocative composition
Aorangi Requiem to a smashing quartette from Beethoven’s only opera,
Mir ist so Wunderbar meaning I feel so wonderful – and we all did.