Solo 36 – Hall of the Unrecognised

On now at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts the installation ‘Hall of the Unrecognised’ celebrates the inaugural National Council of Women which first met in Christchurch on 13 April 1896. The installation is part of the Solo 36 group show. It’s an interesting and provoking exhibition considering the current debate around rape and […]

One Sleep till Bookfair

Saturday  is  Wellington’s most amazing, most awesome, most excellent, book related event of the year – The DCM Annual Bookfair Take 90000+ books, add LPs, CDs, DVDs, Cassettes, Magazines, Jigsaw Puzzles & Games galore. Everyone going to bookfair has a strategy for this is one of those very few shopping events when you can’t spend ‘too […]

Baby it’s cold inside

A little late to the party but still something rather delightful has popped up in the city.  Cleave (a project between artist Gabby O’Connor, oceanographer Craig Stevens, curator Katharine Allard and the amazing kids from Miramar Central school) is living at 86 Victoria St Wellington until July 13 2013. It’s viewable 24/7 as it’s all […]

The cupboards are bare

here’s a sneak peek into the food bank shelves at DCM this afternoon – empty! As we know from Game ofThrones, winter is coming. So this weekend If you’re planning to visit Chaffers New World, please buy a couple extra items and pop then in DCM’s  foodbank bins at the exit. Things like tuna and tinned stews are […]

Whakuku a Nga Kina

The art world is full of sharks[citation needed], but one recent public sculpture is attracting watery beasts of a different kind. Via his Facebook group, artist Michel Tuffery has been documenting the sting-rays which have been cruising his Nga Kina at Kumutoto wharf which was installed in November 2012.

Signs of the time – advertising we like

So many surfaces in Wellington are crammed with posters trying to sell us something, so we thought it might be nice to look at some of the advertising that actually looks good. This week, our favourite piece of advertising are these posters from Wellington Zoo. These absolutely gorgeous animals (there’s a red panda in the […]

Return to the valley of the dolls

I was in Wellington, my first time back since I left in April, and I was furiously catching up on things. I got the bus out to the Hutt and visited the Dowse Art Museum. It was choice, but as I left the gallery, I spied something much more intriguing across the square. Over at […]

Zinefest 2012

Wellington Zinefest annual zine market and festival returns to Mighty Mighty this Saturday, November 17th. Now in its 6th year, Wellington Zinefest is New Zealand’s longest running festival of zines. ‘Zines’ or ‘fanzines’ are self-published magazines created to highlight music scenes, fandoms, activism, craft, creative writing or simply the zinemaker’s own oddball obsessions. Zinefest brings […]

Review: The Hobbit Companion

It’s not by chance that John Ronald Reuel Tolkien’s was the setting that would become the default template for the popular notion of high-fantasy; no arbitrary circumstance that led to Tolkien’s intricately-crafted argot becoming the lingua franca of the sword-and-sorcery genre as it’s commonly understood today. Tolkien, with his fellow Inkling and understudy in Christianity […]

Horseplay

We noticed the other day that Namastey in Dixon St had had a makeover. Most of it involves  overstuffed couches and smart new tablecloths, but it was the artworks that really stopped us in our bhaji. I’m not really sure what’s going on here. I imagine it’s based upon traditional mythology, but the whole thing […]