Following a Te Papa Art After Dark session on the little details that matter (hats, shoes, jewellery, fabric and a well dressed man), I am on the couch awaiting my Thursday night telly treat – Project Runway. This week the battling designers are being asked to ‘join forces with art students to create artworkRead more
One of the most rewarding stages of the treatment is the varnishing of the painting. The new varnish layer returns the colours of the painting to the saturation and depth which were intended by the artist and it is when we feel like we are on the home stretch ofRead more
For the opening reception of the refreshed Te Papa art exhibition Collecting Contemporary held on February 22 2012, Taualuga: The Last Dance, 2006, a performance work by Samoan/Japanese artist Shigeyuki Kihara was presented. Staged in the gallery where the Collecting Contemporary exhibition is displayed, the performance was realised alongside theRead more
This week I am deviating from my own rules, as this Friday’s Wedding Dress is from neither the V&A’s or Te Papa’s collection. It is from Vinka Lucas’ Wedding Empire! The marvellous Vinka Lucas is the topic of Lucy Hammond’s Unveiled lecture on Sunday 18 March at 11am. Vinka, pictured below,Read more
I awoke on the morning of 6 March to discover that we had very rapid progress over night and were approaching the rugged columnular basalt cliffs of the Antipodes Island, crowned with green tussocks. The home to the Antipodean albatross,the Antipodes Island parakeet and the erect-crested penguin (to name justRead more
Our first sight of land since Antarctica in the dim small hours of the 3rd of March was Campbell Island. Campbell Island is home to more species of albatross than anywhere else in the New Zealand region with 6 species breeding here. The most conspicuous of these being the SouthernRead more
Teamwork during a Te Papa funded charter trip in the Hauraki Gulf got us a step closer in the hunt for the breeding grounds of the recently rediscovered New Zealand Storm-Petrel (Pelaeornis maoriana). The search team included Te Papa researcher Jean-Claude Stahl, Chris Gaskin who is part of the New Zealand storm-petrelRead more
One of the highlights of the updated Collecting Contemporary exhibition is the inclusion of three important works by contemporary New Zealand artist Jim Allen (born 1922). The three works – Small worlds, Tribute to Hone Tuwhare, and Space plane, environment no. 1 – were originally made for an exhibition atRead more
While Unveiled unpacks the influence of the colour white on wedding fashion, another exhibition has just recently opened in Wellington that explores fashion’s long term obsession with black. Black in Fashion is a ‘pop-up’ exhibition curated by former fashion designer Doris de Pont. Doris and her creative team have populatedRead more
This post is brought to you courtesy of the rivalry and camraderie between Te Papa staff who have science degrees, and those who have arts and business studies degrees! Earlier this week I was invited over to the cold store at Te Papa’s Natural Environment research centre to document theRead more
This week, as I walked around Unveiled with Wellington fashion designer Alexandra Owen who was prepping for her Thursday floor talk, she stopped in her tracks in front of this dress. The dress was worn by Monica Maurice for her wedding to Canadian doctor, Arthur Jackson (1904-1985) in South Yorkshire in 1938. It isRead more
In the early hours of the 25th, we were awoken and called to the bridge to see the biggest wall of ice that I will probably ever see. The Ross Ice Shelf, and enormous slab faced Ice sheet stretching over 700km from Cape Crozier to the Bay of Whales. TheRead more
Twenty-four years ago, New Zealand Post announces that 432 post offices are to be closed (8 February 1988) The first post office was provided by the government in 1840. By 1900 there were 1700 branches servicing a population of around 800,000. They were sources of information, places where you could sendRead more
We have had a very busy start to 2012, we have been working to have Poedua ready for display in March and preparing a number of paintings for the upcoming touring exhibition Angels and Aristocrats. After the painting was re-stretched following the structural treatment, the old restorations including overpaintRead more
It’s our fifth day in the Auckland Islands and so far we have been offered only one day with calm winds. We have become quite good at the game of moving the boat from one end of the island to the other, just to find some protection from the wind.Read more
