Foam party

Anyone wanting a sneak peek at Peter Robinson's upcoming and wonderfully ambitious installation at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery should head to the gallery neighbourhood today, where thousands of little polystyrene foam spheres offer some slight indication of what's in store.

We were trying to recall what the only other full-gallery exhibition at the GBAG was, and decided on Leon Narby's opening installation back in 1970, though in an apple against apple world et al.'s abnormal mass delusions occupied the same original gallery space.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that the epic directorial swansong Mediarena covered both the entire old and new gallery spaces.

Either way, exciting times.

Scale models the secret to becoming a great curator

"How Exhibitions Work

This course will give students a behind-the-scenes insight into the background and setting up of exhibitions and displays. Topics covered will include research and development of an exhibition proposal, building a small scale model project, setting up an exhibition – techniques, problems/challenges – and putting an exhibition together. Students will build a small scale model or a small scale display component or other models appropriate for their display area.

(Approx course material costs: $50 depending on project)

Wed 6pm-8pm

20 Aug – 5 Nov (10wks)
$80 Y2020.025/3

For further information: http://www.witt.ac.nz/"

Drive time

Tips for gaining maximum enjoyment from a 4 hour drive through torrential rain, most of it in the dark, and in a 1.6l car, on the way to see someone unwell:

• Sport mode is a waste of time. All it does is lose 6th gear on the auto box
• Don't disengage traction control when going through Awakino gorge. It's fun, but only for a second or two.
• Six speed auto is an oxymoron.
• Don't think about why you're going where you're going. Think about why they need the car you're delivering to get home.
• Sometimes the horrendous price of petrol can be considered an investment.
• There are no public toilets open after dark between New Plymouth and Ngaruawahia.
  

Teenage kicks

Fun with iMovie and a digicam 1...

Judging a book by its cover

I've always been a complete sucker for album cover art. So much so that I once bought an album by the Faith Healers solely because it had a great photo of a Renault Dauphine on the cover, and at the time we had one decomposing in the back garden. Turned out the album wasn't so bad either.

The album cover obsession, spurred on by what the 4AD label were doing with Vaughan Oliver (think Pixies, Cocteau Twins, and the Throwing Muses) and the stunningly generic covers the Smiths were putting out in the mid to late 80s, kicked off a penchant for stockpiling retro photographic clip art that still haunts me, and which I really should do something with.

So you can imagine my excitement when I found a smart new site chronicling the entire Smiths cover-art collection in my feeds from Notcot this morning.

Vulgarpicture.com. - the illustrated history of the Smiths and Morrisey. It's good (and I didn't even resort to dropping Smiths song titles into this post).