Your friendly neighbourhood Reverend (Aka Neil Buddle) has entered the Metonymy 09 exhibition, which is part of the Auckland Writers Fest. This exhibition pairs up artists and writers to produce a collaborative work, including visual art and performance. The pairs are selected by the organisers and the pairs are therefore previously unbeknownst to each other.
The Rev has been paired with Wellington poet and playwright Desiree Gezentzvey. We are working on illustrative prints of 3 poems.
If selected for the final exhibition, the works will be on display on Level 4, Aotea Centre between the 9th-23rd May.
For more information goto: METONYMY
20090416
20090415
Cut Off Your Nose
Here it s the 3rd Instalment of the 'Techniques for Self- Sabotage' series, entitled Cut Off Your Nose To Spite Your Face...
20090402
Art Is Tree
The notion of art and artist is forever being tested and re-defined. As a self-proclaimed wannabe artist and ex-arts worker, the definitions, assumptions, cliches and stereotypes that accompany this discussion, challenge and disappoint me in equal measure.Working with arts students as I do currently, is interesting because art school is where many people come to live out their stereotype or have them reinforced by the previous generation of dilettantes-cum-tutors. To the public, artists can be seen to be vague, lazy, pretentious, arrogant, un-professional, difficult divas. Unfortunately this is one of the stereotypes that some artists love to live out, often the less talented ones.
In my dealing with artists, time and time again, I am confronted by people asking for special help and dispensation, because they are 'creative (A hugely over-used word). These 'creative' people believe that they deserve these special dispensations, as if it is a known fact and an unwritten law of the universe. It is often at this point that I ask why do 'creative people' deserve special rules and dispensations? Are artists needs more important than that of others? Are artists superior beings, the pinnacle of humanity and above nurses, teachers, plumbers and fast-food technicians? These questions are closely followed by "If artists are open-minded, capable, adaptable individuals as is claimed, why are they/us so high-maintenance? It is usually at this point, that the art-world bubble starts to burst! They are hard questions, especially to someone couched in the comfortable assumption that they are special and the world wants to bathe in their unique wondrousness.
In my art studies one of the most influential topics I studied was the Russian contstructivists of the post WW1 period. These artists faced with a western world in ruin, dismissed the notion of art for arts sake, in favour of art for the common Good. They though that artists should get involved in social causes, politics, architecture, engineering, clothing, apply themselves to rebuilding the world in a better way through becoming integral in the processes. Their image of the artist was as creative worker, in a boilersuit, pencils in pocket; a pragmatic, creative problem solver interacting on an essential level with society. Not playing peripheral party-pooper. Espousing a life on the margins of society whilst courting and demanding the same society give attention and reward to their special gifts.
In my work often I have been amazed by how bad artists are at communicating visually outside of their art-form. If it is to do with advertising, marketing, promotion or any other form of professional networking, artists tend to either fully refuse or resist as if it is an affront to their superior moral standing and altruism or engage so badly with them as to be damaging. As with most tools and systems, they are not inherently evil. Advertising is a tool for increasing awareness of something, this is a necessary tool and as ever it is how we use it that counts. Marketing and advertising offer the artist a fantastic opportunity to communicate their uniqueness, their visual language, their approach etc. to their target audience, in advance of the actual work, in the same way an entree might whet your appetite for the main course of a meal.
One of the other damaging things is the expectation of funding/grants/support which seems like a throwback to the old 'wealthy patron'. Patronage in the arts is important but it is also a trap of sorts. Art school sets up students to believe that they will not make money, they will not be taken seriously as professionals and they will not be valued. This teaching is often based on the bitter experience of tutors who clearly followed that trajectory. With this attitude, changing whatever prejudices the professional and public world has will be hard. Funding is great and it allows for exploration of important concepts that may not be commercially supported but advance and inform practice. However what use is a generation of artists going out into the world expecting a living, producing obscure temporal art-works that preach to the converted and deter the average viewer, however 'radical' and 'new' the concept appears according to the days fashions?
Personally for me art is about communicating ideas to the largest audience possible. These ideas should be produced practically and distributed as democratically as possible. As in the time of the constructivists, we need artists to engage with the modern world and bring what ever gifts they do have to bear on society. We don't need a lot of aloof creatives, watching from the backbenches as the world turns to custard saying "I'm not a part of this".
Of course 'horses for courses'. There is room for all and that is one of the wonderful things about the art-world. However don't profess to be one thing and demand another. Don't make inaccessible works in secret and expect to be rewarded in public, however 'important' the idea. Don't sell aesthetically pleasing objects with no message and expect to be feted as an visionary artist. And whatever you do don't expect the world to beat a path to your door and give you what you deserve or expect the world to pave the way from your door to the world, just in case you condescend to walk it one day.
With gifts come responsibilities not privileges. Do your work, work hard, represent yourself well, use your creativity in all areas of your life and practice, offer all, expect nothing - you are your own reward.
20090331
Techniques for Self-Sabotage
CUT OFF YOUR NOSE!
As I have currently been working on the set of prints entitled 'Techniques for Self-Sabotage', the notion has been playing on my mind. For it seems that when in life I am given the easy job, plenty of time or a free reign - I abuse it in some way. If the devil truly finds work for idle hands, I am a valued employee of Beelzebub. This instinct has always been there, even when I was pre-teen, I would be getting top grades at school and go vandalising, breaking and entering factories or setting fires after school. These petty crimes served as excitement, entertainment and challenge, all things sadly lacking from my intellectual stimulation of the time. These activities also exposed another world, a world beyond the confines of rules, discipline and moral prerogative. This world had its own rules, its own logic and its own rewards. In its chaos, especially fire there was some sense of beauty, a very natural one, the sublime beauty and awe of a hurricane vs. a sunny day. 
Sometimes these self-sabotaging instincts help, burning your bridges can be a good way to make sure you move forward in life and calamitous if you ever need to retreat. So here I am 'cutting off my nose to spite my face' in preparation for the next print in the series. And if you out there are twiddling your thumbs, doing something you shouldn't be, for a thrill that the consequences outweigh, then beware for you may also a Master of Self-Sabotage.20090305
wet night
wetnight©burgseye2005
its a wet night, north easterlies, they always catch this westward looking nation off guard, they make off with the sun in a roughed up roll of cumulus, blindly running at the horizon, without plan, with little to sustain them beyond Auckland's anorexic waistline, some how they drop their plunder mid Tasman, dissolve into the ether and regroup again some place in the equatorial Pacific, random vandal winds ripping the yachts off their east coast moorings, delivering carnage across gentrified burbs, inverting umbrella's and Maralynising secretaries skirts at traffic lights, no remorse, no apology, no place like Auckland in a storm.
20090219
Do you believe in Dog? No I believe in Dig!
Having not blogged for sometime, I thought I would warm myself up again with a minor topic -Religion vs. Science!
Arguments between religious and scientific factions have been going on for a very long time. The overall sense (if the protagonists are to be believed) is that the 2 are incompatible, indeed apposite to each other. The 2 camps, darwinian evolutionists and christian creationists, battle it out to score points against the enemy. The darwinians battle for evolution as a natural, physical process catalysed by chemical and physical processes, themselves set in motion by some vast historic release of energy. The creationists argue that an all powerful supernatural entity, created the universe, according to an intelligent design.
With advances in tested human knowledge, the creationists have taken big hits, from the existence of the dinosaurs to the mapping of the human genome. However what the creationists have lost to acknowledged scientific fact, they have made up for with more faith and rhetoric to back up their claim and push for their 'truth' to once again be taught to children as scientific fact.
Having spent 10 years as a child, first accepting the catholic faith, then rejecting it, I have some knowledge of the religion from the inside and have gone through all the questioning, that acccompanies the spiritual crisis. I accepted it and then rejected it and no years later find myself strangely in a more ambivalent position.
One of the things that always seemed obvious to me was the lack of need for historic veracity in religions that primarily use parable and story to instruct people in a 'spiritual' way of life. The 10 commandments as dictated by Moses, or not, are widely viewed in the western world and beyond as a good basis for basic human law and respect. The message of the 10 commandments has a clear ring of truth to it. 'Thou shalt not steal' - you can't fault it. The need to anchor this story in a real place in history, was originally more for narrative effect surely than as an attempt at documentary style accuracy.
The same can be said for the Book of Genesis vs. the Big bang. The polarity of the antagonists hinders their ability to see the similarities. In Genesis God creates the world in 6 days, starting with void/darkness, then a burst of light, a couple of days brewing up the gas and rocks, add water, basic life, vegetation etc. then on the last day, us, humans. In the big bang story, there is nothing, a void, a big bang happens, worlds form from a melting pot of gas and rock, then comes, water, atmosphere, basic life, vegetation, animals and in the last 2 million years , us humans. Now the timescale is different of course but the order of events, the rough ratio of time is consistent. The reason for the 7 day claim is clearly again a device to simplify the story for the laymans comprehension (A week is easier to understand than billions of years). Also it imbues the act with greater awe value. Really the book of Genesis is an extraordinarily accurate account of the big bang, if one is more interested in the plot than the details! The trouble comes from the from the creationists' insistence that it is literally true and the darwinians who say it is literally untrue. Neither is right and both are, there is just no reconcilliation. They may even have something to inform each others arguments if only they would try?
This doesn't resolve the existence of God, or does it? Again one could answer that evolution in the scientific sense demonstrates a natural intelligence, a purpose or at least an inevitability that propels change. Whether it exists at at a sub-atomic level or as a supernatural entity on a cloud, the obvious fact is, there is a motivational force, whether it is pure energy, phenomena, magic or miracle. The religious explanation again is much simpler for the layman, and creates many opportunities for control in the form of worship and penance. This explanation satisifes the need, borne of insecurity, that there is something larger than us, looking after us, deciding the future. This is less scary or complex to explain than energy catalysing matter and its endless permutations. Some religions like Bhuddism focus on a 'god within' us all. This tallies more easily with some aspects of science than the beliefes of the monothiestic religions, as Bhuddism concludes that we are part of a greater organism and that organism is the essence of god, ergo we are god and god is us.
Other bible stories, particularly old testament can also be considered parables of truth. The Tower of Babel and the splitting of the one tribe into many, is a story that anthropologists have proved to a reasonable degree of scientific certitude. We originally developed as a species in one main area, we grew togther, then split apart due to some need/disagreement/crisis and went our seperate ways for a long time, to reunite later, bringing together new skills, new ideas that made the species as a whole stronger and more adpatable, from which point in time, we blossomed.
The Flood, Noahs Ark, again, we know of significant climactic events in history, perhaps someone or a group of people did save many animals from disaster, repopulating an area afterwards? Again it is the message of the story, the need to preserve our fellow creatures for the common good and for the future of our species and our known world. A concept that in this time of climate awareness we are all aware of, and is supported by science, through projects like the seed bank in Norway or the Eden Project in Great Britain (which tellingly uses a biblical story to describe its purpose and its philosophy).
As usual the story of the human race is people with a common aim/goal or idea splitting hairs until different factions become diametrically opposed to each other. That is why Jews, Christians and Moslems fight, brothers fighting amongst themselves for control of the family. Science fighting religion for a truth that they have both sought, discovered and celebrated.
Now more than ever we should look to our similarities and our common needs and desires for the spirit and look to the differences in the details, the angles, to help us see the whole picture. Then maybe we can truly understand the divine science and the scientific divinity of our own existence in a universe that ultimately will always be one step ahead of our own comprehension. It is this mystery that drives both our spiritual and scientific quests, that are one and the same thing - A valiant attempt to understand and celebrate our place in the universe.
Arguments between religious and scientific factions have been going on for a very long time. The overall sense (if the protagonists are to be believed) is that the 2 are incompatible, indeed apposite to each other. The 2 camps, darwinian evolutionists and christian creationists, battle it out to score points against the enemy. The darwinians battle for evolution as a natural, physical process catalysed by chemical and physical processes, themselves set in motion by some vast historic release of energy. The creationists argue that an all powerful supernatural entity, created the universe, according to an intelligent design.
With advances in tested human knowledge, the creationists have taken big hits, from the existence of the dinosaurs to the mapping of the human genome. However what the creationists have lost to acknowledged scientific fact, they have made up for with more faith and rhetoric to back up their claim and push for their 'truth' to once again be taught to children as scientific fact.
Having spent 10 years as a child, first accepting the catholic faith, then rejecting it, I have some knowledge of the religion from the inside and have gone through all the questioning, that acccompanies the spiritual crisis. I accepted it and then rejected it and no years later find myself strangely in a more ambivalent position.
One of the things that always seemed obvious to me was the lack of need for historic veracity in religions that primarily use parable and story to instruct people in a 'spiritual' way of life. The 10 commandments as dictated by Moses, or not, are widely viewed in the western world and beyond as a good basis for basic human law and respect. The message of the 10 commandments has a clear ring of truth to it. 'Thou shalt not steal' - you can't fault it. The need to anchor this story in a real place in history, was originally more for narrative effect surely than as an attempt at documentary style accuracy.
The same can be said for the Book of Genesis vs. the Big bang. The polarity of the antagonists hinders their ability to see the similarities. In Genesis God creates the world in 6 days, starting with void/darkness, then a burst of light, a couple of days brewing up the gas and rocks, add water, basic life, vegetation etc. then on the last day, us, humans. In the big bang story, there is nothing, a void, a big bang happens, worlds form from a melting pot of gas and rock, then comes, water, atmosphere, basic life, vegetation, animals and in the last 2 million years , us humans. Now the timescale is different of course but the order of events, the rough ratio of time is consistent. The reason for the 7 day claim is clearly again a device to simplify the story for the laymans comprehension (A week is easier to understand than billions of years). Also it imbues the act with greater awe value. Really the book of Genesis is an extraordinarily accurate account of the big bang, if one is more interested in the plot than the details! The trouble comes from the from the creationists' insistence that it is literally true and the darwinians who say it is literally untrue. Neither is right and both are, there is just no reconcilliation. They may even have something to inform each others arguments if only they would try?
This doesn't resolve the existence of God, or does it? Again one could answer that evolution in the scientific sense demonstrates a natural intelligence, a purpose or at least an inevitability that propels change. Whether it exists at at a sub-atomic level or as a supernatural entity on a cloud, the obvious fact is, there is a motivational force, whether it is pure energy, phenomena, magic or miracle. The religious explanation again is much simpler for the layman, and creates many opportunities for control in the form of worship and penance. This explanation satisifes the need, borne of insecurity, that there is something larger than us, looking after us, deciding the future. This is less scary or complex to explain than energy catalysing matter and its endless permutations. Some religions like Bhuddism focus on a 'god within' us all. This tallies more easily with some aspects of science than the beliefes of the monothiestic religions, as Bhuddism concludes that we are part of a greater organism and that organism is the essence of god, ergo we are god and god is us.
Other bible stories, particularly old testament can also be considered parables of truth. The Tower of Babel and the splitting of the one tribe into many, is a story that anthropologists have proved to a reasonable degree of scientific certitude. We originally developed as a species in one main area, we grew togther, then split apart due to some need/disagreement/crisis and went our seperate ways for a long time, to reunite later, bringing together new skills, new ideas that made the species as a whole stronger and more adpatable, from which point in time, we blossomed.
The Flood, Noahs Ark, again, we know of significant climactic events in history, perhaps someone or a group of people did save many animals from disaster, repopulating an area afterwards? Again it is the message of the story, the need to preserve our fellow creatures for the common good and for the future of our species and our known world. A concept that in this time of climate awareness we are all aware of, and is supported by science, through projects like the seed bank in Norway or the Eden Project in Great Britain (which tellingly uses a biblical story to describe its purpose and its philosophy).
As usual the story of the human race is people with a common aim/goal or idea splitting hairs until different factions become diametrically opposed to each other. That is why Jews, Christians and Moslems fight, brothers fighting amongst themselves for control of the family. Science fighting religion for a truth that they have both sought, discovered and celebrated.
Now more than ever we should look to our similarities and our common needs and desires for the spirit and look to the differences in the details, the angles, to help us see the whole picture. Then maybe we can truly understand the divine science and the scientific divinity of our own existence in a universe that ultimately will always be one step ahead of our own comprehension. It is this mystery that drives both our spiritual and scientific quests, that are one and the same thing - A valiant attempt to understand and celebrate our place in the universe.
20090217
making a fist of it
fist©burgseye1997
wringing the imagination for new insights and fresh angles...
me today. no-thing new there, just clearing the slate for whatever's next...
..
20090212
20090211
mercs place -for the weather too
mercsplace©burgseye02(?)
another sauna of a night in auckland. sticky honey dripping, sky heavy as an upturned tank, calm closing in, lights on in the burbs -flower buds in a field of green & black...
i'm reminded of a day/night spent at mercs in the fields at muriwai out of sight of the waves. many years past many swells broken under the cliffs at maori bay...
Singers and players
Junior Reid & Jah Paul @JR studios Uptown Kingston JA 1993©burgseye1993
Exploiting the fact that the legendary Micheal Rose ex-frontman of Black Uhuru is in town to play Splore's Living Lounge on 26th February, I decided to post these images of another ex-Black Uhuru front man the equally massive Junior Reid. The images were shot at his studio home in Uptown Kingston JA 1993. I had the good fortune to be travelling with the inimitable Stinky Jim whose tidal wave of musical knowledge and general good vibe won us many an interview with various stars of that time. More later.
20090207
one for the weather
upnorth©burgseye1997
a one for the weather, post.
up north is one of 42 images taken from the 2002 'close to home' show at Lopdell House's Upstairs gallery, Titirangi. a book, a postcard series of images shot between 1997 and 2000, yeah right, another shelved project more like, the basis of ongoing enquiry...and still recieving enquires about it and the subsequent 'here and now' joint show at spiral gallery in 2004(?) from some who have picked up the thread latterly.
20090206
ha
ha and then i realise why i haven't posted for so long cos my colour images all end up negatised on the blog. ha ha ha...man now that is art, or not...suggestions are welcome
waitangi day
images ©burgseye 1998
Waitangi Day Zero9 and I feel fine. Well perhaps a little bit oddddd as I've been in front of this box for days on end. My friend Merc has kicked my butt to post, he caught me at a good time so i decided to post some rather obvious pics given the day but i like em anyways and besides i get in before the usually prolific Rev comes up with something that will knock me flat back on me arse.
yessirree a good day, ra is incorrigible, providing us the kind of summer i remember having as a kid, the kind of summer that fuels future rose tinted reminiscing about summers past. on an island between great seas the climate is all consuming. our state run media are turning it into an unhealthy obsession with three weather segments -each one repeating what kind of weather day we just experienced one forecasting whats ahead- during a one hour 'news' show.
and i as i write this, one of our neighbours or perhaps one of their ubertalented friends is cranking into keyboard tinkering on their analogue hammond, some how even tuning can be as good as bird call, especially when the winged critters have already crawled into their nests.
call of the wild-man inside i wanna go blaze my speakers with some kind of whitenoise like Wires 1,2XU or the reverse some bass throbbing Burning Spear dubwise: whitehotandcocoonwarmth.
anycase, its getting close to the end of another great day between rangi and papa and i got another psrt of this project to knock over before i fall over so its over and out.
20081003
Read it in the Paper
This work was produced for the 2008 Smith and Carey Review Show at the Sarjeant Gallery
Read it in the Paper
Neil Buddle 2008
Linoprint, Collage and Acrylic paint on handmade paper
Neil Buddle 2008
Linoprint, Collage and Acrylic paint on handmade paper
The piece is made on handmade paper, made exclusively with copies of the Wanganui Chronicle and features inlaid elemets of a story from the paper about the Sarjeant Gallery. The prints are a composite of 3 works produced as individual prints ('H is for History', 'Outsider Art?' and "Hands Off our Patch"). The eels relate to the decline of the longfin eel population. While this piece is not about the issue of the missing 'H' in W anganui. The H issue is seen as a symptom of the discord between Maori and Pakeha in Wanganui and issues such as tagging and gang violence, therefore link to this issue.
20080704
Reality or Actuality?
Reality T.V - © Neil Buddle 2008In the world of the media, the phenomenon of Reality T.V has swept the world. Providing the media-makers with an endless supply of cheap programming as we, the public become the stars, or villains of our own entertainment. It is a long recognised fact that the public only appear on T.V to be humiliated or patronised, even when they have been successful, won something or done some praiseworthy act. In the act we become cannibals, essentially consuming ourselves in an unhealthy voyeur-fest of vicariousness by proxy.
As the banal is sensationalised and the sensational trivialised, our perceptions of ourselves and our environment become warped and distorted and our participation and interaction with the 'real' diminishes.
A new term, Actuality TV has been born, especially to describe TV that is about what is 'really real' as opposed to Reality TV which is real people in contrived or unnatural situations!?
So as they use to say on the old British kids show, Why Don't You? - "Just switch off your TV set and do something less boring instead".
It is with these issues in mind that this work was produced for the Silk-Cut Lino-Print Awards 2008.
20080624
one in one thousand
word©burgseye05
"...write it a day at a time and let God be the measure of its worth; you let the score take care of itself; and most important, you never lose faith in your vision. God might choose fools and people who glow with neurosis for his partners in creation, but he doesn't make mistakes." James Lee Burke
http://www.jamesleeburke.com/content/4
Remodelling
remodelling©burgseye2008
"I don't believe one grows older. I think that what happens early on in life is that at a certain age one stands still and stagnates." T.S Eliot
20080609
Anyone for Tennis?
Response to the Letter from Mayor Laws regarding 'Negative Nitwits' and a certain ex-Arts Developer!
Thanks to the caller from Guyton Street…..but now back to the point!
Contrary to the petulant response from our Mayor, neither myself nor other concerned constituents supported the illegal activities (e.g Tagging) being discussed. Reasonable people offering valid views, based on experience should not be so immaturely dismissed.
To suggest that, by not supporting the approach to an issue, you condone the issue is absurd. It is akin to saying, 'if you do not support the death-penalty, you support murder'.
The subsequent tired and irrelevant potshots at active community members form a predictable and strategic smokescreen. Distracting from the issues and deterring participation in democratic forums; for fear of public rebuke. This is doubly harmful as many of the implied individuals and groups have contributed, for little reward, to the Council's own Community Outcomes.
Unlike His Worship, I do not associate free speech, creativity, and environmental awareness with anti-social behaviour. Unless there is a bylaw pending? These activities are legitimate and constructive and deserve encouragement, not petty insults. However, as being obnoxious, offensive and denigrating the community can be classed as anti-social, maybe I should dob in an 'ageing yob'? But then again, no-one likes a dobber, do they?
Thanks to the caller from Guyton Street…..but now back to the point!
Contrary to the petulant response from our Mayor, neither myself nor other concerned constituents supported the illegal activities (e.g Tagging) being discussed. Reasonable people offering valid views, based on experience should not be so immaturely dismissed.
To suggest that, by not supporting the approach to an issue, you condone the issue is absurd. It is akin to saying, 'if you do not support the death-penalty, you support murder'.
The subsequent tired and irrelevant potshots at active community members form a predictable and strategic smokescreen. Distracting from the issues and deterring participation in democratic forums; for fear of public rebuke. This is doubly harmful as many of the implied individuals and groups have contributed, for little reward, to the Council's own Community Outcomes.
Unlike His Worship, I do not associate free speech, creativity, and environmental awareness with anti-social behaviour. Unless there is a bylaw pending? These activities are legitimate and constructive and deserve encouragement, not petty insults. However, as being obnoxious, offensive and denigrating the community can be classed as anti-social, maybe I should dob in an 'ageing yob'? But then again, no-one likes a dobber, do they?
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