Top Ten readings about contemporary art

My TOP TEN reading list, June 2007

by Catherine Hammond

Research Librarian

Auckland Art Gallery

Toi o Tamaki

I came across that line of George Orwell’s recently, that the quickest way to lose one’s love of books is to work in a bookshop, and it struck me that library jobs can have the same effect. You’re handling hundreds of books a day, with precious little time to read any of them, so they quickly just become objects to be managed - classified, issued, shelved and so on - which then must survive the tender mercies of the reading public. As with farmers, it doesn’t pay for librarians to get too attached to their charges.

However, books in art libraries are different. It’s simply not possible to become blasé about them. In my seven years, so far, as Research Librarian at the Auckland Art Gallery it’s still the best part of the day when a parcel of new books arrives. The contemporary art books are always the most intriguing. I guess this is simply because they so often contain something totally new to me, art that I won’t have seen or read about before.

The contemporary art books, and journal, I’ve selected here as my “Top 10” have all been recently acquired for the E.H. McCormick Research Library. Some were unexpected pleasures, - catalogues that arrive “out of the blue” as it were - received through our publication exchange programme with other art museum libraries. Others were eagerly awaited, like the impressive new monograph on Laurence Aberhart and the elegant, hilarious Human Problems by Frances Upritchard.

Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf is another excellent small-scale catalogue from Te Tuhi Arts Centre, and at the other end of the scale WACK! : art and the feminist revolution is an major new book and exhibition from Los Angeles MOCA.

Recent catalogues from two favourite artists of mine, Rosemary Laing and Marijke van Warmerdam, are filled with their beautiful, evocative images, and there are exceptional installation shots and high-minded essays in the new monograph on Olafur Eliasson.

Contemporary art travels well with New Zealand and Australian artists showing in Poland and Lithuania (High Tide), and South African artists at the Central Atlantic Museum of Modern Art in the Canary Islands (erase me from who I am). I didn’t discover the excellent Afterall Journal until fairly recently; it describes itself as a forum for the ‘quiet consideration of contemporary art practice’ and, happily, it’s now being published three times a year.

Aberhart. Wellington, N.Z. : Victoria University Press, 2007. 304 p. Photographs by Laurence Aberhart ; essays by Gregory O'Brien and Justin Paton.

Afterall Journal. www.afterall.org Co-published by Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London, and the School of Art at the California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles.

Human problems. Francis Upritchard. London, England : Kate MacGarry ; Rotterdam, The Netherlands : Veenman, c2006. 15 p., 51 p. of plates.

Przyplyw : nowe prady w sztuce Australii i Nowej Zelandii = High tide : new currents in art from Australia and New Zealand. 190 p. : col. ill. ; 20 cm. Warsawa [Poland] : Zacheta Narodowa Galeria Sztuki ; Vilnius [Lithuania] : Contemporary Arts Centre, 2006. Catalogue of an exhibition held at Zacheta Narodowa Galeria Sztuki, Warsaw from 14 February - 9 April 2006, and at Contemporary Arts Centre, Vilnius from 3 June - 13 August 2006. Featuring Australian and New Zealand artists Brook Andrew, Guy Benfield, Mladen Bizumic, Lisa Crowley, Bill Culbert, Destiny Deacon & Virginia Frazer, eX de Medici, Mikala Dwyer, Shaun Gladwell, Matthew Griffin, A.L.A.N. Hsu, Peggy Napangardi Jones, The Kingpins, Maddie Leach, Daniel Malone, Minit, Tracey Moffatt, TV Moore, James Morrison, Callum Morton, Ani O'Neill, Michael Parekowhai, Patricia Piccinini, Rachael Rakena, Scott Redford, Ann Shelton, Jim Speers, Kathy Temin, Yvonne Todd, Francis Upritchard, Ronnie van Hout, Suzann Victor, Louise Weaver, Boyd Webb.

5.
Marijke van Warmerdam: first drop. Edited by Helen Legg. Birmingham, England : Ikon ; Manchester : Distributed by Cornerhouse Publications, 2006. 79 p. Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, July 27-Sept. 17, 2006, and at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, Sept. 27-Nov. 19, 2006.

Olafur Eliasson: your engagement has consequences on the relativity of your reality. Essays by Italo Calvino, Ina Blom, Daniel Birnbaum, and Mark Wigley. Baden, Switzerland : Lars Müller Publishers, 2006. 302 p. Published on the occasion of the following exhibitions: The light setup, Malmèo Konsthall, Malmèo, Sept. 10, 2005- Jan. 22, 2006; Notion motion, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Oct. 8, 2005-Jan. 8, 2006; Your light shadow, Hara Museum for Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Nov. 17, 2005- Mar.5, 2006.

Olvida quién soy : erase me from who I am. Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 2006. 229 p. Featuring South African artists Wim Botha, Nicholas Hlobo, Moshekwa Langa, Churchill Madikida, Thando Mama, Senzeni Marasela, Nandipha Mntambo, Zanele Muholi, Johannes Phokela, Tracey Rose, Dave Southwood, Mikhael Subotzky, Hentie van der Merwe, Lolo Veleko.

The unquiet landscapes of Rosemary Laing. Sydney, N.S.W. : Museum of Contemporary Art, 2005. 79 p. Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 23 March - 5 June 2005.

WACK! : art and the feminist revolution. Organized by Cornelia Butler ; essays by Cornelia Butler ... [et al.] ; edited by Lisa Gabrielle Mark. Los Angeles : Museum of Contemporary Art ; Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c2007.

10.

Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? : mythology, fairytales and the occult. Curated by Emma Bugden and Pita Turei. Manukau City, N.Z. : Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, 2007. 63 p. Featuring artists Cao Fei, Gabriela Fridriksdottir, Peter Gossage, Veli Grano, David Haines, Shigeyuki Kihara, Joanna Langford, Polixeni Papapetrou, Teresa Peters, Sriwhana Spong, John Walsh.

Catherine Hammond
Research Librarian
E.H. McCormick Research Library
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki

Email: library@aucklandartgallery.govt.nz
Visit: www.aucklandartgallery.govt.nz/research