A few favourite artworks or bodies of work
by John Radford
1. The ever expanding series of self portrait works of Viky Garden
www.vikygarden.com
2. All of the SJD albums
http://www.sjd.co.nz/
3. Brigadier and his Armies by David Richter, 2001
(One of the works in the World Service performance/installations curated by art event group Rotozaza in Stoke Newington in London.)
You are walking through an extremely overgrown cemetery at night down a very dimly lit cracked and broken concrete path with twigs and dried leaves scattered upon it. A crying Brigadier in full costume confronts you part way down the path shouting "My troops ... my troops, my poor troops, oohhhoohhooooooo my troops! ". You gently push past him and continue down the path (he has a secret track through the undergrowth and appears before you again further down the path crying the same about his troops) you push past again crunching your way along the twig and leaf scattered path. A third time he appears before you via another hidden path crying the same. This time you can't squeeze past as there are tombstones either side of the path and you are about to turn around and walk back, at the same time he drops to his knees, hunches down and fiddles with something at your feet. He is gradually standing up all the tiny plastic soldiers and horses that were standing amongst the leaves and twigs that you have been squashing as you walked down the path. http://www.rotozaza.co.uk/worldservice.html
4. Bridge Game from the Aucklantis video work by Gabriel White
http://web.mac.com/gabrielwhite1/iWeb/Site/Intro.html
5. Nor'wester in the Cemetery by William Sutton, in the collection at Auckland Art Gallery
(You can hear the grass through cartoon ears.)
http://collection.aucklandartgallery.govt.nz/collection/results.do?view=detail&db=object&id=2330
6. The Skyroom that used to sit atop one of the Queen Street department stores in Auckland
Designed and built by Fletchers for Milne and Choyce in1929 it was
obliterated by the BNZ in 1984. Not actually having experienced this
space throughout it's existence, (aside from seeing photos of it post
demolition), created this hollow haunted feeling of loss. I wanted to
visit the space in a physical way, so I built TEATUBE, a small,
stretched and very detailed reinterpretation of the interior. TEATUBE
sits sealed inside one of the TIP sculptures I did in Ponsonby's Western
Park. It's viewable through a small round window set into the concrete.
(Currently the TEATUBE lighting power supply has been accidentally cut
by some contractors so there is no lighting inside the interior, am
waiting for repair ...)
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John Radford
TEATUBE, inspired by The Skyroom. Copyright John Radford 2008. Located inside the VIC sculpture which is part of the TIP installation in Ponsonby's Western Park in Auckland. Photo thanks to Kenneth Mykland. (Unfortunately no current access to the Skyroom photos.) |
7. The dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence
The dome was designed and built under the supervision of Filippo Brunelleschi during the years 1420 till 1436. The lantern structure at the top was completed in 1461. This is the largest stone/masonry dome ever built. As you climb up the winding and claustrophobic staircase inside the inner and outer walls of the dome there are small portals that give you a view into the massive chasm that sits directly below you and across to the facing part-view of the 3600 square metre fresco depicting The Last Judgment and The 24 Elders of the Apocalypse. I imagined how it would have been arriving in 1461 as a peasant for the first time from some where outside of Florence and seeing both the cathedral and the fresco inside, I'd have wanted to have drop to my knees and start genuflecting. This enormous building with it's vast construction period, long list of builders, designers, artists and craftspeople sits there quietly radiating a general sense of the awesome out across the centuries.
Website showing info about the cathedral is at http://www.arch.mcgill.ca/prof/sijpkes/arch374/winter2001/sfarfa/ensayo1.htm Below is the longest web link in the world that gets you through to the Auckland Art Gallery collection etching by Thomas Gulliver of the Victoria Arcade Dome and lantern (Queen Street, Auckland). Demolished from the top of the Victoria Arcade around 1940. Maybe the design of this structure built atop an insurance company building 450 years after Florence's Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore was a 3d postcard from Florence. Fear of God versus fear of losing one's possessions.
Article In Art New Zealand about the Victoria Arcade http://www.art-newzealand.com/Issues11to20/victoria.htm
8. Neil Dawson's Ferns work in Civic Square Wellington because it's still magic
http://www.ferns.co.nz/
9. Jeff Thomson's work in general
http://www.art-newzealand.com/Issue100/thomson.htm
10. Len Lye's work in general
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