“Insight cannot be taken back. You cannot return to the moment you were in before.” Hilary Mantel (Wolf Hall: A Novel, 2009) #mbnov

None of us should be exempt from the maxim “This above all: to thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any”. #mbnov #shakespeare #modernised

On our streets

Anjunadeep Open Air Los Angeles

Jody Wistenoff and Jono Grant

Anjunadeep Open Air Los Angeles

Above and Beyond Group Therapy 500

“A Thing Called Love”

Above & Beyond Group Therapy 500 - Los Angeles, Banc of California Stadium

The wonderful piece of art commissioned from Oliver Cain to celebrate 25 years together in 2022 is now properly framed and up on the new Corten steel wall.

Te Papa Tongarewa | NZ National Museum - early morning July 2022

Aotearoa NZ is about to celebrate Matariki - the appearance of a constellation of stars that herald the Māori new year. New Zealand will have its first public holiday for Matariki this Friday 24 June.

Many cultures around the world and across history have used the Pleiades star cluster as calendrical markers.

As the recent book "The World of Stonehenge" (p145) notes, the Nebra Sky Disc (from Bronze-Age eastern Germany c1600BC) features this symbolism:

"There is a distinctive rosette of seven stars clustered between the full and the crescent moons. These are identified as the Pleiades or Seven Sisters (fig. 3.22), recognised by many world cultures as calendar stars, since they are last seen in the night sky in March and only reappear again in October."

"The Greek poet Hesiod, writing in c. 700 BC, noted that 'when the Pleiades rise it is the time to use the sickle, but the plough when they are setting'. Their disappearance and appearance has been seen historically a marker of the beginning and end of the farming year in Europe, and the Skidi Pawnee people of North America used these celestial markers as a sign to prepare rituals and ceremonies connected to the agricultural cycle. In the region of eastern Germany where the disc was found, the Pleiades is last seen in the sky on 10 March, alongside the young, crescent moon. The full moon accompanies the reappearance of the constellation on 17 October. On the disc, the Pleiades is tellingly placed between the crescent and full moons, suggesting an awareness of this celestial rhythm."

This is a fascinating connection between a prehistoric Bronze-Age world, and the resurgence of te ao Māori in contemporary Aotearoa.

Exhibition catalog from “Queer - Stories from the NGV collection”. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

CC at the Creativity Table

The main library

Significant joinery progress. This is not only astounding craftwork, it is art.

#joinery #craftwork #art #renovations #recycle #warehouseapartment #openplan #design #evastreet #hannahslaneway #wellington #aotearoa

Le Cercle Noir. A truly outstanding food, wine and sensory experience. Thanks Shepherd Restaurant and Millton Vineyards for a spectacular evening. #visawoap #evastreet #hannahslaneway #wellingtonnz #aotearoanz

New artwork - “Hidden Pleasure” (George Georgas 2019).

Selection of Surrealism.

Te Papa, Wellington.

Surreal.

Exhibition @ Te Papa; with Llewellyn.

A new addition to the library. Bill approved.

- Volume 1: Shadows

- Volume 2: My Ainsel

- Volume 3: The Moment of the Storm

Two new books arrived today. 📚

Both advance the notion that key philosophical ideas 'remade the world' - but advance completely opposite views of what that driver was. Tom Holland argues that Christianity is the defining underpinning of the modern world, while Stephen Greenblatt argues that it was the rediscovery of pre-Christian thinking in the renaissance that defined modernity.

Dominion - How the Christian Revolution Remade the World (Tom Holland, 2019)

LibraryCat Entry

The Swerve - How the World Became Modern (Stephen Greenblatt)

LibraryCat Entry

Excellently curated selection of Aotearoa New Zealand photography from some of the earliest nineteenth-century images to contemporary art photography.

Commissioned work. Oliver Cain Studios, "Interpretation" Series.

Absolutely delighted with how this came out. Thanks so much Oliver!

Exhibition of the works of Teuane Tibbo, Ani O'Neill and Salome Tanuvasa at the Govett-Brewster Gallery, Ngāmotu.

"Wand Dance", Len Lye Foundation / Len Lye (1965, 2018)

A reconstruction of Len Lye's 1965 "Witch Dance", using larger elements from "Bell Wand" (1965). Developed by the Len Lye Foundation with the support of Team Zizz.

Exhibition at Govett-Brewster Gallery of the works of Dale Harding (Bidjara, Garingbal and Ghungalu), from the Carnarvon Gorge area of the Central Highlands, Queensland.