Hi Scott, welcome to the studio channel Art Fair. Hi. Hi. Nice to be here. It's
great to have you. We're sitting in Auckland as you know and I understand
you went to art school in Auckland and now you're living in Dunedin. How does it
feel to make work in Dunedin? What's the situation for artists there? Well actually
I really enjoy working in Dunedin because I well in some ways it's really
quite isolated from the rest of the art world in New Zealand which is one of the
reasons I like being there. Especially now that I've got family because
Dunedin is great for family and I just think the busyness of Auckland and the
you know the need I guess to network and connect is just you know there's too
much. Quite intense. Yeah the intensity of that so I like being removed from all
of that a lot. It allows me to really just focus on family full-time job and
full-time job making up. So it's just the juggling you know the juggling all of
that and being in a place that you know is so small it works very very well but
I do find that I think you have to work a lot lot harder to be visible. Yeah from
Dunedin. Which is the disadvantage if that's what you want. Do you
find I mean do you find that you would make enough money do you think if you
didn't have a job at the art school. No. So what would you do if you didn't have
a job at the art school. I'd probably be building still or painting houses or I
worked in construction for a few years. Okay. And project managed in
construction for a few years. Right. So in between degrees that's what I was
doing and I'd probably be back there. Okay. Maybe I'll be in Christchurch. Yeah sure.
Great. What do you tell your students when you're teaching them about the
future of art for their careers. Well I tend not to bullshit them actually. I
mean I think that you know it is really really tough but I do think and I do
believe that the degree that we teach and the degree that I got and you know
which was in sculpture does actually prepare them really really well for
the jobs which seems to be the focus nowadays. You know these institutions are
all concerned about how they're gonna sell themselves you know to you know
potential students and parents for career as career opportunities so there's a
real focus on on that at the moment and I think a lot of people wonder you know
how an art degree is going to set up you know set their kids up for life but I
do believe that sculpture the sculpture degree that we run and the one that I
did at the art school does very very well because it you know enables students
to well it teaches them to be self-motivated to you know to develop
projects to manage projects and money to communicate really well. Sure. It's a
four-year degree right. Not anymore not in the need and it's not. It's
become a Bachelor of Visual Arts so it's a three-year degree. Okay. And there's an
honours year that you can elect to. How does hospitality fit into this? Yeah you're
you're right up. Well hospitality has as part of the design school now they've
kind of amalgamated and within hospitality they've got something called
culinary arts so there's kind of a there's something that's I'm actually
not I'm not familiar with it I've not been across there. You don't have to be an
imposter for that art school it's fine. Yeah. No but at some point of course we
are going to be amalgamating with design and hospitality as well and it's I
think for the for Dunedin they're looking at which courses can go on line
and which can be trying to think of the name well I guess you know courses that
will remain on site destination courses they're going to call them. Okay. And the
art school is one of those in the design school. Sure. Right. I'm interested in
talking a bit about heritage because Dunedin after Christchurch is
earthquake Dunedin is kind of one of the few heritage cities left in the
country and you what does heritage mean for you do you think in your work? In my
work well I've touched on that in this work yeah and for me you know I guess I
have an interest or more of an interest now because you know I'm looking at a
building that was built specifically for our family business so I have that
connection and it was really that that brought me to heritage buildings I
mean other than watching the houses in St. Heliers being demolished a couple
years ago that was you know a sad moment. Right well. And I guess when you when you
are present and see that happening then it makes you more conscious of those
sorts of things as you know in 1980s when His Majesty's letter you know sparked
a whole lot of yeah interest in heritage buildings and preservation so yeah
and you know we've seen a lot lost in Christchurch. Sure. And probably a lot
that didn't need to be lost in Christchurch so it's an ongoing issue. Sure.
Heritage and you know in Dunedin there in Dunedin there are actually there's one
company in particular one person in particular who's saving a lot of
buildings at the moment and putting a lot investing a lot and doing a really
really fantastic job. Who's that? I can't tell you the name I've forgotten but he's
doing a great job of preserving them one of it well you know reinforcing them one
at a time. So it's happening which is really good. Yeah. But there are you
know there are a few that are up for demolition at the moment and they're
yeah and do you find do you personally have a kind of antipathy towards the
kind of new development mentality or like real estate agent kind of thinking
um no I'm not I'm not a businessman and never had an interest in making money in
that way. No. No and you know my parent I lived in the same house most of my life
so we don't move. My brother does he has a real interest in architecture and
building and and I worked for him for some time but I just have no real need
to do that. I like being settled and so no interest. What's the house you've got in Dunedin?
We've got a little bungalow that should probably have been demolished and one
builder said it should but but I've restored it and done everything I
spent five weeks under the floor repiling and we've you know re-lined
re-plumbed and we've done everything to it so and it was a big job. You're pretty thorough. Pretty thorough. Yeah. Yeah. So from Dunedin to
Venice what what did didn't Venice do for you do you think? I'm not sure. I don't
know. You waiting to find out? Maybe. I you know I when I was in my 20s that was
where I wanted to be you know but now that dropped right down my list of
priorities. Really? And then it came out of the blue. Wow. And when I got that
call I was just like oh fuck. There's not enough time I don't want to do that. Oh really? Yeah.
And I don't know. I mean it was it was alright. It was good. It was great to do it but and I
enjoyed doing it and I was happy with the work that I put there. I didn't want it
to be spectacular work. I wasn't interested in that. Was it as good as
Guangzhou in terms of like the interest in your work? I don't know. I don't know. I
loved Guangzhou. Yeah. I had five weeks there. I had I visited it twice and I
really enjoyed living and getting to know Guangzhou reasonably well and I met
really great people there and when my family came over the kids made lots of
friends playing outside outside the Biennale Hall in the square and
and they would come in and the kids would come in and ride around on the scooter
that I'd fixed up and they were drawing on the walls and it was it was a great
experience and it's a very different Biennale although it's still you know it's
still all about money but it you know it yeah it's it's quite different. It's a
different experience. And quite different work too I think to to Venice. So ultimately
what's the experience you'd like people to who are observing or enjoying your
work what's the experience you're I guess trying to transfer through the
making? I don't I don't know what to expect anymore. I mean I think you know
you're probably familiar with the Hundred Bikes project and that's the work
that went to Guangzhou and I you know that that's the work that you know I
hoped would be something that children would enjoy and that parents would have
to get involved with so there's that participatory part of it but you know
also I at that stage I was quite interested in making work that would
be more challenging for the the institution of the gallery and possibly
very annoying so you know I wanted it to be quite irritating and a challenge to
manage and it was but it was also I think you know well received. It kind of
created an expectation that they would become community participants for the
gallery yeah. Yeah and it was chaos. Right but isn't that fantastic because you
kind of bring them out of the kind of art institution perhaps towards yeah I
mean it wasn't that it could have been outdoors of course but I like that it
was confined to the the white cube too and that they were you know slamming
into the walls and skidding on the floor I mean that was part of it and they
were ringing bells probably and it was probably horrible. Thanks Scott that's
it for now so we'll see you again soon and to meet you. Yeah great, hope so.
