LAURENCE ABERHART, photographer
To me, there are two categories to this question: work that I admire, and work that I covet.
The work I most admire is Robin White's painting Summer Grass. When I saw it for the first time in very humble surroundings, I thought, "How brave.
How beautiful." The subject of the painting, which is never stated except in the most oblique way, through imagery, alludes to the Japanese POW riot and deaths in the Featherston camp they were imprisoned in, in which 48 prisoners and a guard were killed in February 1943. I was moved by the fact that the artist was choosing a most unpalatable subject, one that had almost been ignored in our collective social history, and delivered her message and memorial in the most beautiful painterly and seemingly understated manner. Epic in size and subject.
The artwork I most covet, though, is a painting by Bill Hammond, Verdi Verde. Every time I see it, I feel an outright lust for it and want to wrap myself inside its warm, green lusciousness.
FIONA PARDINGTON, photographer
My most beloved artworks in Aotearoa are the Māori rock drawings winding through the highlands of Te Waipounamu. Those lumps of limestone, charged up with psychic energy, with all the little underground rivulets and trickles of water running through them into the aquifer and then into those cool, dark, quiet places - the cavities and caves, the womb of Papatūānuku where we all come from and to where we all return - and then those beautiful, sensuous patterns and drawings.
It's like I've stuck my finger into an electrical outlet: I'm plugged into the mana of my Kāi Tahu and Kāti Māmoe tīpuna. I'm seeing through their eyes.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der April 20-26, 2024-Ausgabe von New Zealand Listener.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der April 20-26, 2024-Ausgabe von New Zealand Listener.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
The rest is history
Rest - both sleep and non-sleep - is essential to help our overstressed bodies and minds repair themselves. But many of us remain in a constant state of 'fight, flight or freeze'.
Right and power
Israel is profiting financially and extending its global technological influence in response to the October 7 massacre, says investigative journalist Antony Loewenstein.
Dolphins be damned
Is SailGP's future in this country really under threat because of an at-risk marine mammal?
Orwellian irony
Our thinking about one of the 20th century's best-known writers is being challenged by the 'smelly little truths' Anna Funder uncovered about George Orwell's marriage.
The alchemist
Talent and a little magic have taken state-house kid Moses Mackay to the heights of Italian opera. He's coming back to sprinkle some of his gold dust around.
Good Lord, he was scandalous
Lord Byron still fascinates 200 years after his death, but more for his bohemian lifestyle than his poetry.
Stars in their eyes
Debut novel a heady mix of grief, astronomy and love.
Dark matter
Ngaio Marsh-style whodunnit set among academia attached to the Mt John Observatory.
Mirren's mirror on Meir
Dame Helen talks about playing Golda Meir, Israel's iron lady, during a pivotal chapter in the controversial politician's long career.
Game, set and match
Love, sex and great tennis take centre court in this highly charged drama.