Trans-Tasman art ‘encounter’ and the man in the middle

Press, 1 August 1981, Page 15

Trans-Tasman art ‘encounter’ and the man in the middle

Story: KARREN BEANLAND Picture: CATHARINE HARRISON

Interviewing lan Hunter, is a tough test for any reporter's shorthand. He talks nineteen to the dozen. He is. however, a man with something important to talk about, for he is organising probably the biggest international arts event to be held in New Zealand. Called Anzart. it will be an “encounter” between Australian and New Zealand artists.

Focusing on experimental art forms and new media, the project will bring together about 30 artists from Australia and New Zealand. About 100 art students from art schools will also come to Christchurch for the event.

The main Anzart programme will run from August 21 to 27. Based in the Arts Centre, the programme will include performance work, installations, environmental works, lectures, seminars, workshops, and films. Associated exhibitions will run from August 17 to 30 in the Robert McDougall Art Gallery, the Arts Centre, and the Canterbury Society of Arts Gallery in Gloucester Street, -

It is hard work to make lan Hunter talk about himself. “The project belongs to the artists,” he says. “That is important. It is their project. It is for them, and for the public."

For a person who has not yet reached his mid-30s, Hunter has a distinctive list of achievments behind him. Only when pressed will he rattle off his “life story.”

“I was born in Londonderry. I was educated there. I went to art school in Belfast from 1965 to 1969. Then I went to England to the Leeds College of Art. I went to the United States for a short time to study. I came to New Zealand in 1970.” As if that said it all.

A sculptor, he taught at Victoria University before taking a job as curator of the painting and sculpture Collections at the National. Art Gallery in Wellington. He spent eight years at the National Gallery, the last as acting director. He left the National Art Gallery at the end of last year to take up the post of visiting lecturer in art theory at the Canterbury University's School of Fine Arts — and to organise Anzart. Despite the traces of an Irish accent, he calls himself a New Zealander. He came here to see what it was like, having heard a lot about the country from his uncle.

“I am a New Zealander because I feel like, a New Zealander. I feel at home here. I am still Irish culturallv."

Referring to the "troubles" in Ireland he adds: “I didn't leave Ireland because I didn't want to live there." Yet he does admit that the experience of growing up in Ireland has formed one of his reasons for launching the Anzart programme. “In Northern Ireland, you have on the surface people who are much the same, but

just underneath the surface you have differences that stem from religious convictions. Those differences run very deep." He believes that New Zealand and Australia are in danger of a situation where the unrecognised differences between the two countries cause rifts: . The cultural and historical connections and the shared colonial heretage have built a special relationship between the two, he says. It is a relationship that should be growing, not fixed, and should be built on an understanding of differences. Despite this special relationship, he says that New Zealand and Australia have grown apart “dramatically” in the last 10 years. As evidence he cites the recent conflicts over sports contacts

with South Africa, the introduction of passports, and the attitudes of Australians to expatriate New Zealanders living in places such as Bondi.

“When you look at efforts to build closer relations — the pitfalls and pains that arise out of political and business relationships — there is obviously a lot of good will on both sides of the Tasman.

“Anzart is an attempt to build understanding through art. I think artists are great communicators of ideas.”

lan Hunter says that physically bringing Australian artists to New Zealand will teach them a lot about this country and its art. However, the programme has not been designed to “impress" the Australians. It will also bring together New

Zealand artists , and art students, many of whom have been working in isolation. For the public, Anzart will provide a chance to see experimental art. Mr Hunter hopes people will make the most of the visitors by offering to act as billets for about 15 who will need beds and to take others out for an evening. He adds that this social contact will be a very important part of the programme.

The essential links and differences between New Zealand and Australian art are revealed in the maps of the two countries. “New Zealand is two large islands dominated by a very spectacular rugged landscape. New Zealanders live in their landscape, within it. New Zealand art reflects that close relationship with the land.

"The Australian map shows a large land mass

with little pockets of civilisation clinging to the edges. Australians have difficulty dealing with their centre, mentally and physically. “For living in their landscape. they are less developed than New Zealanders. They work from the edge in, we work from the centre. But Australian art has a wider ethnic and cultural diversity. You see more direct connection with past European experience than in New Zealand art.” .

While both countries display regional differences, he believes there is a tendency for New Zealand artists to be more isolated. Economically, they suffer more rigours than their counterparts across the Tasman.

His eight years spent at the National Art Gallery equipped lan Hunter with the organisational skills and contacts to take on the Anzart project. "I have always been inter-

ested in art and artists. One reason for leaving the gallery was that I prefer to work with people than objects," he says. The work' gave him an over-all view of New Zealand art, which convinced him that efforts had to be made to make New Zealand art known overseas. “We have had a tremendous upsurge of creative development, but not enough of it has been seen outside New Zealand. Australians have not seen enough of it and they are the people we should be sharing it with most,” he says. “I always felt there were never enough opportunities for artists to exhibit work and share their ideas with others internationally. What we have in New Zealand is

very much our own art. It is as good as anything alse where, but so little is known about it because we are isolated.”

It is not only the expense of exhibiting overseas that has kept. New Zealand art generally unknown, but also the fact that people are not very interested in New Zealand. “They just don’t know anything about us,” he says. “You get misunderstandings from ignorance.” The National Gallery taught lan Hunter how important art is for communication, and how effective it is for building relationships. That led him to look at New Zealand’s closest neighbour.

Close links with Australia already existed through some artists, who had bridged the trans-Tasman gap. But a

blow came when only two New Zealand artists' were invited to the important International Sydney Biennial Exhibition in April 1979. "That cuased a lot of unhappiness and disappointment in New Zealand. We felt they had completely misunderstood New Zealand art and something had to be done about it.”

With support from the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, a group of more than 30 artists decided to fly to Sydney to take part in the exhibition under their own steam. The .trip led lan Hunter to return the next year to study, to look for places where New Zealand artists could exhibit, and to lecture on New Zealand art.

"To my amazement I discovered that Australians were not only impressed with what they saw, but knew absolutely nothing about what was happening here,” he says. “That clinched it I realised that if we were to have a continuing relationship we had to bring the Australians here. It was no use going there. We had to make a formal invitation and get support. This is why the idea of Anzart grew.” Support for the project was forthcoming, although not without difficulty. lan Hunter recalls some days when, hanging on with only hope and intuition as a prop, he waited for a prospective sponsor’s telephone call. On one occasion such a call saved him by only a day from having to meet the full cost of air fares from his own pocket. The sponsors for the project include Qantas, Hertz Rental Cars, the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council and the Australia-New Zealand Foundation.

This year’s programme will focus on experimental art forms. However, lan Hunter hopes there will be future programmes to cater for other specific areas.

Christchurch, he says, was the obvious choice for the event. It has a “greatly deserved” reputation for hospitality and a “culturally minded” community. Added

to that were the tremendous facilities, and help, available from the Arts Centre, the Robert McDougall Gallery, and the Canterbury Museum.

While lan Hunter left the National Gallery to do more work on his own installations, he will have no exhibits in the Anzart programme. Organisation has left him little time for his own work although he plans to hold an exhibition at Wellington next February. “After this, that is it. I have been eight years as an organiser. I wanted to do this last thing. I think it will work because it is the right time and the right place. “You see me as a hyped-up person. I am not really like that. I want to get on with my own work. But I can do it with this project because I believe in it.”