‘Living work of art’

Press, 2 March 1984, Page 2

‘Living work of art’

Putting the lid on the Robert McDougall Art Gallery’s latest “work of art” are Mr Les Fibbens (left), a gallery technician, and the Duke of Wellington. The "work of art,” an unusual one, left the gallery yesterday afternoon for Auckland. The condition report — a report accompanies all works freighted by the gallery to other galleries — described it as a “living work of art. Three-dimen-sional, warm-blooded human.” Previous technical history given in the report notes that the “media is now 51 years old and showing the

usual signs of maturation expected, surface wrinkling, grey hairs.” Special transport instructions suggest “continuous oxygen supply, temperature range in accordance with human life, regular nourishment, convivial conversation, facilities for evacuation of waste matter should be provided for, frequent surface cleaning with warm, soapy water advisable.”

The title of this extraordinary work? The Wizard of Christchurch. The Wizard was crated yesterday, marked “Fragile Art Work,’” and shipped to the Auckland City Art Gallery, courtesy of Mount Cook Airlines. He will be exhibited at the Auckland gallery for a short time. The trip is a trial run for another the Wizard wants to make, immigration departments permitting, to Australia for the Adelaide Festival, which started yesterday. The Wizard has been invited but unfortunately all his documents, passport included, are in the name of

lan Brackenbury Channel, whose body he once used. There has been much correspondence across the Tasman between the Minister of Immigration, Mr Malcolm, and his counterpart in Canberra, Mr Stewart West. The Wizard could be classified as a chattel, livestock, or a work of art. All have snags, ranging from the need for a passport to time in quarantine. In the meantime, the three-hour trip to Auckland was a test run. If the Wizard manages to make the trip to Adelaide, he plans to travel in rather more style than the crate he used yesterday. “I think I’ll have black satin or something else appropriate,” he said yesterday. Once crated, with the help of gallery staff and the North Island’s answer to a wizard, the Duke of Wellington, the work of art blew his trumpet to show he was comfortable, wished onlookers a muffled farewell, and promised to return.