What is hanging on the wall of the studio?
A print of the SMS Seeadler autographed by Count Felix Von Luckner – my grandfather got it in the 1930’s during the Count’s visit to Christchurch and the site of his old incarceration at Ripapa Island. A kiekie kete by Ruhia Oketoper from Hinemoa Point, Rotorua. Mad Alice and the hookah smoking caterpillar – a painting by Stephanie Sheehan. A photograph by Mark Adams of tufuga tatatau Paul Sulu’ape. A self-portrait by Harvey Benge.
Artworks that have really mattered to you?
Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony and his 5th. Joseph Conrad’s Typhoon. Howling Wolf’s first release on Chess. Robert Johnson’s first modern compilation release in 1966. Bill Brandt’s first nude series. Irving Penn’s photographs of Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn for Vogue. Tony Fomison’s painting Study of Holbein’s dead Christ.
What could you imagine doing if you weren’t an artist?
Death.
Who is your ideal studio buddy?
Areta Wilkinson.
What music are you listening to?
Silence.
What are you reading?
W.G. Sebald. Hillary Mantel’s final Thomas Cromwell novel, The Mirror and the Light. The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne. A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan.
What is art for?
To keep me sane.