Blog Archives

Poem – Gregory O’Brien

On hearing, at the Oceanographic Museum, Monaco, the outcome of the New Zealand elections, November 2008   ‘The silvery Lookdowns (Selene vomer) disappear in the dazzling surface reflection as they slide through the water like blades … .’ Guide to…
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Posted in Poem

A child’s eye view Gavin Bishop

Back and Beyond: New Zealand Painting for the Young and Curious Gregory O’Brien Auckland University Press, $34.99,  ISBN 9781869404048 This is a delicious book. As a child, I would have loved it. It reminds me of children’s books that were…
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Posted in Art, Non-fiction, Review

Still in tune, Brent Southgate

A Nest of Singing Birds:100 years of the New Zealand School Journal Gregory O’Brien Learning Media, $59.95, ISBN 9780790319636 It has almost no equivalent elsewhere. Margaret Mahy has called it a “national treasure”. For many, it has been the beginning…
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Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review

Man listening to God, Gregory O’Brien

Gregory O’Brien follows the comet-like trajectory of Karlheinz Stockhausen through the sky above Dannevirke. Early last December, I was up a ladder at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery overseeing the installation of a vast sculptural work by Elizabeth Thomson. This…
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Posted in Comment

Neither here nor there, Jane Westaway

Here Comes Another Vital Moment Diane Brown Godwit, $25.00, ISBN 1869621190 News of the Swimmer Reaches Shore      Gregory O’Brien Victoria University Press, $30.00, ISBN 0864735324 Luca Antara: Passages in Search of Australia Martin Edmond Addenda, $44.95, ISBN 1921037083 According to…
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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Memoir, Non-fiction, Poetry, Review

Then and now, Peter Ireland

Aberhart  Gregory O’Brien and Justin Paton (eds) Victoria University Press, $125.00,  ISBN 9780864735560 It’s given to few artists – in their lifetimes, at least – to be known simply by their surname. The great 20th century instance was Picasso, a…
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Posted in Non-fiction, Photography, Review

Poem – Gregory O’Brien

Ode to fashion (for Doris De Pont)   Of your over-reaching lines and the displaced hem enough said, fashion being a kind of biography in which the shape of a life is contained but not in words. Let us consider…
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Posted in Poem

Hymns, history and haemorrhoids, Janet Hughes

Three Regrets and a Hymn to Beauty Ian Wedde Auckland University Press, $22.00, ISBN 1869403495 Afternoon of an Evening Train Gregory O’Brien Victoria University Press, $21.99, ISBN 9864735014 Oooooo…..!!! Hone Tuwhare Steele Roberts, $24.95, ISBN 1877338699 Footfall Brian Turner Godwit,…
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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Hooked on wonder and mystery, Damian Skinner

Shane Cotton ed Lara Strongman City Gallery Wellington and Victoria University Press, $59.95, ISBN 0864734697 Jeffrey Harris Justin Paton Victoria University Press and Dunedin Public Art Gallery, $69.95, ISBN 0864734867 Engravings on Wood by Leo Bensemann  ed Peter Simpson Holloway…
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Posted in Art, Non-fiction, Review
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