Bryan Adams would be truly proud of the thing that was the Dunedin scene, winter '98, 'cause as the great rocker once said, "You can't stop this thing we've started..." And where to begin...?

All of your favourite characters have been up to some sort of scandalous carry-on and those wise guys down at The Honeymoon Suite have been no exception; the generous smattering of 'We run the Auckland Scene' shows that have taken up the bulk of the winter programmme have been a real treat.

The Fiat Lux crew came down in fine form with Graham McFellin's out-standing poached eggs lying in inconspicuous locations; a touch of class for any one who happened to see them.

The Room 3 crowd also paid a visit with a slightly more hi-tech feel through Lorna Bailey's excellent piece of minimalism that left the punters gasping for more, and hold onto your hats 'cause the impending HMS Art School Drop Out show should be comin' atcha like 'A Bat Outa HELL!!!'

Lorna Bailey Untitled 1998, The Honeymoon Suite

The Dunedin Public Art Gallery has been holding its own quite nicely also with a winter programme that's included installations from troublemaker from over the ditch, Adam Cullen, whose works consisted of that sloppy-but-witty style you used to see quite a lot of about two or three years ago. A personal favourite was the Sony Playstation-I woke up pressing the wrong buttons piece; it was one of those things-you either loved it or you hated it..

Another gem on the programme was the titillating work on display by Auckland based CITYGROUP; videos of two dancer/model types seducing viewers with their lusty moves, "a fantastic dance-like expose of street hustler behaviour, showing the temptations of technique and ways to market love." And as if that wasn't enough, keeping up the action indoors was the week-long '98 Manga Festival, ranging from the cutesy kids stuff of Astro Boy through to the slightly x-rated action of Ninja Scroll which has been my personal fave.

Meanwhile on another front, Dunedin personalities have been doing the town proud, only last week local hippie haven The Arc played host to a punch up which was the best thing I'd seen there since the Ho' Dogs gig in late '97. Not to be out done, Flying Nun favourite Matt Middleton has been carrying out his own covert operations on the law firm across the road from his innercity apartment, hanging a large A-0 size 'Crude' poster emblazoned with a 'Sony' logo and careering around town wearing a custom made 'Microsoft' t-shirt in effort to stir up trouble-"it won't happen over night but it will happen"...

And through circumstances related to the Arc punch-up fiasco, HMS sex queen Emma Bugden now has a honeymooon suite of her own; a flat with local art slut D.R. Kelaher (all you visiting out-of-towners watch out...).

Mayor Sukhi Turner has had nothing good to say about the news that after eight months of almost complete silence, Dunedin's notorious art gang the California Girls Cartel (CGC) are about to come back out of the closet with even more fuss about even less stuff. The boys who are the unprecedented core of the real Dunedin art scene have been slaving away in the kitchen churning out some of the finest reinterpretations of New Zealand's own best seller, the Edmonds 'Sure To Rise' Cook Book, making appearances in the Octagon's ever popular and ever changing 'Octagon Market'. Well the mayor may not like it but the senior citizens have spoken-these boys sure can cook.

Which pretty much wraps up all the 'round town gossip but none the less, I'm sure there'll be a whole heap more stories of drunken art debauchery and inter-gallery feuding and all the other stuff that keeps the scene kickin. So tune in next time when we bring you exiting stories about HMS wizard Warren Olds and his new found career as dance music mogul.

Daniel Canada of the CGC
Spring 1998