Well its been a tumultous period for the art community in Dunedin over the last few months and now, it seems everyone has to face the consequences. Sadly the main news has been that the Honeymoon Suite is finally closing its doors permenantly at the end what is its last show ever; W3. But if it is the end of an art era, what an era its been!

Making it through the last two years with virtually no CNZ funding, Emma, Warren and associates have constantly lived on the edge, never knowing when or in what form the next demon would chose to rear its ugly head; and over the last few years, they've seen plenty. From anonymous stalkers to an incompetent ex-landlord to impending law-suites some how they always managed to stay at the top of the pile, shaking their fists at all the art-heretics that try to cut them down. In their last year, the Honeymoon Suite was able to blossom in full, thanks in part to the cooperation of current landlord Mark Kirkland, lawyer/wiseguy who fended off all oncomers that tried to take on the machine right up untill the end. The shows have been good, the pay's been bad, but at the end of the day, when push comes to shuv, it was a job well done and no matter who comes afterwards, they'll always be standing in the shadow of the Honeymoon Suite.

But anyway, on to the business at hand, the art news has been crowded to over-flowing with galleries on the out, it seems summer time isn't the best time to be in business as the list of places to show work in Dunedin grows slimmer and slimmer. The first to fold was the ill-fated Everything Inc. space. The Everything Inc. group grew out of the ashes of the old Super 8 institution that used to rule the coup about four or five years ago but after a year of struggling, they finally succumbed to the pressures of minimal funding and bills to pay and breathed their last. Members of the group are currently discussing ideas for keeping the space going under seperate management for each section (amongst other things, the space boasts facilities for film development, music recording and space for artists to display work).

Another gallery to annouce its closure is the well established dealer gallery - Bond Street. Don't really know much about the reason for Bond Street closing but as I'm on the way to one of their last openings, hopefully I'll be able to pry the goods...

But the news isn't all bad, some of the scene's brightest stars are conspiring to start up a new project space, people you can expect to see involved with this project are Steve Carr, Doug Kelaher and others.

Speaking of Steve Carr, just when the public thought Steve Carr couldn't get any better, he went out and proved them wrong in so many ways, soaring to new heights of art excellence each time and for those who don't know anything about Steve Carr, where to start?

When he first set out to present his end of year art school asessment last year in the form of an Elvis impersonator recording project, alot of people said he would never pull it off; by the time he was finished, he proved them all wrong. Infact some might say Steve took it too far that time, choosing not to stop untill he had produced a sell-out tape, badges, coffee mugs and much, much more. People spend alot of time trying to epitomise the work of Steve Carr and try as I might, nothing I can think of sums him up better than what went through my mind the first time I encountered his work - flawless. This year Steve Carr silenced the critics time and time again, wether it was to do with his candy coated instruments of sexual pleasure/pain, his stunning Honeymoon Suite Pole Dance performance or the latest step in his singing career ( a candy metal covers band) or even a move so bold that it almost cost him both his art degree and his recent acceptance into teacher's college - booking the Ho'Dogs as his backing band for this year's art school open day.

Douglas Kelaher and Layla Rudneva made their joint curatorial debut with a dynamic show located in The Meridian Mall, George Street Featuring works by Doug and Layla as well as Emma Bugden and Warren Olds, the show boasted arguably the most well attended non-gallery attendance of the year (topped only by the Honeymoon Suite swan song W3). Douglas Kelaher worked hard to maintain his title as 'King-of-the-Customwood' with sleek,white sculptures embelished with live fish and subtly conceiled lighting.

Emma Bugden won the 'Subtlty' award of the show with her sole work being a 70's looking door bell that was almost overshadowed by the size of the other works including Warren's large screen television showing a video of everything you ever wanted to know about touring the Mediterranean. Sadly however, Meridian Mall staff saw fit to impose their own artistic vision on the show, providing such strokes of geius as cutting the electricity to one of Doug's sculptures and using it as a chair and replacing Warren's video footage with the rugby... I personally wouldn't recommend the Meridian mall as a future venue to anyone who may have been otherwise interested.

November 20th will see the grand opening of the newly relocated Hocken Gallery just accross from the Otago Polytechnic Art School. The new location will mean a little bit more leg work for the viewer but the rewards for the effort include spacious, comfortable viewing areas protected from street noise by double glazing and of course as pictorial curator, the lovely Linda Tyler is always eager to point out the highlights.

Bond Street's current show comes with the highest of recommend- ations. It features the work of Ivan Hill, age unkown (though rumored to be in his early 70's) poking fun at that piece of dried toast that is 'Phantom of the Opera'; substituting actual cast for notorious Dunedin art figures (sadly, the artist neglected to include any members of the C.G.C.). Hill also managed to include a nice picture of recently re-elected mayor Sukhi Turner, capturing her at her best, the picture portrayed Sukhi as some kind of exotic sex queen and leaves little to no doubt as to where Ivan's vote was cast in the recent elections.

And if there's a 'take home' lesson to be learn't from the goings on in small town Dunedin this month, its to be afraid, be very afraid! Because the end of the millenia is almost here and all that stuff with your computers was all planned and right now you need to be asking your self "is there anything else 'they' aren't telling me?" because its all planned. What's going on in Dunedin is just the beginning of a government conspiracy to eliminate the free thinking individualist ideals that the arts community promotes and if you're one of those people that think " oh well, they'll never get around to me, think again because its exactly for that reason that the Income Support Service and the New Zealand Employment Centre have joined forces. The government want to have all loose ends tied up up by late November '99 and you as a member of the free thinking art community pose a threat to that objective, so think about it: The Government wants you out!

Bob Sheffield


A FEW NOTES ON DRUG TRIALING
by Daniel Canada

DO NOT BE AFRAID.

The drugs they are trialing have already been trialed for a lot more money than you're being offered.

Also the amount required to bring on negative side effects is usually far more than one 20 mg capsule of Omeprazole.

THE DRUGS WILL NOT GET YOU WASTED

This is a common misconception held by people whose favourite book is Naked Lunch.

Sudies are usually conducted in two phases, with different dosage forms given in each phase. The duration of the study will usually be two weeks.

Before beginning the study you will undergo a routine physical examination of which will be carried out by a medical practioner. An electrocardiograph (ECG) recording will be made to assess your heart. Blood samples will be taken before the study to enable an assessment to be made of your kidney and liver functions and haemolgical profiles, and after the study to ensure that no changes have occured.

A test for Hepatitis A, B, and C, and HIV will also be performed before the study.

The test results willl be made available to you on request, along with the offer of appropriate counselling if necessary. An HIV test may not become positive until six months following exposure to the HIV virus.

BLOOD SAMPLE COLLECTION

On study days 1 and 8, a cannula (a fine flexible needle) will be placed in a vein of your forearm by a medical practioner (no local anaesthetic will be used).

The risks associated with blood collection include infection, bruising and pain at the sight of withdrawl.

RISKS

Side effects occuring in healthy volenteers involved in single dose clinical trials such as this are rare . The following side effects have been reported to occur in 1% or more of patients on Omeprazole therapy: Headache, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, nausea, dizziness, vomiting, rash, constipation, cough and back pain.

Bob Sheffield
Summer 1999