HARDSELL!! Because you want it
From February 2002 to February 2003, HARDSELL!! provided the context for the Physics Room to group together
post-emergent artists making exciting new work in a series of eight solo shows. A catalogue including a curatorial
essay was published with the series, so here we put a few questions to the artists themselves...
 DOUGLAS KELAHER
Do the words career and art go together?
Yeah.
What did you learn at art school?
I majored in sculpture but I learnt more stuff from my peers than my tutors.
When did you decide to be an artist?
I was born an artist.
Do you believe that art is respected in NZ, either by the government and/or by the general public?
It wouldn't get funding if it wasn't, but not everyone is a believer.
What's the best thing about your local art scene?
Cheap rent in Dunedin and general good support all round the country.
What is your current favourite adjective to describe your art? Fun.
How did you feel about showing at The Physics Room in the Hardsell series?
It was an honour.
 JUAN RUBÉN REYES
Do the words career and art go together?
All words go together.
When did you decide to be an artist?
I'm still deciding.
Do you believe that art is respected in NZ, either by the government and/or by the general public?
Yes and no.
What's the best thing about your local art scene?
In Auckland, Ruth Buchanan.
What is your current favourite adjective to describe your art? Undeveloped.
How did you feel about showing at The Physics Room in the Hardsell! series?
It's good to be a part of something sometimes.
 GEORGIANA MORISON
Do the words career and art go together?
Yep sure they do.
When did you decide to be an artist?
After I’d decided I didn’t want to do much else, I was quite old by normal standards. I remember as a kid in a family of seven I was often trying to make the most of space so I became very aware of it as a thing that could be played with.
Do you believe that art is respected in NZ, either by the government and/or by the general public?
I like to think people love it with a passion, but I am also aware that there are people who hate contemporary art and probably have very little respect for it. There is a sector of the New Zealand art community that most definitely needs greater financial support.
How did you feel about showing at The Physics Room in the Hardsell series?
I have a whole lot of respect for what the Physics Room does as a project space and it felt pretty swell to be part of something that links my work to other’s practices around the country through the idea of an exhibition series followed up through publications
 KATHARINA JAEGAR
What did you learn at art school?
There was a lot of emphasis on drawing during my studies. I enjoyed what drawing offered then and I find it now the most valuable tool.
When did you decide to be an artist?
I don’t really know. I have always drawn and made stuff out of old cheeseboxes.
Do you believe that art is respected in NZ, either by the government and/or by the general public?
When I talk to people about what I’m doing I can often sense their disappointment. My experience is that there is still a lot of scepticism about the value and validity of art that doesn’t take a traditional form.
What is your current favourite adjective to describe your art?
Furry.
How did you feel about showing at The Physics Room in the Hardsell series?
It helped enormously to have the support to put a show together without the additional cost of renting a space. I thought the Hardsell series was very well promoted.
 SUSAN BALLARD
When did you decide to be an artist?
When I was three I was at the top of the 'big' slide at Auckland Zoo, I was holding a lovely pink icecream. I vividly remember a monkey dressed in a little blue dress, who had escaped from a tea party racing up the slide and grabbing my iceream out of my hand. I still haven't worked out if this is true, anyone who can confirm it is long gone, and the monkeys don't get to have tea parties anymore.
Do you believe that art is respected in NZ, either by the government and/or by the
general public?
"do the words career and art
go together?"
What's the best thing about your local art scene?
Out the window a Kowhai is in full bloom, and every artist who might sit down beside me would see it differently.
What is your current favourite adjective to describe your art?
I'm still tossing up the relationship between blur and focus, but at the moment I'm tackling flickers. None of these words are adjectives.
How did you feel about showing at The Physics Room in the Hardsell series?
I love the synergies that happen across a series. I carry a little 'post-emergent' bubble with me wherever I go.
 HANNAH AND AARON BEEHRE Do the words career and art go together?
Absolutely.
What did you learn at art school?
Not every idea you have is a good one.
Do you believe that art is respected in NZ, either by the government and/or by the general public?
The relationship between Art and the Government is fairly healthy but the public are still a little suspicious.
What's the best thing about your local art scene?
Brewery Sponsorship (and the Physics Room)
What is your current favourite adjective to describe your art?
Good.
How did you feel about showing at The Physics Room in the Hardsell series?
It was nice to be shown in context with other artists in similar stage of their careers.
 KATHLEEN PEACOCK
Do the words career and art go together?
Students at art schools are paying through the nose for what many of them hope will be not just a ticket to freedom but something bold and bohemian, dotted with the odd bit of fame and a fair share of fortune, regular international travel, and along the way a chance at discovering the true meaning of life. A rewarding career in other words. Yup.
When did you decide to be an artist?
I’ve decided to be an artist quite a few times over the last 50 years. In between deciding not to be an artist. Ever again.
Do you believe that art is respected in NZ, either by the government and/or by the general public?
Some art appears to be highly respected by some sectors of the population - at times almost to the point of breathless reverence, whereas some appears less relevant than a fruit fly in the compost bin of life. Hit and miss really.
What's the best thing about your local art scene?
We can still dream the dream of Arcadia round here. We can even make art about it. If we want to. But we don’t have to. That’s the best thing.
What is your current favourite adjective to describe your art?
Orange.
 MARK HARVEY
Do the words career and art go together?
Of course they do, especially if you put a 't' in between the 'r' and 'e' in career.
When did you decide to be an artist?
I wanted to be an artist when I was seven and soon after I changed my mind and wanted to be a doctor.
Do you believe that art is respected in NZ, either by the government and/or by the general public?
This is a huge one. Most of the time art is not respected enough in NZ - particularly by the big art institutions and the government who marginalise it by reducing it to it's simplest materialistic manifestation - as a bloody money spinner that's pretty and fashionable. Zzzzzzzzzzzz
What is your current favourite adjective to describe your art?
Monster
How did you feel about showing at The Physics Room in the Hardsell series?
Warm inside.
View as PDF
This essay originally appeared in
The Physics Room Annual 2002
Published December 2003
ISBN# 0-9582359-1-0
Wholesale: $12.00; Retail $20
52 pages, 16 colour plates
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Related
The HARDSELL!! series:
Juan Rubén Reyes
Dougals Rex Kelaher
Mark Harvey
Susan Ballard
Hannah & Aaron Beehre
Georgiana Morrison
Katharina Jaeger
Kathleen Peacock
The HARDSELL!! catalogue
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