2010 SCAPE Christchurch Biennial of art in public space

Appetites were whetted for a good big feed of public art when Blair French, convenor of the curatorial group for SCAPE 2010, lifted the cone of silence from the artists’ names at Christchurch Art Gallery in April.  Christchurch flâneurs are promised a set of startling and thought provoking encounters as we walk through the city between the 24th of September and the 7th of November.

The artists participating in the “seepage of the work into the world” in SCAPE 2010 are:

• Hector Zamora
• Ahmet Ogut 
• Ash Keating
• Darryn George
• Robert Hood
• Gregor Kregar
• Joanna Langford
• Ruth Watson
• Richard Maloy

It’s all happening in the inner city and will be supplemented by an extensive series of events giving lots of opportunities to reflect on what we’ve seen.  Roll on September.

Anyone else in the Marina Lewycka fanclub?

Marina Lewycka’s latest offering has just turned up on hold for me.  It came just in time as I had devoured A bone to pick by Charlaine Harris and I was looking for something more.  I  tried the Aurora Teagarden series earlier in the year but up until recently we didn’t have the second book  in the series.  It was a good, quick read but I think I might leave Aurora to her murder mysteries.  The characters are less engaging than those of the Sookie Stackhouse series.  Phew – didn’t really need another series.  I need a bit more meat with my potatoes at the moment.  

The meat came in the form of  my well timed hold from earlier in the blog – “We are all made of glue”.  I am only a short way in but I find myself skulking off to bed early to read it and finding non-populated parts of the staff room to indulge.  It has lovely quirky characters with history and mystery.

I find it really hard to believe that it took Marina Lewycka, of Two caravans and A short history of tractors in Ukrainian fame, so long to be published.  Unless it is because publishers are like the New Zealand Immigration Service and don’t know what a treasure they have.  I have found all of her books thoroughly readable with colourful characters  and interwoven plotlines that aren’t so convoluted you get lost in a plot-hole on the road to the end of the book. 

So what is the meat (or meat substitute) and potatoes on your plate at the moment?