DISTURBANCE

IN THE

GALLERY

The Painting of Rudolf Boelee

Part 2

Part 2 1999-2011

DISTURBANCE IN THE GALLERY

The painting of Rudolf Boelee

Articles, Reviews & Opinion:

James Norcliffe – Anna Dunbar – Sally Blundell – Rosemary Forde – Nicholas Gorman – Martin

van Beynen - Don McAra - Keiller MacDuff – Christopher Moore – Marian Maguire –Georgina

Barr- Bill Dudley – Marilyn Rae-Menzies – Adrienne Rewi

Design & Commentaries: Rudolf Boelee

Publisher: Crown Lynn New Zealand Limited

© Rudolf Boelee 2013

Rudolf Boelee

New Zealander, b.1940

Order (Seven essential strengths for NZ) 1998

Purchased, 1998

Reproduced wih permission

Digital photomontage and two painted panels 98/105.1-3 1998 Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu

Order – Collection Christchurch Art Gallery

High Achievers – Private Collection

Commitment - Private Collection

Innovation - Private Collection

Integrity - Private Collection

Management - Private Collection

Introduction – Artist Collection

Employment - Artist Collection

Visions of Utopia

By James Norcliffe

Art New Zealand Autumn 1999

The images are from the exhibitions; "From the Cradle to the

Grave" at the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts Gallery

and "The Future is Now" at the Centre of Contemporary Arts during

1998.

To begin with two anecdotes:

One. In China in the late eighties, my wife Joan Melvyn and our

children cycled across the city of Tianjin to see Superman II which

had been released with Chinese subtitles. We had been living in

China for over a year and this was a rare chance for the kids to see

a Western film. The final scene of Superman, having saved the

world from catastrophe, flying high above a gleaming cityscape

holding Old Glory aloft to the strains of surging orchestral patriotism

was so delightfully over the top it reduced Joan to helpless laughter.

She was the only one in the packed auditorium to laugh. A couple

of hundred local Tianjinese failed to detect any irony and stared

with open-mouthed acceptance of the scene.

Two. Also in China. I was teaching English literature at Nankai

University. Relatively late one evening there was a guarded knock

at the door and a youngish man introduced himself. He had cycled

several miles especially to talk to me because he had heard there

was a Westerner teaching English and perhaps I could help him. He

was from a technological university and studying science. His

passion, however, was literature. He had looked around

apprehensively and the situation became a little cloak and

daggerish. Could I help him source some articles on a writer?

Clearly the writer was somewhat subversive. Perhaps, I said. The

Foreign Languages Department did have bibliographical resources

into academic papers and journals. Who was it? Oscar Wilde, he

whispered. Even in the China of Deng Xiao Peng , Oscar Wilde was

a dangerous thinker. Art for art's sake was an insidious doctrine

which could white ant at the foundations of what was normative,

what was permitted, in Communist Chinese art and expression. It

would have been good to have been able to introduce my unknown

visitor (I never learnt his name) to Rudolf Boelee. At first glance

they would seem to have little in common, and certainly between

the aesthetics of Oscar Wilde and the aesthetics of Comrade Mao

there is a substantial gulf. There is however a middle way between

the monitory monuments of the state and the hands-behind-your

back formalism of what could be termed meta-art. A host of middle

ways, of course. Boelee's way is that of the engaged social critic

and commentator. Both Boelee and the Chinese student were and

are idealists. And their idealism lies in a deep suspicion of that

which would deny expression, equality and security to members of

society. Whereas the Chinese student was seeking an alternative to

that which dictated that all public expression be filtered through

correct state ideology (Oscar Wilde being about as far as he could

go), Boelee is motivated by a suspicion of the cynical imperatives

of…

the New Right and how those imperatives are subverting earlier

visions of what the society could and should be. The Orwellian

nightmare of a static society in which a boot is forever planted on

the human face is one he fears. Rudolf Boelee was born in

Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, as the Second World War was

engulfing Europe. His early memories include the sight of

neighbours being forcibly taken away by the agents of an all-

powerful state apparatus when the Netherlands was under Nazi

occupation. After some years at sea he arrived in New Zealand in

1963, the heyday of the welfare state, and he came to enjoy the

somewhat old-fashioned lifestyle and egalitarian qualities he found

here, the relaxed enterprise of the do-it-yourself generation. His

painting career began in the late sixties, and he began to exhibit

sporadically through the seventies and eighties. The last few years

however have seen an intensity of production and a series of

important thematically linked exhibitions almost exclusively in South

Island galleries. These shows have included Visions of Utopia,

Things to Come, From the Cradle to the Grave, and just recently at

the Centre of Contemporary Arts in Christchurch The Future is

Now. The titles are significant, drawn variously from the ideas of the

first NZ Labour Government of the 1930's, from H.G. Wells, and

from George Orwell. The names of the exhibitions also reflect the

poles of optimism and pessimism which inform Boelee's vision.

Boelee's preoccupations centre on society, of society's past ideals

and present realities, the what-might-have-been and the what-is,

and the gulf between them. His works bring together images and

occasionally texts that exemplify and comment. Boelee uses

collage, scale, and colour to recontextualize and lead his viewers to

reconsider his selected images, images which are a part, often, of

our common background. The benign face of Michael Joseph

Savage in both Visions of Utopia and From the Cradle to the Grave

smiles gently as it once did from tens of thousands of mantelpieces,

but now coloured, enlarged, repeated, at times under a

superimposed grid of geometric lines and arranged in a cruciform

on a gallery wall. The railway cups, stolid and reassuring, and gone.

The flag. Other images are drawn from that which was once

precious and relatively private: lost photograph albums, forgotten

pictorial fragments and text. Here the transformation into giant

larger-than-life representations, often spread strip-fashion over

several 'canvases' has the effect of generalising and identification,

giving as much a charge of recognition as do the iconic images of

Savage or Upham or Yvette Williams.

We know these people, these clothes, these shoes. Juxtaposed

with the 1950's home grown, exemplified by the boy from

Christchurch East school and the legs of the visitors to the Hawera

Agricultural and Pastoral Show of the Cradle to the Grave,

specifically in The Future is Now are the more monumental icons

drawn from Fascist Italy's tributes to itself. These images and others

are recontextualised with the "Seven Essential Strengths" for New

Zealand drawn from a recent Ministry of Commerce

manifesto/mission statement, and these strengths (integrity,

innovation, commitment, et al) are themselves recontextualised by

being laid over tukutuku patterns. Such inter-exhibition

juxtapositions are reminders that in Boelee's case the succession of

exhibited work we are not seeing the usual progression or

development of an artist's style, but more significantly aspects of a

total vision, a programme, perhaps. As in the axes of his trademark

crosses, the shows present commentaries on the polarities of past

and future, optimism and pessimism, idealism and cynicism. His

exhibitions abound with linking devices: forms, notably the cross

and square, and individual images, notably the Keith Murray

derived modernist vase (by the original Crown Lynn). Superficially,

it can be seen that Boelee's art draws from an eclectic mix of

influences. The important Dutch movement de Stijl which influenced

the Bauhaus is an obvious starting point, perhaps in its best-known

exponent Piet Mondrian, echoes of whom are detectable in

Boelee's fascination with pattern and geometric form. The

geometric forms derive, too, from the Russian Constructivists, the

innovative artists, sculptors and set designers of the period

following the Russian Revolution. Boelee, too, has been interested

in and involved in set design, notably for the Christchurch Free

Theatre. In his use of repeated images and colour, suggestive of

Warhol's silk screens, can also be seen the influence of the pop

movement, although Boelee would deny any connection with the

detached and indulgent impulses of the Warhol Factory. The

element in Boelee's art that is most striking, though, is his use of

assemblage or collage. He brings together diverse elements all with

their own connotations and fabricates striking visual metaphors. In

many ways this is more akin to a literary, than an aesthetic device,

and quite in keeping with Boelee's view that his art speak to

viewers. In a blurb Boelee wrote for his The Future is Now he put it

this way: "…The work comments, exhorts, and elaborates on

possible directions for improvements to our society…"

True to the collaborative instincts of de Stijl, much of Rudolf

Boelee's recent work has been done in conjunction with designers

and computer experts, Brian Shields and Craig Stapley, and he

warmly acknowledges their contribution to the final shape of the

finished work. The collective nature of this work allows Boelee to

step back somewhat, ensuring that what it says about the issues is

more important that what it says about him. "As I get older," he said

in an interview printed in CoCA 9, "the ego becomes less and less

important… That's why I like working with other people." With

Shields and Stapley, Rudolf Boelee formed the company Crown

Lynn New Zealand, a famous name resurrected as the possibility of

using it as a return to the public domain. Their first major

collaboration was the 1996 exhibition Crown Lynn New Zealand (A

Salvage Operation) at the High Street Project Gallery, Christchurch,

a series of retrieved and recontextualized images that were

simultaneously reproduced and distributed in multiple postcard-

sized sets. The 1950's has been a rich source for Boelee. In many

ways it has been the forgotten era, given the ongoing fascination

with the Second World War and the equally magnetic appeal of the

Sixties. In the fifties however, in its images and styles, Boelee has

discerned a simple optimism and decency which we would disdain

at our peril, and in offering comparisons with what we have right

now, dares to ask fascinating questions. It is generally considered

smart to sneer at this period. Indeed, the imperative to be

fashionable which assaults us from all sides demands we embrace

only that which is about to be. The immediate and near past is

turned over only for its comic and ironic possibilities. The quality in

Rudolf Boelee's work that transcends these facile and cheap ironic

possibilities, is the passion behind his vision. Boelee cares about

the things we have lost, and frets about the direction the New Right

seems to be taking us. He denies nostalgia. He demands we

reconsider what once were the assumptions that shaped our

society, and equally demands that we question what has replaced

them. Rudolf Boelee does not supply any answers to the questions

he raises, although he may hint from time to time. His work is too

subtle to be crudely propagandist and he would not arouse the

scorn, thereby, of my Chinese student. And if the problems

confronting New Zealand as the millenium arrives are so

insurmountable that only Superman, perhaps, could solve them,

perhaps the Tianjinese had it right all along.

Between

Worlds The contribution made to New Zealand art by Dutch

immigrants is getting some long-overdue recognition. A self-

confessed ‘outside’, painter Rudolf Boelee talks to Anna

Dunbar

He has lived in Christchurch for 40 years but there are lingering

moments when Rudolf Boelee feels like an outsider trapped in a

long corridor extending between the old and the new. “Like most of

my compatriots who came to New Zealand in the 1950‟s and early

1960‟s, life in New Zealand was initially alien and strange. The

pressure to become like „them‟ was always there. Cultural diversity

was certainly not celebrated,” the Dutch-born artist says.

Boelee came to New Zealand as a merchant seaman in 1963. He

was 22. “I couldn‟t wait to get out of Holland. Those post-war years

were grim and it was hard to forget the pain and suffering that our

cities and our people had endured. I came to New Zealand because

I had visited about five times before, and I liked what I had seen. I

was following my heart. For those who had made that journey a

decade before it was very different – many left loved ones and their

hearts.” Boelee who describes himself as a painter (“whatever that

means in today‟s practice”), takes pride in being part of a long line

of Dutch artists living in New Zealand, but he regrets that their

artistic contribution remains largely unacknowledged. “Few people

know that the Dutch community is the largest minority group in New

Zealand. Most are also unaware of the immense debt that is owed

to artists such as Petrus van der Velden.

Seeking to redress the balance and raise the rallying cry for young

Dutch people living in New Zealand, Boelee is involved with a trio of

exhibitions at the Centre of Contemporary Art. The shows including

a travelling exhibition, “Inheriting the Netherlands”, featuring

Boelee‟s work and that of 12 other artists of Dutch origin, including

van der Velden, Theo Schoon, Miriam van Wezel, and Saskia Leek;

and a tribute to the artist Petrus van der Velden:”Colour is Light,

Light is Love, Love is God”, presented by Boelee with collaboration

of painter Dennis de Visser, poet Koenraad Kuiper and writer and

television presenter Boudewijn Buch. In the shows Boelee seeks to

augment and elaborate on what it means for the inheritors of the

Netherlands, to show what their contribution has been, and most

importantly, encourage young Dutch people to retain and celebrate

their culture. Boelee‟s own exhibition, “Postcard from Rotterdam”,

travels back 60 years to his birth in May 1940, in the early stages of

World War 2. “I was born in Rotterdam amidst an atmosphere of

hatred and fear just after the Germans had completed their

bombardment of the city. In just 45 minutes 60.000 people were left

homeless. Fire surrounded the hospital as I was being born.” The

works in the exhibition consist of treated photographs showing

Boelee‟s family surviving the brutality and cruelty of the German

occupation. “My first conscious memories are of men being rounded

up as forced labour for the Germans and people dying of hunger in

our street.” The artist stresses that the exhibition is not anti-

German. “Everyone becomes compromised in some and the

Germans more so than any other nation. Childhood memories of a

cathartic, divisive war emerge in his paintings – including a triptych

incorporating the haunting faces of the brothers Boelee

accompanied by the bureaucratic banality of lines from post-war

immigration policy.. The words and the portraits together emerge as

a tribute to and lament for dreams lost and found. Boelee,

meanwhile, shrugs off any lingering residue of alienation and

isolation. „I realize how much of a New Zealander I am when I go

back to Holland.. Yet here I see myself as a Dutchman. I feel as I

am working in a corridor between New Zealand and the

Netherlands. After four decades any personal feelings of being an

outsider is no longer much of an issue. “The disappearance of the

Dutch culture and language is a real concern, however, especially

for the younger generations. It is now up to New Zealand to reach a

maturity that truly appreciates the richness and diversity of its

communities. For most of Dutch migrants who arrived in the 1950‟s,

war had interrupted their education. They came to a new land

unable to speak English and, in some cases, with a limited

education. There were pressures to assimilate – to become New

Zealanders, to get a job, and to establish a home.

“Immigrations, no matter where they are from, are in a state of

complete and continuous contradiction. You are always living in two

places. It must have been especially difficult for those who came in

those early days. It was 40 days sailing between, so you really

knew you had come somewhere quite different,” Boelee says. “I

lived in Sydenham when I first came and the car yards were full of

V8; - I had never seen anything like except in the movies. So

strange. Quite alien, but I really enjoyed the life here. I thought it

was lovely. After he left there was an exodus of brothers and

cousins to the United States and New Zealand, all seeking to

escape what seemed then the very restricting environment of

Europe. “Ironically, life in New Zealand was possibly even more

conformist than it was back home, but everything was rather alien

and slightly weird in a likeable way. The pre-war cars, 6 o‟clock

closing, building your own home, the concrete, the races – it all

seemed so innocent and nice.”

Boelee hopes the exhibitions act as a rallying call for Dutch people

in New Zealand. “Those who came out in the 1950‟s are really like a

lost generation. Many of them even changed their names. It is not

about nostalgia. I don‟t want to go back to Holland, but it is really

To do with saying that we are here, some of us more than 40

years, and have contributed much to the country with little

acknowledgment.”

He feels it is unfortunate that only one gallery in a major city was

interested in holding the exhibition and that it had to be organized

by an individual. “Dutch people have never been known to be

difficult, even though they are the largest minority group. I certainly

hope that these three shows will act as focus for the wider Dutch

community and the community at large as well. I have the distinct

feeling that being known as just good workers is a bit demeaning.

“For me and many of the artists involved in this exhibition, there is

this permanent position as „outsider‟. This in turn, tends towards a

reliance upon memory, intent on avoiding alienation. I constantly

seek and express a sense of self and identity in my work, hence the

need to construct a certain „Dutchness‟. However, if I were to work

in Holland it would be on New Zealand things.

The Press, Wednesday, July 26, 2000

Catalogue for “Inheriting the Netherlands, a Century of Dutch Art in

New Zealand”

2000-01 Inheriting The Netherlands, a Century of Dutch Art in New Zealand

Lopdell House Gallery, Titirangi, Auckland

Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui

Hawkes Bay Exhibition Centre, Hastings

Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch

Eastern Southland Gallery, Gore

Millenium Gallery, Blenheim

Whangarei Art Museum, Whangarei

Waikato Art & History Museum, Hamilton

Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington

Petrus van der Velden, Ans Westra, Theo Schoon, Rudolf Boelee, Miriam van Wezel, Gerda Leenards, Leon

van den Eijkel, Ronnie van Hout, Karin van Roosmalen, Saskia Leek, Monique Jansen / [organiser, Johan van

Westen ; curator, Natasha Conland]

Rudolf Boelee

'A Postcard from Rotterdam'

Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch

19 July - 6 August 2000

Text: Rudolf Boelee

Photographs: Dennis de Visser

A Postcard from Rotterdam' goes back in time almost exactly 60

years to May 1940, and the outbreak of World War 2 for the

Netherlands. It was shortly after one of those unnecessary,

catastrophic acts of violence, the bombardment of Rotterdam by the

Germans, that I was born. Sixty thousand people were made

homeless in just forty-five minutes.

The works in this exhibition consist of treated photographs and

show my family surviving, the brutality and cruelty of the German

Occupation. The marvellous normality of continuing to record

family events, in the context of the deportation of the Jews and the

infamous "Hunger Winter" 1944-1945, now appears quite

incredible. My first conscious memories go back to the forcible

removal of all males over eighteen and people dying of hunger in

our street. ‘Postcard from Rotterdam' aims to give a personal as

well as a universal view of those perilous times

.

Rudolf Boelee, Boudewijn Buch,

Koenraad Kuiper, Dennis de Visser'

Colour is Light, Light is Love, Love is God'

(a tribute to Petrus van der Velden)

Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch

19 July - 6 August 2000

Text: Esther Venning

Photographs: Rudolf Boelee

Rudolf Boelee and Dennis de Visseraman pay homage to Petrus

van der Velden in an exhibition strongly referencing his art. The

work and teachings of Petrus van der Velden have had a significant

and enduring effect on many artists in New Zealand. Born in the

Netherlands in 1837, van der Velden worked with the famed Hague

School of painters. He came to Christchurch in 1890 bringing his

considerable talent and European artistic traditions. In New Zealand

he became particularly well known for his raw and moody 'Otira

Gorge' series.

The exhibition title 'Colour is Light, Light is Love, Love is God',

references a quote by van der Velden demonstrating his strong

association of painting with spirituality. The exhibition's multi-

disciplinary perspective on van der Velden includes a Dutch

documentary programme by the writer and presenter Boudewijn

Buch and bi-lingual poems by Koenraad Kuiper.

History Repeating New Zealand House & Garden November 2002

Sally Blundell discovers a sense of the past in a Christchurch

house that has changed for the future. Photographs: Doc Ross

One visit to the inner city gentleman’s residence was all it took for

artists Robyne Voyce and Rudolf Boelee to know they found their

new home. just outside Christchurch’s four avenues, it would have

once been one of many houses from the arts and crafts era sitting

sedately on its quarter acre section. Rescued from the demands of

in-dill housing and city commercialization, the house is a rare piece

of Christchurch still in a remarkably original state. “What appealed

to us was that the house hadn’t been altered at all.. The kitchen and

bathroom were original. All the paneling was still there. Nothing had

been updated,” says Robyne. Previous owners had painstakingly

stripped back all the timber, however, leaving the rooms looking

dark and dull.. At a time when renovators were waging war against

any painted surfaces Robyne and Rudolf spent their first Christmas

in the house painting. Using white, two shades of grey and coloured

rectangles in the living room they developed a look that was clean,

modern and in keeping with the timber floors stripped of their dark

varnish and the extensive plant borders shielding the house from

the street. “ As soon as we painted the walls the outside seemed to

come in. You became aware of the garden. The effect was one

large area instead of a series of smaller darker spaces,” says

Robyne Rudolf’s digital works displayed on the walls of the living

room and entrance pay tribute to his home city of Rotterdam, the

war that ripped that ripped through his childhood - one work shows

a forged Nazi pass used by his father to get meat and vegetables

to feed his and the five other families living in their building - and the

wartime influx of Dutch immigrants in this country. Other works,

including the iconic New Zealand Railway Cups, draw on a post-war

New Zealand, a young country turning with hope to a more settled

and affluent future.. This, says Rudolf, was a new age of idealism,

the legacy of the first Labour government of Michael Joseph -

Savage and the era of Crown Lynn Potteries, the then “crowning

glory” of the ceramics industry in this country. “My brother Onno

took me through the Crown Lynn factory in New Lynn just after it

closed and Robyne had a large collection of their decorative and

table wares. The company was another casualty of the deregulated

nature of industry in this country but it had that touch of elegance

and perfection. In 1994 Robyne and Rudolf acquired Crown Lynn’s

former trademark. Crown Lynn New Zealand.. The name was later

to be used in an exhibition with designers Brian Shields and Craig

Stapley, celebrating the role art and design in Kiwi society.

The grace and style of the Crown Lynn era is echoed in

the art, design and collectables in the house. They are a

reflection of a shared New Zealand history and a tribute

to the eclectic passions of two consummate collectors.

Their furniture, ceramics and objects cover the span of 20th century

design. Kiwiana is evident - from the jigsaw of the map of New

Zealand to the paua ornaments. In the dining room a recently

purchased set of Denby ceramics has pride of place on a 1950’s

sideboard. A 1970’s Poole china bowl sits on the 1960’s kitchen

table.

Such items blend well with the modern sophistication of Robyne’s fabric

designs - from the curtains on the lead light windows to the clothes on

the steel display stand, these works build on a personal history of 1960’s

church fairs and craft stalls, a family penchant for home-made decorative

arts passed on to Robyne as a young girl.

As the need for a venue to market their art and design became

more apparent the couple considered finding a place in the very

heart of the city. But the comfort and practicality of home were hard

to beat. “ We still wanted to be here,” says Robyne. “A lot of people

were beginning to use older buildings for living and working in and

we knew if we left here the developers would pull the house down

or it would become flats. We worked too hard for that.” The

conversion from home to home gallery and working place was

relatively simple. A new wardrobe in the second bedroom - big

enough for Robyne’s considerable collection of vintage fabric for

clothing and accessories - and gallery lighting in the entrance and

former main bedroom allowed for two exhibition areas. Customers

now have the inestimable luxury of trying on Robyne’s design in a

full -sized bedroom - with a coffee on the table.

“Then we had to think of a name,” says Robyne. “Once the

business was set up we didn’t want it to be Rudolf and Robyne’s

house”. “Rudolf was working on his art and I was making clothes

and printing fabric - we wanted to tie it all up. So we came up with

Opshop.” It was a name that came with a fair amount of

misinterpretation. Was it second-hand shop? No. An art auction?

No.

“We did not want a particular brand name and all along we have

been involved in the whole philosophy of recycling - working with

the environment, recycling ideas, recycling pieces of New Zealand

history. It’s all about having a conscience and using what is around

you. Opshop fitted in with that.” A series of exhibition openings and

a new website helped launch the Opshop name and it continues to

draw interest locally and internationally. And as the art of collecting

becomes a domain populated by an increasing number of dealers.

Robyne and Rudolf’s concerns for holding on to what is precious in

the environment has extended to lobbying against genetic

engineering, maintaining a large garden and producing work that is

in keeping with the timelessness of the modernist style.

Auckland apartment and Christchurch house in 2002 with NZR

Cups

Crown Lynn New Zealand The Ambiguous Image- her dissatisfaction with

her holiday, her surroundings and her life

Billboard, Physics Room, Christchurch, 2000.

Text: Rosemary Forde

A major public art project for the Physics Room in 2000, this

temporary billboard was erected on the High Street side of the

Physics Room building. The billboard was produced by Crown Lynn

New Zealand – a collaborative team of artists and designers – in

this instance including Rudolf Boelee, Maria Langley and Brian

Shields The former trademark of Crown Lynn Potteries Limited was

acquired by the artists in 1994, and has been used to present

several projects since then, including the Ambiguous Image series.

Once known as the crowning glory of the ceramic industry in New

Zealand, in the postwar period Crown Lynn offered a stylish range

with a touch of elegance and modern perfection. The Ambiguous

Image billboard uses a still from a 1960s new wave film – a visual

style which has been an influence throughout much of Rudolf

Boelee’s artistic career. The filmic element is blown up to cinematic

proportions in the billboard, the dimensions and scale similar to that

of a movie screen. But the image presented is a grainy close-up,

distorting the image and rendering the billboard familiar yet

indistinct. Although the image has been sourced from film, the style

and the format of the billboard are equally suggestive of the visual

language of advertising. Aping the methods of advertising, Boelee

and Crown Lynn presented a visual statement for Christchurch

without any commercial message. The text provides the only

suggestion of narrative, evocative of a general malaise observed by

the artist as an immigrant to New Zealand, that living here is

regarded by many as an unsatisfying step towards some greater

goal or a better place. Following on from this project, Crown Lynn

produced The Ambiguous Image – figures in a mental landscape, a

publication featuring 12 virtual billboards for Christchurch. And with

a Physics Room exhibition in 2003, Boelee presents the third part of

The Ambiguous Image – her dissatisfaction_, reworking the

billboard and expanding the debate around living in Christchurch as

an artist.

Rudolf Boelee

New Zealander, b.1940

Treasure of the Nation 2000

In Treasure of the nation Boelee

expresses his admiration for the older

artist: a screenprint of van der Velden’s

portrait is flanked either side by two prints

of his Otira Gorge paintings. Boelee

overlays van der Velden’s Otira

landscapes with a series of colourful

modernist rectangles – geometric divisions

that provide a striking contrast.

(Van der Velden: Otira, February 2011)

Gifted by the artist, 2002

Reproduced wih permission

Acrylic, silkscreen and lacquer on wood

2002/259

2000

Robyne Voyce

and Rudolf Boelee present the exhibition:

'Snapping GE-free zones'

The Physics Room, Christchurch

The Press, 20 September 2001

By Anna Dunbar

Christchurch artists Robyne Voyce and Rudolf Boelee have special

places that they want to remain GE-free, and have captured them

on film. Picking up on the actions of anti-GE campaigner (and

former Thompson Twin) Alannah Currie, the pair initially intended to

take a few photographs of friends and neighbours and send them to

Currie for a proposed Beehive exhibition Voyce says."However, the

more we spoke to people, the more things snowballed and we

realised a Christchurch exhibition to coincide with the Wellington

was necessary. We are dismayed that although most New

Zealanders are against GE, many feel that nothing can be done to

stop it. We think that an art exhibition, unlike protest rallies, can

attract from a different type of audience - one that falls outside the

unfair stereotype of crusty hemp-wearing hippies". Voyce and

Boelee say they regard the exhibition more as a performance, an

invite anyone to contribute before September 15. The photographic

project and exhibition, 'TOMORROW', will be held for only one night

in contemporary art project space the Physics Room. Green Party

co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimmons will open the exhibition and speak

about genetic engineering and the implications. Voyce and Boelee

hope that after the exhibition the photographs will be presented to

the Prime Minister Helen Clark.

GE FREE NEW ZEALAND

Following pages; Green Party co-leader Janet Fitzsimmons with

Robyne Voyce and Rudolf Boelee.

Installation of “Staking our Claim” at Shed 11, Wellington

GE FREE NZ

Run along to Runaway Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch

15 May - 1 June 2002

Review: Nicholas Gorman - The Citizen

29 May 2002

Photos: Inez Grim

The idea of a shared national identity is both problematic and

pertinent. The idea of a “Kiwi identity” is tied up with all sorts of

contradictions. Even though New Zealand is a relatively small

country, it still has four million people who are both dysfunctional

and diverse. It seems hard for us to reconcile our strands of

diversity and weave them into a common identity. Rudolf Boelee‟s

exhibition, Runaway, now showing at the Centre of Contemporary

Art in Gloucester Street, attempts to explore different threads of our

identity and bring them together in a common space - the concept

of a marae. The Mair gallery on the top floor of CoCA has been

converted to what resembles the shape of a marae. The 10 large

scale “ancestor paintings” are in fact digitally manipulated film stills,

on the left side is a row of Maori faces that gaze across the gallery

at a row of Pakeha faces. At the head of the marae is a triptych of

light boxes with dates and images from contentious periods in our

shared history: the Waterfront Strike of 1951 and the Springbok tour

of 1981 and the “New Right‟ revolution in 1984. on either side of the

entrance/exit is a diptych with and the acronyms “WTO” and “GE”,

perhaps things that will become contentious and problematic in

New Zealand‟s future. What we see is a combination of both

European and Maori imagery and traditions, with the use of film

stills and the space of the marae, the blend of popular culture and

high art. In his outline and intent for Runaway, Boelee says, “I

intend to look at the concepts such as the stereotype of „man

alone‟, the portrayal of Maori as „other‟, the effects of the Springbok

Tour on New Zealand society, and of the justified paranoia

experienced about a number of environmental and political issues

in present-day New Zealand.” I visited the gallery twice: once on the

preview evening, with lots of speeches, bodies and free wine; the

second on some wet afternoon with no one else in the gallery.

Traipsing about on that cold day made me feel far more reflective,

our country‟s shared ancestors keeping watch over me. It made me

think about how we have defined ourselves through popular

country. However, it is perhaps the space itself, the marae concept,

which gives Boelee‟s show emotional resonance. Try to get along

and see it before it closes. Runaway is at the Centre of

Contemporary Art until June1.

* 'Runaway' received project funding from Creative New Zealand TOI

AOTEAROA

Dispute over artwork By Martin van Beynen

The Press, Saturday, May 25, 2002

A Christchurch exhibition designed to help Maori and pakeha to get

on better has sparked an art worls controversy. The exhibition

entitled Runaway, by Christchurch artist Rudolf Boelee, sets out a

series of large photographic images of Maori and pakeha in a

marae framework. It opened at the Centre of Contemporary Art

(CoCA) about 10 days ago and is scheduled to be shown in

Whangarei, Gisborne and Rotorua. The images were taken from

two books published by Victoria University Press about films made

by New Zealand film-maker John O’Shea. Boelee took faces of the

actors from the books and manipulated them to create a new work

of art which has been lauded as beautiful and respectful.

But the New Zealand Film Archive does not see it quite like that.

The archive looks after the original John O’Shea footage and stills

on behalf of the copyright owner, Pacific Films, and believes Boelee

breached protocol and copyright. Client access co-ordinator

Bronwyn Taylor said Boelee had approached the archive in January

but after being told of the requirements regarding copyright and

consultation with Maori had ceased “dialogue” “our concern was

that no permission had been sought or given,” she said. In its

guardianship role the archive had tried to ensure CoCA attributed

the images correctly to include the publications they were lifted

from, she said. “It seems quite clearly a copyright issue. We supply

galleries and exhibitions all the time and they work with us in

obtaining the appropriate clearances,” she said.

CoCA director Warren Feeney said he stood by Boelee, whose

integrity remained intact. “It happens all the time at every gallery

around the world every day of the week. Because it’s going into a

gallery and none of the works are for sale I would argue the integrity

of Rudolf is pretty well intact. He is not making any financial gain.

Behind this there is nothing but good intentions.” The work fitted

“very much in the context” of what Boelee had done previously. “If

they had put them (the images) on shopping bags I think I would be

worried about them,” he said. Advice on the Maori issues suggested

relatives of the people in the images should have been consulted

and a “ritual cleansing” should have taken place, he said. Maori

would see the images as images of real people and find it difficult to

view the exhibition, the advice had said. Images of dead ancestors

were problematic. The archive had phoned him every day to

emphasise he was not taking the issue seriously enough, Mr.

Feeney said. “Rudolf’s feeling was that the Film Archives was doing

what a typical bureaucracy does. Instead of being there to serve the

public and making visible the films of John O’Shea they were

stopping people. It comes down to that.”

Pacific Films director Craig Walters said while he felt Boelee should

have got permission first from the company; he would not be taken

legal action. Boelee declined to discuss the matter yesterday.

The Press, Thursday May 30, 2003 – OPINION

Film copyright

Sir – What a crazy world we live in. Rudolf Boelee (May 25) is

attacked by the New Zealand Film Archive for breaching copyright

and not consulting Maori about using ancestral images of both

Maori and pakeha actors from John O’Shea films.

Why is it that only Maori descendants need to be consulted? Do

they have to be consulted before any showing of John O’Shea

films?

How thoroughly did O’Shea himself consult before making the

films? Are descendants of Mona Lisa consulted before her image is

displayed? Are the Queen and the Prime minister consulted before

their images are used in newspaper cartoons aiming not to honour,

but to satirise?

Surely Boelee’s superb, non-commercial images honour both Maori

and pakeha and draw them together on the marae of his creation.

The laws of copyright are clear; the rest is political correctness gone

mad. These healing images are magnificent.

D.J. McAra Cashmere, May 25

The whole Runaway exhibition saga certainly affected me really badly. The problems of getting large scale exhibitions like this one to become a

reality are difficult enough. What I had not encountered before was such a response from these ‘gate keeping’ bureaucrats in Wellington, naïve

of me not to realize this from the outset. I was busy teaching at the Design & Arts College in Christchurch and at the same time working on

projects like the GE Free and Runaway shows. Under the Red Verandah was a café (the original building was destroyed during the February

22nd earthquake) that had interesting exhibitions staged by co-owner Roger Hickin. So making 20 or so small to medium size collage works was

a really nice diversion from being portrayed as ‘ignorant and culturally insensitive’…

'her dissatisfaction' An exhibition by Rudolf Boelee

in collaboration with: Matthew Ayton, Stu Buchanan, Dougall

Canard, Maria Langley, Roy Montgomery, Christine Rockley, Brian

Shields, Robyne Voyce.

The Physics Room, Christchurch

26 March - 17 April 2003

Review: Keiller MacDuff

Photographs: Inez Grim

The gallery was stiflingly hot, and the crush was on for gin and

tonic. Greeted by the authentic tones of legendary Christchurch jazz

musicians, Stu Buchanan and Dougall Canard, who were providing

the soundtrack, I proceeded to search everywhere for Rudolf's

exhibition. It's not that I hadn't seen the huge billboard. Recognised

it, in fact, as the same dissatisfied heroine who had graced the

exterior of the Physics Room in 2000. But I was looking for his

distinctive brand of New Zealand modernism - the instantly

recognizable pop art pieces, the brightly coloured screen prints, the

Kiwiana and the insistent repetition. This time the billboard shows

more of the waif, slightly less supersized than the outdoor version

but still cinematic and grainy, the eye drawn to the almost obscene

exposure of the intimacy of the nape of her neck. Somehow you

can almost taste the melancholy, the resignation and the

eponymous dissatisfaction, but this time, we were witness to her

weapon - this is extreme dissatisfaction. In one room there was a

video, a matey front porch discussion between the artist and

musician and writer Roy Montgomery. They share a beer and spin

yarns, talk about the old days. The video is looped, echoing the

circularity those nostalgic conversations can take. The third part of

The Ambiguous Image, 'her dissatisfaction_' is collaboration by

Rudolf Boelee and Crown Lynn New Zealand Collective, which

relocated aspects of earlier exhibitions into the Physics Room, and

into more of a personal trajectory into Rudolf's life, environment and

influences. Far from his native Holland, Rudolf Boelee ended up in

Christchurch in the late 1970's. The synchronicity of things soon

had him moving in the same circles as a variety of other like-minded

souls. It was during this time that he met partner Robyne Voyce.

Rudolf met people living their lives through their bedroom fantasies,

living in their heads, through their headphones, their music

collections, their dissatisfaction with suburban Christchurch.

Trapped in suburbia, lost in their own worlds, these people found

solace in music, art, theatre, in a unity of purpose and aesthetic. In

the exhibition there are allusions to pop culture, cinema and music,

from the jazz band playing at the opening, to the confluence of

Boelee's arrival in Christchurch with a flourishing punk music scene.

The cinematic theme of the billboard combines with the

documentary-style filmed conversation, the jazz soundtrack, and

the virtual billboards displayed. This aspect of the exhibition, ten

photographs of local buildings onto which virtual billboards were

placed are real Christchurch buildings, not tourist monuments to our

gothic heritage, but office buildings, utilitarian high rises, reimagined

with giant billboards, bearing seminal scenes from new wave

cinema instead of advertising slogans and consumerables. The

shows are an attempt to explain something. All exhibitions are the

staging of something, a cumulative gig. And the gig is something

else, something always unknowable. Rudolf told me that the art

exhibition is ultimately a selfish act - the show as therapy - but to

me the themes of the exhibition were more universal - a love story,

an ode to friendship, longing and belonging.

'The Middle Way: Christchurch Meets Bangkok, Bangkok Meets Christchurch'

Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch, 11 November - 19

December 2003

By Christopher Moore, The Press, November,12, 2003

Photograhs: Robyne Voyce and David McKenzie

One day in Bangkok, Rudolf Boelee encountered a gallery of

extraordinary artworks: creations which fused images and ethics

from one of the world's oldest spiritual beliefs with the potency of

contemporary art. The impact of that exhibition by these Thai artists

never left the Christchurch painter's mind. Boelee soon began

discussing the possibilities of an exchange exhibition between

Thailand and New Zealand, initially with the director of the Arts

Centre of Bangkok's Silpakorn University, Vichoke Mukhdamanee

and later with co-curator Dr. Lertsiri Bovornkitti.The long months of

planning, mostly by email, has resulted in a new exhibition, The

Middle Way, at Christchurch's Centre of Contemporary Art.

Members of the Faculty of Painting, Sculpture and Graphic Arts at

Silpakorn University and the faculty of Fine Arts at Christchurch's

Design and Arts College of New Zealand will combine forces to

cross cultural and geographical boundaries. Thailand's Buddhist art

has been one of the pinnacles of Asian art for centuries: a richly

creative expression of faith and devotion; one which combines

harmony with subtle textures and forms. In the 21st century, it

continues to be a living, evolving force in a country where 95 per

cent of Thais are devoutly Buddhist and Buddhism pervades every

part of daily life. In the 1980's, Thai art, especially painting entered

a new phase, one that went back to religious art of previous

centuries, Boelee says. Artists were reinterpreting Buddhism and its

iconography to seek a more mature understanding of man's role in

the cosmos. In the process they were developing a style of modern

art which was unique to Thailand. My most vivid impression of

Thailand was experiencing the role that Buddhism plays in all facets

of Thai life. I hope to actively seek involvement from the Thai

community to make an exhibition like this a real focus for cultural

diversity in Christchurch.The emphasis on a foreign religion like

Buddhism might appear strange from a New Zealand perspective.

Works by 10 Thai and New Zealand artists: Vichai Sithiratn,

Vichoke Mukdamanee, Saravudth Duangjumpa, Amrit Chusuwan,

Panya Vijinthanasarn, Rudolf Boelee, Victoria Edwards , Michael

Collins, Ina Johann, Tony Bond, will feature in the exhibition, which

Boelee sees as a reinforcement of the city's growing diversity.The

opening ceremony will involve monks from the Wat Buddha

Samakhee, the Thai Buddhist centre in Marshlands Road and a

long drum dance choreographed by dancer and teacher Sittichai

Pornpichayanarak and will be opened by HE Mr. Norachit

Sinhanseni, Ambassador of Thailand. The exhibition will then travel

to Bangkok in January 2004 where it will open at Silpakorn

University's art gallery.

Rudolf Boelee Thai/New Zealand exchange exhibition initiator, co-

ordinator and co-curator

2003-06 The Middle Way / Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch

Art Centre, Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Eastern Art Centre, Burapha University, Thailand

Chiang Mai University Art Gallery, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Thaksiri University Art Gallery, Songkhla, Thailand

Randolph Street Gallery, Auckland

Nieuw Zeeland

An exhibition by Rudolf Boelee

PaperGraphica, Christchurch, 13 June - 2 July 2005

Text: Marian Maguire

Photographs: Robyne Voyce

The Dutch were the first Europeans known to have reached New

Zealand, led by Abel Janszoon Tasman, who sailed up the west

coast of the South and North Islands in 1642. Like his countryman

so many years before him, Dutch/New Zealand artist Rudolf Boelee

has also been exploring aspects of his adopted land. In these new

works Boelee covers a number of themes from portraiture and

human endeavour to conservation and in each his trademark

stylishness elegantly supports the idea. Bold striped colours in

close tonal range glow through the imagery, some sections of which

break down into fields of texture. In this way the work can operate

on more than one level. All the works in the show are diptychs,

often with repeat imagery. Does this mean 'Take another look' or

'There is more than one way to view this image'? Perhaps it refers

to repeated patterns in history. In any case the effect of this

juxtaposition is to create a dynamic composition which satisfies the

eye, encouraging it to roam.

'Sink the Rainbow Warrior!'

Rudolf Boelee

10 July, 1985 / 2006

PaperGraphica, Christchurch

11 July - 5 August 2006

Text: Marian Maguire

Review: Georgina Barr

Photographs: David McKenzie

The Rainbow Warrior was the flagship of the international

environmental organisation, Greenpeace. It had been in port at

Auckland for three days and was scheduled to lead a fleet of

vessels to Muroroa Atoll in protest against the French nuclear

testing in the South Pacific. It never made that voyage. Just before

midnight on 10 July, 1985, two explosions rocked the harbour,

sinking the forty metre Rainbow Warrior. Underwater charges had

been placed by French frogmen blowing two holes in the vessel’s

hull. The ship sank almost immediately. All the crew managed to

escape, apart from the photographer, Fernando Pereira, who

drowned.

Twenty one years later, Monday the 10th of July, 2006, Rudolf

Boelee's exhibition “Sink the Rainbow Warrior!” (21) opens at

PaperGraphica. The work in the installation presents a series of

portraits of the French agents involved, the victim and background

information about the incident. The Rainbow Warrior bombing was

the first time an act of international state-sponsored terrorism had

been committed in New Zealand. It marked the end of our sense of

security through isolation and the beginning of an era in which we

have been forced to acknowledge that world politics, whether they

are expressed through terrorism or environmental threat, can

impact directly upon us. Boelee believes that the content of this

exhibition is highly relevant today; that twenty one years on we

have come of age and must look forward with maturity. The major

powers obsession with nuclear arms and the more recent

sanctimonious “War on Terror” are continuing to threaten the

peace, stability and ultimately the future of our planet.

Sink the Rainbow Warrior!' (21)

Reviewer: Georgina Barr

'Sink the Rainbow Warrior!' by Rudolf Boelee is a thoughtful

exhibition by an intelligent and insightful artist.

Boldly coloured and subtly shaded faces hang on the walls of

PaperGraphica. Some stare out into the middle distance and

attempt at making a connection while others avoid eye contact and

turn away. These seven acrylic portrait paintings - displaying those

involved in the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior 21 years ago - are

evenly placed around the warm main gallery and make a quiet,

almost secretive atmosphere within the large room. All of the two

large and five medium sized paintings have black backgrounds and

each face is painted with white and only one other colour. In each

work, the thick, block colour of the hair contrasts with the subtlety of

soft tonal shading of the skin to create wonderful depth. The mix of

textures, along with the black backgrounds and the use of hessian

on board, produces a rough and sinister side to the subjects

depicted

The thick textures are also a change from the smoothness of the

artist's well-known screenprints. This fresh angle to art-making

shows the artist is comfortable working in different styles, and he

does so with clever ease. 'Sink the Rainbow Warrior!' is a great

example of good art. Both the technique used to create the

paintings and the artist's intension behind the work show thoughtful

talent. According to a recent newspaper survey, the majority of New

Zealanders are not concerned about terrorist actions (such as the

recent train bombings in India) occurring here. The intension behind

Boelee's exhibition is to advise caution in this lackadaisical outlook

and to advise New Zealanders not to forget.

The intelligence and depth of this exhibition fits well within

PaperGraphica's walls. This art gallery and printmaking studio has

created a relaxed environment that inspires and educates with

every visit

10 July, 1985

"I Want What She's Got !"

Robyne Voyce & Rudolf Boelee

NG Gallery, 6 June -7 July, 2007

Text: Bill Dudley

Images: Robyne Voyce and Rudolf Boelee

Christchurch artists Robyne Voyce and Rudolf Boelee present their

new exhibition "I Want What She's Got !" at NG gallery. The title of

the show refers to the eternal quest for the desirable and the

glamorous. The exhibition is the latest in a series of shows by the

pair, dating back to 1997.

Robyne Voyce "Fabric Constructions"

For fabric artist Robyne Voyce, this new body of work continues on

themes and directions she employed in her 2004 exhibition

"Bryndwr 17". That show marked a journey back in time to early

childhood in order to make sense out of the present. Voyce's

previous vocation as a furniture and fashion designer and her

careful treatment of fabrics continue to inform her artistic practice.

The works for "I Want What She's Got !" are a series of multi panel

Op Art inspired vintage fabric compositions, highly polished, with

fine attention to detail. Op Art also referred to as geometric

abstraction or hard-edge abstraction. This style was derived from

the constructivist practices of the Bauhaus. The nineteen twenties

German school, founded by Walter Gropius, stressed the

relationship of form and function within a framework of analysis and

rationality. For Robyne Voyce, her works are dominated by the

same concerns of figure-ground movement. Her approach is more

sculptural then painterly, in the way the original vintage fabric

designs have been re-assembled in unexpected and powerful

compositions.

This is a very strong exhibition that shows the artist in control of her

media, well conceived in its installation, with a great feel for

integrating her works into the multi-purpose use (cafe and high

fashion) of the space.

Rudolf Boelee "Film Stills"

From a young age, artist Rudolf Boelee has been hugely affected

by film and this interest has influenced a large part of his work. His

images seem like stills from 1940's "Film Noir" or "Nouvelle Vague"

- "New Wave" from the 1960's, the grainy appearance of his works

enhances this effect. Inspired by the vitality of the Hollywood B

movies, originating in the United States, employing heavy shadows

and patterns of darkness, in which the protagonist dies, meets

defeat, or achieves meaningless victory in the end. The painted

grid works for "I Want What She's Got!" are a continuation on

similar themes explored in the multimedia "The Ambiguous Image"

series of projects. As an adolescent Rudolf Boelee was more

interested going the cinema then attending his high school. Seeing

and identifying with films by François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard,

Ingmar Bergman, Robert Bresson, Alain Robbe-Grillet and Jean-

Pierre Melville. These film makers, from a slightly older generation,

became his artistic role models in a post war the Netherlands. Like

France, the Netherlands was an occupied country during the

second world war unlike say England or the USA, and the

experience of austerity and internal tensions, created by a

population that on the whole resisted and in part collaborated with

the Nazis, left a mark on the country's psyche. A distinctive

philosophy - existentialism - evolved in France and later in other

European countries in the post-war years. This philosophy,

associated with Jean-Paul Sartre and other French intellectuals,

was a major influence on the New Wave. Existentialism stressed

the individual, the experience of free choice, the absence of any

rational understanding of the universe and a sense of the absurdity

in human life. Faced with an indifferent world an existentialist seeks

to act authentically, using free will and taking responsibility for all

their actions, instead of playing preordained roles dictated by

society. The characters in French New Wave films are often

marginalized, young anti-heroes and loners, with no family ties, who

behave spontaneously, often act immorally and are frequently seen

as anti-authoritarian. The paintings in "Film Stills" are echoes of

these formative experiences, recasting characters from films as

diverse as: "Alphaville", "Pickpocket", "Last Year in Marienbad",

"Persona", "Trans-Europe Express", "Vivre sa Vie", "Deux ou trois

choses que je sais d'elle" into a cinematic frieze and Boelee

intentions are to blend his works in with the theatrical high fashion

presentation of NG design. This exhibition also neatly completes a

circle, back to his earlier (1981) exhibition "The Girl Can't Help it"

Rewi Alley

Geoffrey Cox

James Bertram

John Mulgan

Charles Brasch

Robin Hyde

EXILES - Rudolf Boelee Text: Marian Maguire

Charles Brasch, Robin Hyde, Dan Davin, Rewi Alley,

James Bertram, Geoffrey Cox, John Mulgan

Not all of these seven New Zealanders are widely known; their

individualism and idealism sometimes put them at the fringes of

colonial culture. They have been selected by the artist for their

ability to see beyond the confines of that culture. All of them

travelled, engaged with the world beyond these shores, exiled

themselves. With the advantage of education, they then spoke

thoughtfully and eloquently about the human condition.

Most, apart from Rewi Alley, were born at about the time of the First

World War so their experiences through the Depression and the

Second World War had a profound effect on them. But the link is

more than generational. Highly intelligent, sensitive and observant

they used their creativity to promote the greater good; in most

cases, through literature.

Rudolf Boelee was born in Holland in 1940 so has a personal

understanding of how world events can impact upon the lives of

people. Seeing his homeland ravaged by war he chose to live in

this country, the New Land, in a youthful search for utopia. In

selecting these seven Exiles he identifies the need to look beyond

regionalism at the wider issues for humanity. Rudolf Boelee has

painted these portraits as bold chiaroscuro heads that completely

dominate the coarse weave of the hessian surface. Each portrait is

painted from a photograph. The backgrounds are dark; solid black.

Light radiates off the facial planes in sharp contrast. Facial shadows

are painted in a single flat colour, a different colour for each person,

so although the images are bold, almost confrontational, the

features are flattened, increasing the drama. The impression of

each person, the idea of them, resounds more strongly than their

physical reality.

Like many other works by Boelee the paintings flash like stills from

film noir and create curiosity about the moments before and

afterwards. Each of the Exiles had a full and active life and, aside

from Geoffrey Cox, have all died. Despite the solidity of their

achievements it is hard not to think that their lives, albeit intense,

were fleeting. In the words of James Bertram, "Hard to explain now

just how strongly we all felt in those days. But it wasn't just politics,

rather, a sort of evangelical sense of mission, of not allowing

oneself to become contaminated and absorbed into the

establishment".

EXILES

PaperGraphica, Christchurch, 2007

Forrester Gallery, Oamaru, 2008

Southland Museum & Art Gallery, Invercargill, 2008

Eastern Southland Gallery, Gore, 2008

Millenium Public Art Gallery, Blenheim, 2008

Flagstaff Gallery, Devonport, Auckland, 2009

Rotorua Art & History Museum, Rotorua, 2009

Whangarei Art Museum, Whangarei, 2010

Installation Images from previous pages; Rotorua Art & History Museum, Rotorua, 2009

Millenium Public Art Gallery, Blenheim, 2008, Forrester Gallery, Oamaru, 2008

Robyne opened Pug Design Store during August 2008 in this

wonderful looking building. Eclectic would be a good word for what

we stocked. We made a lot of things we sold ourselves and it was a

good little business for two years until the Christchurch City Council

decided to take our parking and killed Pug and the other thriving

businesses around us. We closed in the beginning of September

days before first major 2010 earthquake. The building was

moderately damaged but did not survive the 22nd of Febuary 2011

one, and is now one of the many ‘vacancies’ in inner city

Christchurch.

PUG DESIGN STORE

RE-INVENTING CROWN LYNN By Adrienne Rewi. Christchurch artists, Rudolf Boelee and his wife, Robyne Voyce are

breathing new life into the iconic New Zealand pottery brand, Crown

Lynn. The pair has developed a new range of Crown Lynn tea-

towels, cushions and cards depicting three of the company‟s most

famous images – the swan, the New Zealand Railways cup and the

Ernie Shufflebottom-designed hand-potted vase. For Boelee, it is

the perfect extension of his use of the images in his own paintings

and a continuation of his passion for “the first New Zealand factory

company to step beyond the humdrum” and make what has

become a highly collectible product. Boelee owns the former Crown

Lynn New Zealand trademark as a limited liability and likens its

discovery to “finding the very best vase in a junk shop for next-to-

nothing.”

“Back in the early 1990s I was working in the New Zealand

Companies Office as a compliance clerk. My job was to strike

companies off the register when they had ceased trading. Company

closures were notified in the New Zealand Gazette and that‟s where

I saw the Crown Lynn Potteries Ltd name listed. Robyne and I had

been collection Post-War ceramics since the early eighties so it was

all part of a continuum. I applied for their trademark - Crown Lynn

New Zealand – incorporated the name as a limited liability

company in 1993. A few years later I also incorporated a „new‟

Crown Lynn Potteries Limited that I have since sold, but we still

own Crown Lynn New Zealand Limited he says. He has since

exhibited a number of painting series featuring Crown Lynn imagery

and the latest – a suite of lithographs - will show at Papergraphica

in Christchurch in November. “Crown Lynn had a very egalitarian

approach and that‟s what I liked most when I arrived in New

Zealand from Holland in 1963. Many of the products veered

towards the kitsch but they also have a simple formality that has

endured and many New Zealanders now recognise that. It was

made in New Zealand and not much of that quality was back then.

The tea-towels and cushions continue that philosophy – they‟re a

way for people to own an affordable piece of the Crown Lynn

brand.” Screen printed on cotton in cobalt blue and white, the tea-

towels feature the Crown Lynn logo and are available in galleries

and design stores from Auckland to Invercargill.

PUG DESIGN STORE

Affordable paintings of comic book heroines

Lady Snowblood and Modesty Blaise

were some of my contributions

Here are the Railway Cup Tapestries that I wove in collaboration

with Rudolf Boelee back in 2004 or thereabouts. Rudolph and I

chose the colours together. He gave me a black and white drawing

of the Railway Cup and I used that as the cartoon for the work.

They are hanging in the stairwell of my studio in the Arts Centre of

Christchurch. Seeing Rudolf’s posting this morning of his Railway

Cup screen prints inspired me to post these images of the

tapestries

Marilyn Rae-Menzies

Sold to a private collector in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, early 2013

DISTURBANCE

IN THE

GALLERY

End of Part 2