Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Outer space

Some people can’t help themselves when it comes to collecting. Objects just stick to them like iron filings to magnets. That’s certainly true of a friend of ours Simon Manchester. The first time we visited his apartment was a revelation. There surrounding us was a history of New Zealand ceramics selected with a true curatorial point of view and deep connoisseurial knowledge. Hundreds of objects crowded every flat surface and crammed old display cabinets. 

But wait, as they say on the infomercials, there’s more. On the walls was a comparable history of New Zealand's tourist graphic art and how we have presented ourselves to the world. Now Simon Manchester faces the collectors' dilemma: keep going and be buried under the weight of it all or let some go and…probably buy more. And so, if you are after some remarkable tourist paraphernalia, a range of Marcus King paintings that would have any good abstractionist reach for their revolver or original advertising art work and genre photography, now’s your chance at Dunbar Sloane tonight. 

Lucky for all concerned that one collector at least has come out against physics and realised that space is in fact finite.
Image: Manchester to go.