Still life

Cheryl Bernstein points out the ironies in the Environment Court's decision on the Cass landscape.

She writes:

In making his decision not to allow irrigation at Cass, the Environment Commissioner, Robert Nixon, noted that the proposal would not serve to change the actual landscape painted by Rita Angus. But he agreed that the painting had "powerful symbolism", and that the proposed land-use associated with irrigation could have a significant adverse visual impact on views from State Highway 73, around the area of the painting. Nixon cited the high landscape values of the area -- variously shared, historic and recognised "significant natural science, aesthetic, and Tangata Whenua landscape values" -- and declined the application to industrialise the landscape.

Art history 1: industrial irrigators 0, you might think. A rare decision. But it might equally be recognised that there is something of an irony to this. One of Angus's purposes in painting the burned-off vistas at Cass was, like many of the more progressive artists of her generation, to depict the effects of modernity and economic progress on the landscape. Speed, transportation, telecommunications, industry: all are present in Angus's modernist depiction of Cass. Her inclusion of telegraph poles and railway tracks reveals a landscape in the process of being altered -- made modern -- by its inhabitants.

... In citing Angus's painting as a factor in the decision not to allow industrial-scale irrigation in the Cass landscape, there is clearly a gentle irony in a work of art concerned with the effects of modernity stalling contemporary economic "progress".

It is too easy to veto others' uses of their own property; too many want to turn the country into a still life.

Maybe there was more merit to @LaraJeffery's tongue-in-cheek policy proposal than I thought when I first saw it.*

* Lara's tweet at the Australian Libertarian Society's conference this weekend came after discussion of Seasteading, a policy proposal that Australia encourage its elderly to retire at lower cost in the Philippines, discussion of drug legalisation, and frequent rambling interjections by grouchy older attendees. Her proposal consequently managed to touch all the bases.

Package art

The supermarket aisle is a kind of an art gallery. Every product's packaging is designed to be eye-catching; some reach the level of artwork. I love how Warhol's interpretation of the Campbell's Soup Can is now featuring as a version of the Campbell's packaging; if the limited edition were up for sale in New Zealand, I'd be buying it. The packaging can add value directly: it can be beautiful. That adds very real value, no matter what the no-logo types claim.

I've worried about plain packaging pushes on tobacco likely being extended to alcohol. Recall that there's a reasonable case that Inuit print art began because indigenous artists were curious about how the guy who painted the Player's Light packages managed to get the little sailor to look the same on every pack. And alcohol packaging can be rather pretty: variations in bottle style, label images - those are worth keeping.

NBR reports that Beck's has announced a run of bottles here in New Zealand that will feature commissioned NZ art. I've shamelessly scraped their image below, but you should subscribe.

NBR writes (paid, subscribe!) that NZ artist John Reynolds, who created the labels:

...pulled lyrics from record label Arch Hill's extensive song catalogue - featuring artists such as Family Cactus, The Clean and Street Chant - as inspiration to create the 24 multi-layered pieces of artwork. 

The article notes Beck's has been doing this kind of thing since 1987.

How long 'till we see taxpayer-supported propaganda like this directed at alcohol?