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So sad to hear of the death of Carolee Schneemann, the pioneering American performance artist famous for works like Meat Joy and Interior Scroll. I have a story. As a living legend, Schneemann spent a lot of time on the lecture circuit. When she spoke at Auckland Art Gallery in 2000, I was her gopher. She outlined my key task: ‘Robert, five minutes into my lecture I will snap, “Robert, where’s my water?” Then, you will bring to the lectern a large tumbler of neat vodka and apologise. You will say, “Sorry Carolee, here’s your water.”’ Which I did. It was my pleasure, but it was hard to keep a straight face.
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Acquiring a salad at my local Pita Pit, I was shocked to discover how they see me. The beard comes off tomorrow.
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Yes, you may. In April, City Gallery Wellington serves up a double helping of international art, with big shows by Eva Rothschild downstairs and Semiconductor up—stars in alignment!

Rothschild’s show Kosmos features a giant punching bag, a decorated concrete-block barricade, an upholstered play space, a disco-decor fly-screen curtain, and a surveillance video of frisky lads demolishing and rudely repurposing her art. The London-based sculptor is known for her formal wit, her novel materials, and for putting her own spin on the modern-sculpture tradition. The show is timely: while it’s on in Wellington, she’ll be representing Ireland at the 2019 Venice Biennale.

Semiconductor’s awesome video installations make the invisible visible. Collaborating with prestigious science agencies, including NASA, CERN, the Smithsonian, and the Charles Darwin Research Station in the Galapagos Islands, the UK duo—Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt—extend our experience and understanding of the macrocosmic and the microcosmic. Their churning Earthworks installation uses data from real-world volcanoes, glaciers, and earthquakes—including the 2016 Kaikoura quake.

Eva Rothschild: Kosmos, 6 April–28 July 2019; Semiconductor: The Technological Sublime, 23 March–14 July 2019. (And here’s a link to my interview with Rothschild last year.)
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