Artbank: March 26, 2017

Marx, Money and Heavy Metal... Cushla Donaldson's solo exhibition, curated by Ioana Gordon Smith, is on now at Te Uru Waitakere. Titled from a local tourist spot but referencing trickle-down theory, "The Fairy Falls" is a nuanced and visually arresting investigation which seeks to expose the functioning of today’s financial markets.

She suggests for working class politics, environmentalism, feminism and struggles for indigenous self-determination to work together on the Left, an element of romanticism which doesn't elicit nostalgia is needed to exceed the grid-like rigours of the rational/markets. In light of this context, we talk to works such as “Affections,” a portrait of Cliff Curtis barefoot on the red carpet, and “The Great Ngaruawahia Music Festival” a documentary of the time Black Sabbath came to Aotearoa and, of course, the omnipresent grid suspended from the ceiling of the galley.

Janine Eisenaecher has been in town. The Berlin based sound artist presented “Eat Your Enemy #4 I don’t want to want” at Audio Foundation on Saturday. The monologue she presented was delivered to the beat and sounds of dripping coke bottles. It channeled John Cage’s lecture “Composition as Process“ (1958), discussing the invisible work of artists and the need for solidarity and care within a highly competitive field. She discussed her ongoing practice with Theo, and told us how Berlin has come to (re)embrace performance art.

We sound out the line between poetry and music with Rachel, as she plays some tunes PJ Harvey’s “The Wind” and a more recent Laura Marling number.