Tuesday, October 23, 2012

That was the week the Walters was


The winner: Kate Newby might have felt her chances were slipping as judge Mami Kataoka introduced her work as “probably the least eloquent”. Fortunately she went on to add  “it embraces memories of locations” and concluded by announcing Newby the winner.
The MC: Chris Saines went DIY on the introductions, which was a tough break for the Ridge family.
The past: For the first time past winners of the Walters Prize were invited to the dinner and were welcomed with a huge round of applause.
The jury: Having arranged for artists to haul their sorry asses from Europe and the Arctic Circle to attend the Walters Prize dinner, two of the jury (David Cross and Gwynn Porter) didn’t manage to make it over from Australia.
The judge: Mami Kataoka caused a brief will-she-split-the-prize moment when she talked about not liking hierarchies or choosing one artist ahead of another.
The fortune teller: Josie McNaught with great aplomb claimed to know the winner on her lunchtime radio show and Facebook, then she gave a name, and got it wrong.
The media: Next morning when the NZ Herald did announce the results it was in just a para and claimed that Kate Newby was “a strong favourite to win”. Yeah right. The Sunday Star Times ‘reporter’ at least spread bits of the AAG’s press release over eight paras with a pic of Kate Newby, which was nice. Unfortunately he also did a sex change on the judge.
The jury again: claimed (well one of them did anyway) that the AAG refused to let them speak to the media on the who-saw-what issue. Long-nose award for that one?
Image: Kate Newby I'm so ready 2010