Mahalski - His life and works

Environmental

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 23:13:13 GMT

Work by Bruce Mahalski, John Badcock, Lex Benson-Cooper and Debra Britten.

Opening between 5.30 – 7.30 on Thursday, the 29th of July, 2010.

Show runs between July 30th and August 15th, 2010.

I started collecting shells, fossils and bones when I was very young. My parents were both scientists who had collections of their own and we travelled quite a bit overseas so there were always opportunities to pick up interesting stuff. Once my mum even tried to send a weaver bird’s nest to New Zealand when we were on holiday in Africa but customs weren’t too keen on letting it into the country! Most of my collection I found myself on beaches or roadsides. Some people might consider it ghoulish to collect bits of dead animals but to me it isn’t about death – it’s about life. Like a sympathetic magician I hope that by possessing an animals bone a little bit of its life force will rub off on me. It’s also a tribute – a form of recycling – a lot of these things are just too good to leave lying around and I have to take them home.

Some of the artists collection

For a long time I didn’t think about using any part of my collection as raw materials for my art practice. I put the best of my pieces in display cabinets and keep the rest in boxes. The first time I used some of my bones in making an object was for the show – Full Spectrum Dominance – at the Mary Newton Gallery in Wellington in 2002. A large part of the show was a collection of $2 Shop toy guns which I had tried to strip of their negative associations by instilling them with new beauty and life. One of these was Bone Gun#1 - a toy M16 rifle completely covered in bones. It was such a joy to that I soon made another – Bone Gun#2 (see below).

Bone Gun #2

20 x 70cm

Bones attached to a toy gun

(Comes in purpose built metal case-not shown here)

2007/8

‘Environmental’ will be the first time this piece has been exhibited. It comes in a rusted sheet metal case (not shown) especially made for it by local artist and stone man – Carl “Carlucci’ Gifford.

When my Wellington art dealer, Ron Eskamp told me he was planning a a show with an environmental theme I suggested making a series of work that began where the Bone Guns left off. Happily Ron was quick to approve of the concept. I could have continued to predicate my bone works on military apparatus but I didn’t want to repeat myself any more than necessary. For some time I could not think what to make out of bones and then I realized that I didn’t need to make anything at all. I could just layer bone on bone to achieve interesting textural effects. I immediately ramped up my bone collecting efforts and put the word out among my friends to grab any interesting specimens they saw.

Lintel #1

(to be hung over the top of a door frame)

13 x 1050cm

Layered bone and shells on Matai plank

2010

This was the first piece I made specifically for this show. I didn’t originally intend to make a lintel or indeed to make anything symmetrical. I was only planning to layer bone on bone as in the detail pictures below. However the piece soon took on ‘a life of its own’ and acquired a Viking/Pacific look I had not anticipated. It contains sixteen skulls including those of a sheep, a hawk, a duck, a hedgehog, a penguin and a Chatham Island Weka and many other bones including those of moa, seal, cat and wallaby. The bones are attached to a plank of 150 year old Matai timber (as are many of the other pieces) which I picked up from a skip opposite my old studio in Abel Smith Street. An old colonial cottage was having (an illegal) refit and a lot of good stuff had been dumped including two very old mummified cats which I also grabbed for some future use.

Detail picture of Lintel #1 Traditional lintel at artist’s home.

Skull Rack #1

28 x 1000cm

Three sheep skulls attached to Matai Planks using metal rods

2010

Skull Rack #1 is inspired by the skull racks of Papua New Guinea where the skulls of dead foes and relatives are preserved in the men’s houses in racks or shelves. Despite my comments about the life affirming nature of bones I do have to admit to also seeing a lot of beauty in decay. The top skull is an amazing example. Despite the fact that it is from a ‘common’ animal I think it is one of the most amazing skulls I have ever seen. I was lucky enough to be given it on a recent trip to Waiheke Island by Helen Aldridge who also gave me some other excellent bits and pieces including a mummified kingfisher. The skulls float out 12 cm from their wooden base on thin metal rods.

Bird Man #1

15 x 1180cm

Bird Bones attached to plank of Ponderosa Pine

2010

I had finished nearly all of the work when I found a box of albatross or mollymawk bones I had forgotten about in the attic. It’s hard to tell an albatross form a mollymawk – particularly when its not in exactly tip-top condition! It was the day I was going to see Ron at the Exhibitions Gallery show him photos of the work for the show. I decided it’d be nice to have one more work and quickly laid out some of the bones on a plank of ponderosa pine and took a photo. Ron decided it was his favorite so I decided I’d better actually put it together for real. As well as duplicating parts of bird/human anatomy the piece also references the ‘cult hooks’ of Papua New Guinea and the bird man culture of Easter Island (Te Pito No Te Henua).

Cult Hook #1

30 x 1200cm

Bones,shells and fossils attached to a framework of Ponderosa Pine

2010

This piece is the largest and most dynamic of the series and contains the bones of many large animals including those of pig, seal, dog, dolphin,human, sheep and albatross (or mollymawk) – as well as local fossils and sea shells. Attached to a background of Ponderosa pine using glue and rods it evokes the cult hooks found in the men’s houses of Papua New Guinea. A hook at the top connects the sculpture to the house’s rafters and another at the bottom is used to hang equipment and offerings to local spirits’. These ceremonial hooks influenced the success of war, hunting and garden cultivation, as well as helping to ward off disease.

Whale Rope

24 x 1015cm

Length of rope emerging from a piece of old table –top

2010

I have a long association with the Island Bay Marine Education Centre and while I was there one day Marco Zeeman showed me a length of rope which had been brought along by two local conservationists, Haydon & Suzanne Miller. Apparently it was part of a seven metre long length of rope they had recovered from the throat of a dead female blue whale that washed ashore in Golden Bay in 2009. It is speculated that it may even had caused the death of the whale. The piece of rope disappears through a hole into a plank from an old hardwood table top. By ‘turning the rope into art’ I hope to spread the sad message that the ocean is simply drowning in our crap and its high time we all cleaned up our acts. If this piece does sell I intend to donate my part of the proceeds to some of the main anti-whaling groups.

Three Heads (Triptych)

Head#1

80 x 80cm

2008 – 2010

Gloss/Acrylic Paint/Sand

This is one of three heads that make a vertical triptych. I actually started painting these heads a couple of years back when I intended to do a series of works based on drawings that I had done when I was five. My mother had just found the old scrapbook containing the drawings and I thought they were more lively than anything I had done since. I am pretty sure the original drawing was inspired by a carving which I saw on a school trip to Otago Museum. I never completed the series because I had trouble transforming the drawings into paintings and for a while I abandoned the heads when I had trouble resolving the backgrounds. My recent interest in building up layers of texture enabled me to find a way to contrast the hard gloss of the faces with the softer colors in the background and I decided to finish the triptych in time for the current show.

Chatham Islands Weka

50 x 70cm

Limited edition screen-print by the artist on 350gsm paper(10 prints)

2010

A five colour screen-print on paper based on two photos taken on a trip to the Chatham Islands in 2008. I took the photo of the weka in the foreground but my friend Stephen Robinson took the background picture of the trees. We were out by the old airport near the bush containing the most famous dendraglyphs (carvings on living trees) and the quality of the light was so intense the scene is forever burned in my brain! Steve and I ran around taking photos like crazy but I lost most of mine when I loaded the stick from my new digital camera into the computer instead of routing the pictures through the camera. No two prints in the edition of ten are exactly the same with slightly different tones and offsets across the edition in keeping with my new ‘more painterly’ screen-printing style.

Environmental – Exhibitions Gallery – Wellington – July 29th – August 15th - 2010

www.exhibitionsgallery.co.nz

www.mahalski.com

Studio Pictures

MAGIC AND DESIRE (2000)WINNER!(2001)

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:53:59 GMT

THE STORY OF A NEW ZEALAND CARGO CULT

This exhibition was first shown at the Artstation Gallery in Auckland in September - 2000.

An second version of the show – with added works and concepts – was shown at Enjoy Gallery in Wellington in November of 2001.

Cargo cults are real but not all of the information below is true.

Historical Background

A cult is a system of religious worship especially as expressed in ritual and the word ‘cargo’ is pidgin English for Western material goods. Cargo Cults are typically to be found on Melanesian Islands such as Papua New Guinea and the New Hebrides. The majority of these cults emerged around the end of World War Two when previously isolated islands became staging posts in the war against the Japanese. Suddenly the islanders were exposed to all the wealth of the West - canned foods, Coca-Cola, chocolate, cars and planes. Just when they were starting to get used to this new bounty it disappeared as quickly as it had arrived and the islanders were left wondering what they could do to make it come back. The cults emerged as different groups and tribes tried to find a solution. Many of the cultists believed that the visitors had obtained their wealth through magic or the Christian religion. As the first people to show an interest in Pacific populations were often missionaries this belief was perhaps not unreasonable. If the cultists could only unlock the secrets of the Bible the wealth of the whites would be theirs. Other cults, some disappointed that their newfound Christianity had not bought the material dividends they were looking for, rejected this religion and the administration systems imposed on them by the foreigners. They hoped that a return to traditional lifestyles and beliefs would encourage their ancestors to intercede with the Cargo God, or deliver the goods in some way themselves. Often the cults had a messiah or a prophet - frequently a local person - but sometimes an ancestor or spirit. Naturally these positions of power were sometimes exploited and some cults were little more than snow jobs in which would-be wealth seekers were parted from what little cash or possessions they had.

“Playing the dishes”, cargo cultists in Marambanja (in New Guinea) “make money” by pouring coins back and forth between bowls.

Occasionally a stash of money is ‘found’ nearby reinforcing members’ beliefs in the efficacy of their efforts. Government officials try to

discourage such activities since cult members often abandon normal occupations in their mystic strivings after cargo.

(Photo – National Geographic Magazine)

No matter what their other beliefs all of the cults were concerned with achieving material wealth in this life rather than spiritual salvation in the next. In order to realize this goal the cult members used a variety of ritual and paraphernalia. In particular three dimensional models were made of desired goods and products and wharves, airstrips and warehouses were built to facilitate their arrival.

The Cults Spread West

In the late eighties and early nineties evidence emerged that a new wave of cargo cults had begun to crop up in the West, particularly in America where the word ‘cargo’ was already synonymous with the gaudy gold jewelry worn by gangsters and pop-stars.

A Years worth of Cigarettes ( joined together in groups of four) – My partner really smoked all these in a year – in 2000 it cost her around $2700.

The United States once had a reputation as a country where anyone with a bit of luck or brains could turn a few dollars into millions. But increases in population and new technology coupled with a lifting of trade restrictions and drops in wages and welfare payments had turned the “American Dream’ into a nightmare for many. Gambling quickly replaced religion as the opium of the people and gigantic state run lotteries spent millions convincing consumers that wealth and comfort were only a ticket away. It became common to see people blowing their entire week’s welfare payment on Lotto tickets or feeding it into omnipresent slot machines. Luck itself became a marketable commodity. and the big lottery winners came to be treated like saints. A lock of their hair, a piece of their clothing, any of their ‘relics’ became precious and they could earn new millions by selling charms and advice to would-be winners. Advertisements for psychics, fortune-tellers and astrologers filled the papers, the television and the Internet. In this way a ravening desire for wealth led to the formation of the Western cargo cults with all their attendant rituals and figures of worship.

1) ‘You can’t eat it” - $1000 worth of shredded United States currency made into very thick paper and a number high

denomination bills and coins from countries whose economies had collapsed.

2) ‘Car made of Bus-tickets’ – a one sixteenth scale model of a Mark Four Zephyr Zodiac made with almost $700

worth of used Wellington Stagecoach bus-tickets and glue.

3) ‘Television/Video and Remote Control ‘– made actual size – plywood and paint.

As the belief in Christianity faltered in the West the cults gained ground. If there was no such thing as an afterlife it made a lot more sense to look after yourself in the here and the now. Some cults were undoubtedly deceitful with unscrupulous leaders preying on credulous followers but the majority seemed to be motivated by genuine beliefs. Strange shrines popped up in people’s houses as the poor and the dispossessed used different recipes of magic and religion to try and achieve the wealth that they so passionately believed they needed and desired.

‘A Briefcase full of Lotto Tickets’- approximately $65,000 worth of losing Lotto Tickets (Lotto tickets/Briefcase/The mobile phone

is a piece of wood with a photocopy stuck onto it.

The New Zealand Cargo Cults

So it was that Cargo Cults began to establish themselves all over the States, as well as in England, Europe and Australia. In about 1992 it became obvious that a cult had started in New Zealand. With their clothing covered in dollar signs and their pamphlets promising instant wealth the First Secular Church of the Almighty Dollar quickly attracted a following of the poor and the desperate as they canvassed the slums of South Auckland. Other cults rapidly sprang up in Hamilton, Gisborne, Palmerston North and Christchurch. Some were affiliated with groups overseas but most had a distinctly local flavor.

To begin with most cult members were from the Pacific Island community but it was not long before large numbers of Maori and Europeans were also involved. Some groups were more organized than others with meeting halls and a regular sequence of rituals while others placed their emphasis on private systems of worship and belief. It is now estimated that there are some 14 different cargo cults spread throughout the country with some 30,000 members.

The collection of objects in this exhibition primarily come from two groups - Hamilton based, ‘Manna from Heaven’ - and Palmerston North’s - ‘Disciples of Fortune’. Although the artifacts originate from a number of sources they are displayed as if in the bedroom of a typical cult member. Some of the objects, e.g. the ‘Reliquary Box’ containing the Hair, Finger-Nails and Navel Fluff of a Genuine First Division Lotto Winner (not shown here) have a magical significance and are used in rituals where attempts are made to transfer the Winner’s ‘lucky’ essence from the object itself to the assembled members themselves. Many of the actual procedures are still very secret and not well documented. For the magic to work the objects have to be authentic and as far as we are aware each object in this exhibition is made of exactly what it purports to be.

While it is true that the cults seem to be relatively harmless in themselves the conditions of poverty and helplessness which lead to their formation are a definite cause for concern. Unless a more egalitarian society soon evolves it seems clear that the cults will continue to expand as increasing numbers of people look for mystical solutions to provide the material success that so many of us crave today.

‘The Room of a Typical Cult Member’ – Enjoy Gallery – Wellington 2001.

An Interview with Bryce Kowalski in ‘Critic’ – Issue July 20, 1988-Page 10

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 02:25:47 GMT

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LOST IN PARADISE – Sheep Photos – The Back-story

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:10:18 GMT

‘LOST IN PARADISE’ – is an exhibition featuring the work of Bruce Mahalski, Kevin Dunkley and Miranda Woolett at the Exhibitions Gallery on the corner of Featherston and Brandon Streets in Wellington. The exhibition runs between the 20th of August and the 5th of September,2009 with the opening on Thursday the 20th between 5-7pm.

I always think art is more interesting if you know a bit about what you are looking at. So here’s a bit of information about the sheep-head series ( AKA ‘Planet of the Sheeps’) – a body of work which I propose to continue until I have enough for a book. Most of the photos were taken of friends around Wellington in 2009 using three different 35ml cameras and negative black and white film.

The Happy Couple – Carey Hibbert and Catherine Povey - 2006.

In 1996 Te Papa held a contest to promote an exhibition of photos by the internationally renowned Magnum Group of Photographers. The competition brief was to produce a photo that was quintessentially New Zealand and if there is one thing that has always screamed New Zealand to me - its sheep (sorry to everything else).

I already had the sheep masks (see www.mahalski.com – Current Exhibitions - ‘News’ section – first ‘Lost in Paradise’ entry) and one Sunday I took them to my friends’ Carey and Catherine’s place to try and shoot the perfect kiwi picture of them in front of their old state house. The clothes they were wearing were perfect but the house itself just didn't work as a back-drop. We went for a walk with the masks and the camera and literally just around the corner we stumbled across the most archetypical state house in the country! I took a few picture (in colour) and entered the best one in the competition. I can’t say that it won (although it was a finalist). That honor –of course -went to a picture of a cabbage tree or a nikau palm – I forget which.

Ten years later- in 2006 – I was organizing an exhibition at Toi Poneke(the Wellington Arts centre) with another artist- Stefano TeVega and we needed a picture to put on the invites and the poster. After a failed attempt to take pictures of ourselves dressed as boxers I decided to try and re-take the Sheep/Statehouse picture again but this time in black and white. Once again I went round to Catherine and Carey’s place and persuaded them to put on the masks. Luckily they still had the same clothes even if the intervening decade had seen them ‘shrink’ a little bit and the photos we took turned out well.

Stefano and I used one for the posters for the show and people seemed to like it. It was fun taking photos using the sheep heads – they made almost any picture look provocative and interesting - so it sounded like a good idea when dealer Ron Eskamp suggested I do a few more.

Mother and son – Lisa and Tom on the farm – 2009

The picture of Lisa and her son, Tom in front of a flock of sheep was the next ‘Sheep-head’ picture I took in the series. My original idea was to have a couple of young women wearing the masks and surrounded by a flock of sheep. I rang my friend,Christine, and she put me in touch with Lisa , and her husband, Mike, who help run a farm in the lower North Island. Mike had already got quite a large flock penned up for dosing when I got there and a number of us went out to the pens with the masks and the cameras. I took a whole film of Lisa and Christine’s daughter,Amber, standing in the middle of the flock but it just wasn't looking the way I wanted it. We’d already let young Tom have a play with the mask and he looked pretty good in it so I took another film of him and his mother posing with the flock behind them. These pictures were a lot more successful. I particularly like the look of the sheep. Some of them are even looking at the camera. Normally when you point a camera at a sheep it automatically turns its back on you (try it sometime) but I’d already taken a lot of photos by this time and I think the flock were starting to relax. I’m really pleased with the picture below of just Tom and the flock and the nice round hill behind him.

‘Farm Boy’ – Tom on the farm – 2009.

‘Young Mother’ – Justine King – Wellington – 2009

Years earlier I’d taken some pictures of my pregnant partner wearing one of the masks but she refused to let me show them to anyone. Naked people always looked great wearing the masks – like Egyptian Gods or something out of ‘The Magus’ by John Fowles. My friend Justine was really pregnant with her first baby and I knew she would be up for a picture. She’s one of the most uninhibited people I know and a great photographer herself.

I was trying to shoot all couples for the series so at first I included Justy’s partner Tristan, in the pictures. Like most self-conscious guys he refused to get his clothes off but the contrast of the naked and clothed sheep-head people looked quite good. However I was having trouble with the light. The camera I had been using for years had just broken down and I was using an old Nikon I’d borrowed off my mother. It was giving me some really funny exposure readings ( I found out later it was broken too) and many of the photos turned out under or over-exposed. I couldn't take the pictures again because Justine wasn't pregnant anymore (having given birth to Rafaella by then). At first I disregarded this picture because I thought the subject was too small but the more I looked at it the more I liked the way the figure was standing on the edge of the darkness with a luminous glow around it. After bit of Photoshop tweaking by long-time collaborator Diane Davis I thought it was good enough to include in the series.

‘Circus Sheep’ – Tom Beauchamp and Vaune Mason –

Wellington - 2009

My original idea for this picture was to have Tom hanging upside down with Vaune standing beside him. Tom is the main man behind Fuse Circus - a Wellington circus company that does shows around the country. They also teach people how to do acrobatics/trapeze acts/ hula hooping /you-name-it ( www.fusecircus.co.nz)."

Vaune is also involved with Fuse and she is well known in Wellington as a talented jeweler/artist/performer and all-round arts polymath. The photos I took of Tom hanging off the trapeze with Vaune beside him were OK but it was easier to get the look I wanted when they lay down on the floor together. I got quite a few nice shots from this series including a colour one of Vaune with her arms held out by her side like an Asian dancer. It looked so cool I got her to repeat the same pose in my studio a couple of weeks later where I shot it in black and white (see below).

‘Goddess’ – Vaune Mason – Wellington – 2009

‘Rocky Shore Sheep’– Wellington’s South Coast - 2009

It was one of those winter afternoons when the light around Wellington’s South Coast was just awesome. I went out to my favorite beach just around from Moa Point with the masks and took a lot of pictures. It was hard to choose just one because several of them tuned out really well. This one stood out because of the lovely pool of light on the heads and the rocks in the foreground and the calm dark detail behind them. It’s the only picture with no people in it.

‘Carlucci Sheep’ - Carl and Catherine – Carlucci-land - 2009

Like a lot of people I had been driving past Carl and Catherine’s place in Ohiro Valley with a growing sense of amazement at the development of their sculpture park - Carlucci –land (carlucciland.co.nz). Their large property seemed to sprout huge stone and metal sculptures over night. One morning I went by and there was a Fiat Bambina ten meters off the ground on giant legs like a spider. How did they do it and did Carl never sleep? One day I went round and introduced myself and suggested we do a sheep photo. Spiders are one of Carl’s recurring themes and I particularly liked the big one he had in his back-yard.

I took some photos of Carl and Catherine standing in front of the spider but this was the shoot when I found out my camera really was broken and none of the pictures turned out too well. I had to borrow another camera – the third I’d used so far on this series - and we tried again a couple of weeks later. This time their cat , Max, was also keen to get in the picture and the photos turned out a lot better. Apparently the large ball that makes up the body of the spider is some sort of cooling or lubricating component from a hydroelectric dam.

‘Sauron and Sheep’ – Marina, Steve and Al – Underground Arts – Wellington – 2009

This was the most difficult picture to take. In fact I tried three times to get it right!

Steve Maddock is the director of New Zealand’s only Tattoo Museum (www.tat2.co.nz) and Underground Arts Tattoo Studio in Wellington. The Museum in Wigan Street in Wellington is also home to part of Steve’s impressive Lord of the Rings collection including the spectacular Sauron Mask in the photo.

The recent movies have connected New Zealand very firmly with the Lord of the Rings franchise and so it seemed pretty obvious to take a picture connecting LOR with New Zealand’s other big export identity – sheep (sorry everything else again).

I arranged to take the photos with Steve wearing the Sauron mask but we needed two other people to wear the sheep masks. We had one body, in the form of Steve’s business partner and well-known tattoo artist, Al Musson, but we needed another. Luckily at that very moment a couple arrived to visit the museum. I asked them if one of them would don a mask for a photo and Marina, a visitor from Italy, kindly agreed to do so.

When I looked at the pictures they were fine but the sign on the wall behind them was too distracting and the masks did not stand out as well as they might. I took the pictures again with Steve wearing the Sauron mask and two other people under the masks but once again my camera refused to function properly and the pictures were under-exposed.

I did them a third time (with the third camera)but on this occasion I couldn’t get the composition right. I should perhaps mention that taking the photos was made more difficult by the fact that Steve expected me to take the pictures extremely quickly - “You’ve got one minute!” - and just wasn’t interested any pathetic excuses on my part.

I really wanted a Sauron and Sheep picture for the show. I just didn’t want to give up but I was too scared to ask Steve to put a mask on again. I decided to ask my my Photoshop Wizard friend, Diane, if she could have a go at lightening the background on one of the first pictures I’d taken. I think she did a damn fine job and the image finally looks the way I hoped it might.

‘Lambton Lambs’ - Katherine Field and Jonno Huntington - Lambton Quay – Wellington 2009

This was the last photo I took the current series. I had been wanting to take a couple wearing office-type clothing in the centre of Wellington for some time but most of the people I know are bohemian types with little in the way of ‘’straight’ clothing. Finally I managed to talk Katherine Field – administrator at Toi Poneke(Wellington Arts Centre) – where I have my studio - into doing the photo. She then had to convince her boy-friend, bar –owner, Jonno Huntington.

One Sunday not too long ago we took a series of pictures in the CBD and I think the picture above came out the best. I had a bit of trouble with the new camera in the early shots but by the time we arrived in front of the Prudential building I had it sorted. Jonno looks like a sheepish Clarke Kent on his way to find a phone booth while Katherine plays the role of sultry secretary in the background. I like the way it’s got the words – Lambton Quay in the picture. It always remind of Lamingtons- those small strawberry filled sponge-cakes that are so popular in the provinces.

‘ Lotto Sheep’ – Justin – Wellington – 1999.

This photo was not taken at the same time as the rest of the series. I took it for an exhibition called ‘Money and Desire’ which was held in Auckland in 1999 but I never actually used it for anything at the time.

The show purported to be collection of artifacts from a cargo cult that had recently started in New Zealand and that people were using all sorts of magic and ritual to try and achieve instant wealth. I already had some work in the show about Lotto and so I was ecstatic when someone I had a vague connection with actually won First Division. Justin was the eighteen year old son of my ex-partners new partner and he had taken out the Big One with his first ticket. What made this ticket even more cool was that he had watched the draw live and circled each number as it came up . Normally you’d circle the number in every row that it appeared but Justin just followed the one line with his circles getting more and more scribbled as his numbers all came up. This is a photo-copy of the ticket – you have to give them the real one – and they give you a copy. I used Justin’s win in several pieces for the show. My favorite was a decorated reliquary box which held three golden bottles – one contained his hair, another his nail clippings and the final one some fluff from his belly-button.

Thanks very much to all those who took part in the show! And to Ron at the Exhibitions Gallery, Diane Davis, Chris at Framer vs Framer , David White, Rogan Spears, Pauline Mahalski, Photospace and all the staff at Wellington Photographic Supplies.

www.mahalski.com

The very first sheep head photo.

Used on the cover for the single - ‘Uptown Sheep/Dunedin Sound on 45’ (Flying Nun records) 1985

Photo by Miffy Rees Model = Bruce Mahalski

LOST IN PARADISE - WHY THE SHEEP MASKS?

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 02:46:57 GMT

Lost in Paradise Work by Bruce Mahalski, Kevin Dunkley and Miranda Woolett. The Exhibitions Gallery - 154 Featherston Street, Wellington. The exhibtion runs between the 20 August and the 12th of September. Come to the opening on Thursday the 20th of August 5-7pm.More...