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'The Aesthetics of Dispersal' was a phrase coined by Photography writer Peter Ireland, when describing some of Peter Peryer's work. Peryer himself says it is not the objects and their randomness that is of interest to him, rather the spaces in between them.
It is really the spaces that are important in this photo, but not for the reasons you may think.
These balloons were released at the end of the funeral service for Phillip McKenzie. The balloons are the same colour as his car, which he was rebuilding at the time of his death, 10 days ago.
The spaces left by this 20 year old are considerable. His family and his partner will be the first, then his workmates, then those in the Volunteer Fire Brigade, to which he was dedicated. And all the clubs he was in, gun club, bike club, and so on.
But also the community at large, as Phillip was a popular and affable young man.
The pattern of these balloons is random. Each tracks it's own way. One can not predict when or where they will end up.
Like us.
I have written many times here that we live in a very talented community. Recently, I was invited to the opening of an exhibition by artist and dress maker Sharon Gilchrist. We have known Sharon and Ken for many years, in fact Sharon made our Teresa's formal dress. But what I did not know what just how good an artist she is. The exhibition contained lots of very original work, in many different mediums.
In the above photo, Ken and Sharon explain one of the works not for sale. It is their family history. And because I know them, I could see it.
I thought the most outstanding painting was one of a dandelion seed head, which had been half blown away. The attention to detail was outstanding. But it was for sale as part of a set, and we have nowhere left here to hang a set.
Brian Patrick, the Director of Central Stories, told me today the exhibition had been very well attended.
I am not surprised.
Over the last few weeks when I get time I have been following the Dunstan High School First Fifteen Rugby team. Mostly I use an old and fairly slow 70 - 200mm lens, which when on the D300 seems to be about a 100 - 280mm. I overcome the slowness by upping the ASA, one of the main advantages of the digital era.
Anyway, during a quite exciting match against Gore High School, I was forced to share the touch line with some quite vocal Gore High supporters. It is fair to say that I am not one to say or shout much from the sideline, but these guys seem to have no problem telling the Ref what to do in quite loud voices. I have several friends who regularly referee rugby games, and they tell me that for the most part they do not hear most of the 'stuff' from the sideline. But as can be seen in the above photo, referees sometimes do hear what is said. I am not sure what the rules are, but I am sure this ref did. He blew his whistle and walked off the field of play, and 'consulted' this supporter in no uncertain terms. I did not hear what was being said, but what ever was said, worked, and the stream of quite foul language stopped.
I know that in the Auckland area there has been a concerted effort to 'educate' the spectators on the side lines of school boy rugby games. I hope we do not have to do the same thing here.
By the way, Gore High School won the game, so it was hard to see the point of all the abuse.
The first blog I ever followed was written by one Dan Steinberg. He was at the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, and wrote several times a day on his adventures around various events. From memory, he worked for the Washington Post. Anyway, one of the teams he met and took an interest in was the New Zealand Curling team, ably lead by a Central Otago curler, Sean Becker.
I found this blog by Googling the team as I was a bit brassed off with the coverage we were getting on TV here, as they would leave the game halfway through and go and show other events, most of which had no New Zealanders competing at all.
Steinberg fancied himself as a bit of an expert on cheese, and when he heard that New Zealand was awash with cheese, took the interest.
When the curling team returned to New Zealand, a concerted effort was made to build a purpose built rink, so they could practice all the year round. The argument of where to put it was short, and it finished up being built at Naseby, Central Otago, as the climate there meant it could be run relatively cheaply. In a very short time the funds were raised and it is up and running, and a very good rink it is too.
I went there with a bus load from Alexandra, almost an hours drive. The above photo of Allan Fleury about to let his stone go is not that great, but it is much better than my curling.
One of the events taking place in this town during Easter is a massive rabbit shoot. Organised by the Alexandra Lions Club, this event has been going for 10 years or so, and is very well supported. Teams of 12 come from all over the country to shoot as many rabbits as they can in a 24 hour period. Each team must stick to the block of land allocated to them, and some blocks have more rabbits than others.
Rabbits were introduced here in the late 1800's, and have cost this country millions of dollars since.
The winning team, pictured above, shot over 2,000 rabbits in the 24 hours. The hardest part, says one of them, was picking them up.
