guest gatherer : ROUTINE INVESTIGATIONS.

January 18, 2010
guestgatherer

Nothing is New welcomes, ROUTINE INVESTIGATIONS
featured in the ongoing series — guest gatherer.

Routine Investigations is Brock Shorno— an artist whose practice includes video and performance. Routine Investigations exhibits images of sub cultures, natures, celebrities and overall histories of the world. Brock is a thorough researcher, careful to explain and examine his finds before he presents them to the world. As guest gatherer, Brock shares the work of a New Zealand solider during World War II — “War Time Drawings” John Pine Snadden.

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Words from Brock — Snadden was an officer attached to an artillery regiment. His drawings are mostly landscapes and still lifes which indicate that he was not an appointed war artist but was working during his spare time. The work seems to come from a series of sketchbooks and the dates and locations follow the course of New Zealand’s involvement in the war. Some of the captions show that he was involved in major battles (Crete, Tel El Eisa, Cassino) while others date from before his deployment (Romden, Pluckley). Other sources reveal that Snadden was a poet, that he worked as an advertising executive after the war. and that he died in 1999.

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via New Zealand National Collection of War Art
The National Collection of War Art is part of the Archive of New Zealand and is composed of about 1500 works. Most of the pieces depict WWI and WWII, and the collection includes commissioned pieces as well as donations and other acquisitions.