Congress succeeded in mediocrity

(Reviewed by Roger Lawrence)

Arts Congress this year must be ranked as a success, but it was successful only in terms of its mediocrity.

When invited speakers generally say exactly what they are expected to say, and what the majority of those in attendance want them to say, a congress cannot avoid being a resounding success.

What, if anything, came out of Arts Congress this year? Certainly it enabled some people to gain a wider appreciation of what is going on in contemporary art, but for the most part nothing very new or very controversial emerged.

In any case here is a brief summary of what happened at Arts Congress.

On Thursday evening Richard Campion addressed the faithful on drama. He was suave, witty, urbane, polished and most disappointing.

He dealt in plaitiudes such as "anyone with talent in this country is mad to stay here". Discussion centred around the development of artistic appreciation against the background of New Zealand's fish and chip culture.

Mr. Campion suggested that the new wave of appreciation of the arts must begin in the schools; art should be placed on an equal basis with sport. Too many schools, he said, cram "culture" into the students.

The emphasis should be on guiding the students towards a higher appreciation of art and opening their eyes to all the possibilities, a natural rejection is put up by the student who is forced into anything.

Mr. Campion agreed with a floor speaker that the pool of acting talent in New Zealand is small, and as such most producers and directors are obliged to interpret parts for the actors.

In fact, it should be the actor who is giving his interpretation of a part, and general guidance only should be offered by the producer.

Friday morning certainly offered the highlight of the Congress in the form of reading by Sam Hunt and Rhys Pasley of their respective works and at times heated debate on the approach one should be taking to writing poetry.

Sam Hunt's poems were generally well received. He is basically a country poet who deals in direct images, i.e., he looks at something, sees something in it, and writes about it.

Rhys Pasley, on the other hand, is a "mind" poet. He develops a theme from his thoughts and creates images from the thoughts.

His poems are not really designed to be read aloud. One obviously needs to spend some time reading them.

Sam Hunt designs his poems to be sung or spoken.

Rhys came out with some very questionable statements on poetry. He submitted that people throughout the world would appreciate his indirect imagery far more than they would the poems of what he termed "The New Zealand School of Poetry".

He was unable to define what this school was; but one gathered that he was referring to the James K. Baxter/Sam Hunt style.

He also slated that communication was the essence of poetry. Any person, he said, who writes poems and then lucks them away in a bottom drawer is like a person who masturbates.

In the writer's opinion, this is arrant nonsense. There are surely two levels involved. The first, and most important, is actually writing a poem. This is the creative element.

The second is the communication element, where a poet feels the desire or the confidence to publish his works. There is no point in foisting poetry on the public until such time as the poet feels his work is ready for publication.

The climax of the morning was the reading by Sam Hunt of a poem by James K. Baxter called "Letter to Sam Hunt".

The audience was completely carried away by this work and indeed the Congress was officially closed by a second reading.

It is hoped to obtain this poem in its entirety for printing in a later issue.

On Saturday morning Gordon Burt gave an informed talk on "new music", as opposed to "modern music", which, he said, dates from the seventeenth century.

He objected to the fact that most people are hidebound in their taste in music by the conditioning they receive from schools and from their parent's tastes. Children should be taught to know no limits in the structure of music, he said.

It is impossible and absurd for anyone to define what music is or should be. "Music is music is music" was his definition.

Mr. Burt gave us an exciting vision of an ultimate fusion of artistic creativity and appreciation. He said that he sought to teach children to move from listening to unintended sounds to something like feeling their desks and writing music from what they feel. From this it is a small step to the use of mime, and so on.