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Item Essays on investment in the Chinese art market : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Finance at Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand(Massey University, 2023) Yuan, YueThe growing significance of investing in Chinese painting and calligraphy (hereinafter: Chinese art) has garnered widespread attention from scholars, investors, and collectors. This dissertation comprises three essays that delve into the Chinese art market. It first explores the price determinants and investment performance of Chinese art; second, the potential of art investment for portfolio diversification; and finally, the informational content of pre-sale estimates in terms of accuracy and uncertainty. Essay 1 examines the price determinants and investment performance of Chinese art. The study utilizes 165,847 lots sold executed by 533 Chinese artists between 2000 and 2017. Using hedonic regression, this study constructs the Chinese art price index, and finds that the artwork’s attributes, such as proof of authenticity, types of mounting, and large-scale auction months, have a significantly positive impact on prices. It also reveals two distinct art market booms in 2005 and 2011, with the latter reaching a record peak. Moreover, the average holding period for Chinese art is approximately 3 years, much shorter than the 10-year average in Western art markets. This indicates that the Chinese art market exists in speculative activity. This underscores the necessity for art market participants in China to be aware of the risk associated with art investment, as art is not necessarily for art’s sake. This study comprehensively analyses hedonic attributes’ impact on prices, offering valuable insights for constructing Chinese art-price indices and assessing respective returns. It is a key resource for those keen to deeply understand the Chinese art market. Essay 2 investigates the potential diversification benefits of investing in Chinese art based on a unique dataset of 4,840 repeat transaction pairs from 2003 to 2021. Using the repeat-sale regression, it finds a semiannual art return of 6.18%, which outperforms all other investment assets and has a lower standard deviation than equities. To assess the diversification role of Chinese art, correlation analysis, the capital asset pricing model, and downside beta are employed. The study finds that Chinese art exhibits a low or negative correlation with common financial assets and a negative market beta when the Shanghai composite stock index and Shenzhen composite stock index are used as market returns, indicating its efficacy as a diversification instrument. Additionally, Chinese art can act as a hedge against domestic stock market downturns in a diversified portfolio. Furthermore, the study adopts mean-variance portfolio optimization to assess the potential advantages of incorporating Chinese art into investment portfolios. The results show that the efficient frontier that includes Chinese art is superior to those without such an inclusion. Moreover, the inclusion of Chinese art enhances the overall utility of the portfolio across all degrees of risk aversion, as evidenced by the power utility optimization. Supplementary tests show that portfolios on the efficient frontier with Chinese art outperform the equal-weighted portfolio, and that the efficient frontier with Chinese art is superior to the efficient frontier without Chinese art during periods of underperformance in the domestic stock market. In conclusion, this study underscores the potential benefits of portfolio diversification through investing in Chinese art, thereby making a valuable contribution to the existing literature on art-related portfolio diversification strategies. Essay 3 investigates the impact of certain variables on the informational content of pre-sale estimates in terms of accuracy and uncertainty. Using a sample of 191,102 artwork executed by 533 Chinese artists from 2000 to 2021, the study reveals that factors, such as artists’ mentorship experience, the proof of authenticity, the large-scale auction months, and past-sale records, can either improve or diminish the accuracy and uncertainty of pre-sale estimates in predicting the hammer prices. This finding enriches the extant literature on the reliability of pre-sale price predictions in the art market. Moreover, it offers valuable insights for auction houses seeking to reduce prediction errors. The study further uncovers that the impact of these factors varies across price distributions, suggesting that auctioneers could utilize specific variables to enhance the accuracy of pre-sale estimates tailored to different price segments. Additionally, this study also finds that auction houses with artist-specific experience are more likely to offer precise pre-sale estimates, while they are less optimistic about reducing the uncertainty of pre-sale estimates. The study contributes to the literature on art economics by examining the extent to which auction houses can influence the outcomes of art auctions.Item Movements from Pearl Rivers : Connections flowing between Southern China and Aotearoa : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Creative Arts at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand(Massey University) Ma'auga, TessaAccording to ancient worldviews indigenous to China, the universe and humanity evolved and diversified from one single origin, inheriting a divinely spiritual, as well as physical reality. The familial ties binding all life within the universe operate according to principles of reciprocity, harmony in diversity, and balance. These indivisible relationships continue across realms between deceased ancestors and living descendants. The role of humanity to cultivate the divine attributes reflected in the universe is aided by the advancement of arts and crafts. Such perspectives have informed this creative research, which unravels genealogical, philosophical, cultural, and artistic connections that flow between Southern China and Aotearoa. The visual outcome of the research, Movements from Pearl Rivers exhibition, highlights principles which propelled the long historical evolution of Southern China and her descendants. The continuously unfolding narrative of Southern China from cosmological origins, through ancient Austronesian migrations, to the 19th century Southern Chinese global dispersal is conveyed through a site-specific installation which threads together fibres connecting this region such as mulberry paper, banana, bamboo, silk, and flax. Paper cutting scrolls, kinetic cascading cords, woven items, and the objects and stories contributed by eight diverse descendants of the 19th century Southern Chinese global dispersal reinforce a spirit of connection flowing between an ancestral homeland in Southern China and a present homeland in Aotearoa. This research contributes to prevalent art discourses within Oceania which are learning to embrace the increasingly complex, diverse, and cross-cultural identities and relationships of this region. The conceptual framework based on elements of a Chinese cosmological worldview is offered in communication with diverse wisdom traditions in Oceania. The framework centres artistic practice on the cultivation of beautiful attributes within both the artist and their materials, for the purpose of fostering harmonious relationships. The artworks emphasise the notion of the ever-flowing spirit, underlying and connecting all beings within the universe.Item 'Teaching without teaching' : critically exploring the involvement of visual artists in children's art classes in art museums of New Zealand : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Fine Arts, College of Creative Arts, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand(Massey University, 2022) Xu, ChangScholars in New Zealand have investigated museum education particularly in terms of young children’s visiting and learning, primary and intermediate students’ learning development, museum educators’ practice and challenges, and the policies, practices, and public pedagogy of visual art in art museum and gallery contexts. These scholars have indicated the importance of artists’ engagement in children’s art classes in art museums broadly speaking, but the specific investigation around this specific aspect was scant. This research aims to attend to this gap by exploring the engagement of visual artists in children’s art classes in art museums. The research acknowledges my position and background as a trained artist and teacher, and the roles I take on throughout the project also reflect this training and practice-based background. This study (including data collection and analysis, the conceptual development and iterative design process, and the forms of literature drawn upon) brings hybrid methodologies and references that span disciplines, including Participatory Action Research, Grounded Theory, Double Diamond design process, and a Co-design Approach. 24 interviews were conducted with visual artists and two workshops were developed with three different roles, including 6 artists, 3 museum educators, and 6 primary school teachers in two different art museums. The findings indicate a broadly effective collaboration between artists, museum educators, and primary school teachers with respect to complementing professional development, shifting to student-centred learning, expanding the forms of art activities based on students’ interests, developing a multisensory learning experience, and drawing theory from their practices. This research contributes to the field of museum education by developing a new form of collaboration between three different roles — artists, museum educators, and primary school teachers — in art museums, and conducting a collaborative reflection between these roles. This collaboration prototype becomes a way to effectively engage artists within children’s art museum education, and its benefits and impact can be documented and specified in various respects.Item A story in the telling. . . : an exegesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree, a Masters in Fine Arts, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand(Massey University, 2018) Cook, DamonThis exegesis contains a laying out of the ground that is our contemporary moment of environmental and social crisis,. This includes the approaches and attitudes that have brought that crisis into being. These are approaches and attitudes that seek to control and master the world. The ‘body’— that is, our own bodies and the body of that world— is where this drama is seen to play out. Art and contemplative practices are understood as offering counter modes to control and exploitation. These counter modes of practice and understanding are examined and critiqued. An attempt is made to perform this problem by offering points of clarity and orientation, while, at the same time avoiding too much clarity and control. Which is to say that this exegesis is also a literary text, in part and whole. Finally, in keeping with this performance of clarity and control, and possible counter modes, the concluding section —‘Where to Next’— offers two suggestive, rather than explicitly directive ways forward.Item No limit : imagining the boundaries of autonomy in a post-Fordist colonial settler state : thesis submission for a Master of Fine Arts (Fine Arts), Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand(Massey University, 2018) Aoake, Hana PeraThis exegesis will address the context of being a young, Māori artist living in a Post-Fordist colonial settler state. It will centre what these conditions what labour and the production of art looks like in Aotearoa, by analysing the ways in which our labour now fails to distinguish between ‘work’ and ‘occupation’. It will look at the way in which autonomy has been stripped through the tokenisation of a certain kind of indigenous practice that forces Māori artists into both performing indigeneity for Pākehā, as well as existing within individualistic imperial narrative that is toxic, colonising and alienating. I will discuss how this attempts to diminish the collaborative and intuitive approach to making art that is inherent within a larger history of contemporary Māori art by referring to senior wahine toa artists such as Shona Rapira-Davies. This research is explicitly centered around how the building of healthy, meaningful, ongoing working relationships with people I love has helped me redefine who my practice is for in spaces outside of the white cube. It will blend ideas garnered from both Western and indigenous frameworks, citing writing from theorists and artists including Hito Steyerl, Martha Rosler, Paolo Virno, Faith Wilson, Jenny Holzer and Natasha Matila-Smith (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Hine). It is hoped that in writing this exegesis I can articulate some adequate solutions to the current model for the production of art, which I believe is unsustainable and centered around ties to very colonial ideas of ‘community’ and of collaboration, particularly with the sharing of ideas and space.Item How does widespread copyright violation, as facilitated by networked telecommunications, impact upon artistic practice and industry in New Zealand? : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Media Studies at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand(Massey University, 2016) Jurgens, Timothy CarlThe culture of artistic content creation is changing. Once upon a time cultural products, and the ability to dictate how they were used and consumed, could be easily controlled via virtue of the difficulty of working with analogue formats in regards to modification, mass duplication or sampling. The widespread adoption of digital technologies, and the Internet serving as a global vector of seemingly endless information exchange, has rendered these hindrances to content duplication, distribution, and manipulation irrelevant in the wake of a globally distributed network of techno-cosmopolitan media content consumers. With the widespread normalisation of illegal online file-sharing, consumers of entertainment can essentially source anything they desire at a non-existent cost, whilst simultaneously excluding themselves from traditional economic channels of distribution. This research, partially presented as a documentary, investigates the opinions of artists (photographers, filmmakers, and musicians) working and living in New Zealand regarding the prevalence and impact of online copyright infringement. How has this new digital ecosphere impacted their work/practice as an artist and the industry generally? Is the fact that content gains far greater proliferation via these networks an advantage to media creators? Or does the reduction in scarcity and/or effort to obtain said art remove much of the associated value and thus the need to pay? A consumer can steal art considerably more easily now, but an artist can also source material for inspiration or reappropriation in ways largely unavailable in the past. In what ways (and with how much success) have content creators adapted to this new paradigm? How do these viewpoints correlate with variables such as medium, time spend in the industry and level of professional/economic involvement? And, indeed, how should both the creators, and the consumers, of media content think about art in a new world where it can be digitised so easily?Item Constructing identity : collecting Oceanic art/artefacts in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Museum Studies at Massey University(Massey University, 2002) Evans, RoseThis study is concerned with the collection of historic and contemporary Oceanic art forms by private collectors in New Zealand. Exploration into a recent increase in both market promotion and private collectors incorporating Oceanic art forms into their contemporary fine art collections is analysed in this research. The study sits within a body of international research into motivations behind collector behaviour and the relationship between art and artefact, yet also exists within the specific local context of New Zealand as a post colonial settler society. The objective of the study is to use qualitative methodology to interview a small sample of five case study collectors. These collectors can be positioned in an art/artefact continuum. One dealer, identified by three of the case study collectors, was interviewed to examine the complex relationship between dealer and private collectors of Oceanic art. Two aspects are explored; the recent growth of Oceanic art forms in private contemporary New Zealand fine art collections and the increasing market promotion of cultural artefacts as fine art works. The study concludes that there has been an increasing interest by collectors of contemporary New Zealand fine art to incorporate Oceanic historic and contemporary art forms into their fine art collections. The study also identified the emergence of a new type of dealer who operates in an urban context to promote both historic and contemporary Oceanic art forms within a fine art gallery environment. The dealer articulates a 'narrative of identity' symptomatic of settler primitivism since colonial settlement in New Zealand. She uses Oceanic art within the context of a fine art collection not only to facilitate the collectors' examination of individual identity but also to negotiate a sense of place within a dynamic post-colonial multicultural environment.Item The aesthetics of immersion : time, process and performance in practice : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand(Massey University, 2003) Munnelly, LisaThe initial impetus for this inquiry stemmed from a visit to the group multimedia exhibition entitled 'In the Shed.com', which was part of the Wellington Fringe Festival in 2001 What particularly struck me with this show (described as an interactive upload of image layers and process) was how the paintings in it were completely overwhelmed by the accompanying digital projections. With this in mind I returned home later that night watch the current affairs show.'Nightline'.which previewed another exhibition on in town. The camera accompanied by some upbeat techno mix swooped, spun, jerked and ducked as if the cameraman was more inspired by the soundtrack than the work, which hung on the wall impassive, or helpless in its attempts to arrest the darting gaze of the camera. On reflection, I saw in this an alignment to Walter Benjamin's views that 'the masses seek distraction whereas art demands concentration from the spectator'.(Arendt 1970:241). Studies on perception which show that motion has the greatest appeal to our senses led me to pose the question; how could the static artwork compete against the innate attraction of the moving image? Theories around what is called the "aesthetic experience" point out, that for a viewer to really engage with an artwork, the information contained within it must engage with information already stored in the viewer's mind. I saw this strategy being employed by artists such as Cindy Sherman and Peter Doig, whose work plays with the well known imagery of classic film genres, acting as contemporary versions of historical painting which portrayed widely known religious grand narratives. However the strategy of using a pictorial narrative to hold the viewer's attention in my own work became problematic as the question of what to show became overpowering. To free my work from such pictorial subservience, I turned to minimalist and process art practices for inspiration.Following the likes of the artist Lee Lozano, I drew up an action plan of verbs; scratch, pour, layer, stack etc, and applied them to different media. Being engrossed in the physicality of different materials acted as a release from the constant decision making element of artistic production, while a prior acceptance that these action pieces were explorations rather than arrivals absolved me of the responsibility of needing to know the end before I'd even begun, thus allowing for the new and unexpected.Item The development of a teacher observation profile for gifted and talented children in the visual arts : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Education, Massey University(Massey University, 2000) Brandon, Jillian BeverlyThis study investigated and developed a procedure for the identification of artistically gifted and talented children in New Zealand primary schools. The resulting teacher observational profile has two purposes: to provide a framework by which children become aware of their gifts and talents in the Visual Arts; and to provide educators with a structured approach for identifying students who are gifted and talented in the Visual Arts. The observational procedures gave information which provided the foundation for enriched and accelerated Visual Arts programmes. The action research approach focused on the improvement of teaching practice through observation methods utilising five phases in the development of the identification instrument. The first phase was an examination of the issues and practices related to identification of gifted and talented children. A comprehensive review of the general and Visual Art literature was undertaken to draw on the problems of definition, identification and application. The initial formation of the instrument was developed from the literature in collaboration with a pilot school in the second phase. The third phase was a review of the instrument by a professional panel. The fourth phase trialed the procedures on a cross-section of primary schools and age groups. The fifth phase analysed the data collected and refined the teacher observational profile. Thus, practising teachers were involved collaboratively throughout the research process. Each phase provided evidence upon which to base modifications to the instrument. The analyses of the three modifications generated three sets of data to determine whether the instrument was capable of identifying the characteristics in children to an exceptional level. The first analysis provided evidence of general and Visual Art learning characteristics in children's work samples to an exceptional level. The second analysis provided exceptional qualities along with combinations of interrelating patterns of Visual Art learning characteristics. The third analysis provided evidence of general learning characteristics. The results showed that characteristics are manifested in clusters and are independent in this instrument. The three analyses did not always identify the same children. This study revealed that without a structured system teachers in primary schools could easily overlook gifted and talented children in the Visual Arts. It is envisaged that the identification procedures presented in this thesis would be subject to further research, review and development.Item The Marquesan collection at the British Museum, London : genesis, growth and statis : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Museum Studies at Massey University, Manawatu, Palmerston North, New Zealand(Massey University, 2012) McKinney, Natasha RThis thesis examines the formation of the collection from the Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia, at the British Museum in London. Specifically, it investigates the historical and museological factors which have influenced acquisition over time, and questions why the collection was not expanded in the second half of the twentieth century. Marquesan culture is outlined, in order to contextualise the circumstances in which objects were first collected, and to gain insight into both indigenous and outsider priorities in these exchanges. The dramatic impact of contact, and colonisation by the French, facilitates an understanding of the major changes in artistic production over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which led to the cessation of certain art forms, the persistence of others, and the creation of completely new categories. This establishes, therefore, what was available for collection. Archival research served to trace objects to the moment of collection, and to reveal the main characters and transactions which led to their acquisition by the Museum. It emerges that individual collectors and curators played a central role in the growth and composition of the collection – attitudes of the latter being strongly influenced by contemporary anthropological theory. The main factors which contributed to the stasis of the collection are the relatively limited availability of Marquesan objects in comparison to earlier periods, combined with the persistence of negative attitudes towards objects which demonstrated significant external influence. The manner in which the collection has been presented to the public via exhibitions is also studied, revealing the multiple redefinitions of the objects and their role within the Museum and scholarly discourse over the course of the collection’s existence. A clear and persistent bias towards the earliest collected material becomes apparent throughout. The thesis argues that the composition of the collection has served to maintain this bias, and to restrict the development of new exhibition initiatives, which may have created the impetus for renewed collecting. A reassessment is suggested, in light of changing museum practice and the contemporary relevance of the collection for Marquesans.