Barry Thomas (artist)

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Barry Thomas
Portrait of Barry Thomas.jpg
Thomas in 1999
EducationIlam School of Art, Christchurch
Known forFilm-making and activist art
Notable workVacant lot of cabbages (1978)

Barry Noel Thomas is a New Zealand artist and film maker. He is known for creating 1min art films called rADz and for his activism art including in the 1970s planting cabbages in an empty building site in Wellington City.

Contents

Biography

Thomas's first work experience was working on a film set when he was 16. The film was Uenuku, a Māori language drama and also working on it were many artists from Blerta (Geoff Murphy, Bruno Lawrence and Alun Bollinger). [1] After that experience he went to the National Film Unit as a trainee cameraperson. [1] Thomas went on to art school in the late 1970s at the Ilam School of Fine Arts in Christchurch. He was a peer of Vincent Ward and they worked together on the film A State of Siege. [1]

In the 1970s Thomas formed The Artists' Co-op along with Eva Yuen, Ian Hunter, Terry Handscombe and Ross Boyd to "work outside the traditional areas of painting and object sculpture, in the more ephemeral realms of performance and conceptual art." [2] This cooperative received a grant from New Zealand's Arts Council to connect a community within New Zealand and to international artists. [2]

In 1976 Thomas had inspired protest reaction at the match of retired All Black rugby legend Fergie McCormac to which two white South African rugby players had been invited. Thomas and others intervened at this rugby match at Christchurch's famed Lancaster Park by writing on the field with weedkiller in 20 foot high letters the phrase "WELCOME TO RACIST GAME." This was oriented directly at the TV cameras. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] This was five years before the civil unrest of the anti apartheid 1981 South Africa rugby tour of New Zealand.

The New Zealand Festival of the Arts in 1977 used a 'happening' by Thomas as the opening event called The Party, where guest were invited but the promised food and drinks were behind a wall of plastic. A group of guests led by fellow artist Andrew Drummond formed a faux rugby scrum and broke down the plastic after 3 minutes. [8]

Vacant lot of cabbages Cabbage growing.jpg
Vacant lot of cabbages

Thomas, on 4 January 1978, created a public intervention art, guerilla art work of art Vacant lot of cabbages illegally on an empty building site in Willis Street in central Wellington. It was created by bringing in soil and planting 180 cabbages that spelled the word cabbage as an urban garden. At the end of June that year the cabbages were harvested. The work deliberately attracted high profile media attention. [9] During that time the location became a central gathering space for artists and community members. [10] [11] [12] At the end of the six months there was a festival called The Last Roxy Show and included a ceremonial burning of the remaining cabbages. [13] [14]

Thomas was one of the cinematographers that captured footage of the 1981 South Africa rugby tour protests that formed part of the film Patu! [1]

Thomas has re-drawn advertising hoardings by whiting and blacking out letters to give often humourous new meanings to the thing being advertised. [15] He publicly sought an end to homelessness with his intervention at an art opening he called "comfort zones" [16] [17] and then called his own Homelessness think tank. [18]

Thomas formed a film production company called Yeti Productions and in the 1980s and 1990s they created film and art projects. [1] They also created award winning commercials. [1] A cross-over from this were art-based short clips that screened during commercial breaks. Not to sell products but to just be art. These were called rADz , 'radical art ads' or 'haiku films' and aired between 1997 and 2001. [1] [19] In New Zealand 100 rADz were made with many artists and filmmakers involved including Lala Rolls, Greg Page and Nova Paul. [1] More were made in the UK and were presented at film festivals. [1]

Thomas became known for canny, gentle, emancipatory, idiosyncratic, ground breaking art. [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] "Since the 1970s he has driven art like a sharpened stake into the heart of the corporate/political beast." said Chris Trotter. [27] [28]

In 2012 Te Papa purchased documentation of Thomas's 1978 Vacant lot of cabbages art project. [29]

Art exhibitions

Film

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Film, activism and cabbages – a chat with Barry Thomas". Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision. 5 October 2021. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 Rowe, Neil (1978). "Exhibitions Wellington". Art New Zealand. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  3. ↑ The Press (19 March 1976). "Say it in acid (Front page)". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. Retrieved 27 August 2025.
  4. ↑ The Press (Front page) (20 March 1976). "WELCOME TO RACIST GAME". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. Retrieved 27 August 2025.
  5. ↑ "Playing Favourites with Barry Thomas". RNZ. 2 March 2013. Retrieved 27 August 2025.
  6. ↑ Klein, David (5 October 2021). "Film, activism and cabbages". www.ngataonga.org.nz. Retrieved 27 August 2025.
  7. ↑ Peach, Andrew (2015). They were all wilderness years (1 ed.). Christchurch New Zealand: Peach design. p. 70.
  8. ↑ "'The Party'". Victoria University of Wellington. Archived from the original on 4 February 2023. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
  9. ↑ Barton, Christina (2007). Wellington a city for sculpture (1st. ed.). Wellington, New Zealand: Victoria University Press. pp. 123, 127. ISBN   9780864735706.
  10. ↑ POWELL, SELINA (28 December 2012). "Te Papa buys cabbage art show mementoes". Stuff. Archived from the original on 20 May 2022. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  11. 1 2 "'Vacant lot of cabbages' documentation enters Te Papa's archives". Te Papa's Blog. 2 November 2012. Archived from the original on 19 May 2022. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  12. ↑ "Gathering of people at Barry Thomas's "Vacant lot of cabbages" public art project". National Library of New Zealand. 1 January 1978. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  13. ↑ "Vacant Lot of Cabbages: Weird & Wonderful NZ Stories". DigitalNZ. Archived from the original on 17 March 2021. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  14. ↑ Lonie, Bridie (10 September 2024). "Cabbages, Crumble and Sky Talk: Environmental and Planetary Issues in Art – Aotearoa New Zealand". The Journal of New Zealand Studies (NS38). doi: 10.26686/jnzs.iNS38.9589 . ISSN   2324-3740.
  15. ↑ Wedde, Ian (20 January 1988). "Art's dirty washing". Evening Post.
  16. ↑ "Pondering Duchamp in Wellington – EyeContact". eyecontactmagazine.com. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  17. ↑ "b'art Homme pulls strings art act at the Adam". thebigidea.nz. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  18. ↑ "Residents asked to billet homeless". NZ Herald. 3 September 2012. Retrieved 14 September 2025.
  19. ↑ "rADz". New Zealand Film Commission. Archived from the original on 13 March 2022. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  20. ↑ Klein, David (5 October 2021). "Film, activism and cabbages". www.ngataonga.org.nz. Retrieved 27 August 2025.
  21. ↑ Trotter, Chris (4 April 2007). "Two Openings". NZ Financial Review. p. 12.
  22. ↑ Bollinger, Nick (2022). Jumping Sundays (1 ed.). Auckland: Auckland University Press. pp. 282, 283, 284, 285. ISBN   9781869409517.
  23. ↑ "Skinscapes photographs that change the way we look at seeing". thebigidea.nz. Retrieved 8 September 2025.
  24. ↑ Ferzetti, Fabio (3 March 2001). "be very brief and you will conquer the world - siate molto brevi conquisterete il mondo". Il Messaggero. p. 17.
  25. ↑ "Playing Favourites with Barry Thomas". RNZ. 2 March 2013. Retrieved 27 August 2025.
  26. ↑ "Ran out of steam". The Evening Post. 17 January 1978. p. 34.
  27. ↑ Trotter, Chris (20 August 2010). "Artists of the revolution have ridden the storm". www.stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 10 September 2025.
  28. ↑ Trotter, Chris (20 August 2010). "Artists of the revolution have ridden the storm". The Dominion Post. pp. B6.
  29. ↑ "Playing Favourites with Barry Thomas". RNZ . 2 March 2013. Archived from the original on 20 May 2022. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  30. ↑ Barr, Jim Mary (1987). When art hits the headlines (1st ed.). Wellington New Zealand: National Art Gallery of New Zealand. p. 36. ISBN   0-9597785-4-3.
  31. ↑ Trotter, Chris (19 August 2010). "Artists of the revolution have ridden the storm". Stuff. Archived from the original on 20 May 2022. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  32. ↑ "Framing no ferment". Otago Daily Times Online News. 9 October 2017. Retrieved 17 August 2025.
  33. ↑ "Hei maumaharatanga: Cliff Whiting – artist, educator, rangatira". Te Papa's Blog. 23 July 2017. Archived from the original on 20 May 2022. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  34. ↑ "Heritage Timeline — Islington Mill" . Retrieved 13 August 2023.
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