Some time ago I found an old wiro notebook in a drawer. A scruffy wiro bound notebook with a photo of 2 men in a kayak with a bear on the front cover. In that notebook I found terrible sketches drawn in pencil made while travelling in 1991. One sketch leapt out at me. It was a rough pencil sketch of Mt Ararat from a backpacking trip to eastern Turkey. The sketch really surprised me – it was a very basic pencil sketch, drawn using a .5mm technical pencil on a cheap notepad. The sketch is just black and white… To my surprise the sounds and smells of the day came flooding back. Meeting some Kurdish goat herders and their flock near the base of Mt Ararat, about 10km from the Iranian border on a bright sunny but cool, alpine day. Along with memories of driving across the mountain steppe in an old Renault 19 and the smells of chai and coffee in a Doğubayazıt pasta solunu. It all came back come flooding back! Why did it evoke such vivid memories? I’m not really sure to be honest. Maybe t...
She's a bit run-down and worse for wear, her nipples no longer flash and the clock above her no longer keeps 'Vegas Time'. A bit like Karangahape Road in general really, it still has it's moments (as I sketched a couple of working fa'afafine casually looked over my shoulder to check out what I was up to), and the brass lettering beside the door boldly proclaims 'Australasia's Premier Striptease Club', it's all a bit optimistic I think!
The Las Vegas Strip is one of the last remaining clubs from the streets seedy 60's and 70's heyday as Auckland's red-light strip. When I heard the place was on the market, I thought I'd try to capture that infamous sign before it disappears forever. With any luck it might go the way of a neighbour, the The Pink Pussy Cat and get redeveloped as an art gallery.
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