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Richard von Sturmer

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Richard von Sturmer (in blue body paint), performing at Nambassa Music Festival 1979

Richard von Sturmer (born 1957) is an artist, poet, playwright, film-maker, and musician from New Zealand.[1][2][3] He was born in Devonport, North Auckland.[4]

His poetry and prose has appeared in journals such as The New Zealand Listener, brief, Landfall, Sport, and Zen Bow.[5]

The Plague performing at Nambassa Music Festival 1979; Richard von Sturmer (in blue body paint)

In music, von Sturmer fronted New Zealand punk/art band The Plague, continued with The Humanimals,[6] Avant Garage,[4] and wrote the lyrics for Blam Blam Blam's anti-Robert Muldoon song "There Is No Depression In New Zealand",[2][7][8] which has been described as a 'classic alternative national anthem.'[9] The Plague are particularly known for their 1979 performance at the Nambassa festival, where four members (including von Sturmer) appeared naked apart from body paint.[10]

Richard von Sturmer is a Zen Buddhist, who gave up eating meat when he was 16.[2] He studied for ten years at the Rochester Zen Center in New York.[8]

Von Sturmer is married to Sensei Amala Wrightson (previously Charlotte Wrightson),[11] with whom he co-founded the Auckland Zen Centre.[2][12]

From 2014, von Sturmer has worked with film-maker Gabriel White as the duo The Floral Clocks, with von Sturmer writing lyrics which White set to music.[13] These songs were released as an album Desert Fire, mostly performed by White alone.[14] A second album, A Beautiful Shade of Blue was released in 2017, and their third Gas Giant was released in 2019.[15]

Plays and film scripts

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Von Sturmer was involved with the following plays and film scripts:[4]

  • 1976. Circadian Rhythms (dir: David Blythe)
  • 1980. The Green Lion
  • 1981. The Search for Otto

Published collections of writing

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Von Sturmer has published the following collections of writing:[1][16]

  • 1988. We Xerox Your Zebras
  • 1991. A Network of Dissolving Threads
  • 1998. Images From The Center (with photographer Joseph Sorrentino)
  • 2005. Suchness: Zen Poetry and Prose
  • 2009. On the Eve of Never Departing
  • 2011. The Book of Equanimity Verses
  • 2016. This Explains Everything (memoir)

Exhibitions

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Von Sturner has had the following exhibitions:[1]

  • 1987 The Search for Otto in “Recent New Zealand Films”, Japan.
  • 1990. The Search for Otto in “Images in Motion”. New Plymouth.
  • 2007. 24 Tanka Films. Wellington. New Zealand Film Institute.
  • 2010. Rubble Emits Light. Auckland. (Retrospective).
  • 2011. The Stone Age Dream of Headstones. Auckland. (Group show)

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Richard von Sturmer". CIRCUIT Artist Film and Video Aotearoa New Zealand. 3 January 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d "Richard von Sturmer: A career on the vanguard of NZ arts". Radio New Zealand. 11 February 2017. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
  3. ^ "Richard von Sturmer – New Zealand Book Council". www.bookcouncil.org.nz. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
  4. ^ a b c "nzepc – 12 Taonga – Richard von Sturmer – Dreams". www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
  5. ^ "Best New Zealand Poems 2003 – Richard von Sturmer". www.victoria.ac.nz. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
  6. ^ "Richard von Sturmer". New Zealand Poetry Society. 14 November 2016. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
  7. ^ "No depression in New Zealand". NZHistory. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
  8. ^ a b "Richard von Sturmer on punk rock, buddhism and the missing Silver Scroll". Stuff. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
  9. ^ "There is No Depression in New Zealand | Music Video | NZ On Screen". www.nzonscreen.com. NZ On Screen. Retrieved 16 August 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  10. ^ "The Nambassa Festivals and the counterculture movement – AudioCulture". www.audioculture.co.nz. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
  11. ^ "Our teachers and lineage – Auckland Zen Centre". www.aucklandzen.org.nz. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
  12. ^ "New Zealand | New Zealand's Buddha Boom". www.buddhistchannel.tv. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
  13. ^ Mills, Amanda (February 2015). "The Floral Clocks: It's time for... The Floral Clocks – NZ Musician". nzmusician.co.nz. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  14. ^ Mills, Amanda. "The Floral Clocks: Desert Fire". nzmusician.co.nz. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  15. ^ "A Beautiful Shade of Blue". The Big Idea. 29 May 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  16. ^ "Launch: Richard von Sturmer, This Explains Everything | brief". brief. 8 November 2016. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
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