The articles below were originally published on The Dominion Post/www.stuff.co.nz website

Rings actor plans capital exhibition

05 July 2003
By BESS MANSON

He can act, he can write, and now Hollywood heart-throb Viggo Mortensen is to unleash his painting prowess on Wellington.

Mortensen, who played Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, is to exhibit more than 100 of his paintings and photographs at Massey University's Wellington campus, the former National Museum, on November 28.

The exhibition will be held two days before the world premiere of The Return of the King at Wellington's Embassy Theatre. It will be preceded by an invitation-only gala, to be attended by Mortensen and several other Rings stars.

The next day, Mortensen will officially launch the exhibition, which will double as a signing session for a book of his photographs and writings.

Mike Freeman, university director of development and alumni, said the gala would be a star-studded event, with donations going toward the university's proposed school for film and television.

Mortensen and his publishing company, Perceval Press, approached Massey about holding an exhibition at the museum building about two months ago, Mr Freeman said.

"He (Mortensen) thought it was a terrific venue. He liked the architecture and the grandeur of the building."

Mortensen, who had fans ­ mostly women ­ lined up around the block for another book signing last year at the Green Parrot Cafe in Wellington, is in Denmark at present.

Massey's pro-vice chancellor of the college of fine arts and music, Duncan Joiner, said Mortensen was "a dream" to work with. "He is great fun. He has none of the airs and all of the graces. He came and met us on a filthy Sunday morning in bare feet . . . He's a bare-feet man around town."

Dr Joiner praised Mortensen's work, which he said combined abstract modernism with photographs. His photographs were mainly landscapes and portraits.

"He is an interesting character as an artist. He has some very, very good photographs and I know that he has done a lot of landscape photography while he has been in New Zealand."

Mortensen has also exhibited in Denmark and in the United States.

Viggo says thanks in pictures

Dominion Post, November 26. 2003
By Bess Manson

- He's a long way from the United States but American film star Viggo Mortensen feels right at home in Wellington, and he has the photographs to prove it.

More than 150 of his photographs are hanging at Massey University's Great Hall in Buckle St in an exhibition opening this weekend. Another collection of his Wellington photographs opens at City Gallery on Saturday. Focusing on light and landscapes with long exposures, most of the photographs are abstract, capturing aspects of a New Zealand Mortensen experienced while shooting The Lord of the Rings ­ with a smattering from Denmark, Britain and the States.

Wandering around the gallery in bare feet, Mortensen described how one series of the photographs was a bit of a fluke.

Lost 1,2,3 and 4, he jokingly calls them, were taken when he was geographically challenged in the bush on the West Coast one night. The photographs were snapped so that the flash might give him light to get his bearings.

"I eventually had to lie down under a tree for a while till the moon came over me and I could figure out where I was."

Mortensen has real affection for Wellington.

"I liked Sunday mornings, when it was empty, walking around downtown before everybody got up to nurse their hangovers. Especially during the warmer months. Or when it's drizzly. When it's miserable and raining, scuttling down a street and ducking into a bar. It's always a good place to be."

The exhibitions are "like returning a favour".

Mortensen will open Mo Te Upoko-o-Te-Ika ­ For Wellington in a gala on Friday to raise money for scholarships to the university's proposed film school. Massey has put up another 200 tickets for the $100 gala after the first 600 sold out. Many Rings stars will attend.

Mortensen will help raise money for Victoria University's Institute of Modern Letters at a poetry reading at the Paramount Theatre on Saturday night.

After that, he might just take it easy ­ for at least a day or so.

Rings star turns fans on to poetry

Dominion Post, December 1, 2003
By Ann-Marie Johnson

Glitterati met literati at the Paramount theatre at the weekend ­ not to mention hundreds of people who would not normally dream of paying $50 to listen to poetry.

But when Lord of the Rings star Viggo Mortensen is one of the poets, normal Saturday-night entertainment pales in comparison.

The event was originally scheduled for the City Gallery but was moved to the Paramount theatre because of demand.

Surprisingly, there were plenty of men in attendance, including Weta boss Richard Taylor, accompanied by his partner, Tania Rodger.

But the audience was overwhelmingly female and they were there to see only one man.

However, local poets Bill Manhire, Tusiata Avia, Hinemoana Baker and Cliff Fell took the stage first. Though they might have felt like support acts, their work was met with warm applause.

Then it was Mortensen's turn. He wandered on to the stage, wearing a Maori bone carving and clutching a sheaf of paper and a couple of books, apologising for being so disorganised that he had not made final decisions on the work he would share.

"To be sharing a stage with these four poets is more than an honour, it's like a dream really.
One of the most pleasant surprises I had during my time in New Zealand . . . was finding how much poetry there was here relative to the size of the population."

He said he had taken boxes of New Zealand poetry back to the United States, and included one or two New Zealand poems whenever he did poetry readings.

True to his words, he started with Manhire's poem How to take off your clothes at the picnic.

During his half-hour appearance, he read about a dozen poems. Several he had written himself, including some penned while he was in New Zealand.

Some were by poets writing in Danish and Spanish (he speaks both languages fluently).

The audience hung on every word ­ even those they could not understand.

Manhire, Victoria University's creative writing course director, said the event had raised more than $50,000 for a fund to offer financial assistance to students doing the course.

"Tonight's event has grown bigger than we ever believed it would. I'd like to thank Viggo because his generosity in all this is beyond belief," he said.

Afterward, there was nothing but praise, especially for the local poets, whom many in the audience were discovering for the first time.

"I thought they all did a brilliant job," Australian visitor Deirdre O'Neill said.

Wellingtonian Liz Rowe said: "It was really good. I thought the New Zealand poets were fantastic ­ and it's the closest I'm going to get to any of the Lord of the Rings stars."

The bookstall set up in the theatre foyer reported steady sales of all the poets' work, showing that the event had created new fans for New Zealand poetry.

You get the impression that is a result Mortensen would be more than happy with.