Veuve Clicquot Commissions Outdoor Sculptures

Media Release
18 August 2008

Veuve Clicquot Commissions Outdoor Sculptures

To celebrate the arrival of Veuve Clicquot Rosé NV in New Zealand, French champagne house Veuve Clicquot has commissioned artist, Gidon Bing, to create a series of outdoor sculptures.

Gidon Bing is an Auckland based painter and sculptor. He has both academic and formal training as a sculptor and has lived and worked in Europe, the Middle East and America. His work has been acquired by collectors in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

David Ridley, General Manager of Veuve Clicquot's local subsidiary in New Zealand says the champagne house has a long standing and passionate relationship with contemporary art and design.

"One of the most prestigious and innovative champagnes in the world, Veuve Clicquot's iconic yellow brand colour - Pantone® Yellow 137C - was registered in Reims more than 130 years ago. In recent years, the champagne house has partnered with artists and high profile designers on public artworks as well as objects of desire such as Karim Rashid's loveseat and globalight."

"For this project, we asked Gidon to interpret the new Veuve Clicquot Rosé and he responded by creating a contemporary, innovative sculpture that highlights the femininity and romance of the Rosé personality, as well as the distinctive rose colour of the Rosé label," he continues.

Bing and design team responded to the brief by designing a post-pop representation of an organic ribbon or flower like structure.

"The treatment of form, materiality and the scale of the installation is intended to make it more precious, playful and less literal. This will be achieved by combining the reflective properties of the installations material with Clicquot pink and yellow coloured paint," says Bing.

The sculptures can be seen in locations around Auckland City from 1st September - 5 October 2008.

ENDS

About Gidon Bing, Sculptor and Painter
Gidon Bing is an Auckland based painter and sculptor. He has both academic and formal training as a sculptor and has lived and worked in Europe, the Middle East and America. His work has been acquired by collectors in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Bing favours materials such as wood, metal (iron and bronze) and natural paints. He utilizes traditional Japanese wood bending and shaping techniques to achieve his forms and cites his influences as European Modernism, Primitivism and Constructivism. His forms and images are specifically inspired by nature and architecture, in particular the architecture of the Czech avante garde of the 1920s.

Plywood forms are spontaneously drawn with oversize pencils in generous biomorphic gestures and then these are cut out with jigsaws. They then undergo a transformation of form through a steaming and wood bending process in his workshop. The hot steam makes the wooden shapes pliable. They are then slowly pushed and drawn by hand into curves and melted forms which express the grains of those woods into bold curved horizons. What happens to these structures after they dry into their new forms depends on how Bing feels about the 'fresh life' he discovers in the new body itself. Some shapes are painted on, drawn on and scraped back while others are simply left as they are because the inherent qualities of the wood express more then the application of any opaque colour could.

Bing often uses the application of organic shellac to plywood veneer, a technique brought by his grandfather, the renowned modernist architect Henry Kulka, from the Czech Republic to New Zealand. The result is an object with the timbre and spirit of an old musical instrument and the fresh, bold spring of organic modernism.

In both his formal undergraduate and postgraduate studies Bing majored in comparative religion and anthropology. His postgraduate scholarship allowing him to travel abroad and work on archeological excavations in the Middle East and to experience the museums and galleries of Europe. Some of his shapes express his admiration for the forms of the Cycladean Islands. They are solemn, strong and considered faces. Other forms are inspired by the view from outside Bing's studio window.

Veuve Clicquot Rosé NV Tasting Notes
Bold, vibrant and passionate, the non-vintage Rosé is labelled as the most romantic of champagnes, promising an experience that is delectably full and can be enjoyed as a true delicacy.

Born out of a desire to create a pink champagne with a delightfully luscious, fruit-based charm, Veuve Clicquot Rosé NV is accessible and naturally engaging. Veuve Clicquot Rosé epitomises the famous Clicquot style - exhibiting a softness, roundness and freshness combined with depth, intensity and strength. The champagne is the Rosé expression of the brand's must-loved Brut Yellow Label.

Like the Brut Yellow Label, this is a champagne ideally suited as an aperitif, or for a snatched moment of pleasure in an afternoon. The non-vintage Rosé is perfect for those moments of self indulgence and romance.

Maison Veuve Clicquot was the first champagne house to commercialise Rosé champagne in 1775. From the beginning of the 19th century Madame Clicquot, determined to guarantee the quality of her wine, adopted a new method of vinification by blending red wine with white, gravitating away from a Rosé made from the maceration of white juice from black grapes.

With over two centuries of Rosé champagne expertise, Veuve Clicquot's Rosés are acclaimed by wine lovers. Experts consider the two cuvées of Vintage Rosé from Veuve Clicquot to be amongst the world's finest - La Grande Dame Rosé, the prestige cuvée, and the Vintage Rosé, one of the most sought after world wide.

Veuve Clicquot Rosé NV will be available at leading stockists from mid August at the recommended retail price of $115.00.

In line with the style of the Veuve Clicquot House, the wine is perfectly balanced and combines elegance and flair.

The champagne has a luminous colour with radiant rose accents. The nose is generous and elegant, with initial aromas of fresh red fruit (raspberry, wild strawberry, cherry, blackberry) leading to biscuity notes of dried fruits and Viennese pastries (almonds, apricots and brioche). The fresh start is followed by a fruity harmonious sensation on the palate.

ENDS

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