WĀHINE

S’livin the best life

BY MELODY THOMAS

The other day I sat for a few minutes in the car doing a quiz to estimate my life expectancy. Apparently, I have a 75% chance of living til 87, and a 50% chance of making it to 95, so unless I’m statistically unlucky or the random quiz I found from a google search is not scientifically accurate, I’m likely to die between 2073 and 2081. I found this oddly reassuring.

The thing that got me pondering my mortality was the Hilma af Klint exhibition at City Gallery (it’s wonderful, and on til March 27; go see it). Hilma af Klint was a Swedish artist born in 1862, who painted lovely landscapes and portraits before throwing it all in, to conduct seances with four fellow female artist pals. Together known as “The Five”, they channelled spirit powers in order to create bold, colourful abstract works full of binary symbolism: life and death, male and female, age and youth. Her works were barely exhibited when she was alive. She was female and a medium, so was doubly not taken seriously, and in the end she stipulated that the world would not see her work until 20 years after her death. Since its reveal, af Klint’s art has been shown in some of the world’s most prestigious galleries, including the Guggenheim in New York, where it attracted the largest audience in the museum’s history. The art world continues to grapple with how her legacy complicates the previously-tidy (and mostly male) art-historical timeline, which positions Kandinsky as the pioneer of abstract art, despite the fact that af Klint started painting abstract works five years before him.

As I stood in front of af Klint’s series The Ten Largest, 10 towering paintings depicting the human life cycle, from conception to old age and, presumably, death, I decided to play a game with myself to find out which of the 10 trippy, pastel giants was “mine”. “If you lived to 100, each of these paintings would represent a decade,” I thought, “so mine would be number three” (turns out this is not how af Klint had arranged the paintings, but still...). I’m in the final years of my 30s, my eldest child is approaching 10, I’ve been with my husband for more than 15 years and known my oldest friends for more than 20. These are very big numbers, and while I know it’s ridiculous to spend even a minute of your 30s wondering if you’re fading into obscurity, I’ll admit that I’ve done it. Yet there I was, much closer to the beginning of my life cycle (as inspired by a misreading of Hilma af Klint) than I was to the end, with several decades of life stretching out in front of me.

I mentioned this to my husband, thinking he would be pleased too, but that was a mistake. One of his favourite subjects on which to wax lyrical is the relativity of time (I know, what a nerd), and the short version of his thinking is as follows: a year of a five-year-old’s life is 1/5th of their total life, whereas one year of my life is 1/36th so, relatively speaking, the former will feel longer than the latter. His point was that even though technically we might be nearer the beginning of the lifecycle, because time moves faster as we age (relatively speaking) we are actually nearer the end than it appears.

I do actually agree with all of this thinking (annoying as it is), but I also believe that our experience of time can’t hinge solely on such an inhuman calculation. What about the effect of new experiences? Years spent going from the same old job to the same old house to the same old bed are likely to blend into a great, forgettable fog, but pepper those same years with adventure and parties and ocean swims and suddenly you have a well of memories to draw on. Wouldn’t those years feel longer? Or at least, that much more full? And what about mood and vibe? You can’t tell me that half an hour in the dentist’s chair is the same as half an hour with a book at the beach. One crawls and the other flies by.

Which brings me to the fault in my logic, which has just occurred to me: if time flies when you’re having fun, then what I’m proposing (a life fully lived) is likely to hasten death’s arrival rather than delay it. But then maybe that’s okay. Maybe we are further along in the lifecycle than we would like to be, but if the picture of our lives is anything like as colourful, bold, and inspired as af Klint’s incredible panels are, then it’s hard to feel anything other than immense gratitude.

Surely what’s more important is not how long we’ve lived, but how much we lived the life we had.

Distant Kinship | Verre Verwanten

The exhibition showcases the work of 18 printmakers from Grafiekgroep Bergen in the Netherlands and the New Zealand Print Council, exploring the artistic kinship that exists between the two countries. Supported by: Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands | New Zealand Embassy | Mainfreight.

27 Nov–20 Feb 12 Bruce Street, Masterton. aratoi.org.nz

Mansfield & Music

Did you know that as a teenager Katherine Mansfield wanted to be a professional cellist? This exhibition explores the important role music played in Mansfield’s life and in her development as a writer, and highlights some of Wellington’s key musical figures at the turn of the 20th century.

14 Dec–13 Mar 25 Tinakori Road, Thorndon. katherinemansfield.com Goethe on Demand

Goethe on Demand, the streaming platform of the Goethe-Institut, presents a variety of online film programmes that can be streamed from home. All films are presented in the original language with subtitles. They are accessible online and free of charge after registration.

Jan 2022 goethe.de/nz Sci-Fi Sundays: Aotearoa

How bizarre! Space Place presents a trilogy of Aotearoa originals screened in the stunning planetarium. Be immersed in the supernatural worlds of kiwi-made films including cult classic The Quiet Earth (1985), comedy-horror Black Sheep (2006) and alien adventure Under the Mountain (2009). Tickets include complimentary popcorn and lollies. Book online.

13, 20, 27 Feb 6pm 40 Salamanca Road, Kelburn. spaceplace.nz

Natasha Cousens at Aratoi

Imbued with visual storytelling and wonder, Natasha Cousens’ exhibition draws on notions of emotion, spirituality, life and death, purposely blurring the lines between reality and the surreal. Full of symbolism, these sculptures suggest links to shared emotions and experiences whilst allowing the viewer to create stories of their own.

Until 20 Feb 12 Bruce Street, Masterton. aratoi.org.nz Dressed to Thrill!

Hot on the heels of the Whanganui Regional Museum’s vibrant exhibition Dressed to Thrill: Fashion and Accessories from the 1870s and 1970s comes a dynamic new exhibition which turns its attention to two wildly different decades in fashion history – the 1890s and the 1990s.

Open from December 2021 1 Watt Street, Pukenamu Queens Park, Whanganui. wrm.org.nz