8 minute read
GOING PUBLIC
WORDS: SARAH CATHERALL / IMAGERY: MIKE HEYDON
Many of the public artworks created by our most talented artists during the past century have since been destroyed, covered over, or simply lost. But a project is now underway to document and save New Zealand’s public art heritage
In the mid-1970s when the Beehive was built in Wellington, two artists were commissioned to create a nine-metrewide woollen wall-hanging for one of its curving walls.
Joan Calvert, a Wellington textile artist, working with friends and fellow textile artists, spent 18 months bringing to life a design by Guy Ngan, a sculptor and artist.
Called ‘Forest in the Sun’, the huge, six-panelled piece hung, bursting with colour, on the marble wall in the Beehive foyer. Reminiscent of a sun-dappled forest, the six 2.4-metre panels made up the biggest artwork on which Joan had ever worked.
When the Beehive was refurbished in 2003, however, the work was donated to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and has been out of public view for the past two decades.
Thanks to Sue Elliott and Bronwyn Holloway-Smith, who contacted and have been working with Te Papa and the Office of the Speaker, Forest in the Sun’ returned to its original home in July this year.
“The Beehive was built to be a showcase of New Zealand design at the time. ‘Forest in the Sun’ tells a real story, and it was designed specifically to hang on that wall,’’ says Sue, who along with Bronwyn is Co-director of Public Art Heritage Aotearoa New Zealand.
‘Forest in the Sun’ is one of more than 1000 20th-century public artworks that have been identified by Public Art Heritage Aotearoa New Zealand. Aided by grants from Manatū Taonga Ministry of Culture and Heritage and Massey University, its co-directors are building a register of public artworks that were created from 1900 to 1999. The pair also intend to nominate some of the works for recognition on the New Zealand Heritage List Rārangi Kōrero.
“We hope the register will have a broad reach, appealing to tourists, art lovers and local communities alike,’’ says Bronwyn.
During the 20th century, many of New Zealand’s most talented artists turned their attention to enriching public spaces, often working with leading architects. Some of the largest and most ambitious artworks were placed in publicly accessible sites around the country.
Bronwyn, an investigative artist and researcher based at Massey University’s College of Creative Arts, points out that many have now been destroyed, covered over, or simply lost. Others remain undocumented and at risk because of a lack of knowledge about their importance and cultural value. They are works of public significance because they are in spaces where anyone can see them or they are publicly owned – on show at hospitals, parks, libraries, schools, churches, malls, courts and even a McDonald’s.
Many of our most prominent artists created public art, including Rita Angus, Colin McCahon, Cliff Whiting and Michael Smithers. During the century there were also public art heroes such as the Chinese-New Zealand artist Guy Ngan (who has 38 artworks on the register), E Mervyn Taylor, James Turkington and Fred Graham (Ngāti Korokī Kahukura) – a renowned sculptor who has 10 works on the register dating from 1970.
Sue and Bronwyn are still registering artists and auditing artworks, and they expect to uncover many more. But they have criteria. Monuments and memorials typically don’t fit the bill, and for an artwork to be considered ‘public art’ it must have been made intentionally as art and have been or be located in a public space, and have been commissioned by a public body or for public good.
Bronwyn was undertaking her PhD in 2014 when she stumbled upon an E Mervyn Taylor mural, ‘Te Ika-a-Māui’, which had been commissioned by the Post Office for a telephone cable station in Auckland in 1962. Made of ceramic tiles, the artwork was in dusty boxes, and during the next four years Bronwyn set out to restore it. Replica tiles were created to fill the gaps left by 16 missing tiles, and the fully restored work was exhibited at City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi in 2018 before going to its new home in Takapuna Library.
E Mervyn Taylor was one of New Zealand’s most significant artists in the 1930s to the 1960s, and during his career he created 12 murals for notable New Zealand buildings. Some have been destroyed or are presumed lost, and of the eight surviving works, three are made of ceramic tiles. Bronwyn went on a quest to find his murals and subsequently edited a book about them called Wanted (Massey University Press, 2018), which mushroomed into the bigger project to find and record all our public artworks.
Since the 1990s councils throughout New Zealand have been developing public art policies, collections and maintenance plans in order to care for their civic art treasures.
“[This work] raised an issue where there is this whole history of public artworks that have been put in public spaces for the public good, and people are wondering what has happened to them. There’s a gap,’’ says Bronwyn.
Through their research on the works of E Mervyn Taylor, Sue and Bronwyn began an informal register – a move supported by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, which then partnered with the pair to contact all the local authorities to add their collections to the register. Massey University gave Sue and Bronwyn research funding to undertake road trips throughout Aotearoa to find and document more artworks.
The larger cities – Auckland, Dunedin and Wellington –have the most public artworks hailing from 1900 to 1999. But Sue and Bronwyn also visited regional areas and cities like Gisborne, Napier and Invercargill, where they found gems like Molly Macalister’s glass murals of children’s nursery rhymes at Gore Hospital.
In 1977 Colin McCahon designed colourful glass windows for MacKillop College in Rotorua (since amalgamated with Edmund Rice College to become John Paul College); the register currently has another four of his artworks.
“The purpose is to document these works, protect them and promote them so that the public become guardians of the work, and it’s also a call to action: tell us about the works from the 20th-century in your hometowns,’’ says Sue.
New Plymouth is particularly blessed with public art, thanks to artist Michael Smither, who was commissioned to paint two murals for the walls of St Joseph’s Catholic Church. He also sculpted the church’s Stations of the Cross artwork, which took three years to complete.
James Turkington (1895-1979) was a prolific mural artist who was commissioned to create murals for hair salons, cafés and motorcycle shops, along with government entities such as the Māori Land Court.
Sadly, although he created hundreds of artworks in almost every town in New Zealand, many have been destroyed or painted over. His remaining public works listed on the register include a mural at the Parnell Baths (1957), glass works at the Devonport Naval Base (1958), the ‘Wahine’ work at Wellington Museum and a mural for the Rotorua Land Court building. One that was formerly in a rugby club was recently found in a basement; it will be rescued and documented.
“Others may still exist, hidden behind walls,’’ Bronwyn says. A Roy Cowan work is hidden behind a wall in a building on Featherston Street in Wellington. In 1972 the potter and artist, of Ngāpuhi and Te Atiawa descent, was commissioned to create the large mural out of colourful ceramic tiles. However, the mural was twice covered over as part of lobby and building refurbishments in 2008 and 2017.
“This is a good example of what we need to do to raise awareness of these works and to try to protect them,” says Sue. “It’s a fabulous work, which should be seen.’’
To learn more about our public art heritage, view our video story here: youtube.com/HeritageNewZealand PouhereTaonga
