Hidden Light:
IMAGE ABOVE LEFT Alfred C. Barker, Mary Emma Barker, 1859. Digital print from glass plate collodion negative. Canterbury Museum IMAGE ABOVE RIGHT This stereoscopic photograph (3D) by Steffano Webb(1880 – 1967) was exhibited in a large photography exhibition at the Canterbury Society of Arts’ Durham Street Gallery in September 1894. Two boys at the Kumara Races collect money with their blind father, having also lost an arm from a mining accident. Steffano F. Webb, Jack and Rudolph Lousich collecting donations for their father Louis, in Kumara, c.1897. Stereoscopic photograph from glass plate negative. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.
Photographs that were never black or white ‘You could write a whole chapter for many photographs in the show,’ says exhibition curator Ken Hall, about Hidden Light: Early Canterbury and West Coast Photography, a survey of 19th century photography at the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu. ‘At every turn important things were turning up that just haven’t been looked at previously.’ Hidden Light has its ample share of surprises and ‘firsts’: the earliest record of a woman photographer in Aotearoa New Zealand, as well as compelling evidence of New Zealand’s first photograph being taken in Akaroa. Currently, the official year for this milestone is 1848, but Hall maintains it may have been as early as January 1842, only 3 years after inventor Louis Daguerre revealed his daguerreotype (the earliest successful photographic process) to the French Academy of Sciences in Paris. A charcoal portrait of Ngāi Tahu chief, Hone Tikao by aspiring French artist Charles Meryon (1821 – 1868) was, according to the artist, based on a daguerreotype that he worked from in France in 1846. Hall raises the possibility of Meryon’s photographic source being taken in Akaroa in 1842 by visiting French businessman Didier Joubert who is associated with the first daguerreotype in Sydney in 1841. Another ‘first,’ is the earliest dating of a women photographer working in New Zealand. Hall says it was Jane Smith who arrived in Canterbury in 1859 with husband Richard Smith, a photographer/artist and plumber from Derby. Together they set up a studio in Christchurch and from 1864 Jane was running it, 2 years prior to the present acknowledgment (her work has still to surface), of woman photographers working in New Zealand.
Although it would not have occurred to the photographers in Hidden Light in the mid-19th century, their work possesses a 20th century modernity, and is revolutionary for its time (1850s to 1890s), immediately evident in its varied subjects. Architecture, scientific discoveries, the geography of the landscape, exploration, portraiture and traditions of the fine arts, cumulatively divulge the generosity of Victorian thinking, classifying and documenting their experiences of the world, conscious of a robust relationship between science and the arts. Drawing upon numerous public collections (including the Canterbury Museum, The Hocken and Te Papa Tongarewa), Hidden Light also includes works from private collections that equally make a critical contribution. Christchurch collector Barry Hancox plays a key role through the many works he has loaned. He maintains that 19th century photography is about image making that has always had power and authority. His interest diminishes in it towards the end of the century. ‘It becomes something else, more commercial, more self-aware. It moves in new directions. By the 1890s you get “pictorialism.” Style becomes the issue and you get what is called “black and white.” Earlier 19th century photographs were never black and white. They have this rich tonal quality.’ Both Hancox and Hall rate colonial amateur Christchurch photographer Alfred C. Barker (1819 – 1873). Hall says that Barker honed his skills quickly over a period of two years. ‘His earliest dated photograph is 1857, a view outside the Canterbury Land Office. It’s quite basic, but very soon he is getting really good. In his 1859 portrait of his daughter,
Mary Emma Barker there is a genuine sense of space and volume around the figure. Barker is really interested in his family, but also in being an historian, documenting and dating everything. He wanted to record his world before it all changed - and it was changing rapidly.’ Hall and Hancox also draw attention to the spirit of colonial photography, during a period of rapid change, and typically, the transitory nature of a photographer’s life. Hancox says that they constantly moved about. ‘Things didn’t really settle down until the 1880s. One minute they are in Dunedin, the next in Christchurch, and they pop up on the West Coast. They open a studio for three months and then close it down. They are asking themselves; where are the most commercial conducive opportunities?’ Hall singles out Daniel Mundy (1826/27 – 1881) as a favourite photographer, an individual ‘really big on exhibiting his work and making exhibition prints.’ Hancox’s collection includes an extensive counter-album of Mundy’s photographs from his Christchurch shop. ‘If you were a buyer of photographs you would have said: “What have you got?” He and his wife would have said: “Look through this album and make your selection.” It has examples of all the stuff that Mundy considered commercial enough to offer to customers.’ He also maintains that an important reason for these photographs was to ‘send them home, back to Britain, to encourage immigration but, more importantly, to encourage investment. The absentee investor in the UK wanted to know what was going on with their money and these photographs communicated with existing or potential investors. Mundy was very aggressive in his marketing and salesmanship and very successful.’ CONTINUES OVER PAGE
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CONTINUED FROM COVER PAGE Similarly, Christchurch photographer Edmund Wheeler (1842 – 1833), published a photographic album, Some Representative Sheep Farms in Canterbury and Neighbourhood, (1888) documenting wool sheds, shearing and farms, recommending his gold-leaf leather bound album of photographs as an ‘inducement to the better classes of intending Colonists.’ Hancox names Edward P. Sealy (1839 – 1903) as his ‘favourite of all Canterbury photographers, a government surveyor who roamed South Canterbury and even went up to Gore Bay, spending months out in the bush. He amused himself with a camera. He started in 1865 and more or less gave it up by 1870. In photographic terms it is like a meteor across the sky and then it’s exhausted. He travelled with Haast, down to Mount Cook and the Tasman Glacier.’ Sealy was the first to photograph Aoraki (Mount Cook) in 1869. ‘He may have well had to wait for days to get that. It is relatively unknown and it deserves to be better known. He is very important in the history of New Zealand photography and also in international terms. One of the things that you get with his stuff that you don’t with other photographers is this unmodified landscape. He is first on the ground everywhere.’ Hall notes that Sealy’s photographs, like most in Hidden Light, have not been exhibited since the 19th century. ‘It just hasn’t been given the attention it deserves and will continue to deserve.’ Hidden Light: Early Canterbury and West Coast Photography Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu curated by Ken Hall 2 February to 25 August 2019 IMAGE ABOVE Edward P. Sealy, Waimakariri Gorge, 1869. Albumen print. Barry Hancox collection IMAGE LEFT Edmund R. Wheeler Wool Sorting, Horsley Down, Canterbury, c.1885. Albumen print. Private collection, Christchurch
Exporting Paint Reuben Woods
Christchurch’s reputation as a ‘street art destination’ reflects something of a dichotomy; works by visiting artists are often offered as symbols of the city’s cultural status, but the diverse work of local artists adds a dynamic state of flux to the landscape. Amongst the rolodex of international superstars found on the city’s walls over the last six years, ROA, Tilt, Telmo Miel, and Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada providing a small sample, it is important to recognise the city’s homegrown talent. If the number of works by visiting artists across the cityscape represents the global mobility of contemporary urban artists, it is worth considering the comparative trajectory of local artists. While the flood of often anonymous additions to the more immediate post-quake landscape were resonant and revealing, they pro-
vided a different comparison to the emerging big wall murals, less interested in entry to any cultural pantheon. But the examples of Jacob Yikes, Wongi Wilson, and Ikarus, as well as a number of newer emerging talents, have ensured a recognisable local contingent of urban artists to celebrate, and reputations extending outside of the city limits. Yikes, Wilson and Ikarus each served as headline artists for the Rise and Spectrum festivals between 2013 and 2016, positioned alongside prominent visiting artists. Since then, they have also featured in various events around New Zealand. Yikes and Wilson were part of Oi YOU!’s Paradox event in Tauranga in 2017. In October 2018, Wongi was invited to Napier’s Graffiato, New Zealand’s longest running urban art festival. In December the same year, Ikarus and Yikes were in Riverton for South Sea Spray alongside some of
Arts Canterbury Reviews its Vision for Christchurch and Canterbury Artists: Over the past two years, the charitable trust, Arts Canterbury, (established to promote and profile Canterbury arts and culture), has undergone a major review of its goals and ambitions to better meet the needs of its artist members. Key activities remain the range of annual shows, encompassing juried exhibitions at spaces like Windsor Gallery, and cash-and-
carry shows, (in 2018 well supported by the public at the Dianna Isaac Retirement Village), and negotiated opportunities to display work in public spaces. New levels of support for membership now encompass seminars and workshops that, in 2018, included designing a website. In 2019 an important seminar that addresses a problem facing many artists is scheduled; the question of intellectual property. It aims to increase understanding of this
IMAGE ABOVE Jacob Yikes, mural for South Sea Spray, Riverton, December 2018, courtesy of the artist
Aotearoa’s finest mural and urban art talent. However, the apparent next step, gaining more global exposure, brings challenges. Diving into the international street art mural circuit, a constantly increasing field is a big decision. It entails a lot of sacrifice, travel and commitment to deal with things not going to plans, often for little financial gain. As such not all artists can, or desire to, prioritise such a path. Yet, it is also the nature
of urban art’s global evolution and provides an opportunity to gain experiences that might otherwise prove inaccessible. Christchurch has provided a fascinating landscape for urban art to blossom, perhaps the next step is for some of the city’s local talent to export themselves - and gain recognition outside of the shaky isles amidst the truly global network of urban art.
complex issue of the ownership of an artist’s ideas and images. Other workshops include framing and documenting works through photography. In addition to the annual Artists of Canterbury Guide, which provides members with the opportunity to profile their work and studios, galleries and arts services throughout Canterbury are also listed. The Guide is complemented by a Facebook page, a service open
to, and used extensively by, membership, offering information, support and feedback. Informal groups frequently arise in response to particular needs through social media contacts. Membership has increased significantly over the past year, and more information is available at: https://www.artscanterbury.org. nz/ or: Vivienne Davison: admin@artscanterbury.org.nz
At the Galleries ‘In a methodological sense, I am very ambitious about inventing something new out of every picture I worked on.’ Artist Gavin Chai Character Study: the figure in action and inaction works by Nigel Wilson, Philip Beadle, Quillian Collister and Gavin Chai Arts in Oxford Gallery ‘Finding Home is born out of my own experiences finding connection in New Zealand after moving here from Cape Town. I worked with 6 migrants from diverse backgrounds, from Japan to Serbia, to produce 12 images that attempt to illustrate their stories of connection.’ Finding Home by Deni Archer Art on the Quay, Kaiapoi
‘I would rather people not notice the paint but feel the dirt, feel the earth or fire or water or whatever, rather than the paint.’ Euan Macleod on viewing his paintings. Autumn Group Show: Philippa Blair, Darryn George, W.D.Hammond, Julia Holden, Euan Macleod, Terry Stringer PGgallery192
IMAGE CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE LEFT Susan Badcock, Bath Sponge 1, HandColoured Photograph, 78x55cm, Susan Badcock Gallery. Sam Mahon, Patience, 2018, bronze and steel, NZArtbroker. Gavin Chai, Stand Alone, oil on Linen, 2018. Courtesy of the artist and Arts in Oxford Gallery. Euan Macleod, Church Bay (with Letter Boxes), 2017, PGgallery192. Tyne Gordon, 3-2 Zone, acrylic on board 200 x 250mm, 2019, Ilam Campus Gallery. Deni Archer, Migrant Padma, Art on the Quay, Kaiapoi
‘In an increasingly reckless society enamoured by consumption and waste, our children face an uncertain future. Yet they bear our burdens and carry our glut with wisdom and dignity beyond their years.’ Forever Young - Portraits of my Daughter, Susan Badcock Susan Badcock Gallery
A new work by North Canterbury sculptor Sam Mahon offering principles and guid‘In Double Dribble, fictional spaces and ance about fishing and human behaviour. forms are in a constant flux, dissolving and Stock show, emerging, decomposing and regenerating.’ NZArtbroker, CHCH Double Dribble, Tyne Gordon Ilam Campus Gallery
Absolution Martin Sagadin, Dead Nettle until 2 Apr Arts Centre, 2 Worcester Blvd, CHCH, Mon-Sun 10 – 6pm | Aigantighe Gallery Michael Deavoll, Risen (new relief sculpture from discarded remnants) until 10 Mar Hanna Shim, Smer Smern (fabric and soft fibre sculpture) 16 Mar – 5 May Madeliene Child, Neither Fish Nor Flesh Nor Good Red Herring 9 Mar – 28 Apr The Salon until 28 Apr 49 Wai-Iti Rd, Maori Hill, Timaru, Tue-Fri 10 – 4pm Sat-Sun 12 – 4pm | Art on the Quay ‘Finding Home by Deni Archer - Stories of connection and belonging,’ photographic exhibition, stories of migrants to New Zealand until 20 Mar Nature Photography Society of New Zealand, Weather 21 Mar – 1 May 176 Williams Street, Kaiapoi, Mon-Wed, Fri 9 – 5pm, Thu to 9pm, Sat 10 – 2pm, Sun 1 – 4pm | Arts in Oxford Character Study: the figure in action and inaction, works by Nigel Wilson, Philip Beadle, Quillian Collister and Gavin Chai 9 Mar – 14 Apr Main Street Oxford, Tue-Sun 10 – 4pm | Ashburton Art Gallery Zonta Ashburton Female Art Award 2019 until 7 Apr Tony Bond, Croactus until Mar Group show (film works), Truth or Consequences until 28 Apr 327 West St, Ashburton, Mon-Sun 10 – 4pm, Wed to 7pm |Bryce Gallery Artists include Trevor Askin, Adele Souster and Patterson Parkin until 31 Mar 21 Paeroa St, Riccarton, Mon-Fri 10-5pm Sat-Sun 10-4pm | Canterbury Museum Dogs in Antarctica until 10 Mar Hannah Beehre, Tunnel (2018) an emersive entrance to an exhibition until 3 Jun Kura Pounamu: Our Treasured Stone until 3 Jun Rolleston Avenue, CHCH, Mon-Sun 9 – 5pm | Chamber Gallery Rangiora Julie Humby, A Life Less Ordinary until 28 Mar 141 Percival Street, Rangiora, Mon-Sat 9 – 5pm | Chambers Gallery Gareth Brighton, Until Your Room is Ready 6 –23 Mar 241 Moorhouse Ave, CHCH, Tue-Thu 11 – 5.30pm, Fri 11 – 5pm, Sat 11 – 2pm | Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu Simon Denny, The Founder’s Paradox until 28 Apr Trusttum: Just a Glimpse until 28 Apr Hidden Light: Early Canterbury and West Coast Photography until 18 Aug We do This. Group exhibition until 29 May Eileen Mayo, Nature, Art and Poetry until 9 Jun Julia Morison, Headcase until 14 Jul Cnr Worcester Boulevard & Montreal Street, CHCH, Mon-Sun 10 – 5pm Wed 10 – 9pm | City Art Depot Francis van Hout, Green Field Gray Field until 11 Mar Ed Lust, Choke 19 Mar – 8 Apr 96 Disraeli St, Sydenham, CHCH, Mon-Fri 8.30 – 5pm, Sat 10 – 2pm | CoCA Toi Moroki Mitchell Bright, Cultivated until 18 Mar Viv Wotton, … Lost in Aotearoa until 17 Mar Emma Wallbanks, As Other, Original Unknown until 17 Mar Matthew Galloway, The Freedom of the Migrant 30 Mar – 9 Jun Roy Good, Parallel Universe 30 Mar – 12 May 66 Gloucester St, CHCH, Tue-Sun 10-5pm | Eastside Gallery Maree Cole, Gina Hubert and Frithjof Moritzen, Unveiled 25 Mar – 6 Apr Tahlia King, Shift, and Marlies Geesink, Landscapes 11 – 23 Mar 388 Worcester St, Linwood, CHCH, Mon-Fri 11 – 4pm, Sat 12 – 3pm | Fiksate Joel Hart, Dopamine 15 Mar – Apr 165 Gloucester St, CHCH, Mon-Fri 7 – 3pm | Fo
Guang Yuan Art Gallery Umemura Collection of Japanese Scrolls until 17 Mar Sacred Art, paintings by Nemesh, David Arkenstone Barnett, Sandra McAlpine, Jonny Bear & Students until 7 April Ros Beck, Liquidity In Motion, paintings 18 Mar – 23 Jun 2 Harakeke Street, Riccarton Tue-Sun 9 – 4pm | Form Gallery Tatyanna Meharry, Materials: Holiday, ceramics 6 – 26 Mar 468 Colombo St, Sydenham, CHCH, Tue-Sat 10 – 5pm | Heart & Soul Painting, craft and photography until 31 Mar 34 New Regent Street Mon-Thu 10 – 5pm Fri-Sat 10 – 6pm | Ilam Campus Gallery Tyne Gordon, Double Dribble until 22 Mar Fine Arts Ln, off Clyde Rd, Ilam, CHCH, Mon-Fri 9 – 4pm | Jonathan Smart Gallery Sanjay Theodore, A Dictionary of Sanjay’s Modern Painting until 9 Mar Kristy Gorman Mar – Apr 52 Buchan Street, Sydenham, CHCH, Wed-Fri 11 – 5pm Sat 11 – 3pm | Nadene Milne Gallery Max Gimblett, Asia & the Pacific until 15 Mar 10 Bath Street, CHCH, Tue-Sat 10 – 5pm | NEXT Vivienne Murchison, (Masters Exhibition) until 6 Mar 336 St Asaph Street, CHCH, Tue-Fri 12 – 4pm | NZ Artbroker NZ artists, including Yuk King Tan, Julia Morison and Alison Erickson until 31 Mar 241 Moorhouse Avenue, CHCH, Wed-Sat 11 – 3pm | PGgallery 192 Viv Kepes, Remember Me and Chris Pole, Relative Locations until 15 Mar Autumn Group Show: Philippa Blair, Darryn George, W.D.Hammond, Julia Holden, Euan Macleod, Terry Stringer 19 Mar – 5 Apr 192 Bealey Avenue, CHCH, Tue-Fri 10.30 – 5pm, Sat 10.30 – 2pm | Pūmanawa Community Gallery Birds of a Feather Art Exhibition 4 – 10 Mar Arts Centre, 2 Worcester Blvd, CHCH, Tue-Sun 10 – 5pm | Selwyn Gallery Work by selected members, Ashburton Society of Arts Until 28 Mar 17 South Terrace, Darfield, TueSun 10 – 4pm | Susan Badcock Studio Susan Badcock, Forever Young - Portraits of my Daughter, Hand-Coloured Photographs until 31 Mar John Badcock, Life Studies - Charcoal on Paper until 31 Mar 47 Talbot St, Geraldine, Tue-Sat 10 – 2pm | Te Pito Huarewa/Southbase Gallery Tūranga Kā Huru Manu (The Ngāi Tahu Cultural Mapping Project) until 28 Apr 60 Cathedral Square CHCH Mon-Fri 8am – 8pm SatSun 10 – 5pm | The Anchorage Exhibition programme curated by KinartCHC until 31 Mar 4 Walker Street, CHCH, Mon-Fri 7 – 4pm Sat 10 – 1pm | The Central Neil Dawson 7 Mar – 7 Apr Arts Centre, 2 Worcester Blvd, CHCH, Tue-Sun 10 – 5pm | The Little River Gallery John Emery, Flora, Fauna & Fabrications until 6 Mar Lisa Grennell (paintings and prints) 9 Mar – 3 Apr Christchurch Akaroa Rd, Little River, Mon-Sun 9 – 5.30pm | The National Julie Blyfield (silversmith) and Kirstin Coelho (ceramicist), ORMOLU until 9 Mar 249 Moorhouse Avenue, CHCH, Tue-Fri 10.30 – 5.30pm, Sat 10.30 – 4pm | The Physics Room Tui Harrington, Hey māmā, come play with me until 31 Mar 49-59 Worcester Blvd, CHCH, Tue-Fri 10 – 5pm Wed 10am – 9pm | Windsor Gallery 35 artists+ 100 changing artworks, including Joel Hart, Rhonye McIlroy, Mike Glover and Sue Syme Until 31 Mar 386 St Asaph St, CHCH, Mon-Fri 9 – 5pm Sat 10 – 1pm
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Kura Pounamu: Our Treasured Stone Andrew Paul Wood
IMAGE ABOVE Kura Pounamu: Our Treasured Stone, courtesy of the Canterbury Museum IMAGE BELOW Jonathan Waters, Mickey Mouse, mixed media on custom cut board, courtesy of the artist and Kin Art
Canterbury Museum is currently host to Kura Pounamu: Our Treasured Stone, a summer blockbuster put together by Te Papa and Ngāi Tahu, and it is absolutely a must see. It’s wonderfully comprehensive, explaining the geological origins and types of pounamu and showcasing examples of the art of its carving from toki (adzes) dating back eight or nine centuries and from the earliest days of Polynesian settlement to contemporary pieces. It’s an opportunity to familiarise yourself with the different types of pounamu – the more wellknown and traditional green stones of kahurangi and kawakawa, the gold-flecked kokopu that has more recently become popular with carvers, and my favourite, the milky and translucent inanga, to name but a few, encompassing nephrites, jades and serpentines. It can be a little overwhelming to have such a rich density of exquisite Māori taonga in one place, more than 200 pieces, seeing the sophistication of its forms evolving over time. This is particularly evident in a display wall of various hei tiki, but applies to all the taonga in the show, and ultimately it’s an absolute joy to share space and time with. Pounamu carving being such a tactile art form, the impulse may be satisfied by one of
the four touch stones, the largest of which, “Te Hurika,” weighs in at a hefty 170kg. Naturally an exhibition of this type is of great significance to Ōtautahi Christchurch, and Te Wai Pounamu, the South Island, as a whole. Generations of Ngāi Tahu crossed the Southern Alps to the pounamu beds of Te Tai o Poutini, the West Coast to trade with other iwi. Previously on display in Wellington at Te Papa from 2009 to 2011, and touring to China and France, here it takes on a new iteration with the addition of a section focussed on the role of Waitaha, Canterbury, Kaiapoi Pā and Te Tai o Poutini in the pounamu trade. Of particular interest is the Te Aika hei tiki, a rare survivor from the sacking of Kaiapoi Pā by Ngāti Toa in 1831 and one of the earliest known hei tiki carved in the South Island. This is the start of a lineage that leads to a piece like the hei tiki carved in 2008 by Lewis Tamihana Gardiner of Ngāi Tahu, Te Arawa, Ngāti Awa, and Te Whānaua-Apanui. The carving of pounamu is an art that is paradoxically ancient, contemporary, and timelessly eternal. Kura Pounamu: Our Treasured Stone Until 3 June Canterbury Museum Rolleston Avenue
Mitchell Bright, Cultivated Lucy Ovenden
Jonathan Waters, Dizney Dreamz Warren Feeney
Jonathan Waters is a Dunedin-based artist with close connections to Ōtautahi Christchurch as a 2011 graduate in Visual Communication from Ara School of Art and Design (previously CPIT). Dizney Dreamz is his first solo exhibition in Christchurch and in its connections to street art, underground comics, film, painting and sculpture it is an assured exhibition, the artist confidently versed in a range of disciplines. Dizney Dreamz has a certainty, evident in the warmth of its humour and its weird and well-crafted anarchy. And in the selected Walt Disney cartoon personalities that it pays homage to, there is also an undercurrent of seriousness, touched upon by the evident dilemma of the multiple personalities, fighting for control of the incessantly mutating anatomies of its figures; Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Daisy Duck, et al. And then there is Waters’ paint on plywood as a subject in itself. Undoubtedly, Waters’ practice is grounded in a history of late 20 th century graphics, yet the surfaces of his works are about the materiality of paint, subtly and impulsively sprayed over thickly layered pigmented surfaces.
To his credit, Waters is also an artist who appears to have also grown up on a diet of Ridley Scott’s Alien movies - whether Donald or Daisy Duck, all the subjects of Dizney Dreamz, are inhabited by a multitude of personalities and emotions. Yet, in a wider context, there is an attitude to Waters’ treatment of the figure that traces Dizney Dreamz directly back to American underground comic book artist Robert Crumb - A purposeful denigrating of the human form and an admission of the eccentricity of its behaviours. It is an approach and response by Waters to his subjects that makes Dizney Dreamz worthy of attention. The “doyen of art critics” Robert Hughes (1938-2012), maintained that Crumb was the Hieronymus Bosch of the 20th century (the last great medieval thinker) and Dizney Dreamz shares something of the Dutch artist’s strange medieval crankiness and spirit as well. Jonathan Waters, Dizney Dreamz 25 January – 23 February The Anchorage 4 Walker Street
The Christchurch earthquakes caused a dramatic redistribution of the city’s population. While eastern suburbs like Bexley reverted to swamp, small agricultural towns suffered exponential growth. Mitchell Bright’s Cultivated, documents the remodelling of this landscape, investigating the building of CSM2; an extension to the southern motorway that stretches from Rolleston to Halswell-Junction Road. Bright has recorded, not only the motorway, but the subdivisions nestled alongside it: Wigram, Halswell, Yaldhurst, Lincoln and Rolleston. Standing at the top of the steps leading into CoCA’s ground floor gallery, the viewer is greeted by the word Cultivated. The title is a clever play on words alongside a photograph of a cereal crop, fenced in by a grassy roadside, a macrocarpa hedge and well-established trees in the background. Historically Cantabrians have cultivated the land and pastures; but moving into the gallery space it becomes clear that we are now cultivating something else. Coles Fields Residential Development, Formerly 1535 Main South Road, Rolleston is a panoramic tetraptych. A hedge through the first three images morphs into a mass of roofs in the fourth; similarly a collection of heavy machinery enlarges the area of bare ground until the fourth image, in which a spec-home appears in its centre. Photographs of relinquished residential fences and gates where piles of topsoil and gravel replace once-loved homes are contrasted against
the ‘finished product’ - a new concrete tennis court, freshly sown grass on a Flemington section and an overgrown roadside, bordering neatly fenced plots. Somehow new, old, and incomplete all feel abandoned. Cultivated does not evoke the mood of a fresh start or an emerging community. Blue skies and green vegetation are present but it does not feel like human life. Instead, Bright depicts a world of halted progress, more like demolition than construction, almost to the point of a post-disasteratmosphere – I’m not sure whether that is on purpose or accident, ironic or just the simple truth. Nature fights to prevail over concrete and gravel, while Wigram’s retirement village lends itself further towards the post-war Middle East than a Ryman Healthcare advertisement. Bright’s titles read as captions rather than names and are easy to imagine gracing a resource consent application. However, they may also be an attempt by the artist to distance himself from these works, removing any emotional bias he may hold towards a district that has openly been disclosed as his home. Mitchel Bright, Cultivated 26 January – 17 March CoCA Toi Moroki, Centre of Contemporary Art 66 Gloucester Street
Kā Huru Manu Ngāi Tahu’s Cultural Mapping Project Tūranga’s gallery in the central city library opened its second exhibition in January, Kā Huru Manu. It is the immediate outcome of almost 40 years of research and discovery by Ngāi Tahu identifying and mapping the traditional Māori place names of Te Waipounamu (South Island). The exhibition of the project at Tūranga includes hands-on activities and original historical documents, 19th century letters and notebooks, providing an informative background to reasons for the exhibition and the website’s significance (see: http://www.kahurumanu.co.nz/). Mapping the location of 5,000 placenames in Māori, for many visitors to the gallery, it will be like seeing the landscape of Te Waipounamu for the very first time. Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu Archives Manager, Takerei Norton describes the project as ‘establishing a foundation that the next generation will work on.’ He says that for him it began almost ten years ago when he was working for the Ngāi Tahu environment team assisting Papatipu Rūnaka to protect sites of cultural significance. ‘One of the issues that I had was that I didn’t really know where the sites were. So a small group of kaumātua (elders) decided to begin mapping sites on our tribal Geographical Information System (GIS) using their private collections. Eventually the project grew to cover the entire Ngāi Tahu rohe (area). What I came to realise was that they always wanted to undertake a project of this nature but never had the resources or technology to do so, and this was the best avenue to realise this long-held aspiration.’ ‘In that sense it is a truly inter-generational project, stretching back to the work of these kaumātua and the Ngaitahu Maori Trust Board preparing evidence for the Waitangi Tribunal in the 1980s. Although we have mapped about 5,000 traditional Māori place-names, this shouldn’t be seen as nearing the finishing line, but instead establishing the foundation for future generations to build upon.’ ‘Generally speaking our people have used pub-
lished resources written by Pākehā historians, but where possible we have gone back to the original Ngāi Tahu information sources, with many of these on public display for the very first time.’ Norton mentions Johannes Andersen’s 1927 publication Place-Names of Banks Peninsula as a prime example. Andersen worked for the Department of Lands and Survey and collected Māori place names, not by travelling throughout Te Waipounamu, but getting others to do so. ‘In 1908 Henry Dawson, the local postmaster at Akaroa, sent Andersen a 10-page list of Māori place-names for Banks Peninsula and the most detailed map of Māori place-names in Akaroa Harbour drawn by well-known Ngāi Tahu leader Teone Taare Tikao. This information was used by Andersen in his book, but we only rediscovered this material a few years ago in Andersen’s personal papers at the Auckland War Memorial Museum. While there we also found two other maps that weren’t previously known about. All of this information is now on public display for the first time in our exhibition, and it is great that we are able to help bring these maps back to life.’ Other maps on display include a map of the Māori place-names for Christchurch waterways, a map of the place-names of the Waitaki River, and a map of Māori place-names from Central Otago to the Rakaia River drawn in 1898 from information provided by well-known Ngāi Tahu leader Rāwiri Te Maire. ‘This project is as much about putting our footprint back on Te Waipounamu. Our traditional place-names have been obliterated from the official maps of New Zealand, and Kā Huru Manu is about reasserting our place-names back over the landscape and making this knowledge more available to all New Zealanders.’ Kā Huru Manu (Ngāi Tahu Cultural Mapping Project) Until 28 April Te Pito Huarewa/Southbase Gallery, Tūranga. 60 Cathedral Square
IMAGE ABOVE This is part of a map of Māori place-names from Lake Wānaka to Rakaia based on information provided by the well-known Ngāi Tahu leader Rāwiri Te Maire to Canterbury District Surveyor Thomas Noel Brodrick in 1898. Archives New Zealand, AAFV 997 62 G298 IMAGE INSET Ōtūroro is the Māori name for Lake Heron located at Ōtūwharekai (Ashburton Lakes). This was one of the many traditional Māori place-names recorded by Ngāi Tahu leader Rāwiri Te Maire in 1898. Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu Collection, Ngāi Tahu Archive, 2014-103
Julie Humby, A Life Less Ordinary
In A Life Less Ordinary, Julie Humby explores the beauty of everyday objects in nature and the connection that we have with the natural world. The exhibition is comprised of objects of naturalia, artificialia, exotica and mirabilia displayed in a manner that references a ‘Cabinets of Curiosity,’ questioning accepted scientific classification systems in a post-disciplinary era, and purposefully encouraging uncertainty in the explanation of our relationship with nature and culture. The living world is not only immediately experienced but perceived, objects speak to each
IMAGE ABOVE Mitchell Bright, New grass, Flemington Residential Development, Looking South-East, Lincoln 2017 IMAGES ABOVE MIDDLE Founder of KinartCHC, Justin Ballass at The Anchorage ABOVE LEFT Christchurch artist Jonathon Waters exhibition installation, The Anchorage.
other and to us across time and space. “Humans do not stand outside of nature: we too, are animals, a part of the very thing we have tried to control…. Just as humanity cannot be said to stand outside of culture and society, we construct and are constructed by nature” Mark Dion, American conceptual artist A Life Less Ordinary, Julie Humby Until 28 March Chamber Gallery Rangiora
Director of The National in Munich
Caroline Billing’s gallery, The National has been selected to represent contemporary New Zealand jewellers in Munich at the prestigious art fair Frame - Schmuck in 2019. The National’s current exhibition, ORMOLU, (jewellery and ceramics by Julie Blyfield & Kirsten Coelho is on until 9 March and The National then closed from 10 to 26 March
IMAGE RIGHT Julie Humby, Naming Nature, 2018
What is KinArtCHC and who is behind it? Set up nearly 2 years ago out of a love for contemporary art and wanting to be involved, Justin Bellass, after investigating the concept of an art space in central Christchurch, decided that the traditional model was uneconomical in the post-earthquake city. Having a good working relationship with Ed Turner, one of the owners of The Anchorage, they decided
on a model that embraced new, up and coming artists with recent graduates and established artists. The concept was born of a programme of artists, showing for 4 or 5 weeks with accompanying opening evenings. Using Facebook, Instagram and word of mouth this concept has been well received. The ethos – Keep it simple, embrace the artist
and enjoy. Now at other locations, KinArtCHC has developed a reputation for quality art by the next generation and can be seen at: The Anchorage, Native Café, Coffee Embassy, Junk and Disorderly and selected works at the Sebel Gallery. Watch this space and follow KinartCHC on Instagram to see where Justin Bellass’ project goes next.
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Hei tiki (pendant in human form). Te Aika whānau, Ngāi Tūāhuriri, Ngāi Tahu. Photograph: Maarten Holl, Te Papa Exhibition presented by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu