Tuhinga 32, 2021
Our current issue of Tuhinga. Topics include contemporary feminist museology, a newly naturalised tree, Virgin in a Condom, and interactive data visualisation in museums.
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Contents
The tools women use: the Women’s Gallery, Suffrage 125 and contemporary feminist museology
by Bethany Gwynne
How true to nature is Eugene von Guérard’s Lake Wakatipu with Mount Earnslaw, Middle Island, New Zealand?
by George Hook
Lomatia fraseri (Proteaceae), an Australian tree newly documented as naturalised in New Zealand
by Leon Perrie and Lara Shepherd
South American and Trinidadian terrestrial Gastropoda in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
by Rodrigo B. Salvador, Alina Wahab, Nicole E. Phillips, and Abraham S.H. Breure
Virgin in a Condom: Te Papa’s baptism by fire
by Mark Stocker
Gordon Crook: the pastel triptychs
by Peter Stupples
He Iwi Rū | Quake Nation: effective interactive data visualisation in the museum
by Michael Upchurch
After Rembrandt: reconsidering restrikes, reworkings and copies in New Zealand’s public collections
by Chance Wilson
The tools women use: the Women’s Gallery, Suffrage 125 and contemporary feminist museology
Bethany Gwynne
This article provides case studies of the Wellington Women’s Gallery and the Suffrage 125 commemorations at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and wider Wellington, thereby exploring the concept and implementation of feminist museology as it manifests in the capital city. Each case study investigates the various items, contributors and accompanying programmes that have been used to continue the struggle for gender equality, as practised within the galleries, libraries, archives and museums sector. By examining these exhibitions, their themes and their content, the article reflects on the tools that have been used in the history of feminism, and how – despite the progress of suffragism and feminism – gender inequality remains an ongoing issue. It concludes by stating that these two case studies were more than just commemorations of the struggle for gender equality, and should be understood as feminist acts in and of themselves.
How true to nature is Eugene von Guérard’s Lake Wakatipu with Mount Earnslaw, Middle Island, New Zealand?
George Hook
This article investigates Eugene von Guérard’s claim that his Lake Wakatipu painting (1877–79) was ‘as true to nature as far as possible’ by examining the extent to which its features are faithful to the view at the site; to the geography, geomorphology, geology, ecology and botany of the location; and to the conditions experienced on the day of his visit. Critical to this fidelity analysis is determining the location from which the artist sketched the views on which the painting is based. His moving vantage point resulted in some features being portrayed from different perspectives. This raises some geographical fidelity issues, although the painting was not intended to be a composite work per se. Despite heightening peaks and steepening slopes for compositional purposes, the work exhibits a high degree of fidelity to many aspects of the landscape and to the natural history of the Wakatipu Basin, particularly when compared with historical photographs in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Von Guérard’s limited familiarity with the geology and flora of the region did, however, result in a few inaccuracies. The article includes a discussion of the historical fidelity of the painting relating to pounamu (greenstone) sourced in the surrounding mountains, and concludes with the affirmation the artist received from the scientist Julius von Haast.
Lomatia fraseri (Proteaceae), an Australian tree newly documented as naturalised in New Zealand
Leon Perrie and Lara Shepherd
The Australian tree Lomatia fraseri was recently reported as naturalised on ‘Mowlem Ridge’, near Wainuiomata in the Wellington region of the North Island of New Zealand. Here, we provide more details about this discovery and the presence of the species in New Zealand. The identification of these plants as L. fraseri is supported by the abundant hairs on the underside of the leaves (although these are absent in some plants), hairy flower tepals (also absent in some plants) and the narrowly ovate or narrowly elliptic, dentate leaves of the adults. Occasional juveniles have pinnatifid rather than the usual unlobed leaves, a variation consistent with Australian reports. Lomatia fraseri clearly fulfils the criteria for the Naturalised category in New Zealand. It is intensively established on Mowlem Ridge, where many thousands of plants extend over more than 2 km on a ridgeline firebreak through regenerating forest dominated by Leptospermum scoparium (m.nuka). Scattered plants have also been found at least 2.5 km to the east. In addition, self-sown seedlings of L. fraseri have been reported near Christchurch in the South Island. Currently, the Wainuiomata population of L. fraseri is not being actively controlled. We suggest this may be regretted given that L. fraseri has the potential to establish widely throughout New Zealand, based on its demonstrated invasiveness and its broad indigenous distribution in southeastern Australia. Furthermore, that L. fraseri remained undetected for long enough to become so well established, despite being so close to a major population centre and being an utterly distinctive tree, raises the question of whether governmental agencies should be doing more biosecurity surveillance.
South American and Trinidadian terrestrial Gastropoda in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Rodrigo B. Salvador, Alina Wahab, Nicole E. Phillips, and Abraham S.H. Breure
Despite its natural focus on the New Zealand region, the malacological collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (NMNZ), also includes a variety of specimens from elsewhere in the world, including a fair share of South American specimens. Examination of this material reveals valuable distributional data for several species, as well as previously unreported type material. This article examines and reidentifies all South American (and Trinidadian) gastropods from the NMNZ collection, excluding those from Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, which were analysed in a separate publication. All the information gathered is compiled and presented here as an annotated species checklist, including photographs of the most important specimens. In total, 91 species are reported. Paralectotypes of Neniops smithiae (Pilsbry, 1902) (from the private collection of zoologist Henry Suter (1841–1918)) were found in the NMNZ collection and are illustrated here.
Virgin in a Condom: Te Papa’s baptism by fire
Mark Stocker
Two weeks after the opening of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa) in February 1998, the British Council touring exhibition Pictura Britannica opened there in turn. It caused instant, deep and long-lasting controversy, largely due to two exhibits, Tania Kovats’s Virgin in a Condom (1992) and Sam Taylor-Wood’s Wrecked (1996). This article examines the controversy, particularly in regard to the former work, drawing extensively on the hundreds of letters sent to Te Papa from members of the public and subsequently lodged in the museum’s corporate records. The extensive press coverage is also examined; although critical of Te Papa’s handling of the exhibition, it generally opposed the removal of the two offending artworks. Two articles on the issue, by Jenny Harper and Justin Paton, receive close attention. The recollections of two pivotal Te Papa staff members at the time, Sue Superville and Ian Wedde, complement the account. Letters and phone calls from the public were overwhelmingly critical, often hostile. They convey a sense of insult and betrayal on the part of religious believers, many of whom had recently been excited by, and supportive of, Te Papa when it opened. Although numerous objections came from Catholics, other Christian denominations and religions were also widely represented. Correspondents supporting the museum often came from the art world, and several were practising Christians. They stressed the importance of freedom of expression and freedom from censorship, and admired the museum leadership for not capitulating to its critics. The response of Te Papa Chief Executive Cheryll Sotheran is analysed, particularly in her letter to Cardinal Tom Williams, an early and prominent complainant. Te Papa’s role as a forum for debate is discussed and its effectiveness here is questioned. The article concludes by observing that while Te Papa held out against its critics by exhibiting Pictura Britannica intact until its scheduled ending, the museum thereafter followed a more risk-averse policy. This is reflected in the fact that no significant exhibition of international contemporary art has been held there since.
Read ‘Virgin in a Condom: Te Papa’s baptism by fire’ on Collections Online
Gordon Crook: the pastel triptychs
Peter Stupples
Gordon Crook (1921–2011), a British textile artist who arrived in New Zealand in 1972 and settled in Wellington, became well known as a tapestry weaver and designer of decorative banners, as well as a silkscreen printer, before turning to pastel drawing in 1984–85. He created two suites of pastels, each ‘drawing’ consisting of three sheets of fine art paper pasted on watermarked paper on board. These were shown at two exhibitions in Wellington, one at the Janne Land Gallery (1985) and the second at the City Art Gallery (1986). They marked a sharp change of direction in his work, from cheerful and decorative to introspective and complex composite images of memory and feeling states. They are represented in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa collection by arguably the best of these drawings, Gymnasium. Crook did not turn to pastels again, but his work on these two suites served as the foundation for his collaged photographic prints of 1989, as well as the tapestries and prints of his Wolf-Man project of 1991. This paper is based on Crook’s voluminous correspondence archived in the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.
Read ‘Gordon Crook: the pastel triptychs’ on Collections Online
He Iwi Rū | Quake Nation: effective interactive data visualisation in the museum
Michael Upchurch
This paper looks at He Iwi Rū | Quake Nation, an interactive visualisation in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, as a case study for the practical application of interactive data visualisation in the museum space. It explores how the considerations that affect the concept and design development can impact the visitor, and vice versa (i.e. how considering the audiences can affect the exhibition development process); what the production, control and use of interactive data visualisations tell us about museum interpretation and the visitor as meaning maker; and how the general principles of museum and heritage interpretation apply to this particular example and medium. As just one part of the Whakarūaumoko | Active Land exhibition within the museum’s Te Taiao | Nature exhibition zone, Quake Nation demonstrates that well-visualised data can be used not only to tell and reveal stories, but also to invite personal interaction.
After Rembrandt: reconsidering restrikes, reworkings and copies in New Zealand’s public collections
Chance Wilson
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–69) is one of the most renowned printmakers in history. Although New Zealand public collections have acquired an estimated 118 genuine Rembrandt prints since 1869, they have been subject to little academic investigation and are often viewed through the lens of the artist’s printmaking practices. While valid, such investigations have consequently overlooked the history and significance of restrikes and reworkings, produced from his copperplates by other intervening hands, as well as copies of his prints. This article considers this subgenre, focusing on New Zealand holdings. It also questions how to best understand these works, and their relationships with ‘original’ impressions wholly executed by Rembrandt.