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Hero’s uniform

10 October 2012 – 2.25pm

Uniformity: Cracking the dress code  has just opened on level 4 of  Te Papa in the Eyelights Gallery.  This time we’ve focused on uniforms, the influence of uniforms on fashion, and elements of uniformity in the way people dress.

Lance Corporal Willie Apiata on duty in Afghanistan, 2004. Photograph courtesy of the New Zealand Army

A highlight of the exhibition is Corporal Willie Apiata, VC’s combat uniform from Afghanistan. Corporal Apiata helped us dress the mannequin, and the New Zealand Special Air Service made sure we got every detail right, including the weaponry which we’ve borrowed from a private collector.

It’s a first for Te Papa – to show a completely authentic soldier in active service mode. And it’s a great privilege to be able to tell Corporal Apiata’s story, as he is the first recipient of the Victoria Cross for New Zealand, our highest honour for bravery under fire.

Posted in Exhibitions, Fashion, History, Textiles | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (1)

Talking about art

5 April 2012 – 2.34pm

How does jewellery addess issues of identity? What’s the connection between a cruise ship and an ice skating rink? How does photography expose events from the past?  You can find the answers to these and other questions  in the video interviews with artists whose work features in  Collecting Contemporary .  Here’s a glimpse of the artists we’ve filmed:

Over the past year, Collecting Contemporary has shown the work of 41 contemporary New Zealand artists in a fantastic range of media including painting, furniture design, jewellery, photography, sculpture, video and ceramics.   When opportunities arose, the exhibition team filmed interviews with some of those artists, including Jim Allen, Martin Poppelwell, Sriwhana Spong, Paratene Matchitt, Ann Shelton, and Shigeyuki Kihara.  

Warwick Freeman in his studio. Photo by Michael Hall copyright Te Papa

Warwick Freeman in his studio. Photo by Michael Hall copyright Te Papa

Filming in the artist’s studio is truly stepping inside the world of the artist.  The colourful clutter of the jeweler’s work bench is in stark contrast to the minimalist space of the abstract painter.  Artists  Warwick Freeman, John Parker, Maddie Leach, Simon Morris and Lisa Walker  invited us to film them at work and shared some wonderful insights into the creative process. All the artist interviews can be viewed in the exhibition and online.

Posted in Art, Collecting Contemporary, Collections Online | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)

As seen in Vogue

4 July 2011 – 3.20pm
 What was it like in London in the swinging sixties, working with top fashion photographers like David Bailey and Helmut Newton? Going to the Paris Collections?  These are just some of Michal McKay’s heady experiences she recalls in an interview screening in Te Papa’s latest exhibition, New Zealand in Vogue, a celebration of fashion when New Zealand had its very own Vogue magazine, 1957-1968.
Michal McKay

Michal McKay interviewed for ‘New Zealand in Vogue’ (c)  Te Papa

 

Now an internationally renowned editor, Michal McKay was just 21 when she became fashion and beauty editor of Vogue New Zealand.  At that time the magazine was firmly tied to British Vogue with its editor, Sheila Scotter, based in Australia.  In the interview, Michal describes being ‘Voguerised’ before leaving London to return home to shape the magazine’s distinctive New Zealand style.

Also screening in the exhibition are some gorgeous fashion parades we’ve found in the film archives from the ’50s and ’60s. 

Image from Prelude to Spring 1957 courtesy of the New Zealand Film Archive

 

Don’t miss the chance to hear more from Michal McKay at Art After Dark on 21 July when she’ll be talking to curator Claire Regnault about the glamorous world of Vogue New Zealand.

Posted in Events, Exhibitions, Fashion | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Wanted: loved ones

28 June 2011 – 2.11pm
B.044616

Berry & Co portraits of World War I soldiers 1914-1920 Te Papa

All we know about him is a name written on a glass negative: ‘Hart’.  Ever since I first saw him I have kept his photograph on my wall.  He has been the inspiration for many hours of image research for the World War I film that screens in Te Papa’s C20th history exhibition, Slice of Heaven.   Using silent archive footage and stills the film tells the story of the journey of New Zealanders who served on the Western Front.   More than 12,000 New Zealanders died on the Western Front.   More than 800 men died in a single day at Passchendaele in Belgium.Hart was just one of thousands of New Zealanders who had their portrait taken for loved ones before they departed for the war.  Te Papa has a large collection of them, mostly unidentified apart from a surname.   You can search them here at Collections Online.  Sons, brothers, husbands, lovers, fathers, uncles, grandfathers…who loved them? Who kept their photographs?

Posted in Collections Online, History, Photography, Slice of Heaven: 20th Century Aotearoa | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)

In praise of darning

29 November 2010 – 11.50am

On Friday I posted a blog on the subject of darning inspired by the items of clothing that survived the Depression loaned by Rosemary McLeod for the Slice of  Heaven exhibition. A couple of comments in response to that made me think further.  

My mother taught me to start a darn with slipstitch around the hole, then stitch across and down to create a little patch of new fabric. You do need patience, but there are rewards for lovingly repairing your daughter’s black tights – although now I realise that’s another domestic skill I haven’t passed on to her.  Thank goodness for this thorough step-by-step guide!  

I didn’t know that darning mushrooms came in all colours, but why not?  And not all are called mushrooms – some are known as darning eggs.   There’s a humble, plain wooden darning mushroom – or egg - in the Slice of Heaven  exhibition amongst the displays of everyday objects through the century. Look for the room lined with grass and browse around.

Home-grown displays, Slice of Heaven. Copyright Te Papa 2010.

View darning mushrooms and eggs in Te Papa’s Collection here.

And what about this rather beautifully decorated one here? It looks much used, well-loved.

And,  just to add to our growing tribute to darning, Pamela has just sent me a link to the BBC’s fantastic A History of the World project, where there is, of course a darning mushroom! Love it.

Posted in Collections Online, Exhibitions, History, Slice of Heaven: 20th Century Aotearoa | Comments (3)

Rosemary McLeod talks about darning in the Depression

26 November 2010 – 4.16pm

How many of us are darning socks these days?

Some of the most poignant objects on display in Slice of Heaven  – 20th Century Aotearoa are items of clothing that have survived the Great Depression.  They’re such tangible reminders of how hard times were then.  Some things, especially underwear and linings, were darned and patched many, many times.

Mended clothing from Depression

Mended clothing from Depression. Copyright Te Papa 2010.

So I’m really looking forward to Rosemary McLeod’s floor talk tomorrow about these extraordinary remnants of the Depression that she loaned to Te Papa for the exhibition.

Come to Slice of Heaven – Level 4 Te Papa
Saturday 27 November 2010
12.15pm–12.45pm

Posted in Events, Exhibitions, Slice of Heaven: 20th Century Aotearoa | Comments (2)

A life shaped by C20th New Zealand

29 October 2010 – 2.15pm

“For over half a century I wrote about and taught the history of this country. However, my reasons for standing here today owe more to a sense of belonging, of having enjoyed a long life shaped by twentieth-century New Zealand.”

Bill Oliver
Bill Oliver at opening of Slice of Heaven. © Te Papa

With these words, Professor Bill Oliver officially opened Slice of Heaven – 20th Century Aotearoa.  Influential historian and poet, Professor Oliver is credited with defining the study of history in this country.  He was also the founding general editor of the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography - which was an invaluable resource for researchers during the making of the exhibition.

Professor Oliver expressed perfectly the sense of connection many people feel when they visit the exhibition – for many different reasons.        

“ My father came here as a 20 year old immigrant in 1910, and journeyed back to the old world’s wars a few years later.   In 1919 he returned in a ship filled with soldiers and their new wives, one of them my mother.

In the next six years they established a family, one I can now recognise as essentially a colonial family.  In it I was the third child, born on the day they buried William Massey – Prime Minister, ‘Farmer Bill’.   I seem to have been named, more or less inevitably, after him – itself a small colonial irony.

In the lives of my parents, and of their parents, and in my own life, I have had some experience of the history recalled and celebrated by this exhibition.

It is with great pleasure and a deep sense of belonging that I declare this exhibition open, and warmly congratulate all those who worked to bring it about.”

Posted in Exhibitions, History, Slice of Heaven: 20th Century Aotearoa | Comments (0)

Family at war – Slice of Heaven exhibition

15 October 2010 – 3.33pm

It’s just 2 weeks now since Slice of Heaven opened and the word from Te Papa’s hosts is that it’s “what New Zealanders have been waiting for!”  This is my first blog – ever.

I was one of the team working behind the scenes to bring the stories from 20th Century Aotearoa into the museum.  After 2 years of intense work, I’m excited to be able to record my own impressions of this amazing journey.

Today, I took a moment to stand on the bridge and watch visitors explore things below.  It’s a fantastic feeling to see everything come to life, observing people from different backgrounds, different generations, really engaged with the displays, absorbed in reading or watching, talking to each other about things familiar, a memory recalled, an experience shared – things that connect us all together.  

Revisiting World War II.
Revisiting World War II. Copyright Te Papa, 2010.

 I find myself returning to the World War II section, to the exquisite recreation of a scene depicting a New Zealand family in their living room in the winter of 1942, when American Forces arrived to protect us from the threat of Japanese invasion. 

Every detail is considered, from the wallpaper to the gas mask.  The mother holds a ration book in hand as her daughter appears to be ready to go out to a dance, and the young son in his pyjamas plays with a jigsaw puzzle.  Dad is due at Home Guard practice.  For me, imagining the lives of these lifelike mannequins is not the only thing pulling me back there, though.

On the wall of their room is a framed photograph of a handsome, smiling young man in his early twenties.  He wears a Royal Navy uniform confirming his recent commission.  He’s there to represent all New Zealand men and women who left home to serve overseas during the war. 

 

Bruce Donald, 1945

Bruce Donald, 1945 Courtesy the Donald Family archives.

His name is Bruce Reginald Donald.   I am so proud to be his daughter.

I can’t wait to hear Alison Parr talking about the experiences of New Zealanders on the home front during WWII.  Alison is a senior historian with the Ministry of Culture and Heritage and her wonderful book, Home, is based on interviews with many men and women who kept the home fires burning.  It’s a powerful read.

Alison Parr gives a floortalk in Slice of Heaven tomorrow, Saturday, 16 October at 12.15pm. Don’t miss it!

Posted in Exhibitions, Slice of Heaven: 20th Century Aotearoa | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (7)
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