B.
Manchester Street
Behind the scenes
Manchester Street, Christchurch by Louise Henderson was painted in 1929 and shows a streetscape that remained largely unchanged until the earthquake of 22 February.
Louise Etiennette Sidonie Henderson Manchester Street, Christchurch 1929. Oil on board. Dame Louise Henderson Collection presented by the McKegg Family, 1999. Reproduced with permission
Henderson's painting resonates strongly with me, as I spent many an hour in this neighbourhood, making noise on an ancient Commodore electric guitar at Purple Mountain Eagle's practice room in the Druids building. Among the artists who shared the Druids building with us were Andre Hemer, Ross Gray, Shannon Williamson, Marie le Lievre, Miranda Parkes and Simon Edwards. Thankfully, when the roof slid off the front of the building and ended up in the middle of Manchester Street, we'd all been out of the building for a month or so – our eviction the result of September's quake. I drove this stretch of Manchester Street a few weeks back when assisting the Brooke Gifford Gallery to rescue their works, and it seemed that all the old buildings were broken beyond repair, making Henderson's painting all the more poignant.
Door to Purple Mountain Eagle's band room in the Druids Building, Manchester Street
Related
Collection
André Hemer CASS
Playing with ideas of distance and deletion, this work was prompted by the constantly multiplying online presence of Cass by Rita Angus, one of the most famous paintings in the Gallery’s collection. Images of, and relating to, Cass are freely available on the internet. They include legitimate reproductions, unauthorised copies and numerous responses to the original painting in the form of school projects and even Cass-themed birthday cakes. Here, André Hemer presents his own version of Cass, created using a process that echoes the many translations Angus’s painting has undergone – from traditional materials to new media and back again.
(Absence, May 2023)
Collection
Simon Edwards Gateway
The artist writes: "The title 'Gateway' is a reference to the two dark rectangle shapes/shelterbelts coming in from the edge of the picture creating a gap left of centre suggesting a 'way through'. The title is not a depiction of a gate in the distance; it is in part an acknowledgment of Colin McCahon's 1961 'Gate' series.
(Simon Edwards, October 2010)
Collection
Miranda Parkes Slumper
Revelling in a kind of contemporary baroque, Miranda Parkes’ Slumper began as a three by nine metre piece of flat canvas, but – being too large for the studio floor – had to be folded into thirds before being painted and scrunched into this form. Having grappled with the problem of creating more objects in a world already filled with objects, Parkes negotiated a kind of truce with this dilemma, flipping it around and using spectacular excess as a potentially useful ingredient. While retaining an honest, at times iconoclastic stance, she is nevertheless drawn to the sensory aspects of canvas, colour and paint; elaborate costume, circus tents and over-the-top, opulent interiors are occasionally grist to her painter’s mill.
(As Time Unfolds, 5 December 2020 – 7 March 2021)
Collection
André Hemer New Representation #2
Artists throughout time have adapted content, style and tactics in order to represent changing perception, ambition and experience. André Hemer combines new technologies with old to push painting beyond its usual limits. His digitally- and hand-worked canvases are exploratory and open-ended. He says of them:I like to think that put alongside one another in a museum of the future, these works will reveal themselves more than they do now – because they will be removed from the nowness that seems as persuasive as ever. For this reason perhaps, I am always wary of work that proposes strongly to know itself in the moment. … I paint to record, to investigate. I am proposing New Representation, but I do so while admitting that we may not know exactly what to make of what it is that we are experiencing.
(As Time Unfolds, 5 December 2020 – 7 March 2021)
Collection
Marie Le Lievre Cerulean Slipping
Ōtautahi Christchurch-based artist Marie Le Lievre’s Cerulean Slipping invites the viewer into the mysterious exploratory pleasures of her painting process. Employing crisp, hard edges alongside blurred boundaries and well-orchestrated liquid merge, it blends semi-controlled and unpredictable procedures. The result hints at mapping, rivers and flood plains, as well as chemical reactions or microscopic examination, while at the same time suggesting a multi-layered imaginative state.
(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022- )
Collection
Louise Henderson Manchester Street, Christchurch
Arriving in Christchurch from Paris in 1925, Henderson immediately started painting her new environment. The works that have survived from her first few years in this country reveal a young artist determinedly working her way through problems in painting – structure, form, light and colour. Manchester Street, Christchurch is painted from the rooftop of an adjacent building, and is an accomplished study in tone and architectural perspective. “As a young painter I would paint forms for about a year, then change to a different type of form,” she said. “I wanted to clarify certain points in my own production.”
(Louise Henderson: From Life, 27 June – 11 October 2020)