B.
Clutha
Behind the scenes
Making the trip between Queenstown and Alexandra recently I was struck, as always, by the sight of the massive Clyde Dam.
Doris Lusk Untitled (Cromwell Gorge) 1950. Oil on gesso on hardboard. William Lorenzo Cox bequest, 2008
New Zealand's third largest hydroelectric dam, it was constructed on New Zealand's largest river, the mighty Clutha, between 1982 and 1993. The project, which became one of Prime Minister Robert Muldoon's so-called 'Think Big' schemes, was controversial, not least because it necessitated the flooding of the town of Cromwell (which was partially relocated to higher ground), the many fruit orchards that surrounded it and the magnificent Cromwell Gorge, seen in the 1950 painting above by Doris Lusk.
Marilynn Webb Drowned Clutha Pudding 1982. Monotype. Purchased 1983
Reproduced courtesy of Marilynn Webb ONZM
Printmaker Marilyn Webb was one of several artists to lend her voice to the anti-dam movement and she produced this monotype - Drowned Clutha Pudding - in 1982. The text reads:
Drowned Clutha Pudding
10,000 apricots 10,000 cherries 10,000 nectarines
10,000 plums 10,000 peaches 10,000 quinces
10,000 walnuts 10,000 packets of gelatine
Organize a small town into working parties. Collect piles of schist rocks, then make tall containers out of glass or plastic. Fill them with layers of fruit. When the fruit is in position, dissolve the gelatine. Colour it Clutha blue. Pour the jelly over the fruit and leave it to set. Carefully choose high places among the tors in Cromwell gorge. When the sites are marked, use working parties to assemble the rocks into cairns. Take the puddings and quietly mount them on each cairn. Finish each piece with a plaque.
Inscribe it . . . July 1982.
Frank Gross Tamed River 1957. Gouache and pastel. Donated from the Canterbury Public Library Collection, 2001. Reproduced with permission.
Prior to the Clyde dam project, the Clutha had previously been interrupted by the smaller Roxburgh dam, which is the subject of this 1957 work by Frank Gross.
Doris Lusk Study Of The Bridge, Clutha River 1985. Watercolour. Presented by the Friends of the McDougall Gallery, 1986. Reproduced with permission
The dam was filled in four stages between 1992 and 1993, creating Lake Dunstan, which also flooded the historic bridge that overlooked the confluence of the Clutha and Kawarau rivers, famous for the distinct colour difference between the two bodies of water. I can never look at the new lake without picturing the bridge (captured here in a 1985 study by Doris Lusk) and the thousands of fruit trees that lie deep beneath the waters.
Related
Collection
Doris Lusk Study Of The Bridge, Clutha River
Lusk experimented with a variety of materials and styles throughout her career, “riding the media” to expand her arsenal of panting techniques. Often discoveries in one field were productively translated across into other modes. To make her 1985 watercolour of the bridge over the Clutha River, Lusk first dampened a stretched canvas, to which she applied broad washes of fluid colour. Paint was then flicked over the still-wet surface, creating a splatter effect that convincingly denoted the scrubby Central Otago terrain. Painted in the same year, The Swing Bridge, Kawarau tackles a similar subject in oils, with Lusk using a dramatically angled view to contrast the forthright utility of the bridge structure with the irregular rocky landscape and surging water beneath.
(Doris Lusk: Practical Visionary, 4 June – 30 October 2016)
This bridge is the Red Bridge which carries State Highway 8a across the Clutha from Luggate to Tarras.
Collection
Frank Gross Tamed River
Frank Gross completed several works based on hydroelectric power stations around 1957. Here, the natural flow and form of the river Clutha has been blocked by the Roxburgh dam and re-routed through a maze of in-flow pipes leading to the turbine house. Gross has rendered the hills in the distance with the same formal geometric treatment as the power station
Gross was born in Vienna where he studied fashion design. He also studied in Paris and London prior to moving to Dunedin in 1934 to work for the Dunedin Fur Company. He took art lessons from Russell Clark at the Dunedin School of Art before settling in Christchurch in 1954. Gross became a member of the influential art association The Group and was a regular contributor to their annual exhibitions between 1954 and his death in 1963.