Laura Herford The Little Emigrant 1868. Oil on canvas. Collection of the Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū, donated by Marjorie Sheat, 2007
Samuel Butler Portrait of John Marshman 1861. Oil on canvas. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 1996
Nelson King Cherrill Daughters of John MacPherson c.1876. Carte-de-visite albumen photograph. Collection of Anthony G. Rackstraw, Christchurch
This exhibition is now closed
Colonial-era portraits represent a legacy that illuminates the present.
An exhibition built around colonial-era, mainly Māori, portraiture and works connected to the theme of colonisation. Portraits by Charles Goldie and Gottfried Lindauer join early photographs by Dr. A.C. Barker, from Alfred Burton’s celebrated 1885 Maori at Home series, and a small number of Ngāi Tahu portraits. Other works with local connections relate to John Robert Godley and the Canterbury settlement, including a portrait by author and short-term sheep farmer Samuel Butler. William Dunning’s Colonisation Triptych (1999) represents a re-examination of history, and together these works of art represent a legacy that continues to resonate.
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Date:
18 February 2017 – 18 February 2018 -
Curator:
Ken Hall -
Exhibition number:
1028
Collection works in this exhibition
From the Store
Related reading: New Zealand
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Such Human Tide
The exhibition He Waka Eke Noa brings together colonial-era, mainly Māori, portraiture alongside objects linked to colonisation – it’s a predictably uncomfortable mix. While the degree of discomfort may depend on one’s background or degree of connection to an enduringly difficult past, objects related to emigration and colonisation can be a useful lenses. As relics from a specific period in global history, when the movement of (particularly) European people was happening at an unprecedented scale, they hold stories with a measure of complexity that obliges an open-minded reading. There is no denying that they speak of losses and gains, of injustices and rewards.
Notes
Nosferatwho?
For me, the best bits in vintage photographs are often the bits the photographer didn't really mean to capture.
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