The Exhibition Opens

All of the research, experimentation and creating comes together.

The exhibition space is a beautiful light filled room, lit by the curved windows of the old Cambridge Place Arcade which now makes up the facade of Invercargill Central, 39 Esk Street. The exhibition space is upstairs in the new development (via lift or level 1 carpark).

Prints and drawings as part of ‘Tracing the Land’ my fellowship works line one wall and Daegan Wells, the other William Hodges Fellow occupies the other side of the space with his fellowship exhibition ‘Finest Fuchsias’.

Exhibition runs until 25 June. Open 11am - 4pm Wednesday - Friday and 11am - 2.30pm Saturdays and Sundays.

Read the catalogue essay by Louise Garrett here.

See the artwork images for the Fellowship show via the link below.

William Hodges Fellowship Artworks

Kōreti Estuary Drypoint

Copper, reflecting the lines of the estuary rushes. Seeking a sense of space. Hoping to show the beauty in the repetition, in the oioi belonging.

New Zealand has lost 90% of its wetlands. The estuary, Kōreti is akin to kidneys for the land. The role it has in the local ecosystem is vital. Over the years sedimentation has heavily impacted the estuary. Established macro algae deprives the environment of oxygen and doesn’t support life. Invertebrates like crabs make holes that let the oxygen in, promoting life. It has a complex relationship relating to the river and the sea, neither freshwater nor saltwater. An in between space not to be overlooked.

The Wahōpai River outlet into the Kōreti Estuary on the edge of Invercargill - for me, the rushes are an iconic element of landing at Invercargill airport.

Bush Green

I relished my days working with these bright greens using the timber slices from the old forest. I associate this variety of green with the bush in Southland, fresh new growth, kahikatea, mataī and pittosporum. These pieces of found fallen timber are from bush remnants on the outskirts of Invercargill. I love the colour of the wood, the weight of them. Unable to identify exactly which species they are, I have printed and named them to represent the trees that would have stood in the Taurakitewaru bush, or on the borders of the rivers and wetlands. They are printed on a very strong and thin kitakata green gampi paper. This is mounted with entomology pins in reference to the collection of specimens, the tradition of the preservation of the last of a species and the fragility and importance of the ecosystem they represent.

I printed so many of these to get them just right editing them down to small editions. First I tried printing by hand with a Japanese barren, then I tried thicker etching paper to see if the blocks would slightly emboss into the paper if printed on my etching press. They are signed as V.E meaning varied edition, as the organic nature of the blocks leads to some nice variation in the surface inking (I like to be really clear when there is any variation in a print beyond what is within the normal range of something hand printed). I like the cracks and growth rings, the texture of the bark edge, signs of life. The works are all labelled with a tag written in handmade Invercargill CBD demolition brick ink stating the name of the tree. The trees chosen represent plants that would have stood in that particular area pre-city development, for example ‘Esk Street - Kahikatea’ as this was the edge of the large mixed podocarp forest block, Taurakitewaru. Each printed slice is titled with the name of an Invercargill CBD street name. The works are framed mounted with entomology pins in reference to the preservation and recording of species and the importance and fragility of their existence.

Image from Retrolens SN880/Crown_880_B_23 showing the bush on the left. Decades ago it was cleared and the fallen timber is the source of these wood slices.

From brick to ink

One piece of work I was really keen to make while undertaking the fellowship, was drawing with pigment sourced directly from the central city area.  A large block of the CBD, from Dee Street to Kelvin and Tay to Esk was demolished in 2020 and redeveloped - opening in early 2023 under the name of Invercargill Central.

I had the pleasure of talking to Lucy Mayes online recently who teaches pigment making at London Pigment. I really liked her observation that we have become disconnected from where colour comes from in this modern world. How is colour extracted, where can it be found? Unlocking the colour around us feels filled with so much potential…..

One resulting work, ’From the Forest’ is a collection of four plant studies in ink and watercolour made from Invercargill/ Waihōpai CBD salvaged demolition brick. The plants represented are specifically connected to the area and what would have grown here before the city. Pōkākā, Mataī, Wīwī and coprosma pedicellata - now rare. There is some circularity in the likelihood these bricks were made from the earth on the border of the developing city, the bush fuelled the kilns and the bricks formed the expansion of the built environment.

Brick is essentially red ochre, an earth pigment. Looking at the report from the archaeologists that were involved with the Tay/ Esk street demolition, there were a few bricks that were found with the frog marks on them indicating the maker. Some bricks came over from Kilmarnock in Scotland but Invercargill had a number of local brickworks. C Meyers - Waikiwi, had 55 acres of clay bearing land. Todd ’s was another brickworks in Invercargill as well as brick and tile works in Makarewa that supplied the city by railway. Access to these materials enabled building and quite importantly for such a wet area - drain laying, which changed the landscape very much!

Making Pigment

It was quite a process and fortunately I had a very willing brick crushing helper. We crushed the brick with fencing tampers and hammers. I then sieved it, ground it in the pestle and mortar, sieved it again, ground it, washed it, dried it, ground it and finally mulled the pigment with a gum arabic solution and for the watercolour pans made from it, also a little honey. It was kind of magical to wind up with something useable and directly linked to such a specific place. 

As an aside I made my own carbon black ink solution which reticulates beautifully - a bit like tusche in lithography. I also tested mixing the pigment in with gesso for a lovely pinky colour - all quite gritty but interesting in the difference to the ink.

The plant studies were the last piece I was able to produce before my fellowship time ran out, but I do feel like there is much more to be made with this medium.

After years living in Wellington where brick doesn’t feature so much, I have enjoyed seeing the brick buildings of Invercargill. There are still some very iconic shapes in the backs of retail buildings or old workshops and yards.

As the Heritage Properties report states ‘Historic bricks ….are tangible pieces of the past [the we can connect with]’.

The Pōkākā

This tree often grows in the Southland podocarp forests alongside the likes of Kahikatea. The pōkākā is cold tolerant and a native forest tree. Pōkākā caught my eye as it has a juvenile form displaying 3 different leaf shapes. From this it grows to a tall canopy tree with a shorter leaf. This transformation is a bit like the change of lancewood/ horoeka from a young plant to established tree. I had a few seedlings of these generously gifted by the Southland Community Nursery. Most of them were planted immediately but one became my drawing tree, conveniently able to sit beside my sketch book. For the William Hodges Fellowship I have produced a mezzotint of this plant, partly because I enjoyed the variety of leaf shapes and the fine twiggy, interlaced branches, but also as a way to highlight this plant - lesser known than its forest counterparts. I chose mezzotint for this plant because the dark background of a mezzotint would enable me to highlight the distinctive leaf shapes and delicate branches. 

Printmaking - Creating a mezzotint

Mezzotint is a very old printmaking process. A metal plate - usually copper is roughened with a tool called a mezzotint rocker. This tool has a line of very small teeth on it. By working in a rocking motion repeatedly around the plate, the surface is scuffed up - the teeth bite into the plate and leave pits and peaks - if this was inked up in black ink at this point it would print a solid black. From this roughened state, the drawing on the copper plate is made with a tool that smoothes down the roughened texture or scrapes some of it away. Any area intended to be light needs to be scraped and burnished thoroughly back to shiny copper - this means when ink is applied and buffed off, it comes off the smooth surface, thus printing as a light area and the ink that makes up the dark area is trapped in the textured surface. It’s very slow going but gives a satisfying dense black. I have been considering aerial images of old forest remnants in Invercargill city and the marks on maps that denote land use changes and boundaries. Here are some images of a plate in progress.

Aerial view of Thomson’s Bush. Google.

https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE5281345

Alma MMSID: 9914033473502836

Item Title: Map of Invercargill Hundred and part of New River Hundred

Publisher: [Wellington, N.Z.] : Lands & Survey Dept.

Publication Date: 1924

Drypoint - the changing shape of the bush

For this body of work I produced drypoints that I wanted to reflect the changing shape of bush as seen from the air or on a survey as the land use was changed. A ever reducing shape, bitten into by the boundary lines.

Silverpoint

Last year, in the time leading up to starting the fellowship, I spent weeks doing a bit of active research about the techniques and disciplines I would like to include in my work, including some jewellery making. In the early 2000s I was travelling, and with only a backpack, I carried very small copper plates and a few tools. The bigger centres in Europe and Canada were pretty amazing in terms of having open access print studios you could join up to for a small fee and an induction on the workshop practice. This resulted in some tiny mezzotint plates (a size I still enjoy using today) which are quite jewellery-like in their appearance, with the copper being so shiny. I’ve sat on this idea for years and still hope to work with small print sized plates and the cross over with jewellery. A jeweller friend Frances Stachl gifted me a beautiful sheet of 99.9% pure silver to try out my ideas - last decade I might add! It seems so precious, I’ll have to bite the bullet and use it someday!

Anyway, I digress, this desire to work with metal is still bubbling around in the background, but I did get to have some brilliant sessions late last year with David McLeod who is a wonderful jeweller and teacher. David and I melted down some granular silver bullion - he wielded the torch, heating the silver to a glowing cadmium red molten blob. It was cooled and run through the jewellery mill with a piece of wiwi rush from a boggy area of Invercargill/Waihōpai. I’ll post a picture of the resulting debossing being sized up in an oval template. This requires so many specialised tools and skills that it will have to be a long term project, but I really enjoyed seeing the result and think it has lots of potential.

Cutting that oval silver to shape has left me with pieces of almost pure silver plate and still an interest in the often overlooked wetland plants. This prompted me to explore silverpoint - another technique that I have played with in the past. Using these offcuts and a long 99.9% silver drawing scribe, I worked onto specially prepared silverpoint boards. This technique was used by artists in the Renaissance, prior to graphite, as a means of drawing. It is possible to do this with many metals, copper, brass, lead and they will tarnish over time to different colours - silver will soften to a warm brownish colour. I’m excited to see the evolution of the drawings which will be included in the show, I love the idea that they have a life after production and will slowly transform. They’re off being framed by the awesome Lauren Redican, the organic shape of her frames makes my heart sing.

Invercargill City Libraries and Archives, Ref: A0001 S00100031_c, Map of Invercargill 1861 - showing Waikiwi Bush, Waihopai Bush (Turakitewaru bush), Seaward Bush (Ōtātrewa Bush) and Otatara Bush. The Kōreti Estuary is still open, later being significantly reclaimed.

The Raw Materials

Preparing the surfaces to print and draw off is all part of the process of making work. Thinking about the kind of mark making, the desired ink on paper effect - all these things come down to what the substrate is that the print is taken from. I love to work into copper as it is long lasting under pressure - the burrs and lines don’t wear down too quickly. Some of these plates were cut into shapes with tin snips and a jewellery saw. Wood has a lovely grainy and organic feel which is just right for other applications. One set of boards I coated with a silverpoint paint preparation, this ground enabled me to draw onto the white board with pieces of silver, a centuries-old technique - more on that soon. I particularly liked the soft grey marks it made which was reminiscent of some of the lines I have been seeing on the old maps of the region. Here is a small selection of the plates, blocks and boards I have been preparing.

Yule House Dinner

A few weeks back we had a lovely dinner in a balmy courtyard outside Yule House, a heritage home in Invercargill where the other William Hodges Fellow, Daegan Wells was seeing out the end of his residency. Yet again, the strains of the pipe band practicing were on the air. It was great to spend some time with Deagan. Alison and Anne-Marie. I do enjoy the way a community is so like fabric, the threads cross over, history is shared, connections are explored….I’ve found it interesting how much the coast comes up, especially out Riverton, Colac Bay, Pahi way - quite fitting really as I have family who grew up out that way and that region was certainly part of our Sunday drive route. Muirhiku/Southland - it’s a gem and a well kept secret.

Collecting and meeting

One of the aspects of the WHF I have enjoyed so far has been the chance to meet with the many Southlanders who have graciously shared their knowledge. I’ve talked to Chris and Brian Rance and Linda out at the fabulous Southland Community Nursery about the species of plants in and around the ecosystems that connect with the CBD. I was blown away by what a special place they have out there. Amanda Hunter the archivist at the Invercargill Library and Archives has been so helpful and found me some amazing photos, maps, reports, books, plans…..I could spend months and months digging in to it all and making many, many works! Jane Kitson generously shared her time and tales on an estuary walk as well as her fantastic report on Kōreti/ The New River Estuary, Ngāi Tahu ki Murihiku values, environmental changes and impacts: Report for the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. Llyod Essler, local historian has furnished me with his great books and we met at the Stead Street wharf to talk about the history of Invercargill/ Waihōpai. Naomi at Heritage Properties let me geek out a bit on the bricks of the 1800s and sent through some crisp photos of the preserved ones with their makers’ marks stating their manufacturer. I’ve enjoyed pulling all of these threads together and I am now weaving them into work. Thank you to everyone, for your time and inspiration!

Looking closer at the map of the estuary, a much larger area that is bordered by Bay Road - know as Riverton Road. Invercargill City Libraries and Archives, Ref: A0001 S00100019.

An experiment in handmade carbon black ink and drypoint. Thinking about the black ink representing the former stands of podocarp forest.

Esk-splore - A new Esk Street re-opens

This year there are two Willian Hodges fellows, myself and Daegan Wells. It has been such a pleasure to get to know Daegan a little and I’ve enjoyed talking to him about the research discoveries we have both made whilst looking into the Waihōpai Invercargill city area. As part of the fellowship we are both doing various public engagement events. On the 25th of February, Esk Street had an event called Esk-splore which Daegan and I both took part in. I had my portable relief printing press made by Woodzilla and some pre-cut blocks for people to print, a kōwhai in flower (from one of the new CBD native plantings) and one of the WEA building in Esk Street, plus a little botanical study. It was a great opportunity to meet new and familiar faces and hopefully spread a little of the joy of printmaking. Thanks to everyone who came along!

Slicing the blocks

These lengths of timber are known colloquially as bog wood, they come from old native bush buried in the mud and have been pulled out to dry for firewood. I am prone to scavenging pieces and in the past I’ve made some prints from the surface of cross sections of pohutukawa - not bog wood in that case, but council trimmings. The pohutukawa was from Te Whanganui a Tara, Wellington. Down here in Murihiku, historically there were vast expanses of podocarp forest and this evening I took my pieces of old buried ngahere and headed to the Southern Woodworkers Guild in Invercargill beside the Ōtepuni/ Ōtarewa Creek. Ivan there very kindly showed me how to use the bandsaw and I cut some nice thick slices of wood to later print off. Some were likely mānuka and possibly mataī? I think I have a fair bit of sanding in my future….I was generously shown around the rooms and saw a huge variety of beautiful cut, sliced, turned, fabricated works. I left to the strains of a local pipe band practicing nearby in the warm evening, very nostalgic.

Murihiku Southland in the 1800's - a cartographers representation

So, perhaps no surprises here, but I am starting with the land. I am so fascinated by the historical maps of the area. This map of the Southern Portion of Southland from 1865 is published with thanks to the Invercargill City Libraries and Archives, Ref: A0001 S00100019. You can take a closer look here. Bush stood where many parts of the business district are now. In the Invercargill CBD the Ōtepuni creek and the Waihōpai river weave their way across the edges of the developing city. A larger-than-present-day bay sits at the head of the New River Estuary, with the ‘Riverton Road’ running around the edge of what is now Bay Road.

The fellowship begins

Thank you for joining me here. I was delighted to be one of two artists awarded the 2022/23 William Hodges Fellowship, through the Southland Art Foundation, Murihiku Southland. Daegan Wells is the other recipient and the fellowship will culminate in exhibitions in Invercargill later in the year. Today is day one of the fellowship for me and I would like to share my research, thoughts and art practice with you as I work my way through the next 12 weeks.

In my art practice I work predominantly with printmaking techniques. Growing up in Invercargill, I began printmaking at James Hargest High School and completed a Bachelor of Fine Art at the Otago School of Art (majoring in Printmaking), studying under Marilynn Webb and Chris de Jong. In 1996 I won the Southland Young Contemporary of the Year award which enabled me to set up a print studio.

I spent much of the next two decades overseas or in Wellington, always printing as well as working in galleries and museums. In 2006 I founded my own gallery in Wellington, Solander: works on paper, where I was the director from 2006 - 2010.

I delight in working with people to discover printmaking. I have a small portable etching press which I use for workshops under the name of Little Prints.

Recently I was part of Ko Murihiku Tōku Whaea / Southern Mother at Te Atamira in Frankton, Queenstown, which celebrated the group’s connection to Southland. This exhibition is being exhibited at the Eastern Southland Gallery in Gore in February of 2023.

My practice is grounded in the place where I stand. I respond to my environment and explore the micro and macro of the natural world. I am often inspired by, and drawn to, connecting with the Murihiku region in my artworks.

I am excited to research the Waihōpai Invercargill CBD block, how it connects to nature, the waterways and the layers of the past.