Artist pulls back the curtain on feminism and mum’s life

"Feminism, domesticity and a woman's lot in life" Artist Sue James explains her exhibition

Letters from the heart become art in Sue James’ new exhibition, as she pulls back the curtains on her mother’s life.

Letters from James’ mother in New Zealand, sent to her grandmother in Australia, are the starting point to the Feilding artist’s latest exhibition, Is This All: A Story of Life and Love. She has used venetian blinds as her medium, a statement on ‘‘feminism, domesticity and a woman’s lot in life’’, James said.

‘‘For my research, I read The Feminine Mystique and I found that so many woman were unhappy in the 50s because they had been born and bred to find a husband and that was it. That was the end game.’’

After her grandmother’s death, James was given her mother’s handwritten letters that date from when she was 16, in the 1940s, till earlier this year.

‘‘Every letter that my mother sent her mother has been kept and there are hundreds of them all written on beautiful oil skin paper. They are very personal and the early ones are very fun and frivolous. The war had ended and there were boys and dancers and it was wonderful. And then we get to the realities of 1950s New Zealand and the attitudes of the day.’’

James said feminism was something consistent in her art practice.

‘‘I’ve been thinking about how it doesn’t seem to be fashionable to be a feminist these days. Bill English made a comment the other day that he doesn’t know what the word even means. I didn’t think when I was growing up that we would even be discussing equal pay still, so while I didn’t seek out to do feminist work, that’s what’s happened. I’m sad that there is still so much work to do.’’

James is an interior designer as well as an artist and said she had to learn new skills for this exhibition.

Is This All: A Story of Life and Love opens at Whanganui’s Space Studio and Gallery on June 3.