Suffrage down to a fine art
New Zealand
Albrecht’s International Women’s Year 1975 is one of 12 works in a universitybased art exhibition marking 125 years of women’s suffrage.
The Say so, Voices of protest and pause exhibition is curated by postgraduate art history students who selected an artwork each from the University of Auckland’s collection.
The artworks had to fit a 125 Suffrage theme and encourage thinking about how far we have — or haven’t — come as a society since 1893.
“Art speaks directly to an emotional position,” says student Alice Karetai, who chose Fiona Pardington’s Inseparable Huia for the way it links the past to the present and highlights aspects of traditional Ma¯ori story-telling using male and female birds.
“Art offers such strong potential for new understanding.”
Kirsten Raynor, who chose Albrecht’s poster, says for her 2018 is the year of women because of the #metoo movement. “It has brought things to light and made us aware we haven’t got as far as we hoped.
“The #metoo movement, our degrading climate and relative political apathy are alarming signs that what began in 1893 is an ongoing struggle that implicates all of us.”
The students talked about including only female artists but decided Say so should be inclusive. Finn McCahon-Jones says social change requires diverse voices in discussions rather than sticking to old binaries.
He chose a photograph by Jennifer French, Persimmons which shows the fruit on Clarice Cliff pottery and, at first, may look like a simple domestic still-life. “But when you consciously drill down into it, there’s a narrative about women’s work and domestic life and each object has its own story.”