Grace Butler grant awarded
The memory of a prolific Christchurch artist will live on in the work of her contemporaries, thanks to a new art award.
Artists, historians, judges and trustees gathered on Friday to give the inaugural Grace Butler Memorial Foundation Award to 36-year-old Christchurch artist Zina Swanson.
‘‘I feel absolutely humbled to be the first to receive this award,’’ Swanson said.
The award includes a threemonth residency at the Ara School of Art and Design, in central Christchurch, and a $20,000 grant, as well as studio space and access to equipment at Ara. It is one of the biggest art grants in the city.
‘‘Having the space at Ara is going to be amazing. I currently share a space with my partner who is also an artist, in a spare bedroom. We make it work but it’s not ideal,’’ she said.
Swanson graduated from the University of Canterbury’s (UC) School of Fine Arts in 2004. She was the Frances Hodgkins Fellow in 2013 and her work is held in collections at the Christchurch Art Gallery, UC, and the Hocken Collection.
‘‘My practice is quite hard to define I guess, it’s often to do with plants and people, and also pseudo science themes,’’ she said.
Swanson plans to create a piece using terracotta during her residency, a material she is still coming to grips with. The piece will be made up of hundreds of ‘‘noodle blocks’’.
‘‘They are extruded blocks [of noodle-shaped terracotta] and they are stacked to form the shape of a two-seater couch.’’
Swanson said the piece was inspired by root-bound plants and their domestication in homes.
‘‘I’m not really sure why it is going to be a couch. I guess a couch is like a space that we fit into, in the same way that a plant fits into a pot.’’
Grace Butler, the award’s namesake, was born in 1886 and was known for her landscape paintings, particularly around New Brighton and the Arthur’s Pass region. She exhibited extensively until 1960, furthering the practice of landscape painting among female artists. She died in 1962.
The award was set up by Grace Adams, Butler’s daughter, who wanted to perpetuate her mother’s memory and award artists ‘‘who have an association with Canterbury and whose practice gives consideration to place and environment’’.
Barbara Garrie, UC art history and theory lecturer and member of the award’s selection panel, said Swanson ‘‘captured the spirit of Grace Butler’s work’’.
‘‘She has set a standard and benchmark for future recipients of the award and we couldn’t be happier.
‘‘The experimental attitude of Zina’s practice echoes that of Grace Butler whose own dedication to a developing New Zealand modernism marked her out as a brave and progressive artist.’’
"I feel absolutely humbled to be the first to receive this award."
Zina Swanson, Grace Butler Memorial Foundation Award winner