Poet ARD Fairburn celebrated in show

A celebration of Devonport’s 1950s talent is coming to Depot Artspace, inspired by poet and artist ARD Fairburn.

Fairburn Rocks is an exhibition of rare, hand-block prints on fabric created by Fairburn, who lived in Devonport from 1946 till his death in 1957.

The show also features 11 other artists, who lived alongside Fairburn in Devonport during the 1950s.

Fairburn’s daughter Dinah Holman says the show is just as much about celebrating those who interacted with her father, as it is him. ‘‘You can tell a lot about a person by their friends,’’ Holman says.

The inclusion of other people gives context to what my father was doing at the time, like a time capsule, she said.

Holman describes her father as a total misfit and iconoclast who was always ‘‘rethinking the world’’.

Alongside poetry, Fairburn took up hand-block printing in 1946, which involves taking a hand-carved block, dipping it in dye, and stamping the dye on to cotton or fabric.

In 1947, Fairburn was approached by the Theo Schoon, a Dutch Indonesian-born artist and photographer, to immortalise the tracings Schoon had taken of prehistoric Maori rock drawings from the limestones caves of the South Island. Fairburn did so in these block prints.

Holman says her father did not see money as a priority and that

‘‘You can tell a lot about a person by their friends’’

Dinah Holman

the hand-block rock prints reveal another side to him.

‘‘The way he saw it, people should write because they feel they have to not because they are paid.’’

Fairburn was born in Auckland in 1946 and, after some time spent overseas, he and his wife, Jocelyn returned to raise their four children in Devonport. He died of kidney cancer in 1957, but his poetry and artwork remain his legacy.

Depot Artspace creative director Linda Blincko says the exhibition is a ‘‘springboard’’ for further shows recognising Devonport people.

‘‘We feel it is really important to recognise great people in our community, and Rex was one of these people. He was a real, larger-than-life character, and we love to celebrate people like that, as a part of the local identity.’’

Opening March 4 from 2pm, open daily till March 22 at the Depot Artspace, Devonport.

LAINE MOGER/FAIRFAX NZ ARD Fairburn’s daughter, Dinah Holman, stands outside her childhood home in Devonport.