DEMARCATION
In a salute to women’s suffrage, sculptor and academic Louise Palmer is repurposing a common Christchurch object for its new home among the flowers.
Back in 1998, SCAPE was in its infancy and Louise Palmer, fresh out of Ilam School of Fine Arts, collaborated on an event installation at the Convention Centre. Like SCAPE, Louise has grown since then and is now a senior lecturer at the University of Canterbury (UC).
Originally from Hamilton, she didn’t know anything about the Kate Sheppard Memorial Walk until coming across it last year. “It draws in interesting histories and I had a sense that the site might fit my work,” Louise recalls.
The path takes walkers along the Avon River, beside the Botanic Gardens in Hagley Park. The border garden of camellias was established in 1993, the 100-year anniversary of women’s suffrage in New Zealand. Coincidentally, that was Louise’s first year of art school and she recalls being part of a group that painted a mural in the UC Students’ Association building, commemorating suffrage. Her 20-year-old self “was staunchly feminist, but perhaps I didn’t acknowledge how significant that was then”.
Louise is interested in re-contextualising everyday objects and transforming them. This time, she has taken on the common bollard, the heritage-style post to which a rope or chain can be secured. “Once you start noticing the bollards around town, the more you see them!”
A series of council bollards will be repurposed in a way that demarcates the area of the walk. They’ll be painted in a range of camellia-inspired colours – from the symbolic white of the ‘Kate Sheppard’ variety to burgundy-red. “They’ll stand out and draw attention to the walk,” she says.
This project drew heavily on research into the historic suffrage movement. Firstly, Louise accessed UC’s library resources before liaising with Helen Osborne, manager of Kate Sheppard House, and the Botanic Gardens’ curators who were involved with the 1993 planting.
Louise wants to draw attention to the histories embedded in the Memorial Walk, including the personal. “I hope people will stop and think about their own experiences and environments, be it female, feminist or other.”
A keen gardener, Louise loves landscaping and sees it as parallel to art making – “designing, planning and utilising resources”.
Come installation time, Louise will be there to ‘place’ the objects by the path. “It has to communicate the concept of the work within the space. I’ve put concrete in before but I don’t think I’ll have to get my hands dirty for this one,” she jokes.
1893: New Zealand became the first self-governing country in the world in which women achieved the right to vote. For suffrage leader Kate Sheppard and her supporters, the white camellia was a symbol of the movement.
1992/93: The beginning of a memorial walk was laid out when women’s groups around the country donated 100 camellias to the Christchurch Botanic Gardens. The Kate Sheppard Memorial Walk was officially opened in 1993, to commemorate 100 years of women’s suffrage. A new variety of white camellia, the ‘Kate Sheppard’ was unveiled.
For more information about the season visit scapepublicart.org.nz