‘Comfort’ plants that led to havoc
Former Timaru student and now artist Ann Shelton says her exhibition at the Aigantighe Art Gallery will help viewers see plants from our colonial past in a different way.
Exploring the consequences of colonisation on nature, a former Craighead Diocesan School student has brought her photographic exhibition ‘‘the missionaries’’ to the Aigantighe Art Gallery.
Ann Shelton, who says she was one of the first female photographers at The Dominion Post in her mid 20s, has created domestic bouquets of problematic plants and photographed them.
She said settlers’ desire to bring plants to their new home was about comfort such as growing blackberries, so they could make pies with clotted cream as they had in their homeland.
‘‘The missionaries’ plants escaped from their colonial gardens and wreaked havoc, and we can see the consequences now,’’ Shelton said.
‘‘The consequences of homemaking are loss of forest, insects, plants and environment.’’
In South Canterbury the introduction of gorse and broom for hedging got out of control and pine trees have led to wilding pines being a nuisance, she said.
Her photos are titled after the colonial homemakers, for example her bouquet of pine is called Leading Lady.
‘‘It helps us see plants in a different way.’’
Growing up in Timaru, Shelton said she was influenced by her Craighead Diocesan School drama teacher Elizabeth Grubb, eventually leading into art.
After leaving school she went on her OE for about three years and started taking photographs, determining her career path.
On her return, after a stint working at the Washdyke Bluebird Chip factory, she completed a one-year photography qualification in Christchurch and started work as a press photographer in Oamaru and Wellington.
‘‘I got sick of chasing ambulances and wanted to focus on my own photography.’’
In 1992, she studied at the Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland and found work as a professional artist when she graduated.
Her artistic interest has not always been plant-based though – her previous exhibition Jane Says was about plants women used for fertility and abortion.
Library to Scale was an exhibition replicating hand-made scrap books from the Great
Depression that had been languishing in the archives of the museum in New Plymouth.
Her next body of work will continue women’s histories with plants, and the knowledge they held, looking at herbalism, witchcraft and wise women.
The missionaries runs from today to August 15 at the Aigantighe Art Gallery.
There will be a bring, buy, sell and swap native plants session, with giveaways, on July 10 from 12pm to 4pm at the gallery to raise awareness of the natural environment.