Painted PM on gumboot — art takes a left turn
In the oddly-contested Epsom electorate, the fight for votes already has Labour putting the boot in. Or perhaps its best foot forward. A painting of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern — in oil, on a gumboot — is about to be offered for sale by Labour’s local electorate committee as a fundraiser.
The image offers the unusual prospect of a second-hand gumboot from the Waikato turned into a fundraising artwork in one of the wealthiest electorates in the country.
Chairwoman Moira Macnab has yet to settle on exactly how it will be sold but is inviting offers from those wanting to own the distinctive gumboot.
“It is exceptional and really appropriate, particularly after Covid19. We needed to get on this thing boots and all — to really stamp it out.
“We’re putting it up for offers. Part of the value is that it’s extraordinary. I can see it in Te Papa. It belongs somewhere special.”
Labour has chosen lawyer Camilla Belich, mother of two and married to former party general secretary Andrew Kirton, for the seat held by Act leader David Seymour, who is standing again. National’s Paul Goldsmith, a List MP, is a candidate again also.
Epsom has been an unusual political pantomime since 2005. That election, Act’s Rodney Hide took the electorate from a notentirely unwilling National Party.
By 2008, the charade had organised itself into a meeting and a cuppa between Hide and National’s John Key. The charade turned to circus in 2011. Key’s tea with Act’s new leader John Banks was inadvertently recorded and the resulting shemozzle overshadowed the election.
Since then, public endorsements have not been required. In 2014, voters chose Seymour without public displays of encouragement, and again in 2017.
The contest for Epsom — for all the drama it creates — has long been clean. The outcome is largely foregone — Goldsmith rules out Labour taking the seat, Seymour’s polling does likewise and Belich says she would “love to win but . . .”
The painting by building project director Piet Ubels, 30, features on a second-hand Red Band gumboot.
It was the first time he had picked up a paint brush since high school. The result was “as much a surprise to me as much as anyone”.
Ubels credits Macnab with the gumboot idea as it harked to Ardern’s rural Morrinsville roots and based it on a photograph taken during the Prime Minister’s first speech as leader of the Labour Party.
“I liked the old idea of pulling yourself up by your boots. And that she is walking the walk.”
The gumboot has been filled and stiffened to protect the painting. Ubels painted the image on the lefthand side of the left gumboot. It is titled: Out of Left Field.