Christine Webster
Christine Webster | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1958 (age 66–67) Pukekohe, Auckland |
| Nationality | New Zealander |
| Education | Massey University, Glasgow School of Art |
| Known for | Photography |
Christine Webster (born 1958) is a New Zealand visual artist and photographer.
Background
Webster was born in 1958 in Pukekohe, Auckland. She currently lives in the United Kingdom. Webster has a Diploma in Photography from Massey University and an MFA from Glasgow School of Art. Webster has taught at the ASA School of Art, Auckland, Unitec Institute of Technology, and Elam School of Fine Art, and currently is a senior lecturer at the Cambridge School of Art.[1]
Career
Webster is a photographer and visual artist. Her work explores society's accepted boundaries and the human psyche, specifically relating to gender and identity. In the early eighties women photographers like Christine Webster took up a post modern position creating images as opposed to making a documentary record of the world around them. In doing this they introduced a more conceptual and theatrical approach that would previously been considered unthinkable.[2] Webster started using her own body and that of friends to act out the characters in her work. A friend, and professional magician, Tim Woon[3] appears as an over eager corporate suit, briefcase and alarm clock at the ready. In another image the briefcase opens to a magician’s flash of fire. Later dancer and choreographer Douglas Wright would appear in many of Webster’s photographs in many different guises. As Bridget Sullivan pointed out in the catalogue for the group show alter / image, by using a reference to ‘glossy up market advertising stills’, Webster manages to’ upset ideas of male control and gravity’.[4]
Working in series
Almost from the beginning of her career as an art photographer Webster tended to work in series presenting groups of photographs as a cohesive collection. These series have included: 1980s
- New Myths. These early works often featured Webster herself, both as subject and photographer. Anna Smith writing about this series described them as, “not so much daring or prurient, as jubilatory, flaming with life.”[5]
1989
- Tiananmen Square. Webster created the series, responding to the 1989 student-led pro-democracy protests and killings in China.[6]
1991
- The Players
1991-1998 1996
- Circus of Angels. A collaboration between Webster and choreographer and dancer Douglas Wright who is the model in all the photos. Webster had already worked with Wright previously on his dance Buried Venus.’ [7] In a prescient interview recorded before their meeting and collaboration Wright described an image that could only come from Webster’s studio, ‘I feel there has to be the image of a woman, or else something that is neither man nor woman. We need something that is mysterious and layered and rich. It needs to read well from a distance.”[8]
Other series include Doll’s House (2000), Quiet (2013) and Therapies[9] (2014).
Selected Exhibitions
Webster has shown at a number of dealer galleries over the years including : Red Metro, Artis, Southern Cross, Real Pictures, Sue Crockford and Trish Clark Galleries. The following annotated list represents a selection of Webster’s solo and group exhibitions in public art galleries and museums. 1982
- Christine Webster: Large Colour Photographs Wellington City Art Gallery (toured) Art writer Sheridan Keith reviewing the exhibition for Art New Zealand, mentioned how much she admired Webster’s use of colour as an integral part of the work adding, “Hers is a romantic and unusual vision, concerned with the transitory elements of existence.“[10]
1984
- Christine Webster : New Photographs Bowen galleries toured to Robert McDougall Gallery. Critic John Hurrell commented on the ‘stimulating’ and ‘provocative’ nature of the work noting their ‘theatrical’ quality.[11]
- New Women Artists Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. Webster’s photographs continue to be seen as an antidote to the documentary focus of most New Zealand photographers at the time. Art writer Priscilla Pitts sees it as, ‘cutting right across the grain of the documentary genre…’[12]
1985
- Fresh Art Robert McDougall (group) Curated by Brad Smith.[13]
1986-1987
- Content / Context National Art Gallery, Wellington (group)[14]
1987
- New Myths Artis Gallery toured to Dunedin Public Art Gallery
1989
- Sex and Sign (group)[15]
1991
- The Players: a Photo series by Christine Webster Centre for Contemporary Art, Hamilton. As curator and art writer Anne Kirker noted, Webster, used her models to create ‘subjective states of being’ allowing them to present human conditions that were true of both sexes, a form of ‘masquerade and disguise’ exploring possibilities of sexuality.[16]
1992
- Christine Webster Possession & Mirth Hocken Library Gallery, Dunedin (toured)[17]
- Headlands: Thinking Through New Zealand Art (group) Webster showed alongside other women artists including Margaret Dawson, Megan Jenkinson, Fiona Pardington and Marie Shannon all of whom, as curator Robert Leonard commented in the catalogue, ‘play with the woman-as-object-paradigm in order to disperse the self in myriad disguises.’[18]
1993
- Black Carnival Dunedin Public Art Gallery (toured)
- alter / image City Gallery Wellington (group) [19]
1994
- Persona Cognita Museum of Modern Art at Heidi, Melbourne. Curated by Juliana Enberg.
- Open the Shutter: Auckland Photographers Now Auckland Museum. (group) Curated by Ron Browsen for PhotoForum celebrated PhotoForum’s twenty-first anniversary.[20]
1995
- Currency: Contemporary Photographic Art Auckland War Memorial Museum. (group) Curated by Peter Turner.[20]
1996
- Circus of Angels Sarjeant Gallery, Whaganui
1988
- Christine Webster Neue Mythem Museum Ludwig, Köln
2007
- Blindfield Dunedin Public Art Gallery.[21]
2010.
- Provocations Christchurch Art Gallery. This survey of Webster’s work curated by Anne Kirker presented many of her photographic series.[22] Before the exhibition opened the gallery removed a video work from the exhibition because of potential audience complaints.[23]
2012
- The Brink (group) Dunedin Public Art Gallery.[24]
Awards
1991 Frances Hodgkins Fellowship.[25] 1988 Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council Grant, 1989 Polaroid Small Projects Grant.[1]
Collections
Webster's work is held in the following collections:
- Bibliothèque nationale de France
- LA County Museum of Art
- George Eastman Museum
- Museum Ludwig
- Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
- Queensland Art Gallery[26]
- Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa,[27]
- Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.[28]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Christine Webster". findnzartists.org.nz. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
- ↑ Ireland, Peter. "Photography - New directions, 1970s to 2000s". Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
- ↑ Jones, Nicholas (6 March 2011). "Auckland Arts Festival: Magician Still Draws Crowds in Internet Age". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
- ↑ Barton, Christina; Lawler-Dormer, Deborah; Wellington City Art Gallery (Wellington, N.Z.); Auckland City Art Gallery, eds. (1993). Alter/image: feminism and representation in New Zealand art, 1973-1993. Wellington, N.Z. : Auckland, N.Z: City Gallery, Wellington, Wellington City Council ; Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland City Council. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-908818-14-3.
- ↑ Smith, Anna (Winter 2010). "Dead Can't Dance: The Provocations of Christine Webster". Art New Zealand (134).
- ↑ "Tiananmen Square" (PDF). Retrieved 7 June 2024.
- ↑ Gibson, Sarah (1997). "Circus of Angels: Recent Work by Christine Webster". Art New Zealand (83): 50–53.
- ↑ "Raewyn Whyte An Interview with Douglas Wright". Landfall (191): 37–49. Autumn 1996.
- ↑ Seja, Nina (2014). "Refuge & Ritual Trust: Christine Webster's Therapies". Art New Zealand (150).
- ↑ Keith, Sheridan (Summer 1983). "Christine Webster Large Colour Photographs". Art New Zealand (29).
- ↑ Hurrell, John (8 August 1984). "'Tribal' photographs". The Press (Christchurch). p. 23.
- ↑ Pitts, Pricilla (Spring 1984). "New Women Artists at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery". Art New Zealand (32).
- ↑ "Art's new attitude". The Press (Christchurch). 26 June 1985. p. 20.
- ↑ Content / Context , Wellington 1986. National Art Gallery. 1986. pp. 100–101.
- ↑ Airey, Mavis (20 September 1989). "Ancient beliefs inspire symbolic paintings". The Press (Christchurch). p. 23.
- ↑ Kirker, Anne (1993). New Zealand women artists a survey of 150 years. East Roseville, NSW, Australia: Craftsman House. ISBN 978-976-8097-30-9.
- ↑ "Christine Webster Possession & Mirth". Hocken Library Gallery. 1992.
- ↑ Whiting, Cliff; Murphy, Bernice; McCormack, John; Sotheran, Cheryll, eds. (1992). Headlands: Thinking through New Zealand Art. Sydney: The Museum of contemporary Art [u.a.] p. 48. ISBN 978-1-875632-04-6.
- ↑ "alter/image". 1993. Retrieved 7 June 2024.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Seja, Nina (2014). PhotoForum at 40: counterculture, clusters, and debate in New Zealand. Auckland, New Zealand: Rim Books. pp. 159. 164. ISBN 978-0-473-28325-4.
- ↑ "Blindfield" (PDF). Retrieved 7 June 2024.
- ↑ "Provocations: The Work of Christine Webster". Retrieved 7 June 2024.
- ↑ Harper, Jenny (July 2011). "Peace Junctures". Journal for Thematic Dialogue.
- ↑ "The Brink". Retrieved 7 June 2024.
- ↑ "The Frances Hodgkins Fellowship". University of Otago. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
- ↑ "Christine Webster". Queensland Art Gallery. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
- ↑ "Christine Webster". Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
- ↑ "Christine Webster". Auckland Art Gallery. Retrieved 11 December 2017.