#heathermcpherson

[gallerymokopopaki]

Heather Avis McPherson (1942–2017) was a poet, publisher, single mother and lesbian-feminist, whose influential literary and visual arts activism was inspired by an all-male poets’ evening at the 1973 Christchurch Festival. Here, the ‘twenty young men getting up on the stage one after another’ she observed back then have to wait. At Mokopōpaki, women are never an afterthought; in our space, the speaking order gives girls a go first.

This Joyous, Chaotic Place: He Waiata Tangi–ā–Tahu

Celebrating the life and work of Heather McPherson (1942–2017)

Contributors: Mokopōpaki, M (Marian Evans), Tiffany Thornley, Allie Eagle, Dr P (Cushla Parekowhai), Heather McPherson, Margery Blackman

Includes work by: Sharon Alston (1948–1995), A.A.M. Bos, Arapera Blank (1932–2002), Diana Byrami, Saj (Gladys) Gurney, Keri Hulme, Anna Keir, Tilly Lloyd, Bridie Lonie, Adrienne Martyn, PĀNiA!, Joanna Margaret Paul (1945–2003), Dianne Rereina Potaka-Wade, Carole Prentice, Kohine Ponika (1920–1989), Irihapeti Ramsden (1946–2003), Helen Wilson, Yllwbro, Jane Zusters

Published by Mokopōpaki and Spiral, 2019

88 pages, Softcover, Colour illustrations

English, Māori

Edition of 250

$25 plus shipping. To order: [email protected]

Cover: Dianne Rereina Potaka-Wade, This Joyous, Chaotic Place: He Waiata Tangi–ā–Tahu, 2018. Cartoon for tāniko and screenprint.

[salonshop]

The Pantograph Punch (NZ)

Have you heard of Artemisia? The question is the title of a poem by Heather McPherson (1942–2017), a feminist, activist, and proud lesbian, as well as a poet. An illuminated version of the poem hangs on the far wall at Mokopōpaki, at the core of This Joyous, Chaotic Place: He Waiata Tangi–ā–Tahu. The text refers to the Greek queen and naval commander Artemisia I of Halicarnassus, a woman in possession of power and prowess who remains under-remembered. Like the poem, the exhibition aims to counter the forgetting of women, paying homage to McPherson and those she engaged with.

Some of the figures represented in the show are comparatively well-known: Patricia Grace, for instance, Joanna Margaret Paul, and Keri Hulme, whose Booker Prize-winning novel the bone people was originally published by Spiral, a publisher that grew out of a journal founded by McPherson. Others are less familiar: McPherson herself, Allie Eagle, and Dianne Rereina Potaka-Wade, whose tāniko ‘sampler’ He Waiata Tangi-ā-Tahu (2018), based on the border of an 18th-century kaitaka, easily asserts itself within a show packed full of artistic and archival gems and curiosities.

Drawing on a profusion of material from collections both private and public (much has been mined from Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa), This Joyous, Chaotic Place blasts the archive open, countering the silence of the library and the standoffishness of the vitrine. As the title suggests, the exhibition is raucous, celebratory, even as it acknowledges marginalisation, oppression, and violence. It serves to remind us of the roots of contemporary feminist movements like #metoo. We stand on the shoulders of Artemisias – and of Heathers.

Francis McWhannell, The Unmissables: Four Exhibitions to see in March (Auckland: The Pantograph Punch, 1 March, 2018)

[salonshop]

Art New Zealand

This Joyous, Chaotic Place [: He Waiata Tangi-ā-Tahu], was an exhibition at Auckland’s Mokopōpaki in early 2018, a show that celebrated the life and work of Heather McPherson (1942–2017). The exhibition featured contributions by more than 20 women with connections to McPherson and was extraordinary; a collection of ephemera and art objects, it fairly hummed with a tangible human presence, of those who made the objects, and of those about and for whom the objects were made. Jaimee Stockman-Young wrote about the show in Art New Zealand 166; now the gallery has joined up with the Spiral imprint (which McPherson co-founded in 1975) to produce This Joyous, Chaotic Place: He Waiata Tangi-ā-Tahu, a book that reproduces artworks from the exhibition of two years ago, as well as telling some of the stories surrounding it.

In a series of short chapters various writers remember time spent with McPherson and acknowledge the impact she made in their lives. A common thread is the preparations for the Mokopōpaki exhibition. M (Marian Evans) and Dr P (Cushla Parekowhai) contribute the majority of the stories, but Allie Eagle and Tiffany Thornley pay heartfelt tribute, referring to art they made with McPherson in mind. McPherson herself is present with a short history of feminist publishing in New Zealand, and an overview of how the imprint Spiral worked.

A sketchbook of sorts, this book brings together themes of weaving, activism, art-making, poetry, and publishing with love and respect. It is proof of its conviction: a sturdy belief in the written word, in the power of publishing and the impact that such permanence can make. Generously illustrated, and unusually orientated (landscape, with 4 columns of justified text), it is a significant addition to this country’s literary and artistic landscape.

Don Abbott, Books (Auckland: Art New Zealand, No. 173, Autumn 2020), pp. 110–11

[salonshop]

Jaimee Stockman-Young, Honour & History: This Joyous, Chaotic Place (Auckland: Art New Zealand, No. 166, Winter 2018), pp. 80–83