CHRISTINE WEBSTER

Christine Webster

Therapies

31 Aug - 25 Sept

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

Milford Galleries Dunedin 18 Dowling Street (03) 477 7727 info@milfordhouse.co.nz

(ii) (iii) (i)

(viii) (vii) (x)

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Therapies 1 (i) - (xv) (2013) c-type photographs, edition of 10

Therapies 1 (i)

image: 495 x 745 mm

Therapies 1 (ii)

image: 295 x 445 mm

Therapies 1 (iii)

image: 395 x 595 mm

Therapies 1 (v)

Therapies 1 (iv)

image: 495 x 745 mm

image: 295 x 445 mm

Therapies 1 (vi)

image: 160 x 240 mm

Therapies 1 (vii)

Therapies 1 (x)

Therapies 1 (xii)

image: 295 x 445 mm

Therapies 1 (ix)

image: 395 x 595 mm

image: 295 x 445 mm

Therapies 1 (viii)

image: 495 x 745 mm

image: 295 x 445 mm

Therapies 1 (xi)

image: 395 x 595 mm

Therapies 1 (xiii)

Therapies 1 (xv)

image: 365 x 245 mm

Therapies 1 (xiv)

image: 365 x 245 mm

image: 395 x 595 mm

Therapies 2 (i) (2013) c-type photograph, edition of 10

image: 745 x 495 mm

Therapies 2 (ii) (2013) c-type photograph, edition of 10

image: 745 x 495 mm

Therapies 3 (2013) c-type photograph, edition of 10

image: 395 x 590 mm

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Therapies 4 (i) - (xiii) (2013) c-type photographs, edition of 10

Therapies 4 (i)

Therapies 4 (ii)

Therapies 4 (iii)

image: 160 x 240 mm

image: 295 x 445 mm

Therapies 4 (iv)

image: 495 x 745 mm

image: 160 x 240 mm

Therapies 4 (v)

image: 495 x 745 mm

Therapies 4 (vi)

Therapies 4 (vii)

image: 495 x 745 mm

image: 395 x 595 mm

Therapies 4 (viii)

image: 395 x 595 mm

Therapies 4 (ix)

Therapies 4 (x)

Therapies 4 (xi)

image: 295 x 445 mm

image: 160 x 240 mm

Therapies 4 (xiii)

image: 295 x 445 mm

image: 295 x 445 mm

Therapies 4 (xii)

image: 295 x 445 mm

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Therapies 5 (i) - (xi) (2013) c-type photographs, edition of 10

Therapies 5 (i)

image: 395 x 595 mm

Therapies 5 (ii)

image: 295 x 445 mm

Therapies 5 (iii)

image: 495 x 745 mm

Therapies 5 (vi)

Therapies 5 (vii)

Therapies 5 (iv)

image: 395 x 595 mm

image: 295 x 445 mm

Therapies 5 (v)

image: 495 x 745 mm

image: 295 x 445 mm

Therapies 5 (viii)

image: 295 x 445 mm

Therapies 5 (ix)

Therapies 5 (x)

image: 295 x 445 mm

image: 160 x 240 mm

Therapies 5 (xi)

image: 395 x 595 mm

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Therapies 6 (i) - (xi) (2013) c-type photographs, edition of 10

Therapies 6 (i)

Therapies 6 (ii)

image: 395 x 595 mm

image: 295 x 445 mm

Therapies 6 (iii)

image: 395 x 595 mm

Therapies 6 (viii)

Therapies 6 (v)

Therapies 6 (vi)

image: 295 x 445 mm

image: 295 x 445 mm

Therapies 6 (vii)

image: 745 x 495 mm

image: 495 x 745 mm

Therapies 6 (iv)

image: 295 x 445 mm

Therapies 6 (ix)

image: 295 x 445 mm

Therapies 6 (x)

image: 160 x 240 mm

Therapies 6 (xi)

image: 160 x 240 mm

Therapies 7 (i) (2013) c-type photograph, edition of 10

Therapies 7 (ii) (2013) c-type photograph, edition of 10

image: 660 x 995 mm

image: 660 x 995 mm

Therapies 8 (2013) c-type photograph, edition of 10

image: 995 x 660 mm

Therapies 9 (2013) c-type photograph, edition of 10

image: 495 x 745 mm

Christine Webster’s photography gets under the skin with its unsettling beauty and unnerving, direct gaze at those subjects more often left in the dark.

Therapies examines the societal/historical constructs in which the (female) body exists and is viewed; ideas of powerlessness, mental and physical anguish, desolate beauty, are all threaded through this suite of images.

Webster references a long history of female imagery in Western art traditions where the settings speak to the subject’s sexuality or lack thereof: consider a 15th century Madonna with white lily, book and rich robes receiving the Archangel, and the crumpled bedclothes, flower-bearing servant and knowing look of Manet’s nude ‘Olympia’.

With tacit acknowledgement of the traditions of the Romantic landscape, Webster’s English countryside recalls the subtle tones and indistinct outlines of Whistler’s Nocturnes or the veiled atmosphere of a late Turner painting. As her landscapes reveal a bleak world of bare trees, chill earth and oppressive skies, so Webster’s portraits reveal a similar bleakness of body and spirit.

Therapies places the subjects in, and alongside, a landscape which “is not fecund and burgeoning with ampleness, but instead scarce, bleak and pared back to the essential dirt and mud” (1). She re-imagines the age of the crone, barren in body and pushed to the outskirts of a society driven forward by youth and beauty. Both the land and the women possess a spare beauty which is compelling in its nakedness.

The pale figure dangling upside down in Therapies 6 (viii) and the kneeling, dishevelled woman seen in Therapies 2 (i)) wear their physical and mental anguish. The struggles ‘embodied’ in each woman are emphasised by the deliberate hiding of their faces – they are visible but remain unidentified.

Bodies are deliberately exposed or hidden amongst layers of cloth; visual metaphors of unveiling, binding and entanglement serve to illustrate further the constraints (and restraints) within which these women operate.

Therapies 8 is a portrait stripped bare and the column of the subject’s throat is offered up as either sacrifice or an act of defiance. Blooming lilacs frame the hard lines of cheekbones, nose and tendons, emphasising the strength of the body as well as its inherent vulnerability. This most exposed of poses asks who controls the narrative(s) of the image: the viewer who looks or the subject who draws the eye?

Christine Webster’s photographs, with their uneasy subject matter and lush production qualities, confront the viewer with their striking juxtapositions. Rich, textured interiors and stark, monochromatic exteriors mirror the tensions inherent in the minds and bodies of her subjects. The complex narratives of ‘Therapies’ invite considered contemplation and are ones to which the viewer is drawn time and again.

1. Christine Webster, Artist’s Statement, August 2013.

EXHIBITION PRICELIST Image size - 660 x 995 mm

7,500 ea

Image size - 995 x 660 mm

7,500 ea

Image size - 495 x 745 mm

5,000 ea

Image size - 745 x 495 mm

5,000 ea

Image size - 395 x 595 mm

4,000 ea

Image size - 295 x 445 mm

2,000 ea

Image size - 365 x 245 mm

1,750 ea

Image size - 160 x 240 mm

950 ea

All prints are priced by image size. Prices are for unframed prints.

Framing estimates are available on request.

All prices are NZD and include GST; Prices are current at the time of the exhibition

CHRISTINE WEBSTER b. 1958, lives United Kingdom

Therapies 8 (2013)

Christine Webster’s work “stems from her exploration of identity, gender stereotypes, sexuality and the inter-gender balance of sexual power. As a means to this end, she uses disguise, the ‘pose’ and performance.” (1) Using carefully choregraphed photographs, Webster brings private personae into the public eye, querying the layers of identities we assume. Her examination of hidden desires and secret motivations often conflates elements of fantasy, eroticism and violence, subtexts not normally on view.

“Black Carnival,” with its life-size works invites contemplation, but requires engagement on its own terms.

The glossy black of the cibachrome photographs throws back distorted reflections of the viewer and they become implicit in the work. A number of subjects confront the viewer with a steady, knowing gaze; others place the viewer in the unsettling position of voyeur.

While a series such as “Le Dossier” has a feel of documentary narrative to it, Webster’s hand controls the action and focuses the lens. Rather than a single narrative line, reconfiguration of the photographs allows for multiple retellings. Derelict, forgotten spaces frame the women and the sexualised images seem ‘out of context’ in a society more used to the glossy airbrushing of pornography: “Le Dossier contributes to the debate about representation of women in terms of the fine line between eroticism and pornography. It challenges notions of ownership and control in terms of sexually provocative imagery of women and it challenges societal mores of decency with intentional frontal assaults.” (2) Webster was the 1991 Frances Hodgkins Fellow at the University of Otago and after time spent lecturing and exhibiting in New Zealand, completed her Masters of Fine Arts at the University of Glasgow in 2004.

Based in the UK since 1997, she has works in collections worldwide, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, the International Museum of Photography, New York and Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington.

1.

2.

Elizabeth Caughey and John Gow, eds, “Contemporary New Zealand Art 4,” Bateman, 2005, p.56 http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/faculties/alss/deps/csoa/staff0/webster/christine_webster/le_dossier.html. Accessed 20/6/12

Christine Webster 2013 CV P a g e |1

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

CHRISTINE WEBSTER b. 1958, lives United Kingdom EDUCATION 2004 1981

MFA, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow Diploma in Photography, Massey University

SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2007 2006 2004-5 2002 2000 1999

1997

1996

1995 1994 1992 1991 1989-90 1987-88

Therapies, Milford Galleries Dunedin Therapies, Multimedia Project, Queensland Centre for Photography, Brisbane, Australia Le Dossier, Milford Galleries Dunedin Transitions, Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK Provocations, Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch Transitions, The Lab, San Francisco, USA Transitions, Artspace 501 Chongqing, China Blindfield: a multi-screen film installation, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin Le Dossier, Queensland Centre for Photography, Brisbane, Australia Quiet, Adam Art Gallery, Wellington; Sarjeant Art Gallery, Wanganui Black Carnival, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin A Serious Doll House, Galerie Focus, France Circus of Angels, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, Australia; Waikato Museum of Art & History, Hamilton The Hunt, the Seduction & the Kill, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Mascara I Mirall (Black Carnival), Museu d’Art Contemporani, Barcelona, Spain Fotofeis (Black Carnival), Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen City, UK Circus of Angels, Sarjeant Art Gallery, Wanganui Black Carnival, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia The Hunt, the Seduction, & the Kill, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, Australia Black Carnival, Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch; Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland Can Can, Vavasour Godkin Gallery, Auckland Black Carnival, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin; City Gallery, Wellington; Waikato Museum of Art and History, Hamilton; Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth Possession & Mirth, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney Australia; Hocken Library, Dunedin The Players, Suzanne Biederberg Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Artis Gallery, Auckland; Hocken Library, Dunedin; Centre for Contemporary Art, Hamilton Tiannamen Square, Ernesto & Kripps, Cologne, Germany; Le Cadre, Hong Kong; Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney Australia; Artis Gallery, Auckland New Myths, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany; Studio 666, Paris, France; Cambridge Darkroom, Cambridge, UK; Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney Australia; Artis Gallery, Auckland; Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin

GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2013 2012 2010 2007 2006 2005

2004 2002

Auckland Art Fair, Milford Galleries Dunedin Significant Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin The Naked and the Nude, Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch In View: Works from the VUW Art Collection, Adam Art Gallery, Wellington Discomposures, Temple Gallery, Dunedin Seduction: Shedding Light on Dark Desires, Queensland Centre for Photography, Brisbane, Australia Shadowland, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin Open 6, Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow, UK Show Me to the Tradesman’s Entrance, Tramway, Glasgow, UK The Collections, Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch Truth’s Mirror, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin

Christine Webster 2013 CV P a g e |2

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

2000 1999 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1990 1989

1988

Parts: selected works from the Permanent Collection, Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch Observed and Contrived: Recent International Photography, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia New Acquisitions, LA County Museum, Los Angeles, USA Exquisite Tenderness, Galeria Estrany/De La Mota, Barcelona, Spain La Masque et le Miroir, Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, Arles, France Out of the Void: Mad and Bad Women, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia Station to Station: The Way of the Cross, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland Persona Cognita, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, Australia Altar/Image, City Gallery, Wellington; Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland Persona Cognita, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, Australia Headlands: Thinking Through New Zealand Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia; Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington Kunst Rai, Suzanne Biederberg Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands Imposing Narratives: Beyond the Documentary, City Gallery, Wellington; Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland A Presentation of Contemporary Photography, Studio 666, Paris, France On the Border: An Exhibition of Manipulated Photographs, The Special Photographer’s Company, London, UK

AWARDS 2010 2007 1997 1996 1992 1989 1988 1984 1982

Individual Grant for the Arts, Arts East, Arts Council England Individual Grant for the Arts, Arts East, Arts Council England Creative NZ Arts Council Aotearoa, Arts Development Grant Creative NZ Arts Council Aotearoa, Professional Development Grant Francis Hodgkins Fellowship, Otago University, Dunedin Polaroid Small Projects Grant, Offenbach am Main, Germany QEII Arts Council Grant QEII Arts Council Grant QEII Arts Council Grant

COLLECTIONS Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany LA County Museum, Los Angeles, USA Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France International Museum of Photography, George Eastman House, Rochester, New York, USA International Polaroid Collection, Offenbach am Main, Germany Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland Sarjeant Art Gallery, Wanganui Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch Hocken Library, University of Otago, Dunedin Waikato Museum of Art and History, Hamilton Manawatu Art gallery, Palmerston North Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 2010 2005 1997

Kirker, Anne, Provocations – The Work of Christine Webster, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, Christchurch Caughey, Elizabeth and John Gow, Contemporary New Zealand Art 4, David Bateman Ltd, Auckland Gibson, Sarah, Circus of Angels – Recent Work by Christine Webster, Art New Zealand, No 83, Winter 1997 p50-53

Christine Webster 2013 CV P a g e |3

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

1996 1993 1993 1983

Brown, Warwick, Another 100 New Zealand Artists, Godwit Publishing Ltd, Auckland McDonald, Ewen, Process... Procession... Possession – Christine Webster’s Black Carnival, Art New Zealand, No 68, Spring 1993, p70-73 Kirker, Anne, New Zealand Woman Artists: A Survey of 150 Years, Craftsman House, Sydney, Australia Keith, Sheridan, Christine Webster’s Large Colour Photographs, Art New Zealand, No 29, Summer 1983, p40-41

Black Carnival #52 - Tai Warrior (1993-95)

Christine Webster 2013 CV P a g e |4

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz