Graham Fletcher enjoys the challenge of painting.
Ōtepoti artist Graham Fletcher feels honoured to have his painting 'Untitled (Sugar Loaf Waka)' featured on the University of Otago's 2023 calendar.
Each year, staff from Hocken Collections assemble a selection of artworks from which the University then selects two to feature on its calendar. This year, Fletcher's is on one side, and a historical work by artist Fanny Osborne 'Native Berries of New Zealand', 1913, is on the other.
Fletcher, principal lecturer in painting at the Dunedin School of Art, says he felt honoured that his work was selected, and he is impressed by the scale and level of detail visible in the calendar image.
His image features a stand-alone brick fireplace, decorated with features from a colourful Haida mask, in the centre of a room, with meat cooking on the grill. In the foreground on the right is a blue armchair, and on the left a carved figurine sits facing the fireplace. All this atop bright red carpet, while mustard coloured continuous seating skirts some plain white walls.
Osborne's image has 19 types of native berries and drupes, arranged with a kiekie in the centre of a vase. Other specimens include karaka, tawa, poroporo, and pūriri, painted with exceptional attention to detail.
'Sugar Loaf Waka' was the title of an exhibition Fletcher held in Tāmaki Makaurau in 2013, and in turn it was given as a title to all his featured works, he says. The term, Sugar Loaf Waka, refers to one of many pyramids in the Rímac Valley of Peru which is thought to be the oldest of the pre-Inca monuments.
“Within these Wakas can be found funerary chambers that contain the mummified corpses of indigenous peoples that are often surrounded by a range of utilitarian objects such as earthenware pots and wooden oars.”
Fletcher's artwork 'Untitled (Sugar Loaf Waka)', 2013, oil on canvas, 1350 x 1350mm in size.
Fletcher says many of his works from the past 15 years feature tribal objects strategically placed within Modernist interiors. The objects take on new roles within these foreign spaces, further “alienating them from their historical function”.
This idea of cultural recontextualisation and preservation is the impetus behind these works, to the point where these idealised spaces become time capsules and meaning is altered through the passage of time, he says.
When he first started focusing on interiors as his subject, Fletcher would dig through old design periodicals at libraries in search of elements to include in his works.
“That's when I began to notice in magazines of the 1950s and 60s the introduction of tribal objects into imagery of these interior spaces whether for advertising, feature articles, or rooms with indigenous themes.”
From these he was able to build a repository of interiors from which he could draw upon, combining and recombing to form unlimited concept spaces.
He also has a treasury of interior furnishings, objects, tribal artifacts, Modernist artworks and landscapes to incorporate as well.
“Much like the early Modern concept of the bricoleur, I then undertake a process of cutting, pasting, scaling, cropping etc. to build a new world from the fragments of the old.”
Fletcher has been a professional artist for 26 years. When he left high school he worked as a draughtsman for six years, doing night classes in painting, which led to him studying painting at a tertiary level.
“I enjoy the challenge of painting, that moment when you confront empty space with its unlimited possibilities, it can be both daunting and exciting.”
He is currently working on a new body of work to be exhibited at Milford Gallery in May, his first major show in Dunedin, where he has lived for 11 years.
Osborne's image, 'Native Berries of New Zealand', 1913, chromolithograph, 458 x 608mm in size.
Hocken Collections Curator Art Hope Wilson says sometimes the suggestions for the calendar are focused on recent acquisitions, particularly from the art collection, but sometimes pieces from the ephemera collection feature as well – the 2022 calendar featured the 'Mutant Hillbilly Orientation' poster, designed by Robert Scott, for the University's 1990 Orientation.
“There's an interest in sharing images that reflect current areas of focus for the University. For example, when the University celebrated its 150th anniversary, the selection considered photographs and works that give a glimpse of life and concerns from 150 years ago.”
The Hocken collections hold printed copies of the University of Otago calendar in a poster format from 1985 to today. The double-sided calendar format has been issued each year since 2003.
Wilson says it's exciting to see these images appear on walls all over the country as the calendar is distributed far and wide.
Fletcher's work is a “really striking image”, she says.
“The colours are amazing, and it's wonderful to include a work with a connection to a local artist who's teaching at the Dunedin School of Art,” Wilson says.
Wilson says Hocken photographs curator Anna Petersen suggested Osborne's Native Berries of New Zealand because it was an interesting image which also felt accessible.
“It also spoke to the science and botany side of the university, as well as the art collection and humanities. It's a beautiful image and quite a good point of difference with Graham Fletcher's work.
“It's great to see a female artist represented, and Fanny herself has an interesting life story.”
-Korero by internal communications adviser, Koren Allpress