Dovetail Dreams @ David Lloyd Gallery

For Dovetail Dreams Museum of True History [MOTH] has invited Round Two (Stephanie Chalmers & Emily Rumney) to recreate the brave domestic contrivances of 1940s cabinetmaker and former milliner Agnes Dean.

At a time when women were being encouraged to join the war efforts in areas previously only considered the domain of men, Dean embraced her new woodworking and carpentry skills and demonstrated a unique flair for design.

Following the war Dean relocated to New Zealand. She opened her own back shed studio where she created one-off furniture designs for friends, family alongside a surprisingly wealthy client list. She developed a successful business that grew largely through word of mouth.

What few of her clients knew was that Dean also had a secret passion for the avant-garde and would fashion curiously functionless prototypes. While no one ever saw these objects, Dean often referred to them in conversation with her close friends as her dalliances – small gestures with no purpose but to amuse her.

Round Two have chosen to interpret Dean’s ‘daliances’ as their starting point. Using the vernacular of cabinet-making they have created a collection of items they are sure Dean would have embraced as her own.

Dovetail Dreams was on display from 25-27 September 2015

Polite Society @ Paul Nache

For Paul Nache, the Museum of True History [MOTH] has commissioned artist Karl Chitham to re-present and re-interpret some of his earlier projects that have focused on little known stories from the MOTH archives. Taken from letters, journal entries and unfinished manuscripts, these curious tales give surprising insights into some of the untold histories of Aotearoa.

Chitham has selected three characters, whose archives he has worked with in the past. A. Verlassen, a failed architect and potter, Anton Kaipeita, the descendant of a French wallpaper designer from the late 1700s, and a self-styled monarch known only as ‘Kingi’ who set about building his own ‘estates’ in the Far North.

Polite Society is Chitham’s attempt to twist these stories together, pulling apart the threads and weaving them into a strange and disparate new whole. While each of the narratives draws on elements of decorative history that many might judge to be only relevant to a privileged minority, they also touch on some of the less palatable aspects of our recent past.

From the MOTH Archives

Anton Kaipeita was a resident of Henderson in the late 1950’s. Unemployed with no obvious sources of income he spent most of his days in his small one bedroom flat. In 1960 he disappeared, leaving his flat and its contents to his neighbour who he barely knew. Among the few possessions in the flat were some small paintings depicting fantastic buildings and a leather-bound folder with a collection of over 200 hand-painted wallpaper designs featuring European and Maori motifs. The neighbour later learned that Kaipeita’s grandparents had immigrated to New Zealand in 1892 and that he was a descendant of the French designer Jean-Baptiste Huet, Manufacture Royale to the court of Versailles in the 1780’s.

A. Verlassen amassed an impressive collection of architect designed ceramic vessels. Very few people were aware this collection existed and even fewer ever had the chance to see it before it was destroyed in the 1960’s. It has been suggested that the collection contained examples by some of the world’s most renowned architects but this has never been fully substantiated. In 2002 MOTH acquired an appointment book belonging to Verlassen’s close friend and former business partner. It contained a notation that read; “Lasin [sic] is a genius! Who would think to collect such an atypical architectural record? As I commented to my colleague - in many respects the pots appear somewhat overwhelmed by the lineage of their creation, but they have an unmistakable presence nevertheless”.

In the late 1840s a wayward sailor established himself in a dense bush area of the Mangakahia Valley, Northland. Calling himself Kingi, he set about building a series of unusual cliff top dwellings he referred to as the ‘estates’. Along with a rather dubious family history he also told local Maori that he had been sent by the Queen as the new monarch of New Zealand. Needless to say it is unlikely anyone took him seriously.

Polite Society was on display at Paul Nache from 6-28 March 2015

http://www.paulnache.com/karl-chitham-polite-society

Lies and Madness @ The Framing Workshop

For this installation artist Karl Chitham has chosen to re-imagine a curious description found in a journal in the MOTH archives. The extract suggests that a wayward sailor established himself in a dense bush area of the Mangakahia Valley, Northland in the late 1840s. 

Calling himself Kingi, he set about building a series of unusual cliff top dwellings he referred to as the ‘estates’. Along with a rather dubious family history he also told local Maori that he had been sent by the Queen as the new monarch of New Zealand. Needless to say it is unlikely anyone took him seriously.

Lies and Madness was on display from 3-31 October 2014. 

Skeletons @ Pearce Gallery

Once again MOTH has invited Karl Chitham to collaborate as part of the One Day Wonder 2013 series at Pearce Gallery, Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design. 

Curated by Jill Sorenson the series, collectively titled Parallel Universe, engaged with artists’ networks, taking as it's subject the artist-made structures that challenge, support, create or supersede the status quo of the art world.

Over the season, six groups of artists who work together in some way, from loose networks to shared studios or artist run spaces, have been invited to partake in a one day research oriented exhibition/event in which they investigate/ play with/ critique the creative interplays and tensions innate in working together.

Skeletons took place on 3 May 2013. Images courtesy of www.artsdiary.co.nz

Nouveau Monde @ Corban Estate Art Center

Anton Kaipeita was a resident of Henderson in the late 1950’s. Unemployed with no obvious sources of income Anton spent most of his days in his small one bedroom flat, and appeared to have few friends and no family. In 1960 he left the country, leaving only a note and house key in his neighbour's letterbox. After a number of months the neighbour grew concerned and filed a missing persons report. She was informed by the Police that Anton had in fact left on a ship for Europe and had filed papers with a Dunedin solicitor leaving the flat and its contents to her.   

Among the few possessions in the flat, the neighbour discovered a cupboard full of small paintings on paper that depicted fantastic buildings and interiors from a range of periods throughout history. In a leather-bound folder was also a collection of over 200 hand painted wallpaper designs that featured unusual combinations of European and Maori motifs.

The neighbour later learned from the solicitor that Anton was a descendant of the French designer Jean-Baptiste Huet, Manufacture Royale to the court of Versailles in the 1780’s. Anton’s grandparents had immigrated to New Zealand in 1892 and had been of considerable wealth.

Eventually the neighbour sold the flat and donated the entire portfolio of drawings to the Museum of True History [MOTH]. Although the collection is in a reasonable condition, MOTH has invited artist Karl Chitham to respond to the works that are now referred to as the Anton Kaipeita archive.

The exhibition titled Nouveau Monde or 'New World' was exhibited at Corbans from 12 April – 12 May 2013 (Images courtesy of Artsdiary and Corban Estate Arts Center).

Derelict @ The Dowse

Blumhardt Foundation curatorial intern Lily Hacking invited MOTH to be part of A View from Where I Was Sleeping at the Dowse. The exhibition on from 10 March - 22 July 2012 presented a selection of collaborative art and design works from the 1950s to the present by local and international artists. The title is taken from a poem of the same name by Gregory O’Brien, which can be seen in the exhibition wrapped around a ceramic vase by artist Noel McKenna.  

Often working across surprisingly different artistic disciplines, the exhibition includes graphic designers, glass artists, jewellers, writers, sculptors, furniture designers, ceramicists, rug makers, painters, typographers, and the Museum of True History.

Each work is the outcome of a particular exchange of ideas and is consequently charged with a certain kind of intimacy. These collaborations are imbued with the history of their own making, and those personal relationships that shaped them. Other artists in the show include Raewyn Atkinson, Catherine Griffiths, Kate Woods, Jenny Bornholdt, Lucie Rie, Karl Fritsch, Francis Upritchard Crystal Chain Gang and many more. 

Modern Miracle @ Waikato Museum

This installation, created in collaboration with artist Karl Chitham, is a recreation of a previously unpublished description from the Museum of True History [MOTH] archives. The letter in question describes an unusual shanty town that grew around and onto one of the early timber bridges constructed over the Waikato River. Possibly a forerunner of the now iconic Fairfield Bridge and the much earlier Union Bridge, this ramshackle edifice was referred to in its day as a ‘miracle of modern engineering’. 

MOTH holds a number of significant collections in its archives. The letter described in relation to this installation is atypically in that it was deposited with no supporting documentation.  However, as MOTH’s mandate suggests this project is perfectly placed to ‘negotiate the relatively unbroken ground of presenting the evidence of obscure antipodean lifestyles in all of their strange, confusing and fascinating splendor’.