Any time I visit or pass through my former home town of Masterton, I try to visit Aratoi – Wairarapa Museum of Art and History. One of the current exhibitions – the one occupying the largest gallery – is “50/fifty”, which celebrates 50 years of existence and collecting – this is from their website:

“Aratoi celebrates its first 50 years with an exhibition representing 50 years of collecting. With more than 3000 items to choose from it has been no easy task, but the selection reflects the highlights and significant events, as well as the many gifts received, that have helped form the Aratoi collection.

From the obvious, such as work by Colin McCahon, Robin White and Barbara Hepworth, to the less obvious: an 1869 ship’s biscuit with a tale to tell of the visit of a prince; from Taonga Māori to botanical sketches and contemporary art to photographs of early settlement, there will be some surprises as items never shown before emerge into the light.”

There will be an accompanying book.[1]

Barbara Hepworth’s sculpture ‘Galliard – Forms in Movement’ (1956) was the founding work in the collection. Aratoi was the first institution in New Zealand to own a sculpture by this English artist. My photo of this wasn’t very good, so best to look at it online.

The exhibition was arranged chronologically in decades and there were many works of interest on display, but I particularly like Robin White’s 2001 work Summer Grass. I first saw this ‘oil on wallpaper panels’ when it was first displayed at Aratoi probably in 2002. With help from bequest money and friends, Aratoi purchased it and it is again on display in 50/fifty.

My photos aren’t great, but it isn’t among the small online collection of Aratoi’s works.

This is what the text panel said about the work:

Robin White (b. 1946) Summer Grass (in collaboration with Keiko Iimura) 2001. Oil on 12 wallpaper panels. Phoebe Maunsell bequest, Prior bequest, Friends of Aratoi.

Summer Grass commemorates a tragic event in the Wairarapa during World War II. On 25 February 1943, 48 Japanese men were killed in a clash with guards at a prisoner of war camp in Featherston.

Robin White learned about this incident in 1999 when she settled in the Wairarapa after 17 years living in Kiribati. Wanting to know more, she studied the art made by the Japanese held at Featherston Museum, seeing is as a portal to the past – a way to look ‘through the eyes and thoughts of the men imprisoned there’. At the nearby memorial park, she found a plaque with a verse by the Japanese poet Basho, which provided the inspiration for her painting.

Behold the summer grass / All that remains / Of the dreams of warriors.

Summer Grass evokes the heat of a Wairarapa summer, a golden, sun-bleached landscape with a native falcon surveying the remains of the camp from above. At six metres in length it is a painting to walk by and reflect on, a lament for the Japanese soldiers who died so far from home, and a poetic meditation on our relationship to the past. White collaborated with her Japanese friend Keiko Iimura, who selected a text – a verse from Isaiah – and inscribed it on the painting in Japanese characters. Iimura chose this Christian text because of its importance to Michiharu Shinya, a prisoner at Featherston, who later wrote a book about his experiences.[2]

White painted Summer Grass on wallpaper she discovered in a cupboard when she and her family moved into their home in Masterton. She was attracted to the idea of bringing this forgotten paper to light, making it visible, just as the story of the Japanese prisoners is remembered in her painting.

Also playing on a TV screen in the exhibition are excerpts from The Big Art Trip – a series that was shown on New Zealand television in 2001/02 – showing an interview with Robin White about this work and other related works. I also happen to have home-recorded it on DVD and re-watched it this morning. But, as expected, it is also available online here.

Here are a couple of images of Robin White (stills from the excerpt) – and some of the interview with her, which I wrote down (omitting anything which is similar to the wall text):

She said “coming back [from 17 years living in Tarawa, Kiribati] was like coming to another country … I set about finding out about the place where I live, finding out about the history of the Wairarapa and that led me to the little heritage museum in Featherston and discovering the art works that were made by the Japanese prisoners in the POW camp. Their response to this place that was new to them became, in a sense, a doorway for me to go on my own journey to a place that was new to me”…

Two of these works are on display in a vitrine in the 50/Fifty exhibition – a mah jong set and a walking stick – my photos, but you can see a photo and find more about the Mah Jong set here.

The “incident” which also sparked Robin White’s interest is briefly described here on Te Ara:  “During the Second World War in September 1942, at the request of the US military, an internment camp for Japanese army prisoners of war was established at Featherston, near Wellington. … By 1943 the camp held about 800 Japanese, mostly captured in the South Pacific. While many accepted their situation, some refused to work, and in February 1943 they went on strike. This sparked a tragic incident where armed guards opened fire on the prisoners … Thirty-one Japanese were killed instantly, 17 died later, and about 74 were wounded. One New Zealander was killed and six were wounded.” There is also a longer account of it.

Just north of Featherston there is a rest area to the side of the road that has memorials of various kinds and interpretation boards about the site. One of the memorials is this plaque:

Robin White took a rubbing of this plaque (second image is a film still from The Big Art Trip episode.)

Also mentioned in the Big Art Trip interview was a series of photographs which were the last works she made on Tarawa – photos of the WWII Japanese command post, where 300 Japanese soldiers died. Another series of work she did was using a fan shape to link the Tarawa shots with the Featherston-inspired work. (Photos are stills from The Big Art Trip).

About the use of monochrome in Summer Grass she said it represented the idea of burnt summer grass. Of the fan shape – as well as being common in Japanese culture – it also brings to mind breezes, something felt not seen, and she said it is in line with her ‘current work’ (this was in 2001) where the medium is somehow integrated into the message.

In the background of Summer Grass are the connecting Tararua Ranges – a backdrop to the Wairarapa. The foreground of the painting, however, is disjointed. I took this photo from the car window (I was a passenger, not driving!) on my recent trip – it isn’t summer, so the grass is green, and I took the photos for the unusual cloud formations over the ranges. This was taken north of Masterton.

Last year there was an RSA commemoration of “The 75th anniversary of the Incident at Featherston Prisoner Of War Camp which resulted in the deaths of 48 Japanese prisoners of war (POWs) and one guard Private Walter Pelvin 496685”. ‘Summer Grass’ was on display in Featherston at the time.

I could pick up various ideas to expand on – the wall text ‘it is a painting to walk by and reflect on’, brings to mind some of Colin McCahon’s (1919-1987) works (McCahon taught White at Elam art school in the 1960s). ‘Walk (Series C)’, is obviously meant to evoke a walk – in this case, on Muriwai Beach. Te Papa’s online collection description says: McCahon produced four remarkable series during 1973 — the fourteen-part Series A (various collections), the two canvases of Series B, Series D (Ahipara) (all private collections), and this painting, Walk (Series C)… ‘People should know perhaps that I don’t regard these canvases as “paintings”, they shouldn’t be enclosed in frames, they are just bits of a place I love’. Walk (Series C) is currently on display on level 5 of Te Papa (my photo).

Another theme would be to look at Aotearoa New Zealand artists who pick up on various historical “incidents” to make art about. But there are too many of them. The current exhibition at Pātaka in Porirua for instance, is called ‘Here: from Kupe to Cook’: “Pātaka marks 250 years since Captain Cook’s arrival in Aotearoa with an exploration of the voyagers who were first to come here—Maori, Polynesian and European navigators. Taking over four of the main galleries, HERE features works by many of our leading contemporary artists, including Dame Robin White, John Walsh, Greg Semu, Christine Hellyar, Rachael Rakena and Johnson Witehira. Their artworks convey the long and varied histories of South Pacific voyages—from Kupe to Cook. The exhibition title [Here] can also be read for [its] Te Reo meaning of ‘a place to bind your waka’.”

Robin White’s work for the last few years has tended to be made on tapa cloth – a large work is currently included in the exhibition at Pātaka (my photos); Robin White and Ruha Fifita, We are the small axe, 2015:

 

But, lastly, I’ll mention the haiku (a Japanese form of poetry), which I have liked for many years (as has my husband and between us we have several relevant books). The Summer Grass poem appears in at least one of them (On Love and Barley: Haiku of Basho, Penguin, 1985, translated by Lucien Stryk), and possibly in a different translation in another (A net of fireflies, Charles Tuttle & Co, 1960, translated by Harold Stewart). I originally – years ago – borrowed this book from the Wellington Central Library and liked it particularly for its simple illustrations, and was later pleased to find the library’s withdrawn copy in a second-hand book shop! (Not pleased that they had withdrawn it, but pleased that I found it.)

And I took this photo of Robin White last year at a Friends of Te Papa event – in the background is one of her self-portraits at a younger age.

Footnotes

[1] “Book launch – “50 years in 50 objects”: Friday, 11 October, 5:30pm. This publication with full-colour illustrations, and texts written by Bronwyn Reid, Elizabeth Bisley, Jill Trevelyan, and Sian van Dyk and edited by Gregory O’Brien and Lydia Wevers, will be launched on 11 October 2019, our 50th birthday.”

[2] According to an anonymous high school student essay (PDF) I found online, the Bible text was: “people that trust in the Lord become strong again like Eagles that grow new feathers”.