‘Writing to History’ is a powerful installation of about 150 postcards written by Wairarapa residents to their ancestors who had served - they also wrote their thoughts on war and peace. Connah Podmore displays the cards in straight lines, like gravestones in a war cemetery. The exhibition has travelled from Pukaha Mount Bruce to Tararua College and now to Aratoi Museum.
Is there a right way to remember the First World War, the wars before, and those that have followed? From the perspective of today, these pasts appear as a tangled mass of opposing views: political, emotional and moral. The more I think and learn about these histories, the less likely it seems that there could be an answer to this question.
In making this artwork, I have come up against perceptions that have challenged my own, and I hope that those who participated in the project will also be able to say the same. Thank you to all who took part in this project as part of the 2015 ANZAC Bridge Fellowship at New Zealand Pacific Studio. The sincerity of your responses and your generosity of thought have made a lasting impression on me.
Arohanui –
Connah Podmore is an artist based in Wellington, New Zealand. Working across multiple media, her practice focuses on the poetry found within her own experiences with memory, stillness, and the everyday.
Connah was recently involved in the collaborative exhibition In Response at Toi Pōneke, in Wellington, and was selected as the New Zealand Pacific Studio 2015 ANZAC Bridge Fellow. In 2014, she was awarded the Artist’s Grant from the Emerging Artist’s Trust, and was selected as a Finalist in the Parkin Drawing Prize.
MFA (Distinction), Massey University, 2013-2014
BA (Art History), Otago University, 2007-2010
Artist Talk
MEET THE ARTIST
Write a postcard to, and with, history.
Sunday 16 August 2pm