Paula Coulthard has used live ammunition in the service of her art, but no real New Zealand flags have ever been damaged in the process.
The artist, who has recently relocated to Wairarapa from Auckland, once shot bullets through a Union Jack-themed dress she’d created to achieve a distressed look referencing Tame Iti’s 2005 flag shooting incident. Ironically, the dress was bought by high country landowner Christine Fernyhough. It was described by one commentator as rivaling in impact some of Vivienne Westwood’s radical punk-inspired garments.
Paula’s hand painted distressed flags, now retailing at the Aratoi shop, are less controversial but still retail the bold, theatrical impact and connection to New Zealand history that are the hallmark of her work.
“I’ve always been interested in the pioneering spirit of our early settlers, both Maori and European,” she says. “Our ancestors were generally rugged, strong, adventurous seafaring explorers and I feel proud to be part of that culture. I’m also interested in the merging of the peoples who make up New Zealand.”
The artist graduated with a BFA in Sculpture at Canterbury University and enjoyed a career in film and television, working in the art and wardrobe departments, before establishing her own brand ‘Coulthard’ in 2003. Her design and sewing background equipped her well to explore the possibilities of fashion and design as art. Together with fellow designer Ursula Dixon, she won the supreme prize in the 2007 World of Wearable Art awards with ‘Rattle Your Dags’, a memorable sheep-inspired garment topped with a spiral-horned helmet.
She made headlines again with her stunning woolen coats made from deconstructed blankets, found epaulets and motifs from the New Zealand flag. In the past few years she has decided to focus on flags, which incorporate painted landscape forms from immediately recognizable locations in New Zealand, and some that are more off-the-beaten track.
In fact, one could be forgiven for thinking they are real flags repurposed, so convincingly vintage is their look. But Paula sews all her flags from scratch (including her bullet-holed Union Jack dress) ‘ageing’ the fabric by stone washing, dying, and scouring with sandpaper – all skills from her film and TV toolbox.
Not surprisingly, the flags have been snapped up by ex-pats and others who want a souvenir of their favourite bach or childhood home.
Now Paula is reconnecting with local landscapes – her uncle, aunt and cousins are based in Wairarapa – and the flag currently on display at Aratoi is her ‘Black Castlepoint Flag'. The one before that featured Castlepoint on a pale blue flag. “I like the timelessness of the iconic landforms which have been there unchanged for centuries.”
Asked about the current flag debate, she says: "I am interested in flags, but I just feel it is not the most pressing decision the government could be making for our country at the moment. And I like the current flag as an historical flag, along with the United Tribes flag, which I’ve also used in my work.”
The artist clearly has more than enough inspiration with the flag that’s served us for 113 years. Korus and silverferns can wait for now.
Exhibitions at Aratoi: I See. I Saw, until 9 August; Elements Exhibition: NZ Potters Inc, until 21 June; Selections from The Rutherford Trust Collection, until 16 August; Settling the Land: Order Out of Chaos, until 16 Aug; Wairarapa Whakaputa Mohio: Settling the Land, until 31 Dec.
