As most of us hunkered down over winter, artist Nicki Stewart was in full production mode, making the scores of objects that form her new WW1-themed installation at Aratoi.
And so was an army of knitters working away throughout the region, producing hats, scarves, and other woollens, in the same way that women on the home front used to for the troops overseas 100 years ago.
Nicki set up a Facebook page ‘A Call to Arms’ to find her community knitters, regularly posting WW1 era patterns for them, and inspiring them to dedicate their garment to a person in their family who had served in the War. The resulting 41 garments have been hung on barbed wire to form a moving part of the exhibition.
“The first item I knitted was a sock made to remember my Great Uncle - Pvte. Eric Trevor Logier Walker who died of wounds on the Somme in March 1918,” she says.
“As the project progressed, people got into their genealogy and contacted family members they’d been out of touch with, so it became a real commemoration, a pulling together of people. They have been finding photos of these men and realising how rare and precious these stories are.”
Nicki’s interest in WW1 was sparked by living in Featherston, close to site of New Zealand’s largest WW1 training camp, which at its peak could sleep, feed and train over 9000 men.
She researched WW1 for some nine months before creating handmade ceramic grenades, ‘jam-tin bombs’ and miniature ‘lemon squeezer’ hats; decorated Wairarapa river stones, and encaustic wax paintings.
“The information in the exhibition is only the tip of the iceberg of what I learnt,” she says. “I got to the point where I just couldn’t take in any more of the stories from the trenches and the War.”
One of the facts she uncovered was that Queen Victoria knitted a scarf for each of the (then) Dominions serving in the War, one of which is in the National Army Museum, Waiouru. “I was amazed when a knitter from Carterton dropped off her scarf and it looked just like one of Queen Victoria’s,” says Nicki.
Nicki says there were many challenges in mounting the exhibition: “I was concerned that there is a really fine line between glorifying and commemorating war. And also as an artist, I believe my purpose is to find beauty, and where do you find beauty in war?”
I feel Nicki has negotiated this terrain with great sensitivity, bringing us a rich and multi-layered art experience.
Caption: Philippa Arapoff of Martinborough knitted this scarf for her grandfather, TPR. Alfred H. Barwick, who was with the Wellington Mounted Rifles at Gallipoli.
Next week: A look at Aratoi’s pop up ‘WW100 Wairarapa exhibition’.
Currently showing at Aratoi: ‘WW100: Wairarapa’, until 7 Sept; ‘Nicki Stewart: Remember to Remember’, until 7 Sept; ‘Kaleidoscope: Masterton Art Club’, until 17 Aug.
Philippa Arapoff of Martinborough knitted this scarf for her grandfather, TPR. Alfred H. Barwick, who was with the Wellington Mounted Rifles at Gallipoli. He survived the war and went on to organize reunions for returned servicemen for 30 years.