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Christine Webster | |
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| Born | 1958 (age 66–67) Pukekohe, Auckland |
| Nationality | New Zealander |
| Education | Massey University, Glasgow School of Art |
| Known for | Photography |
Christine Webster (born 1958) is a New Zealand visual artist and photographer.
Webster was born in 1958 in Pukekohe, Auckland. She currently lives in the United Kingdom. Webster has a Diploma in Photography from Massey University and an MFA from Glasgow School of Art. Webster has taught at the ASA School of Art, Auckland, Unitec Institute of Technology, and Elam School of Fine Art, and currently is a senior lecturer at the Cambridge School of Art. [1]
Webster is a photographer and visual artist. Her work explores society's accepted boundaries and the human psyche, specifically relating to gender and identity. In the early eighties women photographers like Christine Webster took up a post modern position creating images as opposed to making a documentary record of the world around them. In doing this they introduced a more conceptual and theatrical approach that would previously been considered unthinkable. [2] Webster started using her own body and that of friends to act out the characters in her work. A friend, and professional magician, Tim Woon [3] appears as an over eager corporate suit, briefcase and alarm clock at the ready. In another image the briefcase opens to a magician's flash of fire. Later dancer and choreographer Douglas Wright would appear in many of Webster's photographs in many different guises. As Bridget Sullivan pointed out in the catalogue for the group show alter / image , by using a reference to ‘glossy up market advertising stills', Webster manages to' upset ideas of male control and gravity'. [4]
Almost from the beginning of her career as an art photographer Webster tended to work in series presenting groups of photographs as a cohesive collection. These series have included:
These early works often featured Webster herself, both as subject and photographer. Anna Smith writing about this series described them as, “not so much daring or prurient, as jubilatory, flaming with life.” [5]
Webster created the series, responding to the 1989 student-led pro-democracy protests and killings in China. [6]
While resident as the 1991 Frances Hodgkins Fellow in Dunedin Webster began visualising what would become one of her major series Black Carnival. When complete it would be a sequence of sixty images. Using models Webster challenged norms of the day by exploring ideas around feminism and gender roles, the shiny surfaces of the photographs incorporating the viewers into a personal conversation with the content via their mirrored image. [7] The works were inspired by ancient wall paintings like those of the Villa of the Mysteries in Rome, Webster creating her own ‘frieze of human abandonment and decadence.' [8] In 1993 the Dunedin Public Art Gallery commissioned a 49 sheet version of Black Carnival that is now in the gallery's collection and one of the largest photographic installations in the country. [9] The series features a number of naked figures did not pass unnoticed. As writer Ewan McDonald commented, the exhibition contained content and ambiguities “ we often dare not admit to…” [10] An example is the naked photograph of the cabaret artist Mika who stands straight on and stares directly into the camera. [11] At nearly two and a half meters high the impact as noted by art writer Erin Harrington, ‘demands attention.' [12] When Black Carnival (including the Mika portrait) toured to Hamilton a city councillor, Russ Rimmington, called the exhibition pornographic and called for its closure. “I've got a mind as broad as a Roman sewer, but this is just sleaze – it's worse than pornographic magazines like Playboy or Cleo. [13] the exhibition went on with all works included. [14]
A collaboration between Webster and choreographer and dancer Douglas Wright who is the model in all the photos. Webster had already worked with Wright previously on his dance Buried Venus.' [15] In a prescient interview recorded before their meeting and collaboration Wright described an image that could only come from Webster's studio, ‘I feel there has to be the image of a woman, or else something that is neither man nor woman. We need something that is mysterious and layered and rich. It needs to read well from a distance.” [16]
Other series include The Players (1991), Doll's House (2000), Quiet (2013) and Therapies [17] (2014).
The following annotated list represents a selection of Webster's solo and group exhibitions in public art galleries and museums.
Webster's work is held in the following collections:
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