Stella & Cecil: A Kaikoura Composition
Stella & Cecil: A Kaikoura Composition
Bridgit Anderson
PG Gallery 192
192 Bealey Avenue, Christchurch
6 - 24 July 2021
Bridgit Anderson, Annotated & dated, 2020 pigment ink on Canson Baryta Prestige 340gsm, 297x198mm (image)
Stella and Cecil Wallace created a home and a dental surgery at 43 Beach Road, Kaikoura in 1915. In 2020 Anderson collaborated with Margaret Egan, Stella and Cecil’s granddaughter, to create a series of 27 still life images composed of childhood memories, everyday domestic objects and the antique paraphernalia of Cecil’s dental practice. Drawing on conventions typical of Victorian studio photography, these compositions are an interweaving of historical and personal narratives. Just as the genes carry the code forward into the next generation, these still life images carry memories and histories; the things that have survived.
Bridgit Anderson studied photography at the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts (New Zealand) moving to London in 1985 and making her home just south of Tower Bridge. The Thames riverside community and local antique markets provided rich source material and inspiration for her documentary and studio practice. The Victorian custom of memorialisation was central to her series Caring for the Dead, in which she recorded the journey of the body from the time of death to that of burial or cremation. Psychology professor and writer Ken Strongman said, ‘Studying Bridgit’s images is like watching a Mike Leigh movie, but without any of the emotional anguish.’
Anderson taught at Chelsea, Camberwell and Croydon Colleges of Arts, London, returning to New Zealand in 2004 to lecture at the University of Canterbury. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, and her work is held in private and national collections, including the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.