Margery Blackman

Margery Blackman: Weaving, Life surveys the life’s work of Ōtepoti Dunedin artist and textiles scholar Margery Blackman. Centring on the small yet significant oeuvre of woven tapestries that Blackman composed over a period of three decades, this exhibition brings many of Blackman’s larger works and public commissions together for the first time. A skilled colourist working with fibre, Blackman developed a distinctive abstract language that was unique in local weaving and the studio craft movement of Aotearoa during the late 1960-80s. Her approach to composition wove together an engaged awareness of local and international art history with a fundamental curiosity for the possibilities, restraints and histories of her own medium. This breadth of approach afforded a subtle conversation to evolve through her work – between her love of Te Waipounamu, the structures of cloth, pattern, landscape and the built environment, and her close study of historic and global textiles – to produce an oeuvre that is resolutely local while also contributing to the international story of modernist textiles in the 20th century.

From the mid-1960s Blackman began researching, writing, curating exhibitions, teaching public workshops and advocating for craft and cultural heritage at a local and national level. She was a founding member of the Dunedin Spinners and Weavers Guild (1971) and served periods on the editorial and education committees of the national body (NZSWWS), an elected member of the Crafts Council Executive (1981-83), and alongside husband Gary Blackman (1929-2022) was a member of the Visual Arts Association and Friends of the Otago Museum. Though she began curating exhibitions and working with the collection of Tūhura Otago Museum from the late 1960s, it was during her tenure as Honorary Curator of Ethnographic Textiles (1988-1999) that she made an especially enduring contribution to local exhibition histories and public knowledge of global textile cultures. Her exhibitions from this period include Ngā Taonga no ngā Wahine: Treasures of Māori Women (1989), Small Tapestries from Medieval Egypt, 400-1300 AD (1993) and Emperor’s court to village festival: Chinese Costume and textiles from the collection of the Otago Museum (1998). Blackman worked tirelessly during her tenure to improve the safety, longevity and public access to these treasured public collections with a special emphasis on improving access for Māori.

Margery Blackman: Weaving, Life provides an opportunity to reflect on the multi-faceted nature of Blackman’s career. It highlights the valuable contributions she has made to the cultural life of Ōtepoti Dunedin, to textiles scholarship, to local women’s history and to arts communities throughout Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu.

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Ka rakahaua e Margery Blackman: Weaving, Life te katoa o te mahi o tēnei rika toi, o tēnei pūmātauraka kaka-aku nō Ōtepoti, o Margery Blackman rānō. Ka aro pū atu ki ētahi mahi toi auaha, he tuika raumata, ahakoa he iti, nā Blackman i raraka i tētahi toru kahuru tau, ka whakaemihia tuatahitia tētahi wāhi nui o ā Blackman mahi nui, me āhana kirimana tūmatanui. He tohuka whiri tae ahu weu, i whakaritea e Blackman tētahi reo tūrehurehu motuhake e noho tahi ana ki te mahi raraka o taua takiwā me te tira mahi toi o Aotearoa o kā kahuru tau 1960-1980. I roto i tāhana raraka toi he aroā o te tāhuhu kōrero toi ā-rohe, ā-ao anō hoki ko tuia ki tētahi pākikihaka whakapū ki kā ara whakamua, ki kā hereka, ā, ki kā tāhuhu kōrero o āhana ake mahi. Ko te arohaka whānuitaka o tana aroka ko aru atu ki te whakakunetaka o tētahi kaupapa kōrero mata hunahuna i roto i tāhana mahi - i waeka i tōhona aroha ki Te Waipounamu, te aka o kā tauira papaka, te horanuku me te āhua o te noho tāone, ā, ko tāhana aroka pū ki kā kōrero o nehe me te aroka ā-ao o te pueru - kia puta atu ai he mahi toi auaha e ahu pū atu ana ki tōhona ake wāhi, ka tuitui tou ki te kōrero ā-ao o kā kaituiweu toi hou o te rautau 1900.

Mai i te puku o te kahuru tau 1960 i tīmata a Blackman ki te rakahau, ki te tuhi, ki te rauhī whakaaturaka, ki te whakaako i kā awheawhe tūmatanui, ā, ki te whakakōkiri i te mahi toi me te tuku ihotaka ki te taumata ā-rohe, ki te taumata ā-whenua hoki. He takata whakapū o te Porihaka Kaipūwenu, Kairaraka, ā, i noho ia ki kā kōmiti mātauraka, kā kōmiti ētita ā-motu (NZSWWS), ko pōti ki te Rūnaka Whakahaere Mahi Toi (1981-83), ā, ki te taha o tāhana tāne Gary Blackman (1929-2022) he mema ia o te Tōpūtaka Toi Ataata me kā Hoa o Tūhura (Otago Museum). Ahakoa i tīmata ai ia ki te whakarauhī i kā whakaaturaka, ki te mahi tahi me te kohika o Tūhura mai i te whiore o te kahuru tau 1960, nōna e noho ana hai Kairauhī Whaimana o kā Pueru o te Momo Takata (1988-1999) e whai wāhi mātuatua ki te tāhuhu kōrero whakaaturaka me te mātauraka tūmatawhānui o kā ahurea pueru ā-ao. Ko āhana whakaaturaka i taua wā ko, Ngā Taonga no ngā Wahine: Treasures of Māori Women (1989), Small Tapestries from Medieval Egypt, 400-1300 AD (1993), ā, ko Emperor’s court to village festival: Chinese Costume and textiles from the collection of the Otago Museum (1998). I whakapau kaha, i whakapeto koi a Blackman i tōhona wā mahi ki te whakapiki i te haumaru, i te nohoka roa, me te wāhi ki te marea o ēnei kohika toi puiaki tūmatanui, ko tētahi aroka nui ko te wāhi hoki o Kāi Māori ki ēnei kohika nei.

Ka tukuna e Margery Blackman: Weaving, Life he wā ki te huritao atu i te āhua matatini o te ao mahi toi o Blackman. Ka whakamiramirahia āhana tāpaetaka māpuna ki te ao ahurea o Ōtepoti, ki kā akoraka whare wānaka o te mahi pueru, ki te tāhuhu kōrero o te wahine, ā, ki kā hapori toi puta noa i Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu.

I whakarauhīa te whakaaturaka nei e Elle Loui August rāua ko Jane Groufsky ki te Whare Toi Tūmatawhānui o Ōtepoti me te tautoko o Tāmaki Paenga me te Manatū Taonga.

This exhibition has been curated for Dunedin Public Art Gallery by Elle Loui August and Jane Groufsky with the support of Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum and Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage.