Lepisma saccharina. It may be only a centimeter long but it is public enemy number one in galleries and museums. Without stringent pest control, we would be looking at garments riddled with holes instead of the pristine Victorian era clothing currently on display at Aratoi.
This includes a boy’s top hat and formal suit, still bearing it’s Kirkcaldie & Stains label, along with wedding garments also from the 1880s. The exhibition explores the arrival of Europeans in Wairarapa, what they brought with them to make them feel ‘at home’, and how they changed the land irrevocably.
Curator and collections manager Bronwyn Reid says the historic clothing is in “perfect” condition, a testament to years of care. “It has to be laid out flat in custom-made acid free boxes because the fabric weakens and gives way first at folds and creases,” she says.
Vampire-like, silverfish feast under cover of darkness and have a particular yen for sugars and starches. Silverfish often gobble the image right off a surface, the paints, inks and glazes obviously more delicious than plain old paper. “I don’t know what goes through a silverfish’s head but maybe they have particular tastes!” says Reid.
Consequently, the Aratoi storeroom is regularly fumigated and has insect bait stations that are checked often for signs of pests. Watercolours on paper also have to be meticulously cared for. The show includes three by travelling artist Christopher Aubrey who recorded Eketahuna in the 1890s “He has shown a coach and horses rolling by and you can see how the original forest is retreating in the background,” says Reid.
The ‘70 mile bush’ that famously extended from Wairarapa to Hawkes Bay was at the mercy of a colonial worldview and Victorian sensibility. It looked dark, tangled and chaotic to the new arrivals. Land had to be cleared and made ‘productive’, otherwise it was seen as wasteland. Period photographs and paintings often show towns sprung up on bare earth with the burnt skeletons of trees on the outskirts.
“The colonists who came to New Zealand saw it as land without boundaries, land that had no systems,” says Reid. “They didn’t take into account that Maori had their own systems of rights, privileges and responsibilities connected to the land.”
Early settlers thought of themselves as “bringing civilization to a savage land,” and an ornate 1885 piano is another object that would have represented this. It is on display as a tribute to Wellington architect Ian Athfield who died in January. Brought to the Wairarapa by the Williams family in the late 19th century, it was purchased by Ian and his wife Claire, a skilled pianist, at an auction in Masterton in the 1960s. They offered it to Aratoi for the collection in 2014.
Currently at Aratoi: 'Settling the Land: Order out of Chaos?’; 'Near Neighbours’; 'John McLean - A Gathering’; and 'Hong Kong Song' - Photographs by Madeleine Slavick all until 10 May. Kiri Riwai-Couch: Mana Portraits. Nau mai haere mai!, an online gallery running until 30 March. Talk by Madeleine Slavick Sat 21 March 11am-12pm.
