a library to scale : Ann Shelton

Media Release

18 July 2007

a library to scale : Ann Shelton
28 July – 9 September 2007

The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery presents a library to scale by New Zealand artist Ann Shelton from 28 July to 9 September 2007.

In this series of work Shelton investigates historical narratives in relation to place as well as our desire to catalogue our surrounds.

Her photographic installation examines the scrapbook collection of Taranaki bibliophile Frederick B. Butler. The original scrapbooks, from which the images are made, are held in the archives at Puke Ariki museum and library in New Plymouth.

Shelton recreates Butler’s library in 26 life–sized colour photographs, giving us the experience of an encounter with this unique and compelling collection and a sense of the scale of his project.

Shelton learnt of this collection during her residency at the Govett-Brewster in 2004. Its 3,500 wallpaper-covered scrapbooks are filled with decades of clippings from local newspapers. Meticulously catalogued, these clippings cover 60 years and areas as diverse as Crime, Hockey, Births, Needlework, and The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. Shelton’s photographs give us a sense of the subjects covered in Butler’s archive as we examine its shelves and the spines of its many volumes.

Also presented in the exhibition are photographs of handwritten pages from Butler’s personal diaries in which he recorded the details of daily life in a similarly fastidious fashion.

Govett-Brewster Director Rhana Devenport says Shelton’s library of photographs offers a re-vision or a re-telling of this amateur historian’s stories and also examines the idea of the archive.

“a library to scale in itself represents a highly personal form of archive that references an important chronicle of Taranaki’s past. In its production and presentation Shelton employs the same degree of accuracy, rigour and care that Butler did in the creation of his scrapbooks.”

Shelton is a graduate of the prestigious Master of Fine Arts photography programme at the University of British Columbia, and is a senior lecturer in photography at Massey University in Wellington. In August 2006 she was awarded the Trust Waikato Contemporary Art Award for a library to scale.

Shelton has exhibited throughout New Zealand and internationally. Her works are featured in public and private collections throughout the world, these include the Govett-Brewster, Te Papa Tongarewa and the Chartwell Collection.

Coinciding with the Govett-Brewster’s exhibition a library to scale, Puke Ariki presents Textiles from the Fred Butler Collection from 29 July until 12 August 2007. This exhibition features a selection of extraordinary patchwork quilts and rugs designed and lovingly handmade by Butler, which are considered to be rare works of great national and historical importance.

Image caption: Ann Shelton Frederick B. Butler Collection, Puke Ariki, New Plymouth, Scrapbooks from: Hotels 1956 September – November to Petrol 1944 November – 1946 May. 2006

ENDS

Public Programmes

Sunday 29 July 2.00pm
Rhana Devenport, Govett-Brewster Director, introduces a library to scale, followed by a look at the Frederick B. Butler quilts with Puke Ariki archivist Diana Gibbons. Free entry

Sunday 5 August 2.00pm
Artist Stuart Shepard discusses Ann Shelton’s a library to scale. Free entry

Sunday 26 August 2.00pm
Floortalk by artist Ann Shelton

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