Graeme Lay: Much more than a mattress

Opinion

The double bed in the Frank Sargeson Centre studio flat, a furnished residence for New Zealand writers in central Auckland, has been replaced by a new model.

Rather than sell the original bed, which has been in continuous use since 1987, the Sargeson Trust and a number of former occupants of the flat are undertaking a fund-raising campaign to finance the sending of the bed to Venice for display there during the city's 2007 Biennale.

This will continue the artefact-as-art tradition established by other New Zealanders - Michael Stevenson at the 2003 Biennale and et al (aka Merilyn Tweedie) at last year's Venice exhibition.

Art-lovers will recall that Stevenson's installation consisted of a pile of 1950s butter boxes and a Trekka farm vehicle, and that et al's Fundamental practice comprised five two-hour-long recordings housed in metal structures.

The case for the Sargeson Centre bed as installation art is compelling. No other bed has been slept in by so many distinguished New Zealand writers.

Among its occupants since 1987 have been Ken Catran, Geoff Chapple, Catherine Chidgey, Marilyn Duckworth, Alan Duff, Riemke Ensing, Karyn Hay, Janet Frame, Toa Fraser, Charlotte Grimshaw, Shonagh Koea, Michael King, Kevin Ireland, Jack Lasenby, Emily Perkins, Sarah Quigley, Gregory O'Brien and Vincent O'Sullivan.

The retired Sargeson Centre bed thus contains traces of all these and other writers' DNA, making it unique. The bed has been a literary incubator of national significance.

During its time in Venice it is planned to have the bed covered with the patchwork quilt hand-sewn by Janet Frame when she lived with Sargeson in the mid-1950s. The quilt will be loaned to the exhibition by the Sargeson Trust from its usual home in the Sargeson cottage in Takapuna.

It is intended that the Sargeson Centre bed exhibition will have a living human component. To emphasise that literary output is an ongoing, fertile process, the writers who occupied the bed will be flown in turn to Venice during 2007, where they will reoccupy it for a fortnight at a time, with a partner of their choice.

Exhibiting the bed with a writer and partner in it will capitalise on its exceptional role in our recent literary history, while simultaneously underscoring the continuing vigour and fecundity of New Zealand writers.

The installation will also be an exemplar of post-modern literary deconstruction. The bed's public re-tenanting by the visiting writers will render it a spectacle of inspiration for the Venetians who will come to witness its reconstructed function, while the bed will provide a source of literary reinvigoration for the embedded writers.

The cost of sending the Sargeson Centre bed, its former occupants and their partners to Venice is estimated to be a mere $50,000, a fraction of the cost of the previous New Zealand installations.

No Creative New Zealand money is being applied for to finance the bed's transport and installation, and no kapa haka party will be required to accompany the bed to Venice. The bed will, in itself, provide its own welcome.

At the conclusion of the 2007 Venice Biennale, the Sargeson Centre bed will be donated by the Sargeson Trust to Te Papa, where it should fit in well with the museum's Our Place theme. It is hoped that visiting writers will be able to still use the bed, by arrangement with Te Papa management.

Donations to the Sargeson Centre Bed Venice Biennale 2007 Project will be gratefully received at the Sargeson cottage, 14 Esmonde Road, Takapuna.

* Graeme Lay is secretary of the Frank Sargeson Trust. His latest novel is Alice & Luigi (published by David Ling). His earlier plea for the Sargeson Centre bed to be sent to Venice was published in New Zealand Author but was ignored by art authorities.