Caroline McQuarrie is the second artist-in-residence at The Gullies.
Caroline McQuarrie is the second artist-in-residence at The Gullies.
Heading to a 250 hectare sheep and beef farm probably isn’t at the top of many artists’ to-do lists but that’s where Caroline McQuarrie will be for the next two months.
She is the second artist-in-residence at The Gullies in Rangitīkei.
An interdisciplinary artist with an interest in exploring the stories of early settlers, McQuarrie will be using the farm’s wool in her practice.
“I plan to spend my time at The Gullies developing the textile side of my practice,” she said.
“Responding to the landscape of The Gullies farm, I will explore weaving and embroidery, using only wool as a material.”
Wool had an intrinsic relationship with New Zealand’s settler history, meaning it was a perfect medium to explore what that legacy meant in 2023, McQuarrie said.
The Gullies Residency was established in 2022 by farm owner Laura Morrison, who said it was an attempt to bring fine art opportunities to regional New Zealand and foster deep connections to the land and agriculture through unique collaborations.
Applications for this year were exemplary but the alignment between McQuarrie’s work the Morrison’s (Laura and husband Richard Morrison) passion for championing New Zealand wool, “an underrated textile with a strong New Zealand identity”, really stood out, she said.
Laura and Richard Morrison, owners of The Gullies. Photo / Florence Charvin
“The Gullies Arts Residency is about exploring conversations around art and agriculture and merging the two worlds in a way that hasn’t really been seen before and Caroline’s practice really embodies this ethos,” Morrison said.
Richard Morrison is the sixth generation of his family to work on Fern Flats, a 10-minute drive from Marton.
A converted shearers’ quarters, usually an AirBnB, and a purpose-built studio will be McQuarrie’s home until the end of August.
McQuarrie said she was looking forward to rich conversations around farming and experimenting with New Zealand wool as an echo to past Pākehā settlers, as well as progressing the development of her own visual language.
“I will experiment with methods of weaving my own cloth, then opening the warp and weft of the woven cloth with embroidery stitching to open spaces within the cloth.
“I intend to use weaving and embroidery in the medium of wool to consider the echoes of Pākehā farming practices that endure in the landscape of the Rangitikei.”
Painter Andrew McLeod was the farm’s first artist-in-residence, in 2022.
