Author and screenplay writer Martin Edmond’s new work traverses the history of a building and the art history of Whanganui. Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery is published by Massey University Press and is out November 7. RRP $65.
Of all the stories to tell, what captured you about this gallery in particular?
Well, the work arrived as a commission so you could say it chose me rather than me choosing it. I’ve always been interested in local histories wherever I’ve lived, and I’ve always wanted to write one. And the Sarjeant is local to me because I grew up in Ohakune and there were family connections with Whanganui from the 1950s onwards. When the Tangiwai disaster occurred on Christmas Eve,1953, for instance, the Wanganui Chronicle rang my father up on the telephone and asked him to go out and have a look. And my mother bought her Challen piano, from Colliers on Victoria Ave.
My first published writing was reviews in the VUW student newspaper, Salient, of art shows in Wellington in the early 1970s. I had a good friend who was a painter and, while I didn’t want to paint myself, I used to watch him do it and became fascinated by his process and also by the results of his labours. I started to write about painting in particular as a way of attaining a deeper understanding of what it was and how it worked. And that led on to a need to know about art histories in Aotearoa — which turned out to be a rich inquiry which is still ongoing.
Read the full interview on The Post here.
