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Condition Report 1967 (2016)

Cat Auburn completed the final year of a Master of Fine Art (distinction) in the 2015/2016 academic year at the BxNU Institute, a unique postgraduate course delivered by Northumbria University in partnership with BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art (UK).  This program culminated in a group graduate exhibition, There Were Islands, at Baltic 39 in June 2016. A limited edition archival box was also developed as an alternative to the traditional MFA ‘catalogue’; it has since been inducted into many international collections, including the Tate Library and Archive.

Cat Auburn (2016), Condition Report 1967, digital photograph, 3m x 2.5m.  Source: The Tyne and Wear Archives.

Cat Auburn (2016), Condition Report 1967 – Ordnance Survey Sheet #5, 1000 x 570mm.

I engage with sociological, historical and economic hyperobjects[1]: events that are too vast for an individual to wholly grasp and experience. Within my practice these hyperobjects are encountered through the fractured prism of particular subject matters, such as a public memorial or, in the case of this postgraduate project, a demolished building. What lies at the heart of my interdisciplinary way of working is a keen interest in issues of authenticity coupled with a desire to interrogate and make visible the complicated systems and invisible structures that surround us all. 

An example of this is a project I developed during the MFA program at the BxNU Institute called Condition Report 1967, spanning film, photography, sculpture and a permanent public installation.  The project concerns a building called the Royal Arcade (1832-1963), the only Grainger/Dobson building to be destroyed in Newcastle Upon Tyne and a significant example of the Tyneside Classical style architecture unique to the city.  The Royal Arcade was also one of few remaining historical arcades in the United Kingdom at a time when the population was protesting the impact of subtopia[2] – postwar urban sprawl and the perceived ‘invasion’ of modern, high-density architecture.

Site of the demolished Royal Arcade. Swan House, corner of Mosley and Pilgrim Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.

The Royal Arcade was demolished in 1963 to make way for a giant roundabout at the heart of a new motorway bypass.  This town planning was widely condemned because not only did the bypass erase an important piece of architecture, it physically split the city in two.  In what I suspect was a diversionary compromise, local officials promised to reassemble the façade of the Royal Arcade close to its original site, adorning the front of Swan House, an enormous modern building to be constructed in concrete.  The stones of the façade were carefully numbered (see fig. 1 & 3), dismantled and stored, whilst a replica of the arcade’s internal promenade was purpose built inside Swan House – visitors would pass through the original façade into a concrete and plaster ‘pastiche’ of the arcade.  The motorway bypass and Swan House were completed by 1971, as was the interior arcade, but the façade was never reconstructed.  All that is left of the Royal Arcade is an anachronistic promenade floating forgotten inside a concrete shell, and rumours ofa grand building, painted with numbers and buried for safe keeping, waiting for future generations to dig up[3].

Cat Auburn (2016), Condition Report 1967 (detail), digital photograph, 3m x 2.5m. Source: The Tyne and Wear Archives.

The stones of the Royal Arcade seemingly disappeared; the official reasons given for abandoning the reconstruction, such as irreparable damage to the masonry and even the accidental removal of the numbering system on the stones cannot be substantiated, in fact there is more evidence to refute these claims than not. This era was notorious for political corruption, particularly in the North East, and very little reliable source material, either paperwork or stonemasonry, remains of the Royal Arcade.  There are also many urban legends surrounding the building that muddy the waters.  For example, when working with the Geography Department at Northumbria University and following several grey-archaeological leads, we were able to determine where the bulk of the building isn’t by using ground penetrating radar.  Over the course of this project I have identified eighteen pieces of the original masonry spread throughout local parks as ornamental follies; their provenance is largely unknown to the public and the location of the bulk of the masonry is still open to debate.

Cat Auburn (2016), Condition Report 1967, film still (27 mins).  1971 Replica of the Royal Arcade inside Swan House.

Condition Report 1967 is a project of several parts or measures; much like the scattered fragments of the Royal Arcade, they can never truly articulate the whole that they reference.  One such part is a film that condenses the various sites of the Royal Arcade into one location onscreen.  Images of moss-covered columns in a winter-bare park are interlaced with the arcade replica in its current incarnation as a Thai restaurant. This imagery is coupled with the crisp BBC narration of a 1967 document from the Tyne and Wear Archives[4] citing the condition of each stone.

Cat Auburn (2016), Condition Report 1967, film (27 mins).

 

Cat Auburn (2016), Condition Report 1967, film (27 mins). Installation image, There Were Islands.

On another floor of the gallery the viewer is dwarfed by a large photograph: a tessellated image of the West Façade of the Royal Arcade.  It is a composite of smaller images digitally stitched together to reveal the entire façade laid over with a curious periodic table-like grid. These previously unseen black and white photographs were misfiled in the Tyne and Wear Archives sometime in the 1970s and show sections of the Royal Arcade pre-demolition with an index manually drawn over the top of each photograph – an era-specific map to guide the reconstruction of the façade.

Cat Auburn (2016), Condition Report 1967, installation image (gallery).

The photograph is encountered though another grid-like structure: a heavy plaster column suspended fractionally above the ground in a white safety net.  The net is ubiquitous, it syphons audiences through the gallery, simultaneously framing and infiltrating other artworks in the exhibition with a white grid pattern.  Its structure is reminiscent of a vortex-shaped graph and suggests systems of measurement used to visualise phenomena that are impossible to experience.  The column is a plaster cast taken from one of the original pieces of Royal Arcade stonemasonry found in Heaton Park.  Since architectural plans of the building are non-existent, as is the majority of the stonemasonry, the index system featured in the large photograph is redundant as a unit of measure.  The plaster cast is a 1:1 facsimile, providing a key to the original building’s dimensions and offering a control for the project when no other true measurements are available.

 

The final piece of Condition Report 1967 begins as a small brass plaque situated discreetly within the gallery space; the engraved gps coordinates invite viewers to visit an offsite location two blocks from the gallery.  Another brass plaque is permanently installed in the footpath at this location, naming The Royal Arcade, the dates it stood on the site and a website.  It also lists the gps coordinates for finding the remaining pieces of stonemasonry and other sites significant to the building, whilst leaving room for more coordinates to be added in the future.  This is a permanent installation in agreement with Newcastle City Council, and I am currently in negotiation with the Tyne and Wear Building Preservation Society to hand over the guardianship of the plaque and website to ensure their relevance to the public and the city in perpetuity.

Cat Auburn (2016), Condition Report 1967, brass plaque, 76 x 127mm

Cat Auburn (2016), Condition Report 1967, installation image.

Cat Auburn (2016), Condition Report 1967, brass plaque, installation image. Permanent installation outside Swan House, corner of Mosley and Pilgrim Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.

Condition Report 1967 is framed by a particular set of sociological conditions and ponders endemic obscurification within political policymaking.  Through tracking the history and locations of the few remaining stones, the Royal Arcade has become an indexical matrix through which to observe larger administrative mechanisms that continue to shape the international political landscape to this day.  The empirical, investigative approach taken in Condition Report 1967 belies the crux of the project; the discovery of the Royal Arcade’s final resting place was always understood to be a farfetched possibility.  There are no definitive truths to reveal to an audience due to the opaque conditions already outlined.  Instead, this project offers a spectrum of authenticity for the viewer to position themselves within.

[1] World War One, colonialism and global warming are all examples of hyperobjects as explained by Timothy Morton (2013) in Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology After the End of the World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

[2] The Man Who Fought the Planners the Story of Ian Nairn (2014). Director, Kate Misrahi.

[3] Conversation with Peter Livsey, 14 January 2016, during a field trip in Newcastle Upon Tyne city centre.

[4] (1962-1969) Newcastle, Royal Arcade (Pilgrim Street development), Tyne and Wear Archives. DT.CC/128. Newcastle.

 

 

‘The Memoir of J. F. Rudd’ (2022-23) Bronze sc ‘The Memoir of J. F. Rudd’ (2022-23) Bronze sculpture; film projection.

This suite of autotheoretical artworks reimagines the Anzac legend. My intention is to challenge commemorative practices. In the film, my voice halting reads the handwritten memoir of a World War One veteran, while this same memoir is meticulously threaded with thousands of bronze beads. In The Memoir of J. F. Rudd, I foreground my autobiographic self—a self that isn’t demographically visible within the Anzac legend yet remains subject to its influence.

One of my thinking companions is Anzac WWI veteran, Lance Corporal James Foster Rudd (1891–1982). I found Rudd to be poetic and a wonderful storyteller whom I admire. By virtue of his association with the Anzac legend, Rudd’s personal experiences are understood through it. By virtue of the locations in which I was raised, I also understand myself through the legend, even though I don’t see myself in it. This becomes a troubled merger of individual and collective identity. It is further compounded because the Anzacs are not seen as individuals but as a “collective entity” into which Rudd’s distinctiveness is compressed.

I explore this complicated weaving of individual and collective identity by co-centring my own and Rudd’s experiences with the Anzac legend through artistic practices such as threading beads, narrating, self-filming, swimming, and bronze casting. These artistic practices aim to disrupt the prevailing heroic narrative of the Anzac legend, in a shift away from what, in her essay, The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, Ursula K. Le Guin terms the “killer story.” 

These works challenge the institutional frameworks of collective remembering (and forgetting) that play into the instrumentalization of Anzac narratives for national identity. I shift the focus of the Anzac narrative from that of conflict, violence, conquering, or being conquered to storytelling as a process of ongoing change and development. 
This artwork is on display in ‘Approaching Home’, a joint exhibition with @cmborland at @aratoimuseum. Photos: 1-2 Keith Hunter; 3 Lucia Zanmonti; 4-9 @cat.auburn
‘How to Make a Miniature of the Demolition of th ‘How to Make a Miniature of the Demolition of the Eighteen Arch Ashlar Bridge at Asluj, First World War, 1917’ (2019 – 2024) is a suite of artworks undertaken over five years: a sculpture cast in bronze and made with 30 meters of bobbin lace woven from my own hair, and a time-lapse video essay that follows the creation of the sculpture. 

This suite of artworks interrogates the sense of dissonance I feel when experiencing representations of the Anzac legend. This sense of dissonance has compelled me to find a different approach to the forms of nostalgic reenactment and material languages of commemoration typical of Anzac memorial.

This artwork uses a photograph of a bridge demolished by Anzac troops in South Palestine during WWI as a starting point. It captures one of many tales exemplifying Anzac character traits bequeathed to contemporary Aotearoa: masculine stoicism and understated resourcefulness. 

This narrative was complicated by my experience in Jordan in 2018. I was told that Aotearoa New Zealanders are not popular in Jordan because ‘we’ were the foot soldiers who helped implement the British Mandate in the region, resulting in decades of unrest in the Middle East. This ran counter to the narrative I had grown up with: that New Zealanders have only had a positive influence on international events.

By filming myself sculpting the scene at Asluj, including my own voice and stories within the film, using my hair as material, and casting the traditional commemorative material bronze at a domestic rather than monumental scale, I use artistic materials and processes to theorise what it would be like to experience myself within an Anzac narrative. In this way I autotheoretically question how my own national identity operates from an international position, both as an antagonist when positioned within Jordan, and as Pākehā whilst living in Scotland and unable to visit ‘home’ during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This artwork is on display in ‘Approaching Home’, a joint exhibition with @cmborland at @aratoi museum.

Images: 1-5 Lucia Zanmonti; 6-9 @catauburn; 10 Palestinian Exploration Fund, London.
We have officially wrapped up our Te Whare Hēra r We have officially wrapped up our Te Whare Hēra residency! Huge thanks to everyone who supported us along the way and pivoted so quickly to accommodate Christine’s access needs. @tewharehera 
@aratoimuseum @toi_rauwharangi @wgtncc @massey_finearts @massey_textiles
@lily_dowd_
@caroline_mcquarrie @johannamechen @gabrielleamodeo 

It’s been an incredible journey, and we’re so grateful for the opportunity. Residencies like this are essential for artists – they offer us the chance to explore new ideas, challenge ourselves, and connect more deeply with our work and the communities around us.

Our ‘Approach Home’ exhibition is still open @aratoimuseum until October 27th, so be sure to check it out if you’re in Masteron. 

Photos: @cmborland @cat.auburn @moonpurr @caroline_mcquarrie

#christineborland #catauburn #contemporaryart #contemporaryartscotland #contemporaryartaotearoa #contemporaryartnewzealand
#TextileCommunity #scottishwomenartists #masterton #wellington #ayrshire #argyll&bute
“Charkha Conversations” Cat Auburn and Christi “Charkha Conversations”
Cat Auburn and Christine Borland (2024). Letters on hand-made harakeke paper, Charkha spinning wheel.
 
“Approaching Home” includes a new, collaborative artwork by Cat and Christine based on an archival source: “The Report of the Flax Commissioners, 1870” which documents an exchange of research, fibre and botanical samples between Aotearoa and Scotland relating to commercialising production of the plant-fibre sacred to Māori, harakeke. Named by Europeans as New Zealand Flax, descendants of the original plant samples still grow in Scotland today.
 
Counter to the many letters which form part of the Report, the artists’ exchange is a conversation between friends, led by personal encounters with harakeke. The dialogue forms an important, live component of the exhibition; Cat and Christine were originally meant to travel to Aotearoa together, however Christine remains in Scotland due to illness.
 
The letters are handwritten on paper made from harakeke, sourced around the artists’ home. Embracing the slow exchange of written information, Cat and Christine share encounters and learn from the individuals and communities who care for harakeke in Scotland and Aotearoa, acknowledging the global significance of Māori traditions in narrating complex dialogues around the shared colonial histories and futures of textile production.
 
The letters are exhibited alongside a portable Book Charkha spinning wheel, a tool which binds both artist’s practices, through production of the numerous hand spun threads in
“Approaching Home”. The Charkha was designed by Mahatma Ghandi as both a means to financial independence for all India’s citizens, and a method of non-violent protest, successful in re-establishing the local textile industry, away from Colonial British control. 
📷 @cmborland Lucia Zanmonti @cat.auburn 
#harakeke
#christineborland #catauburn #contemporaryart #contemporaryartscotland #contemporaryartaotearoa #contemporaryartnewzealand
#TextileCommunity #scottishwomenartists #masterton #wellington #ayrshire #argyll&bute
Please join us for our online artist talk 23rd Sep Please join us for our online artist talk
23rd September 2024
7:00pm NZ 8:00am UK
For Zoom Link Email Lily Dowd
L.dowd@massey.ac.nz

We invite you to join us for an online discussion facilitated by Sarah McClintock, about our current exhibition Approaching Home. 

Approaching Home is a meeting of works by two female artist-friends from different generations, connected across the world by a shared settler colonial history. Cat is from Aotearoa and now lives in Argyll, Scotland. Christine was born in Ayrshire and her home is also in Argyll.

The artists have collaboratively produced the exhibition, focusing on carefully
chosen materials, processes and iterative works to introduce and question the
concept of ‘home’ through shared colonial histories, ecological pathways and
endangered making traditions. 

Approaching Home is on now at @aratoimuseum
Exhibition supported by the Jan Warburton Trust and @tewharehera 

Image: Lucia Zanmonti
Our exhibition ‘Approaching Home’ has official Our exhibition ‘Approaching Home’ has officially opened @aratoimuseum! Details to follow about a public program of events, both in person and online.

‘Approaching Home’ is a meeting of works by two female artist-friends from different generations, connected across the world by a shared settler colonial history.  Cat is from Aotearoa and now lives in Argyll, Scotland. Christine was born in Ayrshire and her home is also in Argyll.
 
The artists have collaboratively produced the exhibition, focusing on carefully chosen materials, processes and iterative works to introduce and question the concept of ‘home’ through shared colonial histories, ecological pathways and endangered making traditions. 
 
Cat’s bronze, film and textile-based artworks were developed during a period of doctoral research into trans-Tasman Anzac-related narratives of national identity and collective memory. Christine’s on-going series’ of film, cloth and printworks attend to both historical and future-facing lore surrounding the growing and hand-working of plant-based textiles.
 
Approaching Home works with shared material culture, autotheoretical art practices and intentional knowledge-sharing, to weave enduring cross-cultural conversations.

With thanks to @tewharehera Artist Residency and The Jan Warburton Trust for supporting our exhibition 🤍

Additional support from @northumbriauni #HopeScottTrust
@creativenz #northernbridgeconsortium @weareukri #UKRI #AHRC
@toi_rauwharangi @wgtncc #dickinstitute @c_n_o_s_
 
#christineborland #catauburn #contemporaryart #contemporaryartscotland #contemporaryartaotearoa #contemporaryartnewzealand
#TextileCommunity #scottishwomenartists #masterton #wellington #ayrshire #argyll&bute
Exciting news! Our artwork has arrived in Aotearoa Exciting news! Our artwork has arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand, and we’re about to start installing it @aratoimuseum. It is a huge gallery space and we’re up for the challenge of filling it with the contents of this wee crate - thankfully threads and fibres pack down small!  Working collaboratively, yet remotely is an encounter of care and friendship - we appreciate the support of the staff at Aratoi and @tewharehera in giving us the time and space to collaborate across timezones - there is currently an 11 hour time difference between Scotland and Aotearoa but waking up to lots of video notes is a real joy!

Thanks to the Jan Warburton Trust for helping us with shipping, and to @constantine and @globalspecialisedservices for the safe delivery our artwork across the world.

#christineborland #catauburn #contemporaryart #contemporaryartscotland #contemporaryartaotearoa #contemporaryartnewzealand #TextileCommunity #scottishwomenartists 

Image by @moonpurr
Cat has arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand! 🌿✨ I Cat has arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand! 🌿✨ It is the first week of our artist residency with Christine attending virtually at @tewharehera in Wellington. Thank you to @moonpurr @mrhicksetc @febvrerichards @lily_dowd_  @caroline_mcquarrie, and the teams at @toi_rauwharangi and @aratoimuseum for making us feel so welcome.

Photo 1: L Christine Borland, photo by @realifersross. R Cat Auburn at Te Whare Hēra, photo by @moonpurr
Photo 2: L Kilcreggan waterfront, Scotland. R Wellington harbour, Aotearoa.

#christineborland #catauburn #contemporaryart #contemporaryartscotland #contemporaryartaotearoa #contemporaryartnewzealand
#TextileCommunity #scottishwomenartists

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