Reading 3

Craig, David. “Taranaki Gothic and the Political Economy of New Zealand Narrative and Sensibility”
New Zealand Sociology Volume 20 Number 2 2005

David Craig is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Auckland University.

The article written for the New Zealand Sociology publication compares the notion of Taranaki Gothic to influences upon the social and political economy of New Zealand.

I am interested in the question of what IS Taranaki Gothic, and is the provincial still influencing New Zealand’s wider view.

The term Taranaki Gothic was coined in reference to Ronald Morrieson, a Taranaki local and novelist of Came a Hot Friday, Predicament and Pallet on the Floor which “using Hawera as a backdrop for scandalous literary characters, usually shallow, casual bizarre sexual adventures and crime” [1] relate to the modern interpretations of Gothic writing. This genre has also been called Taranaki Gothic Horror. [2]

Gothicness has been applied to much of New Zealand’s creative spheres, fashion, filmmaking and architecture being common examples. Craig has also written on gothic contemporary photography. [3]

Craig has also used this term before, referring to Taranaki Gothic in an exhibition catalogue piece for artist Michael Stevenson in The Seppelt Contemporary Art Award, 1997. He refers to the definition provided by Nick Parry in The Dominion of Signs, 1994 “a slapstick style progressively undercut by a growing sense of desperation and heightened sense of threat.” Stevenson is himself from Taranaki. Craig explores in this piece the relationship of provincial to the wider world, using Michael Stevenson’s work to illustrate the ‘stalker’ mentality of the provincial artist when creating art derivative of offshore art they have seen only in reproduced form. “ . . . . so much provincial art is that a choked access to the living springs of metropolitan aesthetic authority produces a grotesque provincial reading of what the provincial artist believes is currently the case in New York”.[4]

In Craig’s 2005 piece he mentions exporting and how NZ has responded to global pressures. I think it is worthwhile to examine how NZ represents itself to the world in this context and to ponder if we are still as a country in 2010 in a very similar position to the provincial artist. The desire to reinterpret ourselves as a knowledge economy over and above an agricultural producer has meant a shift in visual language and symbols, but how much of this is catch-up with world views rather than inventing our own? The offshore questioning of our use of the 100% Pure branding is only beginning to resonate in NZ. Whereas Europe has been sustainability savvy for some years, business and tourism operators have been slow in recognizing this.

In 2002 NZ decided to promote itself as “technologically advanced, savvy, and a good place to work” – images that are important to the projected economic development of identified key enabling sectors in the economy of biotechnology, ICT and creative. [5] This dichotomy of trying to appear as a green, clean, adventurous tourist destination while also selling ourselves as a place of product innovation and economic development is possibly our downfall. Like the provincial artist we see the reproductions from offshore (countries booming like Ireland) and desire to be them and copy them. Of course Ireland has recently busted, but we still believe we can be an economic banking hub. Our growing sense of desperation and heightened sense of threat to economic pressure have made us schizophrenic to our future, a real life gothic horror.

[1] Bartle Rhonda. “A Bulky Man of Large Enthusiasms – Ronald H Morrieson”. www.pekeariki.com/research/TaranakiStories
[2] Bartle, Rhonda. “Taranaki Gothic Horror”. www.pekeariki.com/research/TaranakiStories
[3] Craig, David. “Gothic Inversions and Displacements: Ruins, Madness and Domesticated Modernism”. Gothic New Zealand. ed Kavka, M. Lawn, J. Paul, M. Otago University Press 2006.
[4] Craig, David. “Taranaki Gothic: stalking the grotesque in provincial art”. The Seppelt Contemporary Art Award 1997
[5] Guy, Natalie. "Brand segmentation and imagery in New Zealand’s national branding". 2006