{{Short description|New Zealand visual artist and photographer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}} {{Infobox artist | name = Christine Webster | image = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1958}} | birth_place = Pukekohe, Auckland | death_date = | death_place = | movement = | spouse = | awards = | patrons = | field = Photography | training = Massey University, Glasgow School of Art | works = }}

'''Christine Webster''' (born 1958) is a New Zealand visual artist and photographer.

== Early life and education == Webster was born in 1958 in Pukekohe, Auckland. She currently lives in the United Kingdom. Webster has a Diploma in Photography from Massey University and an MFA from Glasgow School of Art. Webster has taught at the ASA School of Art, Auckland, Unitec Institute of Technology, and Elam School of Fine Art, and currently is a senior lecturer at the Cambridge School of Art.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://findnzartists.org.nz/artist/16019/|title=Christine Webster|website=findnzartists.org.nz|language=en|access-date=11 December 2017}}</ref>

== Career == Webster is a photographer and visual artist. Her work explores society's accepted boundaries and the human psyche, specifically relating to gender and identity. In the early eighties women photographers like Christine Webster took up a post modern position creating images as opposed to making a documentary record of the world around them. In doing this they introduced a more conceptual and theatrical approach that would previously been considered unthinkable.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ireland |first=Peter |title=Photography - New directions, 1970s to 2000s |url=http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/photography/page-3 |access-date=5 June 2024 |website=Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand }}</ref> Webster started using her own body and that of friends to act out the characters in her work. A friend, and professional magician, Tim Woon<ref>{{Cite news |last=Jones |first=Nicholas |date=6 March 2011 |title=Auckland Arts Festival: Magician Still Draws Crowds in Internet Age |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/auckland-arts-festival-magician-still-draws-crowds-in-internet-age/FN6TVD7SZ7EMWJAMALHYLR664E/ |access-date=5 June 2024 |work=The New Zealand Herald }}</ref> appears as an over eager corporate suit, briefcase and alarm clock at the ready. In another image the briefcase opens to a magician's flash of fire. Later dancer and choreographer Douglas Wright would appear in many of Webster's photographs in many different guises. As Bridget Sullivan pointed out in the catalogue for the group show ''alter / image'', by using a reference to ‘glossy up market advertising stills', Webster manages to' upset ideas of male control and gravity'.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Alter/image: feminism and representation in New Zealand art, 1973-1993 |date=1993 |publisher=City Gallery, Wellington, Wellington City Council; Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland City Council |isbn=978-0-908818-14-3 |editor-last=Barton |editor-first=Christina |location=Wellington, N.Z. : Auckland, N.Z |pages=57 |editor-last2=Lawler-Dormer |editor-first2=Deborah |editor-last3=Wellington City Art Gallery (Wellington, N.Z.) |editor-last4=Auckland City Art Gallery}}</ref>

== Working in series == Almost from the beginning of her career as an art photographer Webster tended to work in series presenting groups of photographs as a cohesive collection. These series have included:

===''New Myths'' (1980s)=== These early works often featured Webster herself, both as subject and photographer. Anna Smith writing about this series described them as, “not so much daring or prurient, as jubilatory, flaming with life.”<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=Anna |date=Winter 2010 |title=Dead Can't Dance: The Provocations of Christine Webster |journal=Art New Zealand |issue=134}}</ref>

===''Tiananmen Square'' (1989)=== Webster created the series, responding to the 1989 student-led pro-democracy protests and killings in China.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tiananmen Square. |url=https://dunedin.art.museum/assets/EX-The-Brink/THE-BRINK-labels.pdf |access-date=7 June 2024}}</ref>

===''Black Carnival'' (1991–1998)=== While resident as the 1991 Frances Hodgkins Fellow in Dunedin Webster began visualising what would become one of her major series ''Black Carnival''. When complete it would be a sequence of sixty images. Using models Webster challenged norms of the day by exploring ideas around feminism and gender roles, the shiny surfaces of the photographs incorporating the viewers into a personal conversation with the content via their mirrored image.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/181354783 |title=Art at Te Papa |date=2009 |publisher=Te Papa Press |isbn=978-1-877385-38-4 |editor-last=McAloon |editor-first=William |location=Wellington, N.Z |pages=380 |oclc=181354783 |editor-last2=Museum of New Zealand}}</ref> The works were inspired by ancient wall paintings like those of the Villa of the Mysteries in Rome, Webster creating her own ‘frieze of human abandonment and decadence.'<ref>{{Cite journal |date=April 1995 |title=Christine Webster: Black Carnival |url=https://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/media/uploads/2010_07/Bulletin_095.pdf |journal=Robert McDougall Art Gallery Bulletin |issue=95 |pages=3}}</ref> In 1993 the Dunedin Public Art Gallery commissioned a 49 sheet version of ''Black Carnival'' that is now in the gallery's collection and one of the largest photographic installations in the country.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Notman |first1=Robyn |title=Beloved: works from the Dunedin Public Art Gallery [exhibition, Dunedin public art gallery, 12 December 2009 - October 2011] |last2=Cullen |first2=Lynda |date=2009 |publisher=Dunedin Public Art Gallery |isbn=978-0-908910-58-8 |location=Dunedin, N.Z |pages=228–229}}</ref> The series features a number of naked figures did not pass unnoticed. As writer Ewan McDonald commented, the exhibition contained content and ambiguities “ we often dare not admit to…”<ref>{{Cite journal |last=McDonald |first=Ewan |date=Spring 1993 |title=Process, Procession, Possession: Christine Webster's Black Carnival |journal=Art New Zealand |issue=68}}</ref> An example is the naked photograph of the cabaret artist Mika who stands straight on and stares directly into the camera.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Christine Webster: Mika Kai Tahu |url=https://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/collection/95-99/christine-webster/mika-kai-tahu |access-date=5 June 2024}}</ref> At nearly two and a half meters high the impact as noted by art writer Erin Harrington, ‘demands attention.'<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Harrington |first=Erin |date=Autumn 2015 |title=(In) Decent Exposure |journal=Bulletin of the Christchurch Art Gallery |issue=183 |pages=35–41}}</ref> When ''Black Carnival'' (including the Mika portrait) toured to Hamilton a city councillor, Russ Rimmington, called the exhibition pornographic and called for its closure. “I've got a mind as broad as a Roman sewer, but this is just sleaze – it's worse than pornographic magazines like Playboy or Cleo.<ref>{{Cite news |date=22 July 1994 |title=Erotic art exhibit already under fire |work=Waikato Times }}</ref> the exhibition went on with all works included.<ref>{{Cite news |date=27 July 1994 |title=Controversial show goes on |work=Otago Daily Times }}</ref>

===''Circus of Angels'' (1996)=== A collaboration between Webster and choreographer and dancer Douglas Wright who is the model in all the photos. Webster had already worked with Wright previously on his dance ''Buried Venus''.' <ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gibson |first=Sarah |date=1997 |title=Circus of Angels: Recent Work by Christine Webster |journal=Art New Zealand |issue=83 |pages=50–53}}</ref> In a prescient interview recorded before their meeting and collaboration Wright described an image that could only come from Webster's studio, ‘I feel there has to be the image of a woman, or else something that is neither man nor woman. We need something that is mysterious and layered and rich. It needs to read well from a distance.”<ref>{{Cite journal |date=Autumn 1996 |title=Raewyn Whyte An Interview with Douglas Wright |journal=Landfall |issue=191 |pages=37–49}}</ref>

===Other series=== Other series include ''The Players'' (1991), ''Doll's House'' (2000), ''Quiet'' (2013) and ''Therapies''<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Seja |first=Nina |date=2014 |title=Refuge & Ritual Trust: Christine Webster's Therapies |journal=Art New Zealand |issue=150}}</ref> (2014).

== Exhibitions == The following annotated list represents a selection of Webster's solo and group exhibitions in public art galleries and museums. * ''Christine Webster: Large Colour Photographs ''Wellington City Art Gallery, 1982 and toured. Art writer Sheridan Keith reviewing the exhibition for Art New Zealand, mentioned how much she admired Webster's use of colour as an integral part of the work adding, "Hers is a romantic and unusual vision, concerned with the transitory elements of existence."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Keith |first=Sheridan |date=Summer 1983 |title=Christine Webster Large Colour Photographs |url=https://art-newzealand.com/29-webster/ |journal=Art New Zealand |issue=29}}</ref> * ''Christine Webster : New Photographs'' Bowen galleries toured to Robert McDougall Gallery, 1984. Critic John Hurrell commented on the 'stimulating' and 'provocative' nature of the work noting their 'theatrical' quality.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hurrell |first=John |date=8 August 1984 |title='Tribal' photographs |url= |access-date= |work=The Press (Christchurch) |pages=23}}</ref> * ''New Women Artists'' Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. Webster's photographs continue to be seen as an antidote to the documentary focus of most New Zealand photographers at the time. Art writer Priscilla Pitts sees it as, 'cutting right across the grain of the documentary genre…'<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pitts |first=Pricilla |date=Spring 1984 |title=New Women Artists at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery |journal=Art New Zealand |issue=32}}</ref> * ''Fresh Art'' Robert McDougall, 1985 (group) Curated by Brad Smith.<ref>{{Cite news |date=26 June 1985 |title=Art's new attitude |work=The Press (Christchurch) |pages=20}}</ref> * ''Content / Context'' National Art Gallery, Wellington, 1986–1987 (group)<ref>{{Cite book |title=Content / Context, Wellington 1986 |publisher=National Art Gallery |year=1986 |isbn= |pages=100–101}}</ref> * ''New Myths'' Artis Gallery, 1987 and toured to Dunedin Public Art Gallery * ''Sex and Sign'', 1989 (group)<ref>{{Cite news |last=Airey |first=Mavis |date=20 September 1989 |title=Ancient beliefs inspire symbolic paintings |work=The Press (Christchurch) |pages=23}}</ref> * ''Imposing Narratives: Beyond the Documentary in New Zealand Photography'' Wellington City Art Gallery, 1989. (group) Curated by Gregory Burke. In reviewing the exhibition critic Ian Wedde said of Webster's work, 'Christine Webster poses herself in sexual dramas that approach but then deflect the clichés of pornography and dominance.'<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wedde |first=Ian |date=14 December 1989 |title=Imposing Narratives |work=Evening Post}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Imposing Narratives: Beyond the Documentary in Recent New Zealand Photography; Laurence Aberhart ...; [publ. to accompany the exhibition ... Wellington City Art Gallery, 26 November 1989 - 22 January 1990] |date=1989 |isbn=978-0-908818-07-5 |editor-last=Aberhart |editor-first=Laurence |location=Wellington |editor-last2=Burke |editor-first2=Gregory |editor-last3=Wellington City Art Gallery}}</ref> * ''The Players: a Photo series by Christine Webster'' Centre for Contemporary Art, Hamilton, 1991. As curator and art writer Anne Kirker noted, Webster, used her models to create 'subjective states of being' allowing them to present human conditions that were true of both sexes, a form of 'masquerade and disguise' exploring possibilities of sexuality.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kirker |first=Anne |title=New Zealand women artists a survey of 150 years |date=1993 |publisher=Craftsman House |isbn=978-976-8097-30-9 |edition= |location=East Roseville, NSW, Australia}}</ref> * ''Christine Webster'' ''Possession & Mirth'' Hocken Library Gallery, Dunedin, 1992 (toured)<ref>{{Cite web |date=1992 |title=Christine Webster Possession & Mirth |url=https://otago.ourheritage.ac.nz/items/show/10036 |website=Hocken Library Gallery}}</ref> * ''Headlands: Thinking Through New Zealand Art'', 1992 (group) Webster showed alongside other women artists including Margaret Dawson, Megan Jenkinson, Fiona Pardington and Marie Shannon all of whom, as curator Robert Leonard commented in the catalogue, 'play with the woman-as-object-paradigm in order to disperse the self in myriad disguises.'<ref>{{Cite book |title=Headlands: Thinking through New Zealand Art |date=1992 |publisher=The Museum of contemporary Art [u.a.] |isbn=978-1-875632-04-6 |editor-last=Whiting |editor-first=Cliff |location=Sydney |pages=48 |editor-last2=Murphy |editor-first2=Bernice |editor-last3=McCormack |editor-first3=John |editor-last4=Sotheran |editor-first4=Cheryll}}</ref> * ''Black Carnival'' Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 1993 (toured) * ''alter / image'' City Gallery Wellington, 1993 (group) <ref>{{Cite web |date=1993 |title=alter/image |url=https://citygallery.org.nz/exhibitions/archive-alter-image/ |access-date=7 June 2024}}</ref> * ''Persona Cognita'' Museum of Modern Art at Heidi, Melbourne, 1994. Curated by Juliana Enberg. * ''Open the Shutter: Auckland Photographers'' Now Auckland Museum, 1994. (group) Curated by Ron Browsen for PhotoForum celebrated PhotoForum's twenty-first anniversary.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Seja |first=Nina |title=PhotoForum at 40: counterculture, clusters, and debate in New Zealand |date=2014 |publisher=Rim Books |isbn=978-0-473-28325-4 |location=Auckland, New Zealand |pages=159. 164}}</ref> * ''Currency: Contemporary Photographic Art'' Auckland War Memorial Museum, 1995. (group) Curated by Peter Turner.<ref name=":1" /> * Circus of Angels Sarjeant Gallery, Whaganui, 1996 * ''Christine Webster'' ''Neue Mythem'' Museum Ludwig, Köln, 1988 * ''Blindfield'' Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 2007.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Blindfield |url=https://trishclark.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Blindfield-Catalogue-Dec-07.pdf |access-date=7 June 2024}}</ref> * ''Provocations'' Christchurch Art Gallery, 2010. This survey of Webster's work curated by Anne Kirker presented many of her photographic series.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Provocations: The Work of Christine Webster |url=https://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/exhibitions/provocations-the-work-of-christine-webster |access-date=7 June 2024}}</ref> Before the exhibition opened the gallery removed a video work from the exhibition because of potential audience complaints.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Harper |first=Jenny |date=July 2011 |title=Peace Junctures |url=https://junctures.org/index.php/junctures/article/download/211/244/440 |journal=Journal for Thematic Dialogue}}</ref> * ''The Brink'' (group) Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 2012.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Brink |url=https://dunedin.art.museum/exhibitions/past/the-brink/ |access-date=7 June 2024}}</ref>

== Awards == *1991 Frances Hodgkins Fellowship.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.otago.ac.nz/otagofellows/allprevious_hodgkins.html|title=The Frances Hodgkins Fellowship|website=University of Otago|language=en-nz|access-date=11 December 2017}}</ref> *1988 Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council Grant{{cn|date=April 2025}} *1989 Polaroid Small Projects Grant.<ref name=":0" />

== Collections == Webster's work is held in the following collections:

* Bibliothèque nationale de France<ref>{{Cite web |title=Christine Webster, Catalogue général, Bibliothèque nationale de France |url=https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb40472353h}}</ref> * LA County Museum of Art <ref>{{Cite web |title=Christine Webster, LACMA |url=https://collections.lacma.org/search?artist=Christine%20Webster}}</ref> * George Eastman Museum <ref>{{Cite web |title=Christine Webster, Eastman Museum, Collections Online |url=https://collections.eastman.org/people/63266/christine-webster}}</ref> * Museum Ludwig <ref>{{Cite web |title=Webster, Christine, Museum Ludwig. |url=https://museum-ludwig.kulturelles-erbe-koeln.de/ete?action=toggleDetail/kue::20010627&sstate=eJztWety00YUjp2WBAMhLKFk0lJAnU6Z1kklWb6mP3BuUOcCxWESbqORpbW9sSwZ7SqODZnhEfq7z9DpE_QJOn2d_u9ZyXZiW5Fghp9mhmR3z_m-PTft7oHZGPonlkDYaK28dbHTWaFMswzNMeb__PAhtjglzOi62sAN-iAm_5CYq2GqNZmqudQENXR5ve4QyoiFl6aLexvCNDMbP07J348pzhzgCmXYGVIrJq5XiQmrasO1KDOxg4SeXvLegPl9w8WFgiyKkpiRs-_F8xS52MP_Pvw7XZrtW710J3GT-2LadsNtDZxBU0tTD2K5BeFOYmZj7ZG68-QRmi_X7fZv3OdnmLomo4sx4W90Jv8LvRNUaruOjoXCO4FYuukamAqFV4KuC0nBsPUmZhqMdNtiGljqqLBmuc0KdkZXWaeFOYYYwpvTpOCFmrP6_mODjweLFds2-e-mSxls15OolDnEqnGBgasaWKxWCTYBKgwHWxjwC3o_iPfaflxBppmm3VZNrBnApraJaegQIaHAHBeD1NLMThePrfe3tFvY0ZjtADlPw-npm6Rnp2rZ3FaY0brtcqtevTkFT30HA72C9eZZDAY1AMzRRRC1Md-aujUIDAjfcTscGzYTYZV0IZ8ZPrId3xBdX-kVOeytUV04TULqXWL0p0Cu1WqUG6tukRNsLO9DPlU-505Q3ws_F2ov1f4-ef8PN8dxKw5pYEs1j01RDsSOqPRJpPQYPhWNT4XhlWi8EoZPR-PTYfhMND4Ths9G47Nh-Fw0PheGz0fj8yF4SYzEg0oIXorGS2H46PqTwupPiq4_abT-ep9501SPsdPWTOZaNdp14eRqYquu-SfbGGU06qJdNLdawW2t7nAEfOqq1mBuxB7BmIt3oCYmde8YiaAdKAZydd0aeKIaGnObYVRDeoFMZ4foxSwDnUAGRhg21abNyHEYyXm1YR67cgQGEsxjqHZpIMmoTqAlcHHX4LYJZhjVCWTwrn-eRq4WkaYx3UDGmsZ4BWIrjOpMKbhyNPhJNFNlWK-HVs6QYrCHboV_Cqa3HZRaqIejuiHnW_T5Ig6fL6en8HxKJKY3JRHFJBhf5WMZTTNbh1mGz1JouWkut9yKSfTllmMbrs6Iba2cfdn8wWawho1Na8XAfUbFZ7zCx2kUt-y-IINiIoy_4uMsuua_4546mGKL9QE5FM9wpRt8kkez8Bhzm778ciK-Kfvc8yCVRdR_7PbslyU0DQ8AmP0R41MF_R7Dpe7Ri7VSOb1c2tnvSE-663Jpv9Nm3Ya1Wz55TIxdxe6QttvRT3bMg5Kcf7z37AXJljrGS7K5tbP1fBei32o9PyyVtPr2zm7jBVV39ncfb6-9rR6-bB0elrb3D0i5sbZ1YNntYsota9m9vcPtDj0qtvc2it1dkjupbbxcLxaP6qS7D8Zd47al0ReWbeGe23IGxbHVi5Oc853k_qb8kF2HoYJmqjZE3jE8vfgmxFbmwocwzqNcRdMbBSkprRJLg0Qd41X4bFfFtCTJeVFZdSqaqouSLCq5YQEwrHsMqxS3NO-16NF8KsmGR_JLP2EeB8Um1hk2Pp6l5LGsAY6TDFlU-FSLsh7XzwOL5KR83itFFDMZMZtZHZ59ZiPWPK7CwIhUMhVgRPYcR3ZY8Lnyk_FIVno1BMGQPi4YvCTLEoqleg3XZtnrwiYN16ThmjRck4Zr0nBNGq5JwzVpuCYN18c0XHF4SfkvfeiCytB8jXVBX_N1CSG41xuYWNTV61Xt2HYIF97mwhSaq5Na3YS_jKp-w3OHC9Joocyg9umOXSMW_Khh44nLvJYjXpbRl8xmmgnTRdCW86j3z_m_WseEkoqJPaviZeAffjDBOgJESkSXiUVA2dfle6akC_e8ysXQUdrVan-W6s9u8JmCZlkde0-xvkIaTetN3s4t8FkGXalotIGZekxwG1Zv8dUcukrhZWZiP3J-N1hO5dFMDZ5uPhlfUaA_NOABSkzagypyIFRJjUGV81BurJJGs70XrtFfyo0v5YeWOFUarICGrAHnQC9_aQXN9ZI7nNh0OkDgceSHPYmXM-N1wzOUSfEMnWXzOl9T0CU_nX6vWc6JvRb7VuKaUYWP6MQvA4riUhqWlxKXqpqOGUVzw--tEFkqRKaEyML2y4TIsiGyXIgsf7FMEkNkUogsJC4Sj8vyQHY_8rIG9Z8G6ncj7l1QvjdQXgi6TUHj7kDjZsAl6Z03fYXR_90D4bcDIRq_14bBI1dWIHP_NgLhdwPh7QsuGFD6ZqA0P3p1BDt__kII3mTkjA-pFZ7z-4krcOIBFjpvVkfzm4XXxafl13WbMmhfq68XY_8DOMKT0A#kue::20010627}}</ref> * Museum of Contemporary Art Australia{{cn|date=April 2025}} * Queensland Art Gallery<ref>{{Cite web |title=Christine Webster |url=https://collection.qagoma.qld.gov.au/creators/webster-christine |access-date=5 June 2024 |website=Queensland Art Gallery}}</ref> * Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/agent/2423|title=Christine Webster|website=Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa|language=en|access-date=11 December 2017}}</ref> * Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/explore-art-and-ideas/artist/2533/christine-webster|title=Christine Webster|work=Auckland Art Gallery|access-date=11 December 2017|language=en}}</ref>

== References == {{reflist}}

== External links == * {{Official website|www.christinewebster.co.uk}}

{{Frances Hodgkins Fellowship}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Webster, Christine}} Category:Living people Category:1958 births Category:People from Pukekohe Category:Alumni of the Glasgow School of Art Category:Massey University alumni Category:Academics of Anglia Ruskin University Category:New Zealand women photographers Category:New Zealand women artists Category:People associated with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa