Juliet Batten

{{Short description|New Zealand artist, poet and non-fiction writer (1942)}} {{Infoboxartist | name = Juliet Batten | birth_date = 1942 | birth_place = Inglewood | alma_mater = University of Auckland | known_for = Art performances and writing focused of feminism and the environment. Writing on and practice of psychotherapy | notable_works = 'The menstrual maze' (1983), '100 Women project (1985) | style = Ritual based community performances | movement = Feminist art | website = https://www.julietbatten.co.nz/ }}

'''Juliet Batten''' (born 1942) played a role in the establishment of the feminist art movement in New Zealand with performance work involving ritual and community involvement.<ref>{{Cite web |title=alter/image |url=https://citygallery.org.nz/exhibitions/alterimage/ |access-date=24 October 2024 |website=City Gallery Wellington}}</ref> She went on to become a psychotherapist and healer committed to community-driven ritualistic practices.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dr Juliet Batten |url=https://mentalhealth.org.nz/stories/story/dr-juliet-batten |access-date=24 October 2024}}</ref>

== Early life == Juliet Batten was born in Inglewood in 1942. After studying in Taranaki and Auckland she graduated in 1969 with a PhD in English from the University of Auckland. Batten then spent two years in Paris on a Doctoral Fellowship.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |title=A Women's Picture Book: 25 Women Artists from Aotearoa (New Zealand) |publisher=Government Printing Office |year=1988 |editor-last=Evans |editor-first=Marion |editor-last2=Lonie |editor-first2=Bridie |editor-last3=Lloyd |editor-first3=Tilly}}</ref> On her return to New Zealand she combined teaching art history at the University of Auckland with art-making and settled in Te Henga outside Auckland.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=June 1983 |title=New Zealand Feminist Artists |journal=Broadsheet |pages=27}}</ref>

== Art practice == Batten began her art career as a craft person who went on to paint, but by the early 1980s she was focused on performing and recording ritual based<ref>{{Cite web |title=Juliet Batten |url=https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/explore-art-and-ideas/artwork/24549/unearthing-3 |access-date=24 October 2024}}</ref> works that foregrounded environmental and feminist issues.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Juliet Batten Archive |url=https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/explore-art-and-ideas/archives/19634 |access-date=24 October 2024}}</ref> Often in the form of nature-based rituals, Batten's work depended on the co-operation and collaboration of other women.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Johnson |first=Alexa M. |date=Autumn 1984 |title=Gillian Chaplin and Barbara Tuck: Prints and an Installation Double Doors |journal=Art New Zealand |issue=30}}</ref> She acknowledges that an impetus behind early versions of such collaborative work was her friendship with the feminist artist Allie Eagle who had moved to Te Henga in 1978.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zusters |first=Jane |date=1994 |title=Allie Eagle: Artist |journal=Art New Zealand |issue=73 |pages=53–57}}</ref> Batten has spoken about how her friendship with Eagle ‘unlocked her art,’ and ‘crystallised her ideas.’<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Davis |first=Betty |date=1984 |title=Beginning Visible |journal=Women's Art Archive Interview Proiect}}</ref> Eagle in turn has also acknowledged Batten for her own shift to environmental issues.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Osborne |first=Joanna |date=Spring 2022 |title=Allie Eagle (1949–2022) |journal=Art New Zealand |issue=183 |pages=55–57}}</ref> Other artists who found Batten's focus on community influential included Carol Shepheard who participated in Batten's ''Lifescape'' environment.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Eastmond |first=Elizabeth |date=1983 |title=Carole Shepheard in Full Flight |journal=Art New Zealand |issue=26}}</ref> In discussing Batten's work, art historian Cheryll Sotheran commented that Batten's use of the landscape to present spiritual values was ‘significant’ and that by using many different media including photography, sketches, oil pastels and watercolours she had created a ‘vocabulary of female spirituality and creativity’.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Sotheran |first=Cheryll |date=Summer 1984 |title=Exhibitions Auckland |url=https://art-newzealand.com/33-exhibitionsakl/ |journal=Art New Zealand |issue=33}}</ref> In 1980 Batten became a founding member of the Women's Gallery in Wellington along with a group of other women artists both based in Wellington and from around the country including Fiona Clark, Allie Eagle, Marion Evans, Claudia Pond Eyley, Keri Hume, Anna Keir, Bridie Lonie, Heather McPherson, Joanna Paul, Nancy Peterson, Helen Rockel, Carole Stewart and Tiffany Thornley.<ref name=":4" /> The same year Batten facilitated the Ponsonby Women's Outreach, a gallery environment specifically for women.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Intervention: Post Object Performance Art in New Zealand in 1970 and beyond I |publisher=Robert McDougall Art Gallery &Annex |year=2000 |isbn=0 908874-61-8}}</ref> In 1981 Batten received a Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council grant to travel to the United States. She visited the Woman's Building in San Francisco where she was able to observe leading edge experimental lesbian and feminist art.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Kirker |first=Anne |title=New Zealand Women Artists: A Survey of 150 Years |publisher=Reed Methuen |year=1986 |pages=157–189}}</ref>

== Selected exhibitions and performances == Batten remained a feminist artist throughout the eighties and nineties known for her collaborative art projects for women and ritual performances.<ref name=":0" /> In 1988 she published her book ''Power from Within''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Batten |first=Juliet |title=Power from Within: A Feminist Guide to Ritual Making |publisher=Ishtar Books |year=1988 |location=Auckland}}</ref> that summed up Batten's work as ‘an artist, teacher and ritual maker’ up to that time.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rountree |first=Kathryn |date=2015 |title=The Academy, the Otherworld, and Between |journal=Pomegranate |volume=17 |issue=1/2 |pages=155–169|doi=10.1558/pome.v17i1-2.27753 }}</ref>

'''1980'''

* ''Opening Show'' (group) Women's Gallery, Wellington.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Evans |first=Marian |title=The Women's Gallery 1979 – 2005 |url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/women-together/womens-gallery |access-date=24 October 2024}}</ref> * ''Diaries'' (group) Women's Gallery, Wellington.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lonie |first=Bridie |date=Summer 1981 |title=Bridie Lonie Diaries |url=https://art-newzealand.com/18-exhibitionswn/ |journal=Art New Zealand |issue=18}}</ref> * ''Women in the Arts'' (group), Outreach, Auckland.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pitts |first=Priscilla |date=Spring 1980 |title=Women in the Arts |journal=Art New Zealand |issue=17}}</ref>

'''1981'''

* ''Mothers'' (group) Women's Gallery, Wellington. Co-ordinated by Marian Evans and Anna Keir.<ref name=":0" /> * ''Birth Series: Watercolours by Juliet Batten'' Denis Cohen Gallery, Auckland.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pitts |first=Priscilla |date=10 April 1982 |title=Priscilla Pitts Images of Frustration |journal=NZ Listener |pages=34–35}}</ref> * ''Women, Water and Sand'' O’Neills Bay, Auckland.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1982 |title=Women, Water and Sand: Feminists for the Environment at O'Neills Beach, near Te Henga, Auckland, Sunday December 6 1981 |journal=Spiral |issue=5 |pages=52–54}}</ref>

'''1982'''

* ''Deathbed Lifescape'' installation, Auckland.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Eastmond |first=Elizabeth |date=Autumn 1984 |title=Bronwynne Cornish's Dedicated to the Kindness of Mothers |journal=Art New Zealand |issue=30}}</ref> * ''Seeds'' New Vision Gallery, Auckland.<ref>{{Cite news |date=5 July 1982 |title=Earth Forces |work=New Zealand Herald}}</ref> * F1 Sculpture Project, (group) Wellington. Batten and Barbara Strathdee organised a two-day seminar surveying current activity in the visual arts by women in New Zealand.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Strathdee |first=Barbara |date=Autumn 1983 |title=Women Artists at the F1 Sculpture Project |url=https://art-newzealand.com/26-womenf1/ |journal=Art New Zealand |volume=26}}</ref>

'''1983'''

* ''Workbooks/Diaries'' Women's Gallery, Wellington. * ''The Menstrual Maze'' at Greer's Factory, Auckland.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bronwen |first=Nicholson |date=September 1983 |title=The Menstrual Maze Broadsheet |journal=Broadsheet |issue=112 |pages=46}}</ref> * ''Mending'' New Vision Gallery, Auckland.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sotheran |first=Cheryll |date=18 July 1983 |title=At the Galleries |work=Auckland Star}}</ref> * ''Women to Women'' (group) Outreach Gallery, Auckland.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sotheran |first=Cheryll |date=21 November 1983 |title=Women's Love |work=Auckland Star}}</ref>

'''1984'''

* ''Ongoing Rituals'' Outreach, Auckland.<ref name=":2" /> * ''Diary Performance'' Ponsonby, Auckland.<ref>{{Cite news |date=6 November 1984 |title=The Passing Parade Participates |work=New Zealand Herald}}</ref>

'''1985.'''

* ''!00 Women Project''. Performed as part of ANZART coordinated by Batten on Te Henga Beach.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dunn |first=Michael |title=New Zealand sculpture: a history |publisher=Auckland Univ. Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-86940-425-3 |edition=2nd |location=Auckland, N.Z |pages=123}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Barton |first=Christina |title=Post-object and conceptual art - What is post-object art? |url=http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/photograph/43823/one-hundred-women |access-date=24 October 2024 |website=Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand}}</ref>

'''1986'''

* ''Totems'' (group) CSA Gallery, Christchurch.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hurrell |first=John |date=12 March 1986 |title='Totems' at the C.S.A |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19860312.2.122 |archive-url= |access-date=24 October 2024 |work=The Press (Christchurch) |pages=26}}</ref> * ''Pageworks I and II'' (group) Outreach Gallery, Auckland.<ref>{{Cite news |last=McNamara |first=T.J. |date=22 April 1986 |title=Arists Take the Leap to Brighter, Clearer World |work=New Zealand Herald}}</ref> * ''Juliet Batten: Flying Souls'' Denis Cohen Gallery * ''Unearthing'' Outreach, Auckland. Batten filmed the performance which was later shown as ''Unearthing'' in 1989.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Art and Ideas |url=https://www.aucklandartgallery.com/explore-art-and-ideas/archives/19634/item/24557 |access-date=24 October 2024}}</ref> * ''Women and Culture'' (group) Outreach Gallery, Auckland.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Coney |first=Sandra |date=13 December 1986 |title=Batten's Symbolic Retrieval of Women's Hidden Contribution to Culture |journal=New Zealand Listener}}</ref> * ''Knitting the tide'' Te Henga, Auckland

'''1987'''

* ''The Inanna Cycle'' Gallery Pacific, Auckland.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Eastgate |first=Caron |date=4 May 1987 |title=Stunning Works Gathered for City Exhibition |work=Auckland Star}}</ref> * ''Threshold'' Outreach Gallery, Auckland.<ref>{{Cite news |last=McNamara |first=T.J. |date=13 August 1987 |title=Exhibitions Blossoming |work=New Zealand Herald}}</ref>

'''1988'''

* Songs of the Green Snake Society of Arts, Auckland.<ref>{{Cite news |last=McNamara |first=T.J. |date=9 June 1988 |title=T.J.McNamara Kivits Bringds the Buyers |work=New Zealand Herald}}</ref>

'''1990'''

* ''Sacred Spaces'' Green Shed, Auckland.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kingston |first=John |date=19 April 1990 |title=Ritual Works |journal=NZ Listener |pages=109–110}}</ref> * ''Mana Tiriti: The Art of Protest and Partnership'' (group) City Gallery, Wellington (toured).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mana Tiriti: The Art of Protest and Partnership |url=https://citygallery.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/MT_Catalogue-1.pdf |access-date=24 October 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=27 September 1990 |title=Treaty Evokes a Powerful Response |url=https://tetuhi.art/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Treaty-evokes-a-powerful-response-New-Zealand-Herald-27-09-1990.pdf |access-date=24 October 2024 |work=New Zealand Herald}}</ref>

'''1993'''

* ''alter/image'' (group) City Gallery, Wellington. Batten performance was titled ''The Simultaneous Dress''.<ref>{{Cite news |date=29 July 1993 |title=Cowgirl Dominatrix on After / Image Stage |work=Dominion}}</ref>

'''1995'''

* ''Juliet Batten: Ongoing rituals.'' Denis Cohn Gallery, Auckland.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Juliet Batten. Ongoing rituals. A watercolour and mixed media exhibition at the Denis Cohn Gallery [Auckland]. 22 October 1995 - 2 November 1995 |url=https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23242179?search%5Bi%5D%5Bname_authority_id%5D=-146277&search%5Bpath%5D=items |access-date=24 October 2024}}</ref>

== Critical Response == The feminist art movement that Batten helped pioneer was not treated seriously by many critics. Batten asserted that feminist artists were still ‘under the power of narrow-minded, biased reviewing’ and that they should ‘work together to give all women visibility, including Māori and lesbian artists.’ She believed that only collective action could help grow the number of women working for change in the arts.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Baker |first=Katryn |title=Auckland's Women Artists: 1980s Auckland History Initiative Auckland University |url=https://ahi.auckland.ac.nz/files/2024/07/Katryn-Article-4-FINAL.pdf |access-date=24 October 2024}}</ref> The movements strongest critic was Lita Barrie. She singled Batten out for her use of pastel colours, flower imagery and ‘vaginal forms’ for their too obvious reference to feminist concerns.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Barrie |first=Lita |date=1987 |title=Further Toward a Deconstruction of Phallic Univocality: Deferrals |journal=Antic |issue=2 |pages=32}}</ref> Art Historian Anne Kirker consistently labelled Batten as a teacher and facilitator rather than an artist. She argued that Batten's work sacrificed aesthetics for process and suggested that by collaborating with groups of women she ‘created less effective results in that it tended to disperse the communication’ and ‘prove less effective’.<ref name=":2" /> Other early arguments against the feminist art movement claimed that, ‘Femininity is not involved any more than masculinity in the work of men painters. Art transcends sex."<ref>{{Cite book |title=New Zealand's Women Painters |publisher=Auckland City Art Gallery |year=1975 |pages=4}}</ref> Feminist critics like Cheryll Sotheran were more generous. Sotheran admired Batten's approach, ‘She emphasises the progressive, time-related nature of the experience, both in the making of the works and in their implied qualities’<ref name=":1" />

== Writing ==

=== Early writing and writing on art === Batten first had poems published in Landfall 126 and 129 in the 1970s and from the 1980s published a significant number of books many of them illustrated with her own work.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Adams |first=Ken |date=1985 |title=A Survey of contemporary New Zealand sculpture New Zealand Society of Sculptors, Painters & Associates |url=https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/collections-research/collections/record/am_library-catalogq40-23946?p=212&k=%22Reserve%22&lang=mi-nz&ordinal=14 |access-date=24 October 2024}}</ref> Batten has also written articles, papers and books both as a practising artist and later as a professional psychotherapist. Her publications on art include:

'''1981–1983'''

Batten presented ‘Emerging from Underground: The Women’s Art Movement in New Zealand’ as a Women's Studies Conference paper. This paper was published in Spiral Magazine the following year and in 1988 in book form as ''Power from Within: A Feminist Guide to Ritual-Making''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Batten |first=Juliet |title=Power from Within: A Feminist Guide to Ritual-Making |publisher=Ishtar Books |year=1988 |isbn=9780473135492}}</ref>

'''1982''' ''Women, water and sand: a personal account''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1982 |title=Spiral 5 |url=https://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/media/uploads/2023_06/Spiral_5.pdf |access-date=24 October 2024}}</ref>

Batten also spread her ideas on feminism and art through her writing in the feminist magazine ''Broadsheet''. In 1983<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Batten |first=Juliet |date=June 1983 |title=New Zealand Feminist Artists |journal=Broadsheet |issue=110 |pages=29}}</ref> Batten's piece titled ‘What is a Feminist Artist?’ focussed on 35 women artists asking the question ''What is a feminist artist?''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sleigh |first=Thomasin |title=Jacqueline Fahey's Suburbanites (catalogue) |publisher=New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata |year=2019 |location=Wellington, New Zealand}}</ref> As art historian Katryn Baker has noted the 1980s, “were a decade marked by discussions that aimed to clarify the true meaning of feminism, its various connotations, and how to apply it to the art world in a way that would enable other women artists and the broader public to comprehend the feminist discourse without viewing it as “too” political or dangerous.” Batten took up the topic again in ''Broadsheet'' in 1986.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Batten |first=Juliet |date=January 1986 |title=The women's art movement |journal=Broadsheet}}</ref>

'''1987''' ''The Edmonds Cookbook and the Ivory Tower.''<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Batten |first=Juliet |date=1987 |title=The Edmonds Cookbook and the Ivory Tower |journal=Antic |issue=2 |pages=10}}</ref> The piece was a rebuttal to the essay ''Remissions: Toward a Deconstruction of Phallic Univocality'' written by art critic and theorist Lita Barrie in 1986.<ref name=":3" />

'''1989''' ''Art and Identity'' in ''Culture and Identity in New Zealand''.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Culture and Identity in New Zealand |publisher=Government Printing Office |year=1989 |editor-last=Novitz |editor-first=David |pages=213 |editor-last2=Willmott |editor-first2=Bill}}</ref>

'''1995''' ''Celebrating the Southern: Rituals for Aotearoa''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Batten |first=Juliet |title=Celebrating the southern seasons: rituals for Aotearoa |date=1995 |publisher=Tandem Press |isbn=978-0-908884-54-4 |location=Birkenhead}}</ref>

'''1997''' ''Releasing the Artist Within: The Visual Diary''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Batten |first=Juliet |title=Releasing the Artist Within: The Visual Diary |publisher=Tandem |year=1997}}</ref>

=== Later writing by Juliet Batten === * ''Growing into Wisdom: Change and Transformation at Midlife''. (2000)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Batten |first=Juliet |title=Growing into Wisdom: Change and Transformation at Midlife. |publisher=Tandem |year=2000 |isbn=9781877178573}}</ref> * ''A Cup of Sunlight: Bringing the Sacred into Everyday Life''. (2005)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Batten |first=Juliet |title=Juliet Batten A Cup of Sunlight: Bringing the Sacred into Everyday Life |publisher=Random |year=2005 |isbn=9781869416775}}</ref> * ''Touching Snow: A Taranaki Memoir''. Batten's autobiography. (2008)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Batten |first=Juliet |title=Touching Snow: A Taranaki Memoir |publisher=Ishtar Books |year=2008}}</ref> * ''Dancing with the Seasons''. (2010)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Batten |first=Juliet |title=Dancing with the Seasons |publisher=Ishtar Books |year=2010}}</ref> * ''Spirited Ageing''. (2013)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Batten |first=Juliet |title=Spirited Ageing |publisher=Ishtar Books |year=2013}}</ref> * ''A Bach for All Seasons'' (2017)

== Professional life == Alongside her work as a practicing artist Batten spent over 25 years as a psychotherapist. More recently she has participated in research around aging and the benefits of mindfulness and community.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Beck |first=Joe |title=Spiritual Aging |url=https://mentalhealth.org.nz/books/review/spirited-ageing-cultivating-the-art-of-renewal |access-date=24 October 2024}}</ref> She asserts that rituals around dying in Pākehā culture<ref>{{Cite web |date=26 October 2019 |title=Beyond White Guilt: Pākehā and Colonisation |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/beyond-white-guilt-pakeha-and-colonisation-episode-6-connecting-to-aotearoa/EJ6KXYSB6IZQAFJKQYQNBS2OLE/ |access-date=24 October 2024 |website=New Zealand Herald}}</ref> need to be transformed into more personal rituals and that spiritual care is integral to compassionate care.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Johnson-Bogaerts |first=Hilda |date=November 2015 |title=Spiritual care is integral to compassionate care: Speakers at a recent conference stressed the value of spiritual care. |journal=Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand |volume=2 |issue=10}}</ref>

== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links == [https://www.julietbatten.co.nz Juliet Batten home page]{{DEFAULTSORT:Batten, Juliet}} Category:Living people Category:1942 births Category:New Zealand artists Category:New Zealand women artists Category:Feminist artists Category:Art exhibitions in New Zealand Category:Psychotherapists Category:University of Auckland alumni