Welcome to the South Island

Like most New Zealanders, I was brought up on all kinds of maps: road-maps, illustrated postcard-maps, and class-room maps which divided the country according to land usage. Over the years, my own mental map of New Zealand was shaped largely by the artists and writers who lived (and the work that was produced) in various places the length and breadth of the country. When writing a book for young readers about contemporary art, Welcome to the South Seas, I found the opportunity of mapping the book's contents irresistible. Instead of hydro-dams or rugby parks, the two maps featured artists' birth-places and public art galleries. Here we have Aotearoa/New Zealand as a field of imaginative energy and potential.

Gregory O’Brien to Ron Brownson

4 September 2017

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