Robin White with her work ‘A meeting in the cosmos’ 2024 woodblock print on washi Photo: Cheska Brown
In April 2024, one of our most treasured artists Dame Robin White travelled from her home in Masterton to Aomori north of Honshu in Japan, to be an artist in residence at the Aomori Contemporary Art Centre.
A focus of her residency was the work of Aomori woodcut master Munakata Shiko who’s known for his community-orientated approach - something which aligns with White’s own as a painter and printmaker.
'Finding my way in Aomori’ 36 wood block prints. With these works Robin White is familiarising herself with the language and culture of Japan. Photo: Cheska Brown
Japan has held a lifelong fascination for White. It began as a young child in the 1950s when she was profoundly influenced by stories and films about the bombing of Hiroshima during World War Two, and its effect on the lives and culture of the Japanese people.
White’s recent trip saw her joined by Dame Gaylene Preston, who has been following her, she says, for over two years making a film. Called Grace,Preston describes it as a visual poem and a prayer for the future. With Preston, her husband Michael Fudakowsk and a Japanese friend from Masterton, Junko Bracefield, they went on a two week journey that included visiting paper makers in Kochi who have created the paper for her new woodblock prints.
‘ O Tree’ Robin White, woodblock print on masi, This work contains the last stanza of Hone Tuwhare’s poem ‘No ordinary Sun’ Photo: Cheska Brown
Her latest exhibition at McLeavey Gallery in Pōneke Wellington following the trip is entitled Walking with Munakata Shiko.
In it White also reflects on the late Hone Tuwhare’s poem ‘No Ordinary Sun’ which Tuwhare wrote after his own experience visiting Hiroshima while serving in the post-war occupation forces. White has had a section of the poem translated into Japanese and it is included in a woodcut print on masi in the show.
Tuwhare and White were friends in Ōtepoti Dunedin back in the 1970s, and this exhibition sees their work finally coming together with a shared view on the effects of war and the nuclear threat.
Dame Robin White joins Culture 101 to play ‘Fast Favourites’.
Walking with Munakata Shiko is on until 7 December.
