April Stevens Master’s degree exhibition
April Steven’s study for her master’s was substantially practical, but it was also underpinned by some interesting theoretical investigations. Photo: Neil Wilson.
April Stevens says that, for her, being a practising artist is about “honouring a gift”.
“I believe that the ability to make visual images is a God-given gift that is valued by God and is intended to be shared with others,” she says.
April’s recent exhibition, Anamnestic Environments: The lost, found and retained, has just finished in the Refinery Artspace in Nelson. The exhibition was the culmination of four years of part-time study through the Auckland University of Technology towards a Master’s Degree in Art and Design. Two examiners came to Nelson to view April’s work and to talk to her about the process by which it came into being.
April first graduated with a Diploma in Fine Arts from the University of Canterbury in the 1970s. She has been on the staff at Golden Bay High School for 10 years, teaching drama, photography and art at various times.
“I see myself as an artist first and a teacher next. Even when I was at my busiest in my teaching career—as a classroom teacher, a dean and a staff rep on the board—I managed to keep my art practice going. Now I’ve essentially decided to work part-time here to leave more room for my practice. Art is so absorbing as an activity that time can quickly disappear.”
April’s study for her master’s was substantially practical, but it was also underpinned by some interesting theoretical investigations.
“I went into three zones of theory—cognitive neuroscience, phenomenology and narrative theory. I was particularly interested by the work of the psychologist Daniel Schacter into the effects of memory. Our culture and society lives in the present and very much anticipates the future. Pakeha culture is looking for the new all the time, but other cultures—like the Māori culture for example—sort of back into the future with their eyes fixed on the past. Informed decision-making about the future needs to include plenty of reflection on the past.”
April says that the work she produced for her master’s exhibition was “about reactivating people’s memories”.
“It was intended to trigger the emotional component of their past—in this case past domestic settings as well as domestic activities and experiences. I drew domestic settings and ‘fittings’—those that are fixed and non-fixed. It was more than the spaces that I was wanting to evoke. The work was a mixture of the generic and the specific. It wasn’t in any way autobiographical. It was about setting off an effect in the viewers, and the feedback I got suggested that memories were triggered.”
April’s exhibition used drawing installation practice. She drew “fragments of domestic environments” on to the gallery walls with powdered graphite. Last week she went to Nelson, rubbed the drawings off and restored the walls to their pre-exhibition state.
Now that April’s examination has finished, she says she has enjoyed the extremely intensive process of making art and reflecting on her practice. The examination was searching, as befits a post-graduate qualification. It involved, among other things, a lengthy consideration of her installation by the examiners and about half an hour’s worth of questions about aspects of the work.
“The examination was a respectful but strong process. I will hear back from the examiners in about three weeks. My supervisor at AUT had done a great job and I felt very well prepared. I’m quietly hopeful of a good result.”
What happens next for this self-described “mid-career artist”?
“I have all sorts of interesting decisions to make. The study has pushed me to explore my own gifts, to see what I am capable of. Now there is room for growth. I’m looking forward to challenging myself and others.”
Neil Wilson
