Joan-artist of the “now”

Local artist Joan Gragg’s exhibition does more than live up to its name, “Seeing the funny side.”
The exhibition is on in the upstairs gallery of the National Museum opposite Victoria Park.
The show completes Joan’s second year of her study towards a degree of Master in Art and Design conducted in Rarotonga at the USP by Tutors from the School of Art and Design at Auckland University of Technology (AUT).
Joan also completed a 6,000 word exegesis (explanation) with photos entitled “Seeing the funny side,” which focuses on Cook Islands humour in the experience of the 160 year old religious pageant known as the Nuku. It was submitted to AUT in partial fulfillment for the Degree.
Her exhibition features figurines, all ingeniously made from locally sourced materials, and surprisingly they are very much alive and the humour is plainly evident to see in their brilliantly executed poses.
The figures depict scenes and activities one would expect to see at the annual “Nuku.”
For Joan, the two year course was a chance to flex and exercise the intellectual half of her brain as opposed to the creative half.
It was not the mission of the Tutors to teach her how to create works-that, she already knows. Rather their value was in challenging her to question and investigate the “why.”
Why did she select a particular topic? Why did she adopt a particular approach? The purpose was to extend the artist, to have the artist record and document their actions and question what direction they were taking and why.
Joan recounted how as an established artist she would do things intuitively without questioning why she did what she did.
She said she learnt that nothing was “new” and that newness came from the act of interpretation and how you can change something to make it yours.
In relation to the Nuku, she said much had been recorded over the years about the Nuku and she could see the similarities between the event 100 years ago and now. However, she could also see the differences and she had tried to focus on what was happening now. The history is “now” said Joan.
In her overall work as an artist, Joan says she tries to draw on the “now.” Her large body of work bears witness to the changes and trends in society since the 70’s.
Citing communication as an example, she points out how the way we communicate has changed as the mode of transportation has changed. For example, society has gone from walking-when people communicated at a one to one level, to using pushbikes where communication was fleeting, to motor bikes where a simple nod sufficed, to motor cars where people identified others by way of their number plate.
This loss of close contact meant people began drifting further and further apart.
Another example was in the change of seating at functions. Previously most people sat close together on wooden benches. Now, individual plastic chairs is the norm.
Joan has been advised that she has passed the Master’s course and that there is an opportunity to work towards a Doctorate in Art but she has discounted that for now. She said the Masters programme required the students to spend around 40 hours a week on the programme. However, most in the group actually spent around 70 hours a week, seven days a week on the programme.
Her exhibition is open from 9am-3pm daily.