Latest news with #ToitūOtagoSettlersMuseum
Otago Daily Times
26-06-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Photo, relatives of soldier found
The memory of a young soldier has been honoured with the help of a story in The Star. This week marks 75 years since the Korean War began. The Dunedin Roll of Honour in the Lost Generations Room at Toitū Otago Settlers Museum tells the stories of three Dunedin soldiers killed during the Korean conflict: Oliver Cruickshank, Richard Long and Edward Allnatt. However, the museum lacked a photo of Gunner Allnatt, who served with the 16th Field Regiment, Royal New Zealand Artillery. On November 26, 1951, he was in a truck ferrying ammunition when it was hit by a shell. He later died of his wounds, aged just 24. The museum highlighted to The Star that it hoped to ask the public for a photo to accompany details about Gnr Allnatt in the Lost Generations Room. Researcher Kevin Everitt, of Auckland, contacted the museum after the story appeared. He is the administrator of the K Force New Zealand Facebook group, and has researched those involved in the conflict, including his late father, Sergeant Les Everitt, who served for two years in the Korean War. After a veteran's daughter shared the story in the group, Mr Everitt contacted Stephanie Hwang, assistant director of public relations at the United Nations Memorial Cemetery Korea in Busan, where Gnr Allnatt is buried. She sent a portrait of Gnr Allnatt from the memorial cemetery. The story, however, struck closer to home when two relatives of Gnr Allnatt came forward. Cousins Judy Kitto, of Mosgiel, and Shirley Campbell, of South Dunedin, are his nieces. Mrs Kitto's father, Wally, was Edward's brother, while Ms Campbell's mother, June, was his sister. Although the nieces were not born by the time Gnr Allnatt died, tales of him were shared. ''Dad never talked about the war or anything, but he just used to tell us that Uncle Eddie died in the Korean War . . .he got blown up in a truck,'' Mrs Kitto said. Both recalled having a portrait of Gnr Allnatt on the wall in their homes. ''We all ended up with that portrait — for some unknown reason we all seemed to have one,'' Mrs Kitto said. ''The older cousins can remember him. Helen says she can remember him giving her a piggyback on his shoulders, because all the Allnatts are usually six foot.'' The family had a history of military service, but Gnr Allnatt's young death may have dampened that legacy. ''I think mum might have said that the Korean War was a war that should never have happened. ''I don't know how true that is. . .I just don't know,'' Ms Campbell said. The nieces were pleased to provide a photo of Gnr Allnatt for the museum. ''It is quite humbling in a way because he is not forgotten,'' Ms Campbell said.
Otago Daily Times
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Art seen: June 5
"Eden in Dunedin" (Toitū Otago Settlers Museum) "Eden in Dunedin" displays many of the finest articles of women's clothing and accessories from the Eden Hore Central Otago fashion collection. Hore's remarkable and unique collection, assembled during the 1970s and 1980s and now owned by the Central Otago District Council, focuses primarily on the fine fashion of the era in which it was collected. From lush evening gowns to quirky daywear, we are transported into an era bookended by hippiedom and grunge styles, while also heavily influenced by earlier eras. The display showcases items from many top New Zealand designers, and ranges in style from Rosalie Gwilliam's heavily sequinned evening gown to James Jaye Leather's stark but sexy leather trouser-suit. June Mercer's award-winning crocheted outfit stands alongside Beverley Horne's startling merino and lurex gown and hot pants. Accessories range from Vinka Lucas's stunning flapper-inspired cloche hat to chunky but stylish leather shoulder-bags. Every item is thoroughly documented with interactive displays of text and photographs of the pieces being modelled. The exhibition is completed by video and photographic installations which provide not only further information about the overall collection but also a taste of its location and the process by which Eden Hore acquired the pieces. "Civil Twilight", Nicola Jackson (Brett McDowell Gallery) Brett McDowell Gallery is gaudily strewn with over 50 works by artist Nicola Jackson. The darkness of the artist's macabre humorous works is counterbalanced by the freshness and brightness of the colours of the pieces, giving the gallery a Dia del Muerte feel. With the works chosen at least partly to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the Otago Medical School, many of the pieces focus on matters medical, with anatomies, maladies and remedies being front and centre. Whereas a few of the pieces are large, notably an impressive cotton quilt and a vibrantly pink jar, many of the works are small, icon-like pieces, with tiny images centred within equally artistic frames. There are strong elements of the surreal in the works and in the exhibition overall, the small paintings placed against guacamole-green walls and seemingly guarded by an array of gleefully grinning skulls. Two intriguing installations bookend the exhibition, both cabinets of curiosities. One is a vibrant collection of "Symptoms and medicaments", with shelves of happy, friendly viruses interspersed with tablets and capsules. The other, in extreme contrast, is an austere black and white, the jars of remedies adding their unnerving whimsy by virtue of their names. All are real medieval panaceas, with contents ranging from "milk and soot" to "knee dirt". "Inge Doesburg" (The Artist's Room) Inge Doesburg delights with her soft, misty landscapes at The Artist's Room. In a series of works which includes acrylic paintings, intaglio, dry-point and etching, the artist has captured the emptiness and airiness of the south. More experimental works, such as the meditative solar-etched tree of Soliloquy suggest that the artist is continuing to add strings to an already impressive artistic bow. Plaster is used to create texture in stark landscapes — or more correctly skyscapes — of Waipiata and the Wairarapa, turning the acrylic surfaces into gently toned gesso. There is a freedom to the mark-making in works such as Flagstaff Walk which are also an extension of Doesburg's previous work and an indication of her confidence in her style. In the current exhibition, Doesburg has extended her linking of art with poetry, drawing inspiration from the words of writers ranging from James K. Baxter to Goethe. Inspiration is also clearly taken from New Zealand art, with nods to Doesburg's antecedents in the McCahon-esque hills of From Flagstaff and Hotere-like style and composition of the Goethe-annotated Untitled . It is the artist's own hallmark style which takes centre stage, however, with works such as the rain-drenched Listening to the Mountain couplet, and Karitane , jutting like rusted roof-iron into a sleepy, milky Pacific. By James Dignan
Otago Daily Times
24-04-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Designer pods house fashion collection
A massive, high-tech "Lego set", inspired by the Maniototo landscape, has been created by a Dunedin company to display some of the country's top fashion. While most of the high-end outfits in Naseby farmer Eden Hore's collection of New Zealand fashion on show are in Dunedin, some are on display in Central Otago, encased in custom engineered "pods", designed by Dunedin company ZoomTech. Design engineer Richard Cathro said work on the pods began about five years ago, following discussions with Eden Hore collection steering group member and fashion historian Dr Jane Malthus, who already had a concept design for the cases. "I was a little intrigued about it," he said. Mr Cathro knew of the collection and had visited "the Eden Hore menagerie of things" and its caretaker while staying in the Maniototo as a child. "I could imagine at that time I was very reluctant to be dragged around looking at dresses," he said. Mr Hore amassed the largest collection of haute couture 1970s and '80s fashion in New Zealand — more than 270 gowns, primarily by the country's leading designers. The outfits were housed in a former tractor shed on his property until his death in 1997 and this month, a two year exhibit displaying collection highlights opened at Toitū Otago Settlers Museum. However, some items are also on display in ZoomTech's pods at small exhibitions at Central Stories Museum and Art Gallery in Alexandra and at Lohi in Ranfurly. Exhibiting the delicate clothes outside of museum conditions presented a challenge — "the only way you can put some of these clothes on display is in some means of that people can't touch them," Mr Cathro said. The solution was the airtight pods, made of about 300 pieces of wood, plexiglass and aluminium — "a massive Lego set to build" — with a computer-controlled air circulation system to prevent dust settling on the clothes. The pods' colours were inspired by the Maniototo landscape and fashion photographer Derek Henderson's images of the collection modelled in the Central Otago high country. Six pods had been constructed, though not all were in use, and ZoomTech had received huge input from the collection steering group. "The challenges to make this are beyond trying to write them down," Mr Cathro said. For example, the pod's plexiglass had to be bent, but "we couldn't find anyone to bend the plexiglass so we built a machine to do it." Since they went on display, Mr Cathro had fielded inquiries about the pods from Te Papa and had five women looking to display their wedding dresses in them. "We do a lot of work for overseas that no-one gets to see in New Zealand. So in lots of ways, this was a project that I could do that we could show off some of our work."
Otago Daily Times
22-04-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Innovation needed to fashion pods
A massive, high-tech "Lego set", inspired by the Maniototo landscape, has been created by a Dunedin company to display some of the country's top fashion. While most of the high-end outfits in Naseby farmer Eden Hore's collection of New Zealand fashion on show are in Dunedin, some are on display in Central Otago, encased in custom engineered "pods", designed by Dunedin company ZoomTech. Design engineer Richard Cathro said work on the pods began about five years ago, following discussions with Eden Hore collection steering group member and fashion historian Dr Jane Malthus, who already had a concept design for the cases. "I was a little intrigued about it," he said. Mr Cathro knew of the collection and had visited "the Eden Hore menagerie of things" and its caretaker while staying in the Maniototo as a child. "I could imagine at that time I was very reluctant to be dragged around looking at dresses," he said. Mr Hore amassed the largest collection of haute couture 1970s and '80s fashion in New Zealand — more than 270 gowns, primarily by the country's leading designers. The outfits were housed in a former tractor shed on his property until his death in 1997 and earlier this month a two-year exhibit displaying collection highlights opened at Toitū Otago Settlers Museum. However, some items are also on display in ZoomTech's pods at small exhibitions at Central Stories Museum and Art Gallery in Alexandra and at Lohi in Ranfurly. Exhibiting the delicate clothes outside of museum conditions presented a challenge — "the only way you can put some of these clothes on display is in some ... [way] that people can't touch them", Mr Cathro said. The solution was the airtight pods, made of about 300 pieces of wood, plexiglass and aluminium — "a massive Lego set to build" — with a computer-controlled air circulation system to prevent dust settling on the clothes. The pods' colours were inspired by the Maniototo landscape and fashion photographer Derek Henderson's images of the collection modelled in the Central Otago high country. Six pods had been constructed, though not all were in use, and ZoomTech had received huge input from the collection steering group. "The challenges to make this are beyond trying to write them down," Mr Cathro said. For example, the pod's plexiglass had to be bent, but "we couldn't find anyone to bend the plexiglass so we built a machine to do it". Since they went on display, Mr Cathro had fielded inquiries about the pods from Te Papa and women looking to display their wedding dresses in them. "We do a lot of work for overseas that no-one gets to see in New Zealand ... this was a project that I could do that we could show off some of our work."
