‘Railmaster Series’
Sculpture series of the emotional weight carried by the women left at home when their partners sailed off to war....
The Railmaster Series came about when Mary offered me some posts from the old Railmaster’s house in Paparoa. Adam, her son and the premier builder in our area, had re-piled the Railmaster’s house, replacing the rotting raw totara piles with standard H5 wooden piles to level and restore the historic settler building.
To create this series, I thought about the hope and sorrow the Railmaster would have delivered over the years. This led me to the two Great Wars and the emotional weight carried by the women left at home when their partners went off to war. I explored how each person might deal with their emotional baggage. I stripped the figures raw in unglazed ceramic sculpture, placing them on plinths perched high on a tower — waiting for the Postmaster to deliver the news.
Each sculpture represents a different emotional reaction:
The Reader distracts herself with books, trying to ignore what is happening outside her fantasy.
The Watcher (I call her the curtain twitcher) we all had a mother like this finding distraction in the neighbor’s affairs.
Nervous sits scared and frozen in the middle of the post, too afraid to move forward.
Cool, Calm and Carry On sits at ease and relaxed, quietly waiting for the letter with the news.
Too High sits right on the edge of the post — the tension has built to breaking point. It’s all become too much, and she just needs it to stop.
The posts have been carved keeping the outside painted wood keeping the historic layers of paint and nails retained within the wood, carved with the patterns I use on my work mirroring the reflection of the past into the future.
I have very much enjoyed this series. I have four posts left and will, in time, complete the final four with a crescendo — a duo of two lovers embraced, both relieved it’s all over, back in each other’s arms.
Shown at MGTO Gallery.
The most painful collective recent time in history, lest we forget.