MIKE: "Serendipity", one of my favourite words, is defined in the Chambers Dictionary as "the faculty of making happy chance finds", which was certainly the case on July 26.
We had been invited several weeks earlier, by Joan Rosier-Jones, to the launch of her book, Literary Whanganui. After a month of being hors de combat for health reasons, I was looking forward immensely to re-joining the cultural life of the city. That very same day an article by Liz Wylie in the Chronicle described the latest work by Katerina Smoldyreva, a New Plymouth artist whose exhibition in February at Rayners' Gallery I had thoroughly enjoyed. Her new composition was inspired by the story of Charles Mackay, a mayor of our city in the early 20th century, whose name crops up in Literary Whanganui in the page devoted to D'Arcy Cresswell. Those two references were compounded by the fact that Joan and I had played the roles of Mackay and his wife in the centenary celebrations of the Dublin Street Bridge.
Three reasons, therefore, for my wishing to see Katerina's work, and, when I caught up with her last week in her workshop at 85 Glasgow Street, I couldn't have been luckier. Her residency having finished at the end of July, Katerina was spending a day adding the finishing touches to the statue, prior to taking it back to New Plymouth for firing. As I arrived, she was in the process of scoring deep lines in the clay to separate the large figure into four sections for ease of transport. Katerina is an exuberant enthusiast for her chosen field, pouring out a constant stream of information on both the reasons behind this piece and the physical process followed. It consists of a horse which has collapsed on its rider, trapping him beneath its body. An unusual theme, which she terms a "distorted monument". Equine statues, she said, invariably depict a man on a prancing horse, proudly displaying his power, authority or political strength. On this occasion, however, the artist has chosen to reveal the aspect of a fall from grace — literally and metaphorically — "screaming with emotions".
Mackay, a figure of authority, was blackmailed by Cresswell, who threatened to spread the story that Mackay was homosexual unless he agreed not to stand for mayor again. This may well have been a political set-up. The result was that Mackay shot Cresswell in the chest, pleaded guilty to attempted murder, was imprisoned, then released after serving seven of his 15 years' sentence, on condition that he should leave New Zealand. Employed as a journalist in Britain, he was sent to Berlin in 1929, where, during a political demonstration, he was accidentally shot and killed by a policeman.
For Katerina, here is a figure of authority collapsing into one of tragedy, reminiscent of Oedipus or Othello. Man and horse have been fused into one, their open mouths releasing their emotions. Mackay was simply an inspiration, a reference point, rather than a specific character in her creation. She would like the "monument" to be seen from a "more general and philosophical viewpoint".
