Caroline Lucy McQuarrie (born 1975) is a New Zealand artist and senior lecturer in photography at

Massey University Massey University () is a Public university, public research university in New Zealand that provides internal and distance education. The university has campuses in Auckland, Palmerston North, and Wellington. Data from Universities New Zealand ...

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

Life

McQuarrie was born in 1975 in

Greymouth Greymouth () (Māori language, Māori: ''Māwhera'') is the largest town in the West Coast, New Zealand, West Coast List of regions in New Zealand, region in the South Island of New Zealand, and the seat of the Grey District Council. The populat ...

, on the West Coast of the

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

. Her father Bob McQuarrie was a potter and her mother Barbara McQuarrie a textile artist. McQuarrie enjoyed drawing from an early age, and was influenced by family friends photographer Frank Simpson and potter Daphne Simpson who together ran Coast Craft in Greymouth; Daphne taught her to draw and paint, and she studied photography and painting in her final year of high school. At the

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...

, she studied photography, completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1997.

Artistic career

No Town Te Uru 05 Right-Caroline-McQuarrie

After graduating, McQuarrie worked in photography laboratories in the United Kingdom, learning

photo retouching Photograph manipulation involves the transformation or alteration of a photograph. Some photograph manipulations are considered to be skillful artwork, while others are considered to be unethical practices, especially when used to deceive. Mot ...

and

Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc., Adobe for Microsoft Windows, Windows and macOS. It was created in 1987 by Thomas Knoll, Thomas and John Knoll. It is the most used tool for professional digital ...

. After returning to New Zealand in 2002 she began a Master of Fine Arts at Massey University in Wellington, completing it in 2005; her focus at this point was sculptural textile work. By this time she was also working in the university's photography department as a tutor, a job which became full time. In 2010, she was an artist in residence at

Samuel Marsden Collegiate School Samuel Marsden Collegiate School is a private girls school located in the Wellington suburb of Karori in New Zealand. It has a socio-economic decile of 10 – on a scale from 1 to 10, 10 reflecting the highest proportion of students from high ...

for five weeks. As of 2023, McQuarrie is working at Massey University's College of Creative Arts Toi Rauwhārangi in Wellington, where she is Senior Lecturer in Photography. The New Sun embroideries 06crop-Caroline-McQuarrie

The New Sun embroideries 06crop-Caroline-McQuarrie

McQuarrie's work often explores personal and family histories, particular of early

Pākehā ''Pākehā'' (or ''Pakeha''; ; ) is a Māori language, Māori-language word used in English, particularly in New Zealand. It generally means a non-Polynesians, Polynesian New Zealanders, New Zealander or more specifically a European New Zeala ...

settler women, combining photography and textiles in her art. One of her photography projects has been sites of former mining settlements such as

Waiuta Waiuta is the location of a historic mining town on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It is now abandoned and considered a ghost town. Located 58 km north of Greymouth and 21 km south of Reefton in Ikamatua, New Zealan ...

in the West Coast region. She has used alternative photography techniques like

cyanotype The cyanotype (from , and , ) is a slow-reacting, photographic printing formulation sensitive to a limited near-ultraviolet and blue light spectrum, the range 300 nm to 400 nm known as UVA radiation. It produces a monochrome, blu ...

and

photogram A photogram is a Photography, photographic image made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of a light-sensitive material such as photographic paper and then exposing it to light. The usual result is a negative shadow im ...

s, and incorporates

crochet Crochet (; ) is a process of creating textiles by using a crochet hook to interlock loops of yarn, thread (yarn), thread, or strands of other materials. The name is derived from the French term ''crochet'', which means 'hook'. Hooks can be made ...

, sewing, and stitching into her work. McQuarrie counts as her influences the photographers

Anne Ferran Anne Ferran (born 1949) is an Australian photographer. Background Anne Ferran was born on 10 May 1949Newton, Gael (1988). Shades of Light. Canberra: Australian National Gallery. p. 157. . in Sydney, New South Wales.Judd, Craig. Anne Ferran's bir ...

and

Cathy Tuato'o Ross ''Cathy'' is an American gag-a-day comic strip, drawn by Cathy Guisewite from 1976 until 2010. The comic follows Cathy, a woman who struggles through the "four basic guilt groups" of life: food, love, family, and work. The strip gently pokes fu ...

and the textile artist Vanessa Crowe. With her partner, photographer Shaun Matthews, McQuarrie explored in the 2018 show ''Fearful Prospects'' the 1846 journey of explorer

Thomas Brunner Thomas Brunner (April 1821 – 22 April 1874) was an English-born Surveying, surveyor and explorer remembered for his exploration of the West Coast, New Zealand, West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. Brunner was born in April 1821 in Oxfo ...

and his

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

guides from

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

to the West Coast and back. It included enormous fabric-printed photographs taken with a pinhole camera, embroidered

samplers Sampler may refer to: * Sampler (signal), a digital signal processing device that converts a continuous signal to a discrete signal * Sampler (needlework), a handstitched piece of embroidery used to demonstrate skill in needlework * Sampler (surna ...

with texts from Brunner's diary, and a collection of pāraerae sandals woven from

harakeke ''Phormium tenax'' (called flax in New Zealand English; in Māori; New Zealand flax outside New Zealand; and New Zealand hemp in historical nautical contexts) is an evergreen perennial plant native to New Zealand and Norfolk Island that is an ...

. Her 2021 show ''The New Sun'' – her first in a dealer gallery – included linen samplers embroidered with the imagined words of pioneer women, complemented by colour photographs of the landscapes transformed by mining.

Significant works

* ''This is the First Day of My Life'' (2008–09), a floor work made of recycled wool, cotton, and acrylic

Selected solo shows

* ''Artifact.'' 19 June – 21 July 2012'':''

Blue Oyster Art Project Space Blue Oyster, located in Dunedin’s city centre, is a space that presents contemporary experimental art projects. Blue Oyster included over 1,000 artists in more than 270 projects over its first 10 years and it continues to provide a space for ar ...

, Dunedin * ''No Town''. 24 April 2014 – 23 August 2015: Aratoi, Masterton;

Carnegie Gallery Carnegie may refer to: People *Carnegie (surname), including a list of people with the name **Andrew Carnegie, Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist *Clan Carnegie, a lowland Scottish clan Institutions Named for Andrew Carnegie *C ...

, Hokitika;

Left Bank Art Gallery The Left Bank Art Gallery is a public art gallery in Greymouth, New Zealand. Operated by the West Coast Society of Arts Inc, it opened in 1992 in a 1927 Bank of New Zealand building on the left bank of the Grey River (New Zealand), Grey River. T ...

, Greymouth; Te Uru Waitākere, Auckland. * ''Waiuta''. 16 November – 10 December 2015:

Plymouth University The University of Plymouth is a public research university based predominantly in Plymouth, England, where the main campus is located, but the university has campuses and affiliated colleges across South West England. With students, it is the ...

, UK. * ''The New Sun''. 11 February – 13 March 2021: Jhana Millers Gallery, Wellington

References

External links

Artist website
{{DEFAULTSORT:McQuarrie, Caroline Living people 1975 births 21st-century New Zealand women artists People from Greymouth New Zealand photographers Artists from the West Coast, New Zealand Academic staff of Massey University Massey University alumni Ilam School of Fine Arts alumni New Zealand women textile artists New Zealand textile artists 21st-century New Zealand textile artists 21st-century New Zealand photographers Photography academics 21st-century women photographers