Catherine Griffiths

Ko wai koe?
Ko Catherine Griffiths tōku ingoa, ko Pākehā ahau (English, Irish, Scottish). My ancestors arrived in Aotearoa in the 1840s, part of British colonisation. Through my great-great grandfather on my father’s mother’s side I share whanaunga ties (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Kinohaku) going back to 1892. On his father’s side, my great-great-great grandmother was a suffragist in the 1860s, writing under her pseudonym Fémmina. On my mother’s side, my Scottish/Irish ancestry can be traced back to 1072, wild! While my parents were on their O.E. in the sixties, seems I became the ‘experience’ born in the New Forest, and before I turned one, they brought me back by sea. Grew up in Whakatāne then Te Whanganui-a-Tara. I have five step-children with Bruce Connew and five mokopuna scattered about the world.

Where are you living/working right now?
Living—in the ngahere in Karekare in a long wedge-shaped timber house that we did the hard labour on and designed (with the critical eye of Athfield Architects in part-exchange for the design of a way-finding/losing system) / Working—in my studio, also wedge-shaped with a corrugated light wall (I built mine, B built his—a left-handed right-handed thing)… if you flip one, you have the other studio, two halves of a whole, split and shifted.

What do you do and why do you do it?
As a typographer and designer I’m drawn to projects that are meaningful, intentional, and with people where there’s respect and trust both ways—that’s the baseline. These days almost every project is connected to architecture, art or publishing, whether it’s a visual identity, journal, or working in a supporting role (with ĀKAU and taitamariki in Kaikohe), or as producer of typo/graphics for the force that is Parlour (advocates for equity in architecture in Australia), or writing, publishing, workshops, taking on the occasional art commission. Also protested in this realm to challenge systemic patriarchal gatekeeping, an attempt to shift focus. In my art practice, it’s an inconsistent but persistent dance in and out of the studio mahi, where I use the tools from one to express with in the other, and go places I need to go. It’s where I feel the space to explore, examine, make sense (or not) of our world, it’s where I learn and develop through trial and error. It’s personal. There’s much more yet to do.

What are you working on at the moment?
Right now, editing a series of images which will be presented at Enjoy as a concertina work, and preparing a new installation work for a solo show in Naarm Melbourne in May. Working with ĀKAU marking ten years!, making those typo/graphics for P…

What do you love about art?
When it makes me feel. Activates the senses. Moves. When it surprises, takes us somewhere unexpected. How it can effect change.

What are you reading/listening to/watching at the moment?
Reading—distractedly! Recently started Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger (a copy I’ve had for over a year), re-reading Interviews with Radical Palestinian Women, made between 2018–2021, compiled by Shoal Collective, also a draft dissertation by a masters student from Urbino, Italy (soon MN!), E-Tangata and more via social media… / Listening—Radio Alhara, live from Bethlehem has been a go-to the past 18 months, Unknown Public, an “irregular” audio journal from the 90s never fails, new CD from Swedish-Sami/French composer and friend Madeleine Isaksson, my 80s collection of Yello, and this past weekend 24 Hours of Eno (while editing). Watching—Aljazeera nightly, Whakaata Māori news, the ads (!), and Te Ao with Moana—and to lighten the load, Aquarius reels shared to me by B (!!), and Joan (TV series) for 80s London and shoulder pads, plus she’s a jewellery thief. Too much!

Who is your art crush?
Music crush is easier… Prince.

If you had one wish for the art world what would it be?
To quote Collecteurs, A New (Art) World.