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100 Up - a snapshot of Dunedin life: 1910 & 201031 July 2010 – 21 January 2011 Seven UP is a successful series of documentary films that follows the lives of fourteen individuals at seven-year intervals. The title of this exhibition and the longitudinal method of study that it uses are inspired by this documentary series. Mounted to commemorate the Hocken Library’s 1910 opening, this exhibition presents a snapshot of Dunedin life from that year, and today. Vast arrays of historical items that date to around 1910 are placed alongside 2010 representations of the city. Contemporary observations of Dunedin are largely presented through the photographs of Max Oettli, which were commissioned by the Friends of Hocken Collections to mark the Library’s centenary.
By deliberately omitting material from the intervening decades, the exhibition brings into sharp focus the divergent characteristics of Dunedin life from both ends of that one hundred year interval. This temporal schism also reveals unexpected similarities between life in the city in 1910 and 2010. The items on display explore how irrevocably the lives of Dunedin residents have changed due to technological and social developments. The aspects of life examined here include leisure activities, food, workplaces, fashion, education and childhood. New Zealand’s Liberal government and the transition from Victorian constraint to the relative freedom of the Edwardian era meant that many momentous changes were already afoot by 1910.
One aspect of Dunedin life that has remained constant over the last century is the city’s Victorian and Edwardian architecture. Landmarks that were present in 1910 such as the University of Otago’s ‘Clocktower Building’ (1879) and the Dunedin Railway Station building (1906) remain central to the city’s identity. Dunedin’s Victorian heritage also spawned an impressive record of business prowess. Very few of the city’s pioneering companies active in 1910 including Kempthorne Prosser & Co., Hallenstein Brothers Ltd., Cooke, Howlison and Co., Shacklock and Hudson & Co. still exist today. The few of these companies that survived have changed ownership, products and business names. In 2010 an array of niche companies such as fashion label NOM*d and digital media specialists Taylormade call Dunedin home. The large manufacturing industries that dominated the city at the end of the twentieth century’s first decade are no longer the mainstay of the Dunedin economy and the University of Otago is the city’s largest employer. 100 UP: a snapshot of Dunedin life runs from 31 July 2010 - 21 January 2011. Last revised: 28 July, 2010 |
