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The Dominion Post / 23 June, 2005
A letter collector
Letters are there for the taking
– in the landscape, in nature, in architecture. And they’re
Catherine Griffiths’ tools of trades, Ann Packer writes.
CATHERINE Griffiths’ best-known work in Wellington is undoubtedly the Writers’ Walk text sculptures on the waterfront. They were described by one design critic as “an unpredictable response to a predictable brief” – such plaques are usually cast in bronze to be trodden underfoot – that combine “the delicacy of prose and the staunchness of concrete nestled into the environment for the public to discover”. But the designer also works with passion wherever words appear – in corporate communications, street signage, exhibitions and books, even ceramics.
Then there’s the house in Wairarapa that Ms Griffiths wrapped in literature. Commissioned to produce an artwork for a screen of 120 panels around the upper storey of a new home, she suggested the owners collaborate with poet Jenny Bornholdt to come up with words that reflect the setting, and act as abstract patterns as well as meaningful fragments.
The writers’ walk project was certainly a turning point for her career, Ms Griffiths says. “It kind of leapt me off the printed page and into the landscape.” Apart from the accolades it garnered – winner of the Stringer award, New Zealand's highest graphic design award, in 2002, and finalist in the 2003 British Design and Art Direction awards – the large-scale quotes (there are now 15) from regional writers past and present have put the Wellington waterfront on the world stage. Comedian Billy Connolly devoted most of the Wellington segment in his TV documentary to a long rave about the text sculptures.
Ms Griffiths’ interest in structural forms goes back to childhood. Her civil engineer father would take the family around the country, stopping off to see stopbanks and hydro dams. “We would stand in awe of great expanses of concrete,” she says, “and in fear of the earth dam at Matahina.”
Displaying a logical and spatial mind from a young age, and with a sensitivity to space and her surroundings, she developed a love for “composition, negative space, and three dimensions”. Wherever she goes, she compulsively collects letter forms and documents with her camera the letter forms she sees in the landscape – light and shadow, in nature and architecture, and concrete structures – “the vernacular of New Zealand”.
After graduating from Wellington’s School of Design in 1986, Ms Griffiths worked for herself for a year before setting off for Europe with "a modest portfolio and the will to push all boundaries”. Meeting the young British Designer of the Year, John Galliano, was a highlight – 17 years later, she says, he remains true to a particular typeface: Blackletter, a gothic serif, styles his name and is imprinted all over his collection.
“I guess this illustrates where you find typography, and I love that it’s everywhere you turn, it’s such a part of our lives – speaking to us all the time, whether it’s a shadow, someone’s handwriting, or something more formal.”
And though computers allow people to experience typefaces and font names every day, what’s lost is the “attentiveness” of a skilled hand, creating a finely-crafted piece of typography that will set the work apart.
“The nuances, characteristics and personalities that shape a typeface are all part of the overall visual aesthetic, shaped by the content and its meaning.”
Meanwhile, public interaction with the writers’ walk sculptures continues to delight the designer. Initial vandalism has given way to a pride in the work by Wellingtonians – and a watching brief by skateboarders and other wharf users. The infilling of plaques with gravel – in the case of Maurice Gee’s quote in the garden by the lagoon – or the ducks that dive about Baxter’s in Te Papa’s pond, the water level moving so the letters sometimes sit slightly above the water and sometimes have a film over them – are a good example of text settling into the landscape.
“The work has commanded respect, really,” says Ms Griffiths, who will be a speaker at the ATypI (international typography association) conference in Helsinki in September. “And that means it has succeeded.”
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