Edith Collier Mural by Pat Perry, 2019

This iconic mural of Edith Collier was created by American artist, Pat Perry, as part of the inaugural Whanganui Walls street art festival. The artist was one of eight international and New Zealand-based artists who created original street art responding to the unique sites and stories of Whanganui.

Perry was taken by Whanganui-born Edith Collier’s creative struggles and successes as one of New Zealand’s pioneering modernists.

Collier achieved much success in London where she studied and exhibited from 1913 to 1922. However, upon her return to Whanganui, her avant-garde style and nude artworks were not received well, which led to her father burning some of her artworks. This incident is referenced by Perry in the fire and smoke unfurling from the top of Collier’s easel as she sits pensively at work. Perry has also placed the artist in one of her paintings (Buildings, Leinster Square) perhaps suggesting a vast inner world of creativity.

Perry elaborates, "I accidentally painted this mural on Edith Collier’s 134th birthday, in her hometown of Whanganui. Though she never really got the wider acclaim she deserved, she had a profound effect on the people her work touched nonetheless, which seems like the best any of us can hope for in the end."

Photo credit: Yoshi_travel_films