03 Magazine: April 05, 2024

One of David Haig’s Monogram rocking chairs is
also included. Nelson-based David has a successful
career as a studio woodworker and has made a
significant contribution to craft education. His design
for this rocking chair is a spectacle – to imagine its
making is a marvel and a mystery – David jokingly
laments that this chair is both his most commercially
successful and his most challenging design to make.
Do you have a favourite/s, and why?
They’re all brilliant for their own reasons. I’m often
drawn back to the Studio Furniture movement in the
1980s and ’90s and chairs by Gary Hunt and Marilyn
Sainty that will feature in the Christchurch exhibition
speak to the ferocious energy of this time. Both
chairs originate from significant exhibitions in the late
1980s, and possess the attitude and spirit of this era
– probably the most energetic and interesting single
timeframe in New Zealand furniture history.
Any that have South Island origins/connections that
you know of?
Pre-eminent colonial furniture expert William
Cottrell contributed knowledge and expertise to
the exhibition from the early research stages and is
Canterbury-based. One of the chairs William kindly
lent us will exhibit in Christchurch: a superb rimu hall
chair originally made for William Larnach’s ‘castle’ on
Otago Peninsula, which we hear William intends to
donate back to the house at the close of the show.
Chairs have come from all across the country –
spotting something familiar is highly likely!
“The original chairs from
my grandparents’ Oamaru
farmhouse with a red-chequered
seat – these are still used every
day by my children.”
TOP LEFT: Marilyn Sainty, Cocktail Chair, original
1988; remade 2020, courtesy of Marilyn Sainty.
LEFT: Dunedin Iron and Woodware Company
Ltd, Aesthetic Movement Hall Chair, 1873–74,
collection of Dr William Cottrell.
RIGHT: Carin Wilson, Kura Kōwhatu Chair, 1991,
courtesy of Carin Wilson.