History and Significance:
The Kate Sheppard memorial was unveiled on Suffrage Day 1993, the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage.
In 1989 a group of women in Christchurch, Women’s Towards 2000 inc., believed that there should be a permanent memorial to commemorate the Centennial of Women’s Suffrage in New Zealand. The Kate Sheppard National Memorial to Women’s Suffrage, in the city where it all began, is due to their vision and enterprise.
Kate Sheppard is honored and recognized as the leader of the fight to win the right for New Zealand Women to vote. She and other women campaigned so effectively that in 1893, New Zealand became to first self-governing nation in the world to grant the vote to all women over 21.
Christchurch City Council.
Christchurchcitylibraries.com
Artist’s Background and Other Work: Margriet Windhausen
Margriet Windhausen is a Dutch born and fourth-generation artist in the Windhausen family. Her father was a painter and played a major role in her early training, encouraging her to make art her career. She studied sculpture from 1962 to 1965 at the City Academy of Fine Arts in Maastricht. Margreit and her husband Paul Van den Bergh emigrated to NZ in 1976, where she made a name as a sculpture artist.
Margriet’s other works include the bronze Land Girl Monument, sculpture of athlete Jack Lovelock and The Face of Peace.
Wikipedia
Margrietwindhausen.com
Materials used and how they contribute to the sculpture’s meaning:
The main material used in the sculpture was bronze.
The statue was made of a 3.3m by 2.1m bronze base-relief supported by a 5m pebbled wall. The left and right bronze panels record a written history of Kate Sheppard and the Suffrage Movement.
The left panel signifies when woman won, and how they can vote, also how great their fight was to get to where we are today. As you can see, woman now have the right to vote and have their own rights.
The right panel signifies all the people who helped along the way, how not only Kate Sheppard, but many other people contributed to this change, Other important leaders in the struggle of women’s rights were Learmonth Dalrymple. Marion Hatton. Lily Kirk. Janet Plimmer. Annie Schnackenberg. Margaret Sievwright and Anna Stout.
Christchurchcitylibraries.com
Compare and contrast this sculpture with others in the city or around the world:
The statue of Kate Sheppard symbolizes womans rights and how they fought to vote, as compared to the Statue of Liberty, The Statue of Liberty symbolizes Freedom. It originally represented the mutual friendships, a promise to not be at war again, between the U.S and France, but now it shows a Universal symbol of Freedom.
The Statue of Liberty is an iconic and one of the most recognizable figures in the world. Each year millions of tourists travel to go experience her history and grandeur in person. She is a symbol of freedom, inspiration and hope.
Both the Statue of Liberty and the statue of Kate Sheppard symbolize freedom. The Statue of Liberty symbolizes freedom/liberty, it was originally conceived in part to celebrate the emancipation of enslaved people in the U.S. It symbolizes the freedom to live in liberty and freedom as the people want. The Kate Sheppard memorial acts as a permanent memorial and remembrance of the journey of women getting the right to vote. It also symbolizes the freedom of women being able to vote and honour the women that fought for us and our rights.