185 Empty Chairs & A Church

 

This is how the Oxford Terrace Baptist Church used to look, before the September 2010 earthquake. It was always a dominate architectural statement on the corner of

Madras Street and Oxford Terrace, it’s large, classical columns adding heft to its non-conformist style. Built in 1881, it was modelled after Charles Sturgeon’s 1800s Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle in London and according to the church’s present-day minister, Chris Chamberlain, it was a statement of independence and difference in the largely Victorian Gothic city of the day.

Pete Majendie

On February 22 – the anniversary of the 2011 6.3 earthquake that devastated much of inner city Christchurch – I visited the Baptist church site to see 185 Empty Chairs, an exquisite memorial installation conceptualised and put together by Christchurch painter, paperhanger, artist, Pete Majendie. As Pete points out, the idea of using the empty chair as a metaphor for loss or absence is not new in art.  When artist (Samuel) Luke Fildes (1844-1927) learned of the death of Charles Dickens, for whom he was illustrating a book, he drew “The Empty Chair, Gad’s Hill – Ninth of June 1870”, showing Dickens’ empty chair and desk.

The empty chair was an inspiration to Vincent Van Gogh; and it’s been used more recently in the Bryant Park memorial when the lawn was lined with 2,753 empty chairs facing south toward the fallen Twin Towers ahead of the 10^th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Similarly, victims of the Oklahoma bombing are remembered in a memorial comprising bronze and glass chairs; and in Krakow, Poland, a memorial to Jews takes the form of empty chairs. Here, on the site of the fallen Oxford Terrace Baptist Church, 185 chairs of all shapes and sizes – all painted white – symbolise those who lost their lives in the February 22 Christchurch earthquake. The individuality of each chair pays tribute to the uniqueness of each person represented.

Pete Majendie acquired the chairs from different sources. He purchased 120 of them off Trade Me. Local furniture retailer, Hunter Lounge Suites, donated nine brand new chairs (including an Italian leather chair). Cave Creek survivor, Steve Hannah donated his wheelchair. Two chairs were donated by the families of earthquake victims and Pete found that when he went purchasing chairs, some donated them when they learned what the chairs were for.

Four or five volunteers helped Pete lay out the 185 square metres of artificial grass and around 20 volunteers met every Monday for three weeks to help paint all the chairs white. He says the most he paid for any one chair was $20. The installation will remain in place on the site for a week and Pete and Chris Chamberlain say it’s been a pleasure to watch people come and interact with the installation – to sit awhile in peace and silence and remember friends and family and the horror of that fateful day a year ago.

The original church was formed by nineteen English Baptists in 1863 – thirteen years after the founding of Christchurch.  The first minister was Decimus Dolamore, who was one of the pioneers of Baptist work in New Zealand.  The congregation initially met in the Town Hall in High Street, then built a church on land it had purchased in Lichfield Street
(1864), now marked by a plaque on a building opposite the Bus Exchange.  After an unfortunate division within the membership (1867), the people reunited in 1870 and worshipped in a church in

Hereford Street, which was moved to the present site in Oxford Terrace in 1879.  The church has had a long association with the life of the city, has been involved in setting up new congregations in Christchurch, and was a founding member of the Baptist Union of New Zealand and the New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society (now called TRANZSEND).

The pictured church sanctuary was built in 1881. Its classical design was notable in a city dominated by Gothic architecture. It was listed as a Category 1 building under the New Zealand Historical Places Register. The refurbishment of the interior of the church in the late 1980s provided a light, open space. The pipe organ, imported from England, was installed in 1915 and continued to play a part in the 10.30am Sunday worship of the church until the building was red stickered following the earthquake in September 2010. Chris Chamberlain says the land on the current site has yet to be tested – “we have to do our homework” – but he sees a rebuild as “a chance in 100 years, a huge opportunity."

All that Remains

Back in the early days of this blog, I used to feature a church every Sunday - in the interests of church architecture rather than religion. I thought of that this morning and it occurred to me that many of the churches I've photographed in Christchurch over the last few years, no longer exist thanks to the insistent and never-ending earthquakes.

As I look through my files of earthquake images, now numbering in the thousands - I'm so grateful that I have a good record of many of the churches that have been wiped off the face of the earth in subsequent demolitions. I've decided to show a few of the earthquake-damaged churches here - just as a reminder of the cultural heritage we've lost. I haven't labelled the individual churches and it's important to note that some of those featured here have gone in their entirety, while others have been structurally strengthened with a view to restoration and rebuilding once the shaking has stopped. These images go as far back as September 2010 and in some cases, things have changed considerably since then - to the point where all bricks and mortar have vanished.

And this of course, is just the tip of the iceberg. Many more of the city's churches were demolished before I had the chance to photograph them.

Christchurch - Then & Now

THEN: When the Warren & Mahoney-designed apartment building, The Establishment opened on Christchurch's Victoria Street a few years back (I believe it was about six years ago), it was quite the place and it's spacious, elegant apartments were sought after. And who wouldn't have wanted to live in Victoria Street then? It was close to the inner city and filled with cafes, bars, restaurants and boutique shopping, and just a short walk from Hagley Park.

NOW: This is what it had become last Friday. By now, it will be even more diminished.

Of all the churches I had photographed in Christchurch BEFORE the September 2010 7.1 earthquake, St Luke's in the City sadly wasn't one of them. They lost a lot of stonework in that event but they valiantly kept their signs out, welcoming in the desperate and disenfranchised.

Its a different story NOW!

This is the last lonely reminder of the once hefty stone building.

NOW reduced to a pile of concrete rubble, a lonely spire and a single roof gable cast adrift on a dirty demolition site.

Oamaru - Church Architecture

Nothing inspires me more than a great big brute of a church - and I'm talking about architecture here, not religion. Any regular visitor to this blog will know that I love church architecture and I've featured some stunning Australasian churches on this blog previously - click on Churches in the label line below if you're interested. Today, I'm giving you a peek through the doors of Oamaru's marvellous St Patrick's Basilica.

This hefty Catholic Church was designed by Dunedin architect, F.W Petre, who was well known for the beautiful churches - many featured on this blog (click on F.W.Petre) - he designed throughout the South Island of New Zealand. This one, located in Reed Street, Oamaru has a bulk and stature that befits a small town known for its handsome Victorian streetscapes, it's wealth of unique historic Oamaru stone buildings.

Like many large churches, St Patrick's was built in several stages - the first in 1893 and the last in 1918. At first glance, the interior seems austere and restrained compared to many, but when you look up at the beautiful coffered Renaissance ceiling and the great dome over the sanctuary, you can't help but admire the workmanship and the spendour of it all. The columns too, give the whole interior a sense of grandeur.

And then, across the street, the humble little box that is the church's Holy Shop.

An austere little 1930s (?) concrete box where churchgoers can acquire their bibles and church paraphernalia.

Saving the Churches

It's Sunday, which always seems like a fair and reasonable time to be thinking about church architecture. And in lieu of the 7.1 earthquake that struck Christchurch and Canterbury on September 4th, there's certainly plenty to think about in that regard. Sadly, some of the province's oldest and loveliest churches have been struck the hardest and as you drive around the inner city, you'll see church after church braced against further damage.

This is just a tiny sample of the cracks and crumblings that have rendered many of the churches unuseable - at least for now. I'm assuming the fact that they have been braced means they're up for restoration (and, one would hope, earthquake strengthening) but given the number of buildings in this state around the city, I'd say the pews will be empty for a long time yet.

The cranes were brought in to assist this old Merivale beauty (above). In the days soon after the quake, the steeple was considered in too precarious a state to leave in situ, so it was carefully lifted off by a big brute of a crane and daintily placed to the side of the church until the quakes stop and all can be made 'habitable' again. I've always had a strong interest in church architecture (click on Churches in the index line below this blog), so seeing these buildings so uniformly 'struck down' has been a sad experience. I haven't had a chance (until now) to go around the city photographing them so I've missed some of the immediate damage (now tidied up); but if the weather holds this week, I hope to do a bit of scouting further afield. I feel bound somehow to catalogue something of the brutality of the day.

Signs of Earthquake Times

In the early days after the 71. earthquake struck in Christchurch, there was a flurry of new signage in the city. I'm a big fan of signs at the best of times and in 'the worst of times' I was delighted (in a non-morbid kind of way), at the hastily-written notes that appeared all over the city. The few times I have made it out and about (between book writing commitments), I photographed a few - from the formal council signs: green for 'this building is ok', yellow for restricted use and the dreaded red for danger, to the personal signs on business doorways.

I suspect this UNEVEN SURFACE sign will have become the council's most used in recent weeks.

The one no one wanted!

And one of several signs outside churches around the city. Unfortunately, as a fan of church architecture, I'm sorry to see that Canterbury's churches have been among the hardest hit of all the historic buildings in town. Most have significant damage and several are now 'propped up' with enormous steel beams....but more on that another day.... In the meantime, I can't help but smile at the optimism of this sign, outside St Lukes I think it was, on Manchester Street. Having seen the damage to churches, even if I had an urge to pray (and I haven't yet), a church would be the very last place I'd be entering during these shaky times.