Polite Society, MOTH in collaboration with Karl Chitham, 6-28 March 2015

For Paul Nache, the Museum of True History [MOTH] has commissioned artist Karl Chitham to re-present and re-interpret some of his earlier projects that have focused on little known stories from the MOTH archives. Taken from letters, journal entries and unfinished manuscripts, these curious tales give surprising insights into some of the untold histories of Aotearoa.

Chitham has selected three characters, whose archives he has worked with in the past. A. Verlassen, a failed architect and potter, Anton Kaipeita, the descendant of a French wallpaper designer from the late 1700s, and a self-styled monarch known only as ‘Kingi’ who set about building his own ‘estates’ in the Far North.

Polite Society is Chitham’s attempt to twist these stories together, pulling apart the threads and weaving them into a strange and disparate new whole. While each of the narratives draws on elements of decorative history that many might judge to be only relevant to a privileged minority, they also touch on some of the less palatable aspects of our recent past. 

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