A multidisciplinary project led by Te Puna Toi exploring Samuel Butler’s 1872 utopian novel Erewhon: Over the Range.
The Canterbury High Country at the foothills of the Southern Alps was where Butler arrived in 1860 at the age of 23 from London, fresh from completing a degree in Classics at Cambridge and escaping ordination into the Anglican clergy. Butler named the land Mesopotamia (which translates from Greek as ‘the land between two rivers’) after the ancient land in the Middle East (now modern day Iraq and Syria) believed to have been the birthplace of human civilization. His time here as a sheep farmer inspired Erewhon which he wrote upon his return to London 4 years later.
Retracing Butler‘s footsteps, Te Puna Toi and Free Theatre alongside our collaborators have explored the historical, fictional, cultural, political, spiritual and musical dimensions of his journey ‘Over the Range’. We have gathered and documented the stories connected to the geographical locations featured in Butler’s novel and engaged different communities on our own creative journey and contemporary search for an 'Erewhon' of today.
Retracing Butler‘s footsteps, Te Puna Toi and Free Theatre alongside our collaborators have explored the historical, fictional, cultural, political, spiritual and musical dimensions of his journey ‘Over the Range’. We have gathered and documented the stories connected to the geographical locations featured in Butler’s novel and engaged different communities on our own creative journey and contemporary search for an 'Erewhon' of today.
This project is ongoing, if you'd like to get in touch please contact [email protected].
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The starting point for our research was our contention that our society is being turned outside-in amidst the Covid-19 lockdown and the acute crisis of consciousness that this has spread in our society. We are exploring the way in which we suddenly perceive our way of life as a possibly deranged and self-destructive fantasy.
Butler, too, imagined a world turned inside out that was at once both recognisable and totally unfamiliar, a sentiment that gathers increasing relevance as our modern world threatens to fall apart and we are driven to look for answers from people who may previously have been discounted as not fitting in, yet with whom we are starting to share a perhaps uncomfortable likeness.
Our aim for the project is to provide and nurture opportunities for South Island artistic and regional communities to engage in our research process and have a stake in an original artistic exploration of cultural taonga during a time of shared crisis. To document our research and discoveries we have, like Butler, taken photographic portraits, written notebooks and composed music. We have also filmed interviews along the way.
Butler, too, imagined a world turned inside out that was at once both recognisable and totally unfamiliar, a sentiment that gathers increasing relevance as our modern world threatens to fall apart and we are driven to look for answers from people who may previously have been discounted as not fitting in, yet with whom we are starting to share a perhaps uncomfortable likeness.
Our aim for the project is to provide and nurture opportunities for South Island artistic and regional communities to engage in our research process and have a stake in an original artistic exploration of cultural taonga during a time of shared crisis. To document our research and discoveries we have, like Butler, taken photographic portraits, written notebooks and composed music. We have also filmed interviews along the way.
To follow our journey see our blog.....
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This research project is supported by Creative New Zealand Arts Continuity Funding
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