Public Art in Central Christchurch

The Women's Suffrage Commemorative Wall Hanging

1993 was the centennial year of women winning the right to vote in New Zealand. The Christchurch City Council set up a Women's Suffrage Sub Committee to distribute funds to various projects. One project commissioned was an embroidered work to hang in the Town Hall. The committee wanted a design that related to the multicultural theme of women's lives. A design by Di Ffrench was selected as the most appropriate.

Cartoons were made to interpret Ffrench's design into an embroidery. The cartoons were translated onto fabric and the types of stitches were chosen. Teams of women, members of the Canterbury Embroider's Guild, were organised into shifts to do the stitching. The layers of meaning attributed to the embroidery developed along with its construction. The number of women working on the project typified the relationship women have through craft and the identity they receive through it. This was given significance when the one hundred and one signatures were stitched onto the border.

Di Ffrench's design incorporated five women holding items that are representative of cultural identities historically shared by women throughout the world. The embroidery is rich in layers of symbolism, some that relate universally, some more locally. In particular the forest is used in the mural as the universal symbol of the female. The triangular structure relates to the fault lines that run through New Zealand. Also included are the four natural elements, earth, air, fire, and water, while the lines that wave in the background signify the Canterbury nor'wester winds. Further female symbols are the womb, the commemorative dates 1893-1993, and the bridge that relates to new opportunities for women during the one hundred year period that was celebrated in 1993.

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