The third environmental arts project funded through the Dunedin City Council’s Environment Envoy programme, The Lime Burners is the brainchild of visiting Kapiti Coast artist Tim Barlow.
Based on Barlow’s research into lime during a residency at Dunedin School of Art in 2020, the project has grown to include 15 local artisans.
In a group exhibition and public workshop programme this weekend at the Dunedin Gasworks Museum, the artists will share the results of their efforts to re-imagine the relationship between humans, technology and lime culture.
"Through my research, I became fascinated with humanity’s 10,000-year-old relationship with quicklime — knowledge that has been found and lost several times due to secret guilds," Barlow said.
"Personally I am intrigued by Roman concrete, considered one of the most durable human materials ever, and have been trying to find ways to replicate it."
Dunedin and Otago have had their own relationship with lime, with historic kilns established in the late 19th century and used to produce mortar, concrete and stucco.
He learned more through connecting with University of Otago archaeology PhD candidate Carl Murray, who has been studying the lime aggregates from James McDonald’s kilns, established in the 1870s on Otago Peninsula.
Barlow shared his ideas with fellow artists and artisans Jenny Hjertquist, Madeleine Child, Madison Kelly, Daisy Biscuit, Stuart Griffiths, Anna-Marie Mirfin, Patrick Ferris, Louisa Baillie, Gavin Thomson, Jenna Packer, Andrew Barsby, Ben Eyers, Rupert Morris, Dillon Waddell and Marion Familton, who also became captivated by lime as a material.
Their brief for The Lime Burners exhibition was to produce a proposal for a future art work using lime, with the opportunity to think big, Barlow said.
"I’m hoping there will be some really grand visions.
"Each of the artists have their own relationship with lime — either as a material in frescoes, or in stucco or alternative building methods," Barlow said.
"Lime is abundant, flexible and is a low carbon material, all things that make it worth studying as a material for art and the building industry.
"It was the go-to material for many cultures around the world for construction and art for thousands of years, but the knowledge just died out.
"So, in this project, we are trying to recreate these beautiful materials and to understand the processes used to make them."
The Gasworks Museum, with its long industrial history, was the perfect context for The Lime Burners to highlight its environmental ethos, he said.
"We are trying to envision a different world."
The Lime Burners event will open to the public tomorrow, at 6pm, in the fitting room at the Dunedin Gasworks Museum.
Hands-on workshops and demonstrations will run from 10am to 6pm on Saturday and Sunday, covering hot lime mixing, traditional masonry techniques, fresco painting, sculpting, polishing lime plasters and the local history of lime, followed by public conversations at the end of each day.
