Not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet, but Critic Te Ārohi is 100 years old as of this April! To celebrate, the Otago University’s Special Collections and the Hocken Library have opened a new exhibit paying tribute to the centenary. ISSUES! 100 years of Critic is open now in the deBeer Gallery, on the second floor of Central Library, and will run through to the end of May.
Sharing our centenary with The New Yorker, Critic Te Ārohi is New Zealand’s oldest university student newspaper. This exhibit reflects the evolution of student life through the lens of Critic.
Curators Kirstie Ross and Alexander Ritchie have worked tirelessly alongside Critic staff to put this exhibit together over the past months, and are excited to share it with the community. They wanted to “push the space in new and different ways”. As Liaison Curator of Published and Special Collections, Alexander Ritchie said, “It's a space to talk about not just 100 years of Critic, or social and political issues, but the social and cultural relations of the media. We hope that some of these conversations can happen.”
Kirstie Ross, Head Curator of Published and Special Collections, explained, “Initially we called the exhibit Critic/Conscience, but then we came up with the idea of issues: issues of magazines, issues as in ‘you’ve got issues, I’ve got issues.’ It just evolved – a really creative process.”
For students wanting to do something more exciting than studying, the exhibition conveniently neighbours the Central Library’s first-floor bathrooms. Visitors can even sit in a vinyl chair and use a typewriter to write a letter about an important issue – which might be published in Critic or displayed in the exhibit (there are rumours of a velvet cushion being involved). Alexander Ritchie added, “We are reliant on you, our community, to come in and go ‘what the hell, why isn’t this [issue] up here?’. If you’re anything like us, you’ll have lots of issues, and that's why we named it this.”
The exhibit also features a range of items from throughout Critic Te Ārohi’s history all the way up to the present day print. One wall is covered in a timeline of issues and events from the past 100 years – from the Great Depression to the Springbok Tour. Another wall replicates our current office, the ‘days without crossword error’ counter and Editor Nina’s cat mug, both on full display. The Critic couch is also on show (we’re still missing two cushions. Please, guys – give them back. It’s so uncomfortable now).
Past issues of Critic Te Ārohi are also displayed, including the very first issue, and cases of “didactic relics contextualising Critic, especially its birth.” Kirstie added, “It's interesting to understand where Critic fits within print media and popular culture in New Zealand in 1925. You’ve got the roaring twenties, but how roaring was NZ? How roaring was The Critic? Not very… to start with.”
Back in 1925, when it was called The Critic, editor Archibald Campbell argued that criticism was crucial as the foundation of “high standards of efficiency, integrity, and progress in national life,” and declared that The Critic would “suffer no word or deed to go unquestioned within the four walls of Otago University”. Yeah – that’s pretty much what we do. Really efficient and integral stuff. We adopted the name Critic Te Ārohi in 1996, and streamlined into the fully fledged, deep-thinking mag you read today.
Kirstie added, “Isn’t that the idea of Critic? To question or take on a critical engagement with your life and times? That’s what the media is meant to do: be the conscience of society, but a lot of media today is undermined. I think the tenacity of Critic is something to be celebrated.”
One staff writer noted that this exhibit “makes you realise that [Critic] is so much bigger than curries on Wednesday nights.” We love you, Chilli Dhaba.
Kirstie thanked everyone involved with the exhibit “for the conversations, for the smiles, for letting me be a ricocheting being in the universe for the last few months.” Zoe, designer of the exhibition, added, “This has been one of the most fulfilling projects I've ever been a part of. There can be so much beauty in collaboration, and this exhibit really demonstrates that.”
As Kirstie said, this was “really an exhibition worth doing […] It’s meaningful for people on campus and students, because Critic is just so iconic.” Iconic enough to warrant this blatant circle jerk article! Don’t disagree, it's our birthday. You have to be nice to us.