Exhibitionist: The Life of Julie Cotton
Michaela Anchan
Michaela Anchan
Adaptation of Overmantel Looking Glass, by John Jelliff, 1868-70 (image courtesy of American Wing Restricted Building Fund, 1968, The Art Institute of Chicago)
#1
Portrait of The Cottons, 1976
Description: Two parents stand in front of a brown car with their son, aged five, and daughter, aged three, who is naked, and holding her mother’s leg. All have short brown hair. The mother wears an orange dress, the father wears jeans. The son wears a plaid button-down shirt.
Media: Colour photograph
10 x 15cm
Property of the Artist’s Estate
#2
We Didn’t Start the Fire, 1989
Description: Two teenagers stand side by side. The younger girl wears a black bikini top, and black high-waisted shorts with hand-stitched red stars. Her brother wears a Metallica T-shirt featuring a large skull and a red rose, and ripped black jeans. He rests an arm across her shoulders. Both stare directly at the camera. Neither are smiling. Thick red flames have been painted along the left side of the photograph.
Media: Colour photograph, acrylic paint.
10 x 15cm
Private Collection
#3
For Derek Cotton, 1995
Description: Funeral service program, displaying a front photograph of a young man and the words ‘In loving memory of Derek Cotton’. It is mounted on deep red velvet fabric. A red rose is embroidered in fine detail in the lower half of the document.
Media: Printed Brochure, stranded embroidery thread, silk velvet.
21 x 21cm
Property of the Artist’s Estate
#4
Self Portrait as a Monster, 2001
Description: Woodcut print of a woman standing on a stage. Twenty snakes emerge outwards, from her open mouth. Her head, bare shoulders and legs are visible. Five audience members can be seen recoiling from the stage, their hands raised. The main image is in black and white, the snakes are dark green and brown.
Media: Woodcut print (panel, Japanese Paper, sumi ink)
38 x 53cm
Private Collection
#5
Resurrection Day, 2008
Description: An oil painting of a woman, naked except for a white sheet draped across her chest and waist. One leg entwined is with a climbing rose bush. Yellow light emanates from behind her and at her feet are various male heads with open eyes, lying in pools of blood, along with empty glass bottles, cigarettes and tiny baby in a blanket, in a basket in the left corner.
Media: Oil on canvas
75cm x 100cm
Private Collection
#6
Self Portrait of the Artist as a Mature Woman, 2023
Description: An oil painting of a woman, naked, reclining on a large bed, amongst messy white sheets. A table lamp is focused on her face. The woman has her eyes closed and a slight smile on her lips. A red rose lies on the floor beneath the bed.
Media: Oil on Canvas
75 x 100cm
Auckland Art Museum, gift of the Artist’s Estate
#7
All I Leave Behind, 2028
Description: A clear acrylic box holds a woven basket, the contents of which are: a dog leash, a library card for Julie Cotton, five unidentified blue tablets in a bowl, a silver thimble, engraved with ‘M. Cotton, 1960’ and a key chain, with a long, worn piece of wood engraved with the name, ‘Derek’, in faint handwriting.
Media: Mixed.
50 x 50cm x 50cm
Private Collection
Portrait of The Cottons, 1976
Description: Two parents stand in front of a brown car with their son, aged five, and daughter, aged three, who is naked, and holding her mother’s leg. All have short brown hair. The mother wears an orange dress, the father wears jeans. The son wears a plaid button-down shirt.
Media: Colour photograph
10 x 15cm
Property of the Artist’s Estate
#2
We Didn’t Start the Fire, 1989
Description: Two teenagers stand side by side. The younger girl wears a black bikini top, and black high-waisted shorts with hand-stitched red stars. Her brother wears a Metallica T-shirt featuring a large skull and a red rose, and ripped black jeans. He rests an arm across her shoulders. Both stare directly at the camera. Neither are smiling. Thick red flames have been painted along the left side of the photograph.
Media: Colour photograph, acrylic paint.
10 x 15cm
Private Collection
#3
For Derek Cotton, 1995
Description: Funeral service program, displaying a front photograph of a young man and the words ‘In loving memory of Derek Cotton’. It is mounted on deep red velvet fabric. A red rose is embroidered in fine detail in the lower half of the document.
Media: Printed Brochure, stranded embroidery thread, silk velvet.
21 x 21cm
Property of the Artist’s Estate
#4
Self Portrait as a Monster, 2001
Description: Woodcut print of a woman standing on a stage. Twenty snakes emerge outwards, from her open mouth. Her head, bare shoulders and legs are visible. Five audience members can be seen recoiling from the stage, their hands raised. The main image is in black and white, the snakes are dark green and brown.
Media: Woodcut print (panel, Japanese Paper, sumi ink)
38 x 53cm
Private Collection
#5
Resurrection Day, 2008
Description: An oil painting of a woman, naked except for a white sheet draped across her chest and waist. One leg entwined is with a climbing rose bush. Yellow light emanates from behind her and at her feet are various male heads with open eyes, lying in pools of blood, along with empty glass bottles, cigarettes and tiny baby in a blanket, in a basket in the left corner.
Media: Oil on canvas
75cm x 100cm
Private Collection
#6
Self Portrait of the Artist as a Mature Woman, 2023
Description: An oil painting of a woman, naked, reclining on a large bed, amongst messy white sheets. A table lamp is focused on her face. The woman has her eyes closed and a slight smile on her lips. A red rose lies on the floor beneath the bed.
Media: Oil on Canvas
75 x 100cm
Auckland Art Museum, gift of the Artist’s Estate
#7
All I Leave Behind, 2028
Description: A clear acrylic box holds a woven basket, the contents of which are: a dog leash, a library card for Julie Cotton, five unidentified blue tablets in a bowl, a silver thimble, engraved with ‘M. Cotton, 1960’ and a key chain, with a long, worn piece of wood engraved with the name, ‘Derek’, in faint handwriting.
Media: Mixed.
50 x 50cm x 50cm
Private Collection
About the Author
Michaela Anchan is a New Zealander, living in Hamburg, Germany with her husband, two children, and two cats. She completed her MFA in Writing through Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2021, producing a manuscript that was recently long-listed in NZ for the Michael Gifkens Prize 2022. She also writes essays about motherhood, identity, and immigration, and plays with hybrid and flash fiction.
About the Work
"This hybrid piece has its beginnings in a wonderful Hybrid workshop with Tania Hershman, offered through London Lit Lab during the endless 2021 winter of semi-lockdown."
About the Author's Process
"The last few years have been a challenge – of course! Navigating my kids through a foreign language public schooling system during a pandemic, feeling far away from my own family and my roots. I am working on my second manuscript, set in Hamburg, and trying to decide if it should include the pandemic or not. I’m not good at regular, daily writing, but three or four times a year I try to lock myself away for four or five days of intense creative writing, which helps set me up for the next couple of months."
Michaela Anchan is a New Zealander, living in Hamburg, Germany with her husband, two children, and two cats. She completed her MFA in Writing through Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2021, producing a manuscript that was recently long-listed in NZ for the Michael Gifkens Prize 2022. She also writes essays about motherhood, identity, and immigration, and plays with hybrid and flash fiction.
About the Work
"This hybrid piece has its beginnings in a wonderful Hybrid workshop with Tania Hershman, offered through London Lit Lab during the endless 2021 winter of semi-lockdown."
About the Author's Process
"The last few years have been a challenge – of course! Navigating my kids through a foreign language public schooling system during a pandemic, feeling far away from my own family and my roots. I am working on my second manuscript, set in Hamburg, and trying to decide if it should include the pandemic or not. I’m not good at regular, daily writing, but three or four times a year I try to lock myself away for four or five days of intense creative writing, which helps set me up for the next couple of months."
