Murdoch

Description

Sharon Murdoch represents a bold new voice in New Zealand cartooning. As regular cartoonist for the Sunday Star Times and the Press, she has been delighting readers with her witty observations, drawing talent and insightful social and political commentary. Covering topics that others do not, Murdoch's highly developed graphic skills combine with her social conscience and perceptive political analysis to produce hard-hitting, nuanced and often hilarious insights. In Murdoch, a written commentary by art historian Melinda Johnston sets the cartoons within their historical context. The introductory essay locates the works within New Zealand's cartooning history and argues that they stand as part of a lifetime given to activist design and advocacy. Featuring over 150 full-page cartoons highlighting the breadth and depth of this wonderful new talent, Murdoch will delight, entertain and educate readers with an interest in New Zealand's recent social and political history.

SHARON MURDOCH is a political cartoonist for the Press and also resident political cartoonist for the Sunday Star Times. She has been a Canon Cartoonist of the Year finalist for the past 3 years and claimed the title in 2016. Born in Invercargill, of English and Ng- ai Tahu descent, Sharon moved to Wellington to study graphic design. After graduating, she pursued her political interests through design, working for metropolitan newspapers, Wellington City Art Gallery and the Wellington Media Collective - a group of designers interested in social justice and political change. Sharon began cartooning in her early 50s, initially with a single-panel series called Munro, about a ginger cat and his mouse friend; a series that continues to run in all the Fairfax daily newspapers. The first woman in New Zealand to hold a regular political cartoon spot in a mainstream newspaper, and with only 2 per cent of political/editorial cartoonists internationally being women, Sharon is one of a rare breed. Her work features in We Will Work With You: Wellington Media Collective 1978-1998 (VUP, 2013) Three Words: An anthology of Aotearoa/NZ women's comics (Beatnik, 2016) and the forthcoming Gecko Annual (Gecko Press). Sharon is married with a daughter, stepdaughter and two cats (one named Munro). Currently based in Leipzig, Germany, MELINDA JOHNSTON is an independent researcher specialising in printmaking and visual satire. She was Research Librarian, Cartoons at the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, from 2013 to 2015 and was previously lecturer in art history at the University of Canterbury. She holds a PhD in the History of Art from University College London and has published on New Zealand and British political prints, including the survey Lateral Inversions: The Prints of Barry Cleavin (2013).