This is the Trekka

This essay originally appeared in New Zealand Art at Te Papa (Te Papa Press, 2018).

Michael Stevenson has a nose for a good story, and This is the Trekka is no exception. Art critic Brian Dillon describes it as ‘the perfect model for an apparently rational economics gone whimsically awry’.1 This is the Trekka comprises, among other things, a 1960s agricultural utility vehicle, a stack of butter boxes, a bottle of slivovitz, a structure labelled The Invisible Hand and a trade-show desk. Within this collection of disparate objects lies a story of political intrigue.

The Trekka (1966–73) is New Zealand’s only locally designed and produced car. Despite being hailed as Kiwi-made, the Trekka was actually constructed on a Czech Škoda chassis, a rather remarkable business venture in the 1960s given the restrictions on imports to New Zealand and the tense relationship with Communist countries. The trade was based on the exchange of engine parts for sausage casings, an important export product for New Zealand at the time. As art writer Jon Bywater wryly observes, ‘Any “Kiwi ingenuity” on display was more to do with commercial opportunism than engineering.’2

This installation represented New Zealand at the 2003 Venice Biennale — a prestigious international contemporary art event and, as Stevenson perhaps suggests, a place where art itself meets trade and nationalism. Despite being critically well received, Stevenson’s interest in the Trekka story puzzled some New Zealanders who felt it was a peculiar way to showcase ‘the best’ of New Zealand culture on the international stage.

Asked whether some of his works, despite their local content, could only have been made outside of New Zealand, Stevenson — who has been based in Berlin since 1997 — replied: ‘New Zealand art, like New Zealand generally, is very self-referential without being very self-conscious. It was only after I’d left New Zealand that I realised some aspects of New Zealand social history could be of interest to a wider international audience, but they are not usually the stories recognised within New Zealand.’3

Sarah Farrar

1 Brian Dillon, ‘Michael Stevenson’, Frieze, no. 89, March 2005, https://frieze.com/article/michael-stevenson (accessed 5 December 2017).

2 Jonathan Bywater, ‘Budget Travel’, Off the Wall, no. 3, October 2013, Arts Te Papa website, http://arts.tepapa.govt.nz/off-the-wall/5781/budget-travel (accessed 8 March 2017).

3 Michael Stevenson, quoted in Robert Leonard, Nine lives, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Auckland, 2003, p. 58.

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A 1960s agricultural utility vehicle, a stack of butter boxes, a bottle of slivovitz, a structure labelled ‘The Invisible Hand’, and a trade-show desk branded ČNZ (Czech/ New Zealand). Herein lies a story of political intrigue …

The Trekka (1966-73) is a Kiwi icon - the country’s only locally designed and produced car. But despite being hailed as New Zealand made, it was actually constructed on a Czechoslovakian Škoda chassis, as ‘ČSSR’ on the rotating sign reveals. This business venture was rather remarkable in the 1960s, given the restrictions on imports to New Zealand and a tense relationship with Eastern-Bloc countries.

This installation represented New Zealand at the 2003 Venice Biennale - a prestigious international contemporary art event and, as Stevenson perhaps suggests, a place where art itself meets trade and nationalism.