An exhibition using three different natural materials all worked by hand into usable and beautiful pieces for your home.
Pottery by Boo Ceramics
Extreme knitting by Plump & Co
Drawings by Thom Brooks
Vinny Thompson, Ina Todd and Micheline Robinson are three women from different cultural heritage: Kiwi, Samoan and French-Canadian. In this exhibition, they draw from their natural life experiences that have impressed upon them and express natural world patterns through various mediums.
Ina Todd’s Kaupapa is based on her Samoan culture and heritage from her mother and father which is based on family, faith, trust and respect. Her woodcuts are printed with black inks on paper and she explores acrylic paints on flax mats. By focusing on techniques and materials, she absorbs the tradition of remembrance art into daily practice. Merging her balanced, strong and striking graphic design skills with past tradition is important as an act of meditation and echoes back to memories and stories from her parents motherland - Samoa.
Vinny’s clay sculptures and tiles are notable for their perfect finish and tactile nature and bear witness to great craftsmanship. She explores the concept of the Kiwi landscape in a nostalgic way with a focus on NZ’s old heritage homes and surrounding wildlife and expresses her connection to the environment which contributes to her sense of belonging and identity. The works evoke responses from the viewer of places they grew up in, and the landscape they walked with its surrounding wildlife.
As one who has lived in many countries, nature has always been a place of solace and home for Micheline Robinson and her work continuously investigates how best to convey her sense of awe to the viewer. The Kaleidoscope pieces created for this exhibition fabricate an illusion from natural patterns to conjure the realms of our imagination. The results are deconstructed to the extent that meaning is shifted and possible interpretation by the viewer becomes multifaceted. The hand painted imperfect symmetry of the series also challenges the digital, a humour in an age of A.I. that echoes our own vulnerabilities.
The exhibition demonstrates how three minds can interpret the world in three very different ways leaving the viewer with an enriched experience. The artists are hoping to induce reflection, engage a dialogue and encourage the viewer to think of what their cultural heritage and landscape means to them."
He mea whakarite ngeenei mahi toi e te tirohanga Tangata Whenua, e te tirohanga Tangata Tiriti. He maataitanga ki ngaa aupeehitanga I rukea ki runga ki ngaa taangata o te Moana Nui a Kiwa, aa, noo James Cook e taami ana i a raatou.
He whakatumatuma whakaaro te tino kaupapa a eenei mahi. I hanga ngeenei mahinga toi me ngaa mea hangarua.
Kua tuwhera katoa teenei whakaaturanga ki ngaa taangata katoa.
Our exhibition is a collective of works, through the lens of Tangata Whenua & Tangata Tiriti . Each piece of work reflects the artist’s impressions of the expense of James Cook’s Voyages throughout the pacific.
The artists illustrate the subject matter in thought provoking and truthful street influenced works.
Juxtaposed to the ongoing human and environmental costs, this exhibit uses audio visual, low impact, repurposed and non toxic physical media.
The artists: Kauri Hawkins, Dale-Maree Morgan, Steve Hutt, Te Mahara Swanson-Hall and Chevron Te Whetumatarau Hassett
Performance Art Week Aotearoa (PAWA) is a five-day festival in Wellington dedicated to performance art, 14th–18th November. Exhibitions, free breakfasts, workshops, discussions and performance art will be held daily at Play_station gallery and Thistle Hall. From Thursday 15th to Sunday 18th, 8.30am–4pm, Thistle Hall will host a exhibition curated by Istanbul Performance Art. It will hold an exhibition of videos and photographs of performance art, as well as durational performances, lunchtime discussions, and free breakfasts (8.30am–10.30am). For more information, as well as information on other PAWA events, see www.performanceartweekaotearoa.com . PAWA hopes to strengthen community engagement in performance art, providing both a platform for artists, and an avenue for those unfamiliar to participate, so please come along.
Niche Textile Studio and The River come together for an exhibition celebrating our locally made pieces.
We are two Wellington based makers that are concerned with handcrafting quality objects. We share an appreciation of craft with our respective materials (wood and wool) and are interested in their complementary nature.
Both practices, design and make small runs and bespoke pieces to fully utilise locally sourced materials and avoid overproduction. Through this conscious design process we can remain nimble, experimental and engaged makers.
As small design practices we believe that strengthening connections and collaboration with local businesses, studios and community groups concerned with ethical and sustainable design enables the growth of a sustainable economy.
Niche Textile Studio - website
Flora Botanica is an exhibition designed to celebrate the intricate nature of floral design, botanical art, lush indoor plants + creative workshops. The exhibition will showcase fresh and dried floral sculptures, watercolour, line art, oils on wood and flower fossils as hung pieces and unique kokedama plants.
Flora Botanica will feature local artists Krystee Iris - Visual artist, Sarah Latchem - Visual Artist, Nat Foley - Florist, Anna Walraven - Florist from The Wild Flower, Annwyn Tobin - Florist from Floriade and Nikki Oates - Botanical stylist from Kokedamarama
The exhibition is open for all to attend, however our workshops are individually priced.
Join us for our workshops:
Saturday 3rd November
KIDS FLOWER HALO WORKSHOP 10.00am - 11:30am ($35)
KOKEDAMA WORKSHOP 12 noon - 2.00pm ($70)
BOTANICAL WATERCOLOUR WORKSHOP 3.00pm - 6.00pm ($70)
Sunday 4th November
FLOWER HALO WORKSHOP 10:15am - 12 noon ($55)
PrettyUgly presents CANDYSHOP, a group gallery show full of pop-culture inspired eye candy by NZ artists.
Featuring art by: Aimee 'Tokenin' Cairns, Cory Mathis, Garry Buckley, Gina Kiel, Hana Chatani, Iain Anderson, Michael 'Malangeo' Kennedy, Nyssa Skorji, Otis Chamberlain, Scott Savage, Simon Kao, Sloane Kim, Stacey Robson, Stacy James Eyles, Tanya Marriott, Tom Robinson & T-Wei
Sponsored by Garage Project!
Kaori (1983, Japan) is an artist who works mainly with painting and drawing.
Always fascinated by the representation of the female form and mind, she takes her inspiration in the ordinary life around her to find and portray the extraordinary.
Since she moved to New-Zealand in 2016, she has been profoundly inspired by the culture, the nature and, above all, the people in her everyday. She is now excited to share her artwork with the community and humbly hopes to give back some of the inspiration she received from the people of Wellington.
Kaori principally uses acrylics and inks to create her art. After studying oil painting and graduating from the Tokyo University of Arts, she had multiple solo and group exhibitions in Tokyo and is also a regular seller at Art markets. Kaori has also been painting backgrounds for Japanese animation.
email : k.izumiya@gmail.com
web : http://www.kaoriizumiya.com/
Instagram :@kaori_izumiya_art
The New Zealand School of Music - Te Kōkī, is pleased to present 'Music From Her' to celebrate, support and encourage diverse voices of women working in music in New Zealand, in the year of the 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage in New Zealand.
In this exhibition, six female sound artists from New Zealand and abroad will showcase their compositions and installations at the Thistle Hall Gallery from 9 – 14 October.
Featuring:
Antonia Barnett-McIntosh – current Composer in Residence at the New Zealand School of Music
Emi Pogoni – curator of Works for Loudspeakers
Amy Jean Barnett – postgraduate student at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
Flo Wilson - 2017/2018 Toi Pōneke/ Te Kōkī Sound Art Residency recipient
Sasha Leitman – Sound Artist and PhD candidate at Victoria University's School of Engineering
Rebekah Wilson - co-founder of Source Elements (Chicago)
Proudly supported by the Ministry for Women's Suffrage 125 Community Fund
Stringed guitars, 3 years in the making.
Since 2015 I have ventured into the making of stringed instruments. One of my first instrumental experiments was a single string called a Diddly Bow, inspired by the Jack White. I quickly followed in the footsteps of the 1 string and went on to make these stringed musical instruments from 1 to 7 strings, each instrument having its own set of problem solving processes and creative developments. All of these instruments are made from found objects, re-purposed antiques and custom made components. I thoroughly enjoy working in this way, as each instrument is a unique and individual sculpture on its own.
Over the next 18 months I will continue to make more instruments, it is my goal to make a 10 stringed music instrument. My aim is to create an electric stringed ensemble called “10 Guitars and the Interactive Monster “
This exhibition is my half waypoint and is part of promoting my bigger goal. This body of sculptural instruments showcases all the works I have made to date, some are experiments and some have a more specific purpose, all are electric and rather eccentric works of art in their own way.
Included in the exhibition will be a number of large drawings by my partner Gabrielle Edmonds. These drawings are a response to the instruments and adds another visual element to the show.
Space Studio and Gallery Whanganui
Our exhibition plays with the conflict between the realm of accepted society and the battle with our own unique personalities that stretch beyond these confines. The artworks pry into the concept of group dynamics and the individual, to assumptions about reality and how the lone soul is woven into a culture of societal expectations.
In his work Roger Key enjoys playing with the complexities of human existence. “My work tends to posses a dark underbelly and absurdity, which for me is reflective of daily life. Ultimately it comes down to the individual trying to navigate their way through it all and make some sort of sense of it.”
Zoe Knighton’s work juxtaposes the mundane with the unexpected, focusing attention on the façade or the performance of roles individuals play. A reminder that we seldom experience the genuine, instead inhabiting a constructed reality which obscures the truth.
Roger Key and Zoe Knighton are both Wellington based artists and will be making art onsite during the exhibition week.
For more information:
Opening: Tues, 18 September at 6:00 pm. including live performances of Music and Calligraphy sponsored by the Chinese Cultural Center
The term ‘Asian’ floats frequently in the national media. It’s inhabitants neatly homogenised under one term implies a single people or culture. Spoken of, but rarely to, the opinions, thoughts or observations remain silent. The creators associate their origins in Asia. They are however all individuals. Invariably, the enquiries are turned toward themselves, their friends, the environment, contemporary culture, history and so on.
This exhibition is developed by students from Victoria University School of Design first year paper, "Photographics" which is open to all students at Te Aro, Kelburn and Pipitea. They are not photography students, however through the use of photography, they develop critical and discipline specific enquiries. Employing their skills, they made digital models, furniture, found sponsors, wrote essays, brewed and so on. The exhibition WHAT WE SEE, WHAT WE SAY exposes the concerns of youth and their expectations as individual identities in New Zealand.
Other Events
The exhibition includes a public lecture with a renowned international artist, William Yang from Australia in Victoria University School of Design Lecture Theater 1[LT01] Tuesday 18th September. Tea and Mooncakes from at 1:10 pm, Talk from 1:40 pm.
Concept & Curation
Concept/Director Dr. Mizuho Nishioka, Lecturer in Photography and Communication Design, Victoria University of Wellington, School of Design
Curation Tane Moleta, Senior Lecturer in Interdisciplinary Digital Design Technologies, Victoria University of Wellington, School of Architecture
Photographic work by
Dhia Rezki Rohaizad (Malaysia_BCOM), Ziqi Zhan (China_BAS), Thuy Tien Le Phan (Vietnam_BAS), Benjamin Hau (Hong Kong/NZ_BAS), Patrick Kim (Korea_BAS), Jonathan Casil (Philippines_BDI), John Francis Estacio (Philippines_BBSC), Peilin Yang (China_BDI), Wanli Xu (China_BDI), Feiwen Li (China_BA), Mingyuan Yu (China_BDI), Shuangyan Xu (China_BDI), Haiyun Kang (China_BDI)
Written work by
Hannah Rushton (Singapore/NZ_BAS/BA)
Furniture design by
Cyrus Qureshi (Pakistan_MARCH), Duong Nguyen (Vietnam_MARCH)
An homage to the garish food of the 70s
Illustrator Pinky Fang and Sculptor Rose Young (Tiny Portions) invite you to enjoy a visual love letter to classic 1970s dinner party hors d'oeuvres, savoury jellies, canned meat salads and garish desserts.
Tiny Portions’ miniature sculptures will include such favourites as fondue, devilled eggs and black forest gateau. Pinky Fang has created bright, abstract, delightful paintings which will brighten the walls of the gallery for a week.
Opening night is on September 11th, at 6pm. All are invited to our Dinner Party, to enjoy an evening of 70s music, Garage Project Beer, Gingerella ginger beer, and of course, art!
Clive Holgate and Sebastien Jaunas present Alchemy, an exhibition of contemporary sculpture, exploring the transformation of materials through fire and force. Of interest are the processes involved in the creation of these works and the alchemic effect they have on the materials as they are formed and shaped Each artist has their own particular take on the work and the processes involved.
Both Sebastien and Clive are drawn to working in steel, glass, bronze and recycled materials they enjoy the challenges these materials present. Come along and get a taste of these alchemic processes and experience unique provoking works of art.
Antoinette’s taxidermy installations and photographs provide eye candy for the deceased and curios for the living. This exhibition showcases a variety of media that Antoinette has been working with following on from her Ghost Hunter series. She has continued to explore concepts of Momento Mori (‘remember you must die’) in a body of work that includes a series of death masks.
Antoinette Ratcliffe graduated from the School of Media Arts with a Masters of Arts in 2012 and teaches taxidermy classes around New Zealand.
Please email Antoinette if you would like a viewing outside of the listed opening times.
The Migrating Kitchen Trust was set up to provide opportunities for people in Aotearoa New Zealand to showcase their culture, celebrate their history and share their stories in exhibitions, media and public events so that through knowledge, barriers are broken, tolerance and understanding emerge.
In this exhibition we showcase a few migrant individual stories, their diverse cultures, their unique skills and their success stories.
All participants demonstrate that New Zealand is a melting pot of cultures. Its unique blend of cultural influences makes for a vibrant national identity that values innovation, independence and a celebration of diversity.
The exhibition offers a wide range of cultural and artistic experiences and showcase the great stories and the contributions to their immediate communities and to Aotearoa.
We capture these values through the images and works on display at this exhibition.
It is an artistic and cultural collaboration featuring various work by Renata Grangeiro, Christian Afoa and Mabel Nyahwa.
For more information please contact us at:
Florence Academy trained artist Tatyana Kulida brings her expertise in an ancient water gilding technique to Wellington with her next exhibition, Gold. The exhibition presents a number of recent paintings by Kulida that feature the traditional gilding technique while portraying contemporary subjects. By focusing the exhibition on a particular technique, Kulida wishes to invite Wellington artists to experiment with ancient techniques and instill appreciation for traditional art with the art viewing public.
Visitors are also warmly invited to the painting and gilding demonstration that takes place on Friday 17 August 2.00pm - 4.00pm .
Tatyana is a classically-trained Russian-born painter and a former painting and drawing instructor at the Florence Academy of Art in Florence, Italy. For the last three years she has been living in Wellington where she runs her own studio gallery, Anthesis Atelier, and teaches painting and drawing in the academic method and paints commissioned portraits.
For more information:
Images:
Pomegranate, oil on gilt red wood, 24x18 cm, 2017
Emily, mixed media on gilt panel, 75x80 cm, 2017
La La Land, oil and metal leaf on panel, 55x65 cm, 2017
A debut exhibition from Ruby Urquhart which paradoxically explores the absence of creativity.
These meditative and repetitive drawings are a defense against the idea that if you don't do something, you'll lose yourself. A record of a slow and methodical healing process. Through both the process of their creation and the context in which they were created, these meditative and repetitive drawings are tangible representations of the experience of time spent dealing with it.
The internal landscape can be reflected in our external surroundings. In these meditative and repetitive drawings, this manifests as lines intersecting and supporting each other, reminiscent of the overwhelming feeling of looking up at very tall buildings.
Ruby Urquhart grew up in Wanaka and is now a Wellington-based artist. she studied at the Learning Connexion in 2012 and 2013.
This exhibition is to show modern interpretations of bojagi also known as traditional Korean patchwork or wrapping cloth. Bojagi typically takes the form of a large piece of square fabric often used for carrying objects or wrapping.
The earliest surviving examples, from the early Joseon Dynasty period (1392–1910), were most frequently used in a Buddhist context as tablecloths or for covering sacred texts.
Bojagi used by the royal class are known as ‘Gung-bo’ and they typically took the form of a single piece of embroidered or painted silk fabric. Bojagi used by the commoner class are known as ‘Min-bo’. A common type of Min-bo is the Jogak-bo which was created from scraps of fabric left over from making hanbok, Korea’s national costume. Most of the bojagi on display in this exhibition are Jogak-bo.
Today, in addition to still being used for carrying or covering items, bojagi is increasingly appreciated as an art form. Some have compared the art of bojagi to the abstract paintings of Dutch artist Piet Mondrian. However, I like to describe it as the voice of the Joseon Dynasty’s common women whose craft has been passed down to the bojagi artists of today who now tell their own stories through these beautiful pieces of work.
There are two workshops:
Wednesday - 1 August, 4.30pm - 5.30pm
Saturday - 4 August, 2.00pm - 3.00pm
It is a 60min session to learn about basic hand-sewing techniques and material handlings of bojagi from the artists.
There will be $20 of material cost. You will be given a kit including materials, threads and needles etc to make a small bojagi.
Get in touch if you would like to attend: office@thistlehall.org.nz