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| Stuart Shepherd's ice penguin (foreground) and Dispersant (background) |
There is still at least a week left to see my work in the Spoils exhibition at draw.inc in Hamilton. My two large textile installations share the gallery spaces with Stuart Shepherd's sculptures, conducting a lively conversation about oil and mining, asset sales and climate change.
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| Dispersant |
Dispersant has been hung for this Hamilton audience, looking just as lovely though quite different than in a tight space against a blue background as it was
installed in 2012.
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| Dispersant detail |
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| Looking through Dispersant to Alexandra Street and Creative Waikato opposite |
Occasional flashes of sunshine through the window and a breeze from the door add movement and shadows unique to this space. Those moments are quite magical, all the more for their rarity.
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| Catching shadows and a breeze |
The show is in two galleries, facing off on opposite sides of the street. So, across the road from Dispersant, I've installed Memorial (Pike River) which almost perfectly matches the grey carpet in that gallery. It is the first time I've ever been able to spread the 29 pieces out in a suitable space and finally realise my original vision. I played around with different ways of arranging the stitched blanket mounds and eventually settled on the little groupings randomly spaced because it reminded me of the family, friendship and workmate relationships between the men who died two years ago, and still lie underground.
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| Memorial (Pike River) |
Also in this much larger space Stuart has installed paintings, prints and sculptures.
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| Stuart and Philippa installing his wallpaper, printed off a carved wooden table which forms part of his installation. |
Our opening last Thursday was good fun. I made all our food myself, and everyone said we had the best nibbles of the three openings that evening on Alexandra Street.
After we packed up, I put the posies I'd made from my garden for the food table down into the installation, as flowers seemed appropriate for a Memorial.
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| Memorial with flowers from the opening |
