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New Plymouth based artist Chauncey Flay will exhibit his latest project Vestiges at Kina NZ Design + Art Space opening 15th February 2019. 

Vestiges
Noun: a mark, trace, or visible evidence of something that is no longer present or in existence.

The project has been in progress for the last year and brings together a diverse range of materials including coral, concrete, brick and stone.  Last week I visited his open-air studio to view the final pieces selected for the show and see his working spaces. I came across various cut stone remnants, ochre rich brick dust waiting to be combined with building compounds, polystyrene covered in resin, bags of cement and the largest chunk of coal from some woman in Huntly! 

Throughout Chaunceys travels he has acquired fragments of stones/materials from various locations and they each come with a story. The brick works titled Morven II and III are from a homestead severely damaged in the September 2010 earthquake near Darfield in Canterbury and never rebuilt. His reconstruction of the bricks played with the ideas around ‘Home’ in the context of the deconstruction of the earthquake and its effect on the family who had not only owned the homestead but also the Homebush brickworks.

Before returning to Taranaki in 2017 Chauncey spent six years in the Cook Islands. The natural architectural structure of the coral found on the shores feature in his Coralscape series and have been created on several trips to the Islands in the last year. The natural coral has been adversely affected by climate change resulting in Chauncey trying to reconstruct it into a ‘complete’ form by introducing manmade materials such as concrete, builders bog and polyfiller.

Chauncey turns commonplace materials into objects with value and meaning, completely shifting our appreciation of them.  His works have long been admired in our design store setting and we are pleased to host his first solo exhibition here at Kina Artspace. 

We will host an opening reception on Friday 15th February from 5-7 PM. Come along and support our local artists and the art scene New Plymouth has to offer. 

“In all my works there is a physical process of breaking and putting back together. The language of geometry references architecture as a healing and rebuilding process. The faceting of stone is a slow and meditative reductive process that expresses the relationship between matter and time.” 

When I come across an artist in my travels and give them a days notice to visit, it always comes with a bit of trepidation....are they welcome to me calling with such short notice...will they have anything to show me...will they be open to having their works on our shelves at Kina...have they even heard of Kina???

I imagine the artist is just as apprehensive about some stranger making contact eagerly asking if they can visit, take photos, and possibly take away artworks as they need to leave and head back to Taranaki in the next 24hours!

My visit to Maria was just this, spontaneous. It was a lovely morning visit to Maria's home studio, where she showed me her works from the past decade....one talented artist and one happy gallery owner.

After arriving in Rotorua from Switzerland and being introduced to Maori culture and art Maria was fascinated by flax weaving. She attended Waiariki Polytechnic (now Toi Ohamai) in Rotorua in 2010 and learnt the basic weaving technique from her teacher Richard Kereopa. She then studied for two years under Melata Bennett at Te Wananga o Aotearoa Rotorua. Her skills further developed while studying at Te Puia, the National Weaving School - Te Rito.

While learning the technique of weaving, Maria was drawn to the warmth of the Maori culture and throughout my visit the appreciation and respect for this was always present. Her knowledge of traditional māori tikanga (protocol) was vast and it was a real pleasure to see a visitor to our country embrace it with such authenticity.  

Maria weaves with harakeke (New Zealand flax) grown around Rotorua. The harakeke that she uses is carefully chosen from different pa harakeke (flax sites) according to the characteristics required for the article. She uses the muka (fibre) of harakeke to plait the handles, and colours the kete with commercial dyes. Most of her products can safely be taken to foreign countries including Australia the US and Europe.

Maria has expressed her weaving through piupiu, taniko, pake and maro but it is kete whakairo (baskets) and kupenga (fishing net technique) that she enjoys creating best. She also weaves whariki (floor mats) and wall-hangings. 

Kina currently holds a variety of woven pieces from Maria in the kete whakairo, kono and wall hanging styles. To see these click here

New Plymouth based artist, Anneke Moore, will exhibit her latest collection of 'Light Work' pieces for the first time at KINA NZ Design + Artspace in New Plymouth with her exhibition titled, MERAKI, opening Friday 6th July 2018.
MERAKI - Is the soul, creativity, or love put into something; the essence of yourself that is put into your work.

The exhibition features a selection of light works on old and new x-ray boxes.
The series considers the challenges of a parent watching a child go through the highs and lows of their medical journey. The works express something of that adventure, and the necessary way in which we must process and understand events, essentially out of our hands.

In life watching can be hard, frustrating, painful, scary, and heart wrenching, but equally it can be beautiful, inspiring and incredibly humbling.

Anatomical hearts, brains and sign language are used to tell a story of appreciation, these thought provoking pieces Anneke hopes people can not only enjoy but perhaps in their own way connect with. These works are all about how we process these emotions... because some times words just aren’t enough.

Meraki opens Friday 6th July, 5pm.

All welcome.