Ildikó Vigh is a very special artist for our studio gallery. While Ildikó is a permanent resident of The Hague, she has had family living in Taranaki and we got to know her while she was here visiting with them. Several exhibitions have featured Ildikó’s paper-making and there is always some of her portfolio available in the gallery. One of the highlights of our friendship has been the making of paper together. A big exploration for us both was creating kawakawa papers. We made lots of this and it meant that Ildiko was able to dry sheets of pulp in thick blocks before she returned to Teh Hague. There she created her magic combining the NZ kawakawa pulp with her more normal paper making pulp – abaca. One of these works is below.
Ildikó describes her artistic voyage and her love of paper below:
After a lifetime of enjoying painting and creating other forms of visual art, I discovered my passion, paper making.
I find freedom and endless possibility in this medium. My work involves experimentation and the facilitation of opportunities for the paper to become a work of art.
Transforming paper to something completely new and different is a very dynamic, exciting process.
The way the light falls, the shadows, the wrinkles and the folds, combined with elements of stitching influence each other. I find it inspiring to compose and create with all of these elements.
Although I do love colour, I have purposefully left it out in most of my work as I find it, at this point, distracting. I strive to find structure and order in my ideas, as well as to simplify the expression of my complex thoughts.
I am in a constant search of finding new connections between this material and me.
These images are of the “Maps” or paper sets that Ildikó created during her last residency at the studio gallery. They contain several elements in each set including sheets of her handmade abaca paper as well as some of her rubbings that evoke her time in Taranaki. These sets can be used as raw elements for your own practice or can be enjoyed as flexible ‘books’ that you read differently each time you change the order of the sheets.
Ildikó also participated in the Concertina Book Challenge. She has retained many of the original markings made by Wendy with more clarity than some of the other solutions but these have been overlaid by her own marks and handmade paper. The final version is a magical little tour through a passage of time and place through Ildikó’s eyes.
To view work and to connect online:
Website: https://ildiko-vigh.com/
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/ildikoreindersvigh/?hl=en
Please call the gallery on +64 021 407 424 or email viv@blacknosugar.com for more details about any of these works.