Time

silktangles

1 year ago

A juried exhibition for members of The Surface Design Association from New Zealand, Australia and The UAE.

November 21st to December 30th 2024

This juried exhibition has been long awaited by the gallery. Plans have been in the pipeline for over two years, working with The Surface Design Association and with our amazing juror – Dr Carole Shepheard ONZM. Invitations were sent to members of The SDA in Australia and the countries on the African Continent and the United Arab Emirates, as well as our own New Zealand members to submit works for the jurying process. The topic given was Time.

While many any of us connect time with the passage of the tides or seasons and this has long established cultural roots across the world, this is not a universal viewpoint.
Notions around Time “belong to a culture’s ‘silent language’ – its invisible influence has far-reaching implications on how a culture perceives itself and the world around it.”(1)
This exhibition call invited artists to consider Time from their own personal cultural constructs and to use the ‘language’ of their practice to make this ‘visible’ to their audience.

Submissions came in through a slightly challenging electronic entry portal, they were viewed anonymously by Dr Shepheard and the entrants were all notified about acceptance or not for the exhibition.

All this behind the scenes work has come together now and we are waiting for the day of the opening of the exhibition to the public which will be followed by the official opening November 24th at 2pm with the juror’s speech to the exhibition and her decision making process.

The artists included in the exhibition range across New Zealand, Australia and The United Arab Emirates. It will be a wonderful chance to see new artists in the gallery space whose works are of an exceptional standard.

Time As A Spiral (detail) Beth Pottinger-Hockings

Page updated 27th November 2024.

We had a wonderful opening gathering for Time although unfortunately our Juror Dr Shepheard was unable to be with us in person.

Here are the remarks from Dr Shepheard that are included in the front of the catalogue:

TIME – will tell

While I would love to acknowledge the total collapse of barriers between art and craft, I am aware layers of hierarchy remain in certain sectors. Some may feel the word ‘craft’ is no longer appropriate when categorising creative work, others may be challenged to elevate and reclaim that shared ideology. The notion of a ‘craft canon’, remains problematic as there is no one single, definitive practice at all, and works presented in this exhibition are good examples of that. In Aotearoa New Zealand the ‘craft’ world has lost many of its long standing (and outspoken) artists and advocates but there remain significant individuals who have bridged the gap and created a culture that resists a linear history. They are to be thanked. My perception is that within the wider creative arts there is a ‘free-for-all’ approach without acknowledgement that each field has its own traditions, histories and conventions. And might the ‘art’ world have, to a degree, hijacked craft per se?

There are many words to describe excellence in the creative arts, some of which are problematic, such as talent, skill and labour. The language that I find more interesting and productive utilises words like inventiveness, experimentation, intuition and courage. As the selector I looked for the individual voice – a voice that was cognisant of past influences, built on that, and demonstrated how contemporary art can be transformed into new and unique forms.
While technical knowledge and skill underpins strong work, a more important discussion is to be had with regard content and intent. Knowing how something is done – and as a printmaker I am fully aware of this trap – may add to your technical repertoire but it does not necessarily produce successful work. Skill alone is not enough. To respond to the brief for this show, artists had to make decisions that reflected their specific interest or investigation and built on their own authentic practice.

The categories in TIME were fibre, 2D & 3D mixed media and paper. Of the four groups the most difficult to approach in this context is ‘mixed media’. The merging of materials, tools and actions, no matter how attractive or desirable, can create awkwardness or show a lack of experience of one process over another. When it is successful, the synergy between idea, process and material shows that the artwork can stand confidently on its own. Some of the most interesting work for me in TIME was when the theme had been pushed conceptually. Taking a sidewards shift, thinking outside the box, letting the imagination randomly flow were aspects I wished to find. And I did!

As a maker I am well aware of how challenging it is to offer ones mahi for outside scrutiny! I have been on both sides so know the depth of feeling involved. I wish to thank all those who submitted work for this ‘encounter’ and for the time taken by each to present, explain and make the objects you did. It has been a privilege.

Dr Carole Shepheard November 2024

Here is Carole’s speech to The Opening of Time which she was unable to attend in person for family reasons.

It’s never easy putting ones creative mahi under the scrutiny of an audience but in front of a selector, judge, or assessor it is often doubly uncomfortable. I’ve been there and experienced mixed emotions as many of my peers have when work is rejected. It’s not comfortable nor is the ability to put oneself in another’s shoes to understand the thinking around the reasons for acceptance or not. My process is to put the theme at the forefront of my thinking as I look at the work. Then I read the associated written information and attempt to find a connection. I am not looking for a literal interpretation of either the theme or the writing in the work but trying to imagine where the prompts, challenges of ideas were and how they were executed. It’s a relatively new thing for artists to have to write about their own work. For some it comes more easily than others and now that we have AI which many of my students use, the language becomes almost as florid as a Mills & Boon novel. So I really assess based on the visual information that is in front of me. Is it complete? How does technique influence content? Is the scale appropriate? Is it convincing? I also realise that assessing by photographs, even with the options for detail shots available, I am always taking a leap of faith!

Thank you Viv for the opportunity you gave me, the conversations had, and the issues we resolved. It was a pleasure. Thank you to all who entered work for TIME – those who were selected and those who were not. It was important for me to make the notes I took available and accessible and for individuals to hopefully gain some understanding of the way I went about evaluating the work. It wasn’t easy – never is – but it was enjoyable. There is some truly beautiful, challenging and witty work in this exhibition. Thank you again.

I wish I could be at the opening – but the priority for me at present is to stay close to home.

Carole

Here are a few images from the opening.