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Programme July - Sept 2007
August 31, 2008 by kmitchell
July - Sept 2007 | |
 | Lyn Plummer Over the past seventeen years Lyn Plummer's work has investigated the relationship between public ritual and private instincts; between the references to historical cultural mores and contemporary personal desires and experience. This has been manifest in an interest in the nature of space and especially in the secular, ritualised space of the gallery and its relationship to the religious, charged, ceremonial space of the spiritual. There has been a concentrated focus on changing the gallery space into one which demands that we reflect upon our private responses to ceremony and ritual and their multiple readings and meanings. Ashburton Art Gallery Touring Exhibition with thanks to: Otago Polytechnic, Ashburton Trust, CNZ Creative Communities, Talbot Forest Chesse & Petrie's Wines (Rakaia). |
 | Zero: new works by contemporary New Zealand and Australian photographers The exhibition zero, presents bodies of work by significant and engaging New Zealand and Australian photographers. zero is coordinated by photographic practitioners, Cathy Tuato'o Ross and Di Halstead, with the aim of extending trans-Tasman dialogue and exchange between artists, writers and audiences. Alice Hutchison, Te Manawa Manager/Curator, describes the exhibition as "a unique collaborative project between the two countries" that "touches on resonant themes specific to New Zealand and Australian cultures". Image: Anne Noble Museum Piece...the polar sea and the polar sky (detail). |
 | Camera Images
Image: Margaret Clifford. 1 Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida : Reflections on Photography. Translated by Richard Howard. Hill & Wang. New York. 1981 : 85.
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 | Journey with Threads Ashburton Embroiderer's Guild 28th August-9th September 2007 This popular biennial exhibition showcases a selection of work from members of the Ashburton Embroiderer's Guild. Members are invited to submit up to four pieces each, which have been completed since their exhibition two years ago. The pieces demonstrate the wide variety of styles and techniques currently being applied by embroiderers and range from the very traditional through to contemporary pieces. |
| Regalia New Zealand Association of Embroiderers' Guilds Regalia is an invited exhibition of embroidered works put on by the Association of New Zealand Embroiderers' Guilds Inc. Embroiderers' from throughout New Zealand have accepted the challenge and there will be a wonderful variety of work to view. There will be traditional work through to very modern 3D pieces, from miniature through to large pieces. |
David Elliot Acquisition
We are also aiming over time to purchase a number of the artists works for the Ashburton community. We are aware that as the artist's career progresses offers to purchase original drawings are being made from overseas. We are aiming therefore to prevent the separation of complete books of original drawings by working towards purchasing those which are at risk of leaving the country. We feel that David Elliot's works are fun, exciting and accessible to a large sector of the community and we are looking forward to the opportunity to care for, promote and display this fantastic collection. Many thanks to David and Gillian Elliot for their willingness to begin this conversation and to work with us to aid in the development of this proposal. The Ashburton Art Gallery has recently purchased works associated with David Elliot's participation in a project which saw a limited edition of The Hunting of the Snark books and prints be produced. "Hand-setting and printing Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark was the 2006 project for the annual Printer in Residence programme at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. Tara McLeod, owner-operator of the Auckland-based Pear Tree Press and printer at The Holloway Press at University of Auckland, was commissioned to come down to Dunedin for a five week period and complete the printing. After much discussion, and in consideration of our limited resources, only 101 copies would be produced. Of the three presses in the Otakou Press Room, McLeod would use the Vandercook Cylinder Press. David Elliot, a keen Carrollian, was happy to do the illustrations of the characters in the Snark poem. And in order to transfer his images on to solar plates and then Zerkall paper, local printmakers Inge Doesburg, Jenna Packer, and Kathryn Madill were asked to be technicians. Over August/September work began, and on completion and selective promotion, the Snarkopack sold out. And it is truly a package, containing the text hand-set on Zerkall paper, an original randomly selected solar plate etching by Elliot, a bookmark, a rules sheet, three sheets containing the twelve characters reduced to playing card size, and a sheet of containing 'feet' if and when buyers want to pop the cards out and stand them up. All these components are enclosed in a black buckram folder which contains an original Elliot image. Everything is wrapped up with black shoelace." Donald Kerr, Special Collections Librarian, University of Otago, November 2006. The Jub Jub Bird Illustration by David Elliot
David Elliot
On returning to New Zealand in 1984, I resumed work as a designer, but hoping that teaching might afford me more time to follow my interest in books (a vain hope, I'm afraid), I trained to be a teacher, and taught art to secondary students, fulltime, from 1986 to 1998. During this time, while my own two children were still young, the time available to me for writing and illustrating was severely limited and this is reflected in my creative output - three picture books, plus book covers and some illustrating for educational books. Since 1998, however, with the support of my wife, I have been working fulltime on my own writing and illustrating and, as a result, I have been able to take on an increasing amount of illustration work. A selection of David Elliot's books are available for purchase from the Ashburton Art Gallery. More information about David Elliot and his work can be found at David Elliot's Website | |
The Ashburton Art Gallery has been in talks with Ashburton born, award winning author and illustrator David Elliot in regard to the Gallery becoming the caretaker of David Elliot works. This will involve the Gallery storing, conserving and managing David Elliot's extensive collection of works. As you can imagine this is an ambitious project that we feel will be of great benefit to local people as well as providing the opportunity for visitors to the community to experience exhibitions which focus on and celebrate the identity and people of the District. The Gallery is aiming to create a specific space in which works from this collection will be regularly exhibited. We are currently investigating options for the storage of the works and will soon begin a cataloging process which will involve digitally photographing, measuring, condition reporting, wrapping and recording every work in the artists collection. 
I was born in Ashburton and lived here for the first seventeen years of my life. I then went to Christchurch, where I studied for the Diploma in Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury, graduating in 1976. I then worked as a designer for a couple of years, before travelling to Antarctica, then onto Asia and Europe, before settling in Scotland, where I was gatekeeper at Edinburgh Zoo for two years. During this period I became increasingly interested in writing and illustrating books for children.