DETOUR

Sam Foley

4th September - 3rd October 2010

Opening Saturday 4th September 1.30pm

Image: "Railway Yard, Ashburton" Oil on canvas by Sam Foley

In early 2010 Foley made a research trip to Ashburton, “The urban landscape is a subject that I have been focusing on now for a number of years and the combination of painting and projection lend itself particularly well to night scenes and street lights — the intersection of West and Moore Street was the first thing that came to mind. It wasn’t until I spent some time in Ashburton that I was drawn to the other aspects of the town, often unique and with character, that have found their way into this body of work.”

“It was said of Monet ‘He was only an eye. But what an eye!’ As a summary of Impressionism this compression leaves out the transition from narrative — every picture tells a story — to observation, which in Monet’s case was focussed on light. Foley is similarly engaged with the processes of seeing and picture-making and how you render complex experience. Visual perception is conditioned by memory and imagination. We don’t just see things; we remember them and have anxieties and expectations about how they will be. This makes seeing fraught. Foley re-creates that and fleshes it out with his ghostly, moving phenomena. Some of this is observation. It represents what actually happened at the site while the artist waited with his camera. Some of it is staged, the interventions being contrived by Foley. All of it registers as completely ordinary, yet disturbing.” Extract from essay by Peter Entwisle

The Making of the Word Witch: the poetic & illustrative magic of Margaret Mahy & David Elliot

An Ashburton Art Gallery Touring Exhibition Curated by Kathryn Mitchell

Wellington Museum of City & Sea

19th June - 15th August 2010

When publisher Harper Collins agreed with me in 2007, the year after Margaret Mahy won the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Medal, that there should be a book bringing together her many achievements as a writer of verse, there was no question that first, it should be lavishly illustrated and second, that Dunedin’s David Elliot was absolutely the right artist for the task.

We were delighted when David, normally booked up by both New Zealand and international publishers for years ahead, accepted the challenge. The completed book, published in October 2009, is testament to our faith in his talent and professional skill but especially his imagination, perfectly complementing Margaret’s in its lightness of touch, originality, whimsicality, poignancy and humour. Each of the book’s sixty-six poems is illustrated, sometimes by a single telling image, other times by the storyboard approach matching the narrative of the poem. As with Margaret’s verse, the range of styles and emotions is impressive, from tender and teasing, to quirky and sometimes, quite dark.

An additional challenge was provided by the fact that many of Margaret’s verse texts, particularly the longer ones like Dashing Dog, Down the Back of the Chair and Bubble Trouble were already familiar to Mahy fans as classic children’s picture books. How would the artist find his own, different visual language for these familiar verses? How do you approach the text of award-winning picture books like A Summery Saturday Morning or 17 Kings and 42 Elephants and come up with something completely new and fresh?

This exhibition is a remarkably honest, ‘warts and all’ look at David’s path to the finished book, complete with its trials, tribulations, false starts and wrong turnings. Above all it is intended as a window into the magical world of imagination, a celebration of the creativity that, along with a good deal of hard work, lies behind a handsome book that will undoubtedly become a children’s classic. In this spirit Margaret has allowed the display of some of her earliest writings, in which the acclaimed Mahy magic is already clearly evident. The warmest thanks are due to her for this generous support. This exhibition will not only delight visitors, child and adult alike, but equally, encourage all of us to explore our own potential in images or words - or both.

Tessa Duder, Auckland, September 2009

David Elliot

The Ashburton Art Gallery supports the promotion of children’s literature in New Zealand as an integral part of educating and inspiring our youth. The core of the Ashburton Art Gallery’s collection is the work of award winning children’s book author and illustrator David Elliot. David Elliot was born and raised in Ashburton before moving to Christchurch to study a Diploma in Visual Arts at the University of Canterbury. After he graduated, David worked as a designer for a couple of years before travelling to Antarctica, through Asia and Europe, and onto Scotland where he became gatekeeper at Edinburgh Zoo. It was during this time that David became increasingly interested in writing and illustrating books for children. David has provided illustrations for numerous New Zealand children's books, including Janet Frame's only book for children, Mona Minim and the Smell of the Sun.

Margaret Mahy

Margaret Mahy is a former Children's Librarian at Christchurch City Libraries and is one of the world's best and most famous children's authors. Margaret Mahy was born in Whakatane in 1936, and wrote her first story at the age of seven. After graduating from Auckland University College and Canterbury University College, in 1955, with a BA, Margaret Mahy then attended the New Zealand Library School in Wellington, received her Librarian's diploma, and then went to work for the Petone Public Library. In 1967 she worked for the School Library Service in Christchurch. During this time she had stories published in the New Zealand School Journal. Margaret Mahy's first book to be published was A Lion in the Meadow in 1969. In 1976 Margaret Mahy was appointed Children's Librarian at Canterbury Public Library. In 1980 she became a fulltime writer and has gone on to win numerous awards for her books including The Carnegie Medal, the Hans Christian Andersen Award and the Prime Minister’s Literacy Award.