Sheridan Keith owns the Blikfang (Danish for “eye-catcher”) Gallery in Auckland and is an author, a broadcaster, an artist, a collector and a curator.
The youngest daughter of June Black, Keith studied zoology and English Literature at Victoria in Wellington, and lived in London for a decade. Upon returning to New Zealand she took up writing fiction and later began to create artworks.
In one of these art pieces, Princess Afrique, Weeping, (detail above) a knitted head has brooches for eyes, one pale blue and the other golden with a red stone. A toy monkey clings to the neck. In another, Madame Nolandy Returns from Africa, (below) a costume of dramatic colour in a variety of materials is moulded around a mannequin, a vibrant representation of pelts and skins.
These and many other pieces are gathered together in collections, seemingly random, but with an eye for the things that bring them together, for Sheridan Keith curates theatre. Her work brings together the unusual, the commonplace and the exotic. It forces the viewer to question the idea of beauty, and rejoices in the antithesis of minimalism. It is exuberant and powerful, and it was a joy to visit.
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