Category: Craft
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June Black
A new painting has entered the collection. Its creator was a fascinating and eccentric artist with a refined taste for fine fabrics and costume. June Black loved clothes and fashion, wrote about them and created new ways to think about them. In her journal writings the artist entered thoughts about materials and clothing, and, having…
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Guided tour of The Nature of Textiles
This coming week is the last chance to see The Nature of Textiles, the show curated with pieces from the textile collection. On Friday 20th at 10am there will be a guided tour of the exhibition during which we will look at the history of the items and how and why they came to be…
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Appropriation or appreciation?
Recently friends have been asking the current Big Question: what, in my opinion, is the difference between appropriation and appreciation? These days, appropriation is a Hot Topic and rightly so. For centuries people have been borrowing from others to create, and often the original creators have not benefitted. As an example, the song “The Lion…
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The Shetland Victory
You may be familiar with the song “Run Rabbit Run” but you might not be aware of the Shetland connection. This story on the BBC news site tells of how the song was popularised by a rabbit in Shetland after a German bombing raid on Sullom Voe. A few years ago a small cartoon entered…
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The Nature of Textiles – exhibition opening
(This article was originally published on the 25th September) This Friday saw the opening of The Nature of Textiles exhibition at the Left Bank Gallery in Greymouth Mawhera. The show is a celebration of materials and design that comes from the natural world and there are pieces from around the world on display for a…
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Dame Ngaio Marsh’s house
A few months back we visited Dame Ngaio Marsh’s recently restored house in Christchurch Otautahi. Each time the mystery writer, theatre director and artist travelled to the UK, she brought back something for the family house, that once was outside of town and surrounded by open land and hills, and so it is filled with…