skip to main content
Exhibitions | Galleries | Studios | Street Art | Art in Public Places | Ōtautahi Christchurch and Canterbury
Main Image.

At the end of May, Rangiora Chamber Gallery is opening an exhibition from an association of artists; the group Índependence:  Joy, Hakehake, Girls, Play, Engineers, Noho here kore, a coming together of artists, designers and an engineer.   Curator and artist Rachel Malloch maintains that the exhibition ‘defines and establishes a scenario for “Girls Play Engineers” and an engagement with the premise of sustainable arts practices.’

‘From the exhibition’s title,  “Hakehake” is ‘the winging action of birds as they move with irregularity, much like us as we travel and wing from one to another or place to place to make art and “Noho here kore”, is the freedom we have experienced.’ The artists in this exhibition respond in numerous ways and means, engaging with materials, stories and confrontations explored in the works in the exhibition.’

‘The love of natural zones and light is cultivated in the exhibition in the response to sustainable ecologically friendlier materials by Ros Goulding, her black-lit landscapes transforming ‘badlands’ into a place of ecstasy .

Emeritus Professor Maan Alkaisi deciphers the habits of worldly birds, likening their habits to our delicate grooming and posturing. ‘His photographs are joyous in their response to birds caring, fighting for territory, playing for fun, loving and feeding their chicks,' while Jennifer Mathesons’ Little Dragon in the Year of 2025, a digitally-rendered printed fabric, floats on hanging instruments which she describes as  catching the stars. 

 

Loretta Young details the process of making her textile digital prints as being about Eco-friendly sustainability:  'It is the way forward for the Textile Industry.  I embrace this technology  as it redefines my approach to my art's practice.   Researching the characteristics, values, and the symmetrical design elements of the Siapo motifs [ traditional Samoan design elements] have inspired and influenced my design concepts. Symmetry evokes balance, harmony, and aesthetic appeal. Nature provides a natural canvas for inspiration and photographic images upon which I have layered my designs to create surface patterns. I create cloth out of human experiences to push boundaries and to express multiple views of cloth as a vehicle of symbolic meaning.'

The landscapes that Rachel Malloch realises are filled with naked human angels and etched and painted places, cows and butterflies.  She investigates the context of fresco materials in modern chemistry by making all of her paint and constructing the canvases from recycled fabrics. Trying to avoid polluting practices has lead to her filling the refuse stations at times, but by changing practices to materials which break down naturally, they do not create residual run-off or pollution. 

Linda Borsts’ photographs feel like dusted velvet images made through a large technical camera. The sophistication of these works, suggests the world we inhabit affected by us, and in reciprocation, nature affects its inhabitants.  

The goal of the group is to play with the creation of new works during the exhibition. This can influence future exhibition work, change the artists’ modus operandi, challenge the artists’ known working methods and allow artists to cross boundaries, experiment, learn and play.  The chance to exhibit together to support each other’s success is important to us.

 

DETAILS

 The group Índependence, Joy, Hakehake, Girls, Play, Engineers, Noho here kore

Rangiora Chamber Gallery
141 Percival Street, Rangiora

29 May – 30 June

Monday – Thursday 9am – 5pm, Friday to 7pm, Saturday  10am – 2pm and Sunday 1 – 4pm

IMAGES

  1. Loretta Young, Fabric Drops, 2022,
  2. Ros Goulding, Untitled,2022, stitch fabric

 

 

Challenging the Status Quos

 
 
+ Text Size -