Excitement Builds for Graduate Exhibition
A Dress Shadow
This year’s exhibition by final year art and design students at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology will include the most diverse range of art mediums and the largest number of exhibitors to date.
17 artists about to complete their Bachelor degrees in Visual Arts and Design will take part in the annual graduate exhibition at The Suter Te Aratoi o Whakatū Art Gallery which will begin on the 14th November and run through to the 6th December.
This year’s exhibition is titled: REBUS
NMIT Arts Tutor Catharine Hodson says the name was chosen because it means a representation of words in the form of pictures or symbols, often presented as a puzzle.
“The exhibition explores questions about collective and personal history, identity, expression and perception through the language of art and design. The Rebus exhibition presents a range of disciplines including; graphic design, eco dyeing, painting, sculpture, drawing, costume design, clothing design and video. This dynamic show is the culmination of three years of study for the graduates and is a fantastic opportunity for the public to see the artistic talent of their local tertiary provider,” she says.
Final year student and media co-ordinator for the exhibition Ali McIntyre has a work entitled ‘La Troupe’ in the show. It explores the juxtaposition of historical and contemporary fashion, inspired by the works of Toulouse-Lautrec. An installation of digital prints and five circus-cabaret characters evoke the 19th C. world of Bohemian France.
“The Rebus exhibition in the Suter, for me, is the pinnacle of the BVAD degree. The juxtaposition of such a diverse range of media types and conceptual foci, are anchored by the exhibitor’s dedication to their practices,” says Ali McIntyre.
“Living in the UK when I first applied for the degree, I was attracted to the NMIT Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design by the diversity of courses offered. The quality of teaching and opportunities to explore many avenues of both traditional and contemporary art design practices, are second to none.”
The artists and designers in the show are: Alice McIntyre, Susie Reid, Hester Janssen, Felicity Mountfort, Gordon D’Ath, Tracy Duncan, Doti Young, Stephanie Mackay, Sandra Mead, Helen Grant, Sue Hayde, Lisa White, Sandy Paterson, Max Van Susteren, Maree Corrin, Eric Huckle and Rebecca Davies.
Here are short profiles on five of the artists and their Rebus works:
Hester Janssen
From: Nelson
Media type and mode of exploration: Graphic design and illustration
5 key words that describe your art / design work for the Suter? ‘Celebrity for a day’ series
Rebus Work in the artists words:
My response has been to produce 10 illustrated cards influenced by fashion magazine styling and the idea of you can be a celebrity here too and therefore this series has been titled ‘Celebrity for a day’.
I choose to respond to the ‘fashionable female’ from glossy fashion spreads and used them as a starting point. Working with a drawing tablet I made a version, though not a tracing of these forms and I created my own additions as I proceeded and invented colour and texture to mimic current fashions.
This approach allowed me to draft poses that young females who are frequently targeted by magazines would find appealing. I located my ‘constructed’ illustration of each young woman in the foreground of a different photograph that I took of the local landscape. Each landscape photograph was manipulated with illustrative effects that made them appear somewhat painterly yet digital, a look which is very familiar to this demographic who engages with sites like second Life.
Tracy Duncan
From: Mahana
Media type and mode of exploration: painting; acrylic on canvas
5 key words that describe your art / design work for the Suter? large, confronting, high-impact, ambiguous, unsettling
Wild Creations residency 2007 (as illustrator/author of children’s books)
Rebus Works in the artists words:
This body of work explores ideas around identity, perception and representation – how human beings see themselves and each other. I am interested in the psychology of human relationships, particularly how interaction with, or alienation from others dictates the way we define ourselves.
Doti Young
From: Golden Bay
Media type and mode of exploration: synthetic thread & plastic, nylon twine; embroidery as mark-making mode on plastic
5 key words that describe your art / design work for the Suter? ethereal interactive/responsive suspended sculpture, accompanied by eerie isolated dress shadow photograph
Selected for the ‘Changing Threads’ exhibition 2009 at the Suter.
Rebus Work in the artists words:
a dRess
The dresses whisper remember us, the women that have gone before, from every stitch and thread and form. The gentle voices of women that needled remnant to garment, that seduced in gowns, cooked and cleaned in smocks, instructed in pinafores, laughed in summer frocks and raged and broke in everyday dresses, received and took what life offered or withheld. Bled birthed and died in a dress, a cover, a cloak, a disguise. Ill fitting or fit for a queen, they are all the same, they reveal or conceal a woman, or woman becoming or a woman want-a-be, a girl child or a man willing to be free.
Gordon D’Ath
From: Tirau, Waikato
Media type and mode of exploration: acrylic on board and canvas; painting and image transfer
5 key words that describe your art / design work for the Suter? Identity within contemporary Maori art practice
Rebus Work in the artists words:
I would consider myself a painter.
I am half Māori (Ngapuhi) and half European (French and Scottish). I live between two worlds with many dimensions. I seem to reside in the liminal area of these worlds, not knowing where I belong.
I am exploring my own identity trying to form a sense of self; the harder I look the more transparent it becomes. I realise that I’m not alone; I co-exist with everything in the universe.
Felicity Mountfort
From: Rotorua
Media type and mode of exploration: Working in garment construction and natural dying, with design fundamentals based on the considerations of sustainability.
5 key words that describe your art / design work for the Suter? One-off reversible jackets contrast natural with synthetic dye processes.
Rebus Work in the artists words:
“I am a designer/maker. The foundations of my work are based within sustainability working with textiles and the process of natural dying. I enjoy the process of production, seeing a project start from a flat length of fabric to a finished wearable item. Grown Sewn is a: designed, drafted, constructed, dyed and stitched process to produce this range of un-reproducible reversible jackets. The woolen fabric contrasts natural with synthetic dyes, hybridising industrial and domestic. The impacts of the textiles industry on the environment is one of the biggest contributors of pollution and waste in the world: The cultivation of fibers to produce, manufacture cloth and clothing, The dye and finishing processes, impact water ways and land in the subsequent disposal of textiles to landfill. In the true sense of the word sustainability is unachievable therefore I have considered the elements: production, environmental impact, and functionality of design in my work. ”
If you’d like more information about this exhibition, or to schedule an interview with the graduates, please contact Ali McIntyre.
Contact: Ali McIntyre Ph: 027 341 0966
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