Silk and Lace 13th Anniversary Gifts

Darcell Apelu, Emma Febvre-Richards, Jacquelyn Greenbank, Jay Hutchinson, Lonnie Hutchinson, Motoko Kikkawa, Sam Ovens, Jill Sorensen, curated by Jamie Hanton

The Blue Oyster Art Project Space turns 13 this year and to celebrate we have invited eight artists from around New Zealand to reflect on its history in the Upper Gallery and Darkside Gallery. As Ali Bramwell wrote in her article ‘Unstable Institutional Memory: 10 Years at the Blue Oyster,’ our recollection of events, exhibitions and people associated with the Blue Oyster is created collectively, and is therefore patchy - filled with half-truths and embellishments, most of which are unintentional.

Silk and Lace were chosen because of their significance in the lineage of anniversary presents: the thirteenth year requires a gift of silk or lace. The exhibition features works by Darcell Apelu, Emma Febvre-Richards, Jacquelyn Greenbank, Jay Hutchinson, Lonnie Hutchinson, Motoko Kikkawa, Sam Ovens, and Jill Sorensen. These eight artists were chosen because their practices intersect with Silk and Lace in one way or another. The artists were asked to go through the Blue Oyster’s archives and find a work, an exhibition, or an artist that appealed to them in some way, they were then asked to re-imagine the work through the filter of their own practice. This rather loose curatorial vision allowed even more room for disruptively productive slippages to occur around the interpretation and re-presentation of historical exhibitions.

Saturday 5 May: Panel discussion 'Enacting Social Memory through Textiles' with: Angela Gardiner, Jay Hutchinson, Dr Natalie Smith, chaired by Victoria Bell.

Click to download the exhibition text (PDF)

Presented alongside Desi Leversage After All