Oh woops! I was so busy making the art I forgot to tell you all about the show.
But let me tell you, putting this show together was a delight in every way. Art making has never been so stress free and dreamy. My dear friend Annie Matchsticks and I worked on this installation together, hand-in-hand, tea for two, mornings and afternoons, chatting and collecting, dreaming and drawing.
These are the words we used that made it happen...
pioneer, whittling, crochet, sheets, candles, twigs, homesteaders, the softening, wild west, petticoats, can-can skirts, delicious, dusty, shavings, camp ovens, boots scrapin, we're ok corral, haybales, whiskey, swing door, primus, beans, tooling, heirloom, turret, crepe paper, pancakes, champagne breakfast, scaffolding, climbing, road to california, steps to the altar, lattices...
As well as the large, quilt-like extravaganza draped over my grandmother's washing line, we installed a garden gate, golden couch, a tree stump - alive with moss, and a tv playing some carefully edited youtube videos of whittling and Azalea Trail Maids.
And to top off this unashamedly swoony work, instead of the usual gallery opening in Christchurch - evening, black, booze and cigarettes - we wanted to soften it all up and create new conversations, add a bit of whimsy to the poor old town. So on the stormiest of saturday mornings we held a breakfast with sangria, tea, coffee and pancakes. Gareth flipped 144 of them.
Thank you Dog Park for having us, it was a blast.
