Stars of music, art and dance celebrate Matariki
Artist Talk
Matthew McIntyre Wilson Seven Stars
Wednesday 18 June, 4pm
Michael Hirschfeld Gallery
City Gallery Wellington is celebrating Matariki 2008. Join artist Matthew McIntyre Wilson in conversation with curator Abby Cunnane about his Seven Stars exhibition.
FOOTNOTE DANCE
Watch This Space / Maatakitakihia Mai Tenei Waahi 2008
Friday 20 June, 12.30pm
City Gallery Wellington
Local dance legends Footnote Dance return to City Gallery for a special event combining art, dance and music for your pleasure. Check out their improvised ‘happening’ which begins in the Gallery foyer and culminates in gallery spaces.
Matariki
Music
Tahu (performing live)
Sunday 22 June, 2pm-4pm
City Gallery Foyer
FREE
Celebrate Matariki
and the final day of City Gallery Wellington’s festival
season.
Live and direct from their album launch the previous evening, distinct New Zealand music ensemble Tahu will perform live at City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi. Mixing Maori musical instruments with classical guitar, the Wellington based trio consists of taonga puoro (musical instruments of the New Zealand Maori) practitioners Henare Walmsley and Alistair Fraser, and classical guitarist and composer Michael Hogan.
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Press Release. For immediate release: 26 May 2008
The stars are out at the Michael
Hirschfeld Gallery
Matthew McIntyre Wilson - Seven Stars, 14 June – 20 July
To coincide with Matariki
celebrations, City Gallery Wellington’s Michael Hirschfeld
Gallery is featuring the dazzling work of Wellington
jeweller, Matthew McIntyre Wilson. Like the Maori New Year
celebrations, Seven Stars features the shimmering and
iridescent - McIntyre Wilson’s use of copper and silver,
particularly in the setting of a darkened gallery, lends
itself to thoughts of a sparkling night sky. The artist
also reflects on whakapapa, weaving rich family histories
into taonga of exquisitely formed metal.
In Seven
Stars, Matthew McIntyre Wilson’s intricate woven kete,
hinaki, wall panels, belts and armbands are grouped in
clusters or ‘constellations’ that relate to the seven
stars of the Matariki constellation. While they are not all
utility objects, many of the forms in the exhibition are
originally useful. Hinaki are used to trap eels, kete
whakapuareare for the harvesting of kaimoana and kete kumera
for food gathering. These everyday items are reworked in
scale and medium.
“Hinaki are traditionally woven
from native reeds and vines, crafted for the very specific
reason of providing food and sustenance, yet they hold an
innate beauty and quality of craftsmanship that needs to be
celebrated,” says McIntyre Wilson, “Through the use of
post European medium of copper and fine silver, I have tried
to recreate my own version of
21st century hinaki.”
While mainly featuring completed works, the
show also includes works on paper, the intricate patterns
for the final woven designs, along with samples and raw
materials. Many of the works are on loan from Wellington and
further a field; lenders include journalist Rosemary McLeod
and artist Darcy Nicholas. Curator Abby Cunnane says that
gathering this family of works together has involved the
recollection and retelling of stories, both those related to
individual pieces and the broader narratives associated with
particular weaving patterns. Works sold or gifted continue
to propagate their own stories, many of which remain private
until a reunion like this.
Matthew McIntyre Wilson
(Taranaki, Ngamahanga, Titahi) was born in Hastings in 1973.
He studied jewellery at Whitireia Polytechnic, gaining a
Certificate of Craft and Design in 1992, and later at Hawkes
Bay Polytechnic, toward a Diploma of Visual Art and Design
(Jewellery) in 1996. He has exhibited at Avid, Wellington;
Pataka Porirua Museum of Arts and Cultures; The Dowse, Lower
Hutt; and as part of the Precious: Seven Wellington
Jewellers exhibition (2003) and also Manawa Taki: the
Pulsing Heart (2005), both at Michael Hirschfeld Gallery.
McIntyre Wilson currently lives and works in Khandallah and
teaches at Whitireia Polytechnic.
Matthew McIntyre
Wilson: Seven Stars
14 June – 20 July 2008
Michael Hirschfeld Gallery, City Gallery Wellington
Admission: FREE
City Gallery Wellington is managed by the
Wellington Museums Trust with major funding support from
Wellington City Council. Michael Hirschfeld Gallery is
proudly sponsored by DesignWorks Enterprise IG. Thanks to
Publication and Design, Wellington City Council and
Courtenay
Photographics.
ENDS