- Objectspace

Susan Holmes: Fabric Artist

19 November 2016 - 04 February 2017

Working as a fabric artist since 1971, Susan Holmes is recognised for her intuitive engagement with fabrics spanning five decades. From simple beginnings producing potato print scarves and shirts, she soon established a reputation for creating beautiful fashion garments which she sold at Brown’s Mill. Constantly improvising and devising new techniques of printing, dyeing, stencilling, spraying and manipulating fabrics her work has remained inventive and creative. Now most well known for her contribution to wearable art as one of the most awarded World of WearableArt™ designers in New Zealand. Susan Holmes: Fabric Artist at Objectspace, the fifth major commissioned project in Objectspace’s Masters of Craft series, honours her mastery of textile craft.

Objectspace’s Masters of Craft exhibition series celebrates the achievements of outstanding New Zealand practitioners working at the highest level in the fields of craft, design and the applied arts whose practice is distinctive, enduring, influential and redefining of tradition.Susan Holmes is arguably New Zealand’s most accomplished and acclaimed fabric artist.

Half-Blood

01 October 2016 - 05 November 2016

Half-blood is an exhibition that challenges the history and myths associated with both Māori and Pakeha identity through two playable digital artworks by graphic designer Johnson Witehira. The works, projected side-by-side in the gallery space, present two narratives; the arrival of Māori and the arrival of Pakeha in Aotearoa New Zealand. The audience are invited to take up the controls and navigate a Pacific or British character through the alien landscape, with each forced to overcome challenges in their newly-discovered worlds. For Māori this included taming the harsh environment; for Pakeha it was taming the savages.

Rare Collection

01 October 2016 - 05 November 2016

Rare Collection sees Australian jeweller Julie Blyfield respond to the 1861 book of plant illustrations Wild flowers of South Australia made by Fanny De Mole in 1861 in Adelaide, South Australia. It was the first book to illustrate the flora of South Australia, the old volume contains 20 plates and illustrates 38 different flowering plants from South Australia. Each of the delicate, hand coloured prints is accompanied by a name plate with a description of the plant species with the botanical / common names. It is believed that in the mid 1800’s Fanny’s plant illustrations were sent to England where they were made into Lithographs and returned to Adelaide for hand-colouring with assistance from her family and friends.

Beauty is in the Street

27 August 2016 - 24 September 2016

Reimagining the city through the eyes of critically attuned and collective making practices which engage in the vital issues and materials of our contemporary landscape with resilience, humour, energy and transmutation.

Image: Luka Mues 'Hang In There Baby' Campaign Film, 2015, (still), Directed by Juliet Carpenter

Forged

20 August 2016 - 21 September 2016

Johanna Zellmer
An exhibition examining political subjectivity through the iconographic languages employed in the forging of a nations currency. Drawing on themes of migrancy, movement and identity Forged reflects on the political codification of personal experience through the language of jewellery.

Johanna Zellmer was born in 1968 and completed a formal apprenticeship as a goldsmith in Germany and a masters degree at the Australian National University Canberra School of Art. Her research interests are the construction of national identities and cross-cultural matters. Her work was presented in New Zealand’s TVONE series Neighbourhood (episode 10: North Dunedin, 2012) and selected for New Zealand’s Parkin Drawing Prize in 2014. Dr. Pravu Mazumdar discussed her projects in his keynote for Schmuck 2013 at The International Design Museum Munich; this text is published online. Her work has been exhibited in Australia, Korea, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy and New Zealand and is held in public collections internationally. She calls a small farm in Dunedin ‘home’ and works as lecturer and Artists-in-Residence Coordinator at the Dunedin School of Art.

Image: forged detail: 800 years of The German Brotherhood, Johanna Zellmer, 2008

Handshake 3

09 July 2016 - 13 August 2016

A third iteration of New Zealand's prominent jewellery mentoring project, Handshake returns to Objectspace. Founded by jeweller Peter Deckers in 2011, Handshake 3 sees a shift in in mentor / mentee relationship, where the mentor becomes collaborator.

Samundar and Haldi

09 July 2016 - 10 August 2016

An exhibition focusing on the textile works of emerging artist Quishille Charan, and her investigations of traditional Fijian textiles.

Still Life Forms

26 May 2016 - 02 July 2016

An immersive installation by contemporary jeweller Chloe Rose Taylor

Objectspace Limited Edition Silk Scarf

26 May 2016 - 02 July 2016

Objectspace Ltd Edition 2016 Designed by Alan Deare, Benjamin Alexander and Zuzana Kristofava

100% Silk, designed and produced locally supporting principles of ethica and sustainable production.

Edition of 100.

$190

show_sell_shift

27 May 2016 - 02 July 2016

Show_sell_shift marks the first show in Objectspace’s history where works of locally, handcrafted ware will be for sale in the gallery, featuring works from an extraordinary range of leading New Zealand artists, makers and designers with a focus is on functional and accessibly priced objects that people want to use and will love in their everyday life.

The Way of Matter

23 April 2016 - 21 May 2016

New making from recent graduates of Aotearoa New Zealand

A Storage Problem: Martin Poppelwell

05 March 2016 - 16 April 2016

A Storage Problem is an interactive installation of ceramics created for Objectspace by Hawkes Bay artist Martin Poppelwell.

Fixing the Unbroken: New making on the vessel

30 January 2016 - 27 February 2016

David Clarke, Vito Bila, Peter Bauhuis

The Group: home-wares

30 January 2016 - 27 February 2016

Julia Holderness

Empire of Dirt: Writing about Ceramics

14 November 2015 - 19 December 2015

New voices on ceramics.

Blue Black - Fallout

07 November 2015 - 19 December 2015

Belinda Ellis - ICONZ

14 November 2015 - 19 December 2015

iCONZ of New Zealand

Ruth Castle: Basketmaker

03 October 2015 - 07 November 2015

Objectspace presents the first lifetime survey show of internationally renowned Auckland basketmaker Ruth Castle.

Sharon Painter-Arps: Unwearable Art

11 September 2015 - 04 November 2015

Contemporary carving

Vintage Paua Shell Jewellery from the 1930's to the 1970's

11 September 2015 - 31 October 2015

STRANDS: Weaving a new fabric

22 August 2015 - 26 September 2015

STRANDS: weaving a new fabric invites you not to overlook weaving but to take another look, to recognise it and revalue it.

Recovered

22 August 2015 - 10 September 2015

Emma McLellan’s installation explores the human desire to collect and the sentiment we attach to everyday objects. Her work is inspired by her research into online, largely institutional, collections of New Zealand made applied arts, crafts and design.

The Family Jewels

11 July 2015 - 05 September 2015

Jewellery by Warwick Freeman

Make/Use

11 July 2015 - 08 August 2015

Zero waste garment design led by Holly McQuillan

Darren Keith: Social Fabrications

06 June 2015 - 25 July 2015

An exhibition of ceramic works by Darren Keith

Areta Wilkinson, Whakapaipai - Jewellery as Pepeha

06 June 2015 - 04 July 2015

Contemporary jewellery practice informed by Māori enquiry

Lindsay Marks : Music from Small Boxes

06 June 2015 - 04 July 2015

An exhibition of hand crafted musical instruments by designer and maker Lindsay Marks.

Knitterati meets The Street Loves Nana

23 May 2015 - 30 May 2015

An interactive one week pop-up show in the main gallery...

Best in Show 2015

18 April 2015 - 16 May 2015

Best in Show 2015 provides a snapshot of New Zealand's best up and coming designers and is a yearly highlight on the Objectspace calendar.

Hannah Hutchinson: Transforming Common Objects

18 April 2015 - 16 May 2015

Robin Bold: Meta Vessel

07 March 2015 - 11 April 2015

Silversmith Robin Bold explores the idea of “the family silver” through mixed-media objects.

Uku Rere: Nga Kaihanga Uku & Beyond

07 March 2015 - 09 April 2015

Uku Rere is a survey of contemporary ceramics by makers Baye Riddell, Manos Nathan, Colleen Urlich, Wi Taepa and Paerau Corneal.

The Bricks

06 January 2015 - 07 March 2015

The bricks is an exhibition by designer Guy Hohmann.

The Transmogrifier Collection

05 February 2015 - 28 February 2015

The Transmogrifier Collection features works by Gisborne-based designer Katy Wallace. Each piece of furniture has been crafted using secondhand objects as the material for a newly designed object.

F.O.U.N.D or Foundation of Unfathomable and Notable Discoveries

19 February 2015 - 28 February 2015

F.O.U.N.D showcases works created by 15 participants in the Incredible Strange Object, a national jewellers masterclass led by Munich-based jeweler Peter Bauhuis.

The Effects of Crack

31 October 2014 - 05 January 2015

As part of Clay O'Clock: An Auckland Festival of Ceramics, Virginia Leonard will be taking part in the Clay-a-thon programme, and will talk about her practice at Objectspace on 8 November from 2 -2.30 pm. If you would like to join the tour visiting eight other galleries, please contact the Gus Fisher Gallery.

Fingers: Jewellery for Aotearoa New Zealand

08 November 2014 - 20 December 2014

The latest Objectspace exhibition marks the 40th anniversay of Fingers Gallery in Auckland.

Rococo Revolution

12 November 2014 - 20 December 2014

A recent whirlwind tour of museums, palaces and treasure houses in Europe was both exciting and nauseating in equal measures.

Parian–oia

26 September 2014 - 08 November 2014

A collection of parian ware.

Janus Press: The New Zealand Connection

17 October 2014 - 01 November 2014

Janus Press: The New Zealand Connection focuses on the connections that Janus Press and its founder, artist, illustrator and typographer Claire Van Vliet have with New Zealand.

Am I liminal yet

21 August 2014 - 30 October 2014

Miranda Smitheram is fascinated by textile surfaces and the myriad ways that exist to clothe a body through design and form. Initially from the fashion industry, she became aware of the characteristics of a sector typified by mass-manufacture, mass-consumption and mass-disposal and was prompted to consider alternative possibilities.

Mark Cleverley: Objectspace Master of Craft

23 August 2014 - 11 October 2014

The newest exhibition at Objectspace, Mark Cleverley: Objectspace Master of Craft, seeks to celebrate Cleverley’s 60 year legacy of design, which crosses the fields of architecture, ceramics, furniture, graphic design, textiles and design education.

Bootcamp

07 August 2014 - 26 September 2014

It was a visit in 2012 to Street, a small Somerset (UK) village with a big Shoe Museum that ‘tipped the scales’ for John Perry. Upon returning to New Zealand he started to consolidate shoe, and shoe-related, material collected on an ad hoc basis over the past 40 years.

The Stillness of Movement

21 June 2014 - 19 August 2014

The Stillness of Movement by Kate Fitzharris can be interpreted as a physical representation of a coastal walk she took from her seaside home in Dunedin to the top of a hill and back down again. It also explores what she describes as “the connections between our very earthly nature and our heavenly or spiritual aspirations”.

New Objects

07 August 2014 - 14 August 2014

New Objects will be on exhibition at Objectspace from 8 August with works being offered for sale on 13 August 2014. New Objects is an important opportunity to view and acquire small but powerful works by renowned contemporary makers whose works are held by some of the most prestigious public and private collections in New Zealand and elsewhere.

Object Shift

20 June 2014 - 02 August 2014

For this exhibition, Objectspace delves into the two dimensional world of paintings, photographs and prints made by six contemporary artists: Kushana Bush, Elaine Campaner (Australia), Graham Fletcher, Georgie Hill, Marian Maguire, and Neil Pardington.

The Talisman Project

03 May 2014 - 14 June 2014

The Talisman Project is a collaboration by furniture designer, Roger Kelly and jeweller, Mia Straka. In this interactive exhibition, visitors are encouraged not only to look, but also touch and explore works. According to the makers, the project was born out of a shared belief of the “need to reinvigorate areas of craft/object art and design with a sense of wonder and discovery”.

Wondering about Nature

03 May 2014 - 14 June 2014

A whimsical installation by Yasmin Dubrau that blends a love of paper folding and painting.

Put a Cover on It

17 March 2014 - 26 April 2014

Thirty four years ago I was given a very fine crocheted and beaded jug cover as a wedding present by Mrs Laubscher, a distant relative. It was put away somewhere safe and forgotten.

Three years ago I was visiting my mother and at the back of a kitchen drawer I found a stained old jug cover, sadly neglected. I asked about it and was told that Mrs Laubscher had made it and given it to my mother many years ago. I rescued it and brought it back to Auckland.

Stretched. An installation by Rebecca Asquith

25 March 2014 - 26 April 2014

In this new body of work, Rebecca Asquith explores craft techniques not traditionally associated with furniture making and applies them to a collection of furniture pieces. She's particularly interested in the properties and processes associated with leather, which is traditionally used in furniture as a soft cushioning material. Once boiled in water, however, leather can harden into an incredibly rigid material. Rebecca experiments with this boiling process to manipulate the shapes leather can form, embracing its unpredictable and organic nature.

Best in Show 2014

15 March 2014 - 26 April 2014

From bacteria-inspired wallpaper design, to interactive jewellery, 3D printed shoes, and brightly coloured prints evolving into a fashion collection – the annual graduate exhibition Best in Show is back.

Liminals

01 February 2014 - 22 March 2014

In this body of work, Jess Paraone (Ngāti Kawau, Kaitangata) has formally engaged with risk-taking as part of her practice. By creating ceramic objects that comprise both raku and porcelain clay – she breaks the rules of ceramic studio production. Delighting in pushing her chosen materials to their limit – she explores their qualities of strength and fragility. The element of unpredictability is celebrated as part of her making process and establishes the basis for further investigation.

Precious Cargo

01 February 2014 - 08 March 2014

Tim Wigmore’s Precious Cargo project stems from his research into the historical uses and physical characteristics of our native trees and plants and his exploration of Maori myth and legend. He says “I conceived of the Precious Cargo project as a way to celebrate our fauna which is so much a part of our cultural identity”.

Muslin from Mosul

01 February 2014 - 08 March 2014

Growing up in Iraq collector Enaam Battani recalls that she had an ‘incomprehensible passion’ for old things. She recalls a childhood visit to the remnants of the city of Babylon where she tried to souvenir fragments and her father forbidding her to remove these fragments. This experience kindled her interest in Iraqi antiquities and culture. This passion has travelled with her and is expressed in a number of ways in her life in New Zealand. As a jeweller she works with silver and Bedouin jewellery elements, often reshaping and redesigning broken elements, to create new works that convey the richness of the cultures of Iraq.

Nanette Cameron: Objectspace Master of Craft

18 October 2013 - 17 December 2013

Nanette Cameron: Objectspace Master of Craft is the third exhibition in a series, which celebrates the achievements of outstanding New Zealand practitioners working at the highest level in the fields of craft, design and the applied arts whose practice is distinctive, enduring, influential and redefining of tradition.

Clare Smith: Bitter Harvest

21 November 2013 - 17 December 2013

There has long been concern about exploitation and conditions of those working in the textile industry, but increasingly there is growing unease about its impact on the environment too. Clare Smith is interested in the effects of dye pollution; particularly the relationship between the contamination and commercial imperatives shaped by the Western consumers in the manufacture of cheap goods.

Victoria Bell: Resisting Africa

19 October 2013 - 18 November 2013

Bell’s practice is founded upon a textile sensibility, which draws upon both fine art and craft histories. Resisting Africa is an installation that references elements of the exotic and wilderness of Africa. Animals, relocated indoors and transformed into furnishings within a domestic setting, are simultaneously recognisable and unsettling

Biostructure

23 September 2013 - 16 October 2013

Frances Rood has created two large site-specific works that will be displayed in the tall Objectspace windows.

Sole Desire

27 July 2013 - 21 September 2013

Shoes are hot. Fashion curator Colleen Hill observes that, "Over the past 13 years, designer shoes have replaced “it” bags as the most important accessory—and they have in fact become central to the fashion story. Shoes are also more extreme, extravagant, and extraordinary than ever before."

Hollow Adaption

31 July 2013 - 21 September 2013

“This animated body of work responds to how nature adapts to changes in the environment. The result is my own version of nature, imagined and stitched together – inspired by the rural landscape in which I live, and the ocean shores and rock pools I explored as a child. “

Clarice Cliff: The Art of Bizarre

27 July 2013 - 21 September 2013

Clarice Cliff is recognised as the leading designer of commercial British ceramics of the interwar period. In 1932, a few years after the launch of her Bizarre wares it was said “There is nothing more typical of this age of simplicity in design than Clarice Cliff’s work and it is safe to say that early twentieth century design will be inseparately associated in the minds of collectors of the future with the name of Clarice Cliff.”

Te Mana Motuhake

15 June 2013 - 31 July 2013

Aimee Ratana (Ngāi Tūhoe) has used blankets, over recent years, as a medium to explore the legacy of historical injustices inflicted on Ngāi Tūhoe by the Crown through legislation.

Handshake

15 June 2013 - 20 July 2013

The Handshake exhibition, represents the culmination of the Handshake mentoring project that began in 2011 involving twelve, then emerging, New Zealand-based jewellers.

Bows, Shanks and Blades

15 June 2013 - 20 July 2013

Collector Yvonne Marsh estimates that she possesses about 3000 pairs of scissors. Her collecting has been encouraged by her parents, a husband who collected bladed instruments – knives and swords – and a passion for embroidery, which fuels her other principal collecting interest, the tools and instruments associated with needlework.

Adventures in Vintage Needlecraft

03 May 2013 - 08 June 2013

Adventures in Vintage Needlecraft is presented in Objectspace’s Window Gallery and Vault to coincide with Rosemary McLeod’s appearance at the 2013 Auckland Writers and Readers Festival and the launch of With Bold Needle and Thread: Adventures in Vintage Needlecraft.

Joyaviva

11 May 2013 - 08 June 2013

Objectspace presents a season of contemporary jewellery with two exhibitions that place New Zealand jewellers and their practices on an international stage: Joyaviva curated by Kevin Murray will be first to arrive at Objectspace

Islanders

09 March 2013 - 04 May 2013

Texturally rich and profoundly beautiful, Islanders surveys the work of New Zealand sculptor Jo Torr, who explores cultural exchange through the lens of costume and textile history. Her exquisitely designed and authentically detailed garments, provide an intriguing mode for reflecting on the history and vogues of early European and Polynesian encounters, both in New Zealand and in wider Polynesia.

Under the Rose

01 March 2013 - 27 April 2013

Inspired by T.S.Eliot’s poem Burnt Norton, the installation Under the Rose can be understood as a meditation on the practice of rituals, spirituality, and making art. The hanging bulbs in the garden are cast from resin. Each hand-made form contains roses – both real and artificial.

Best in Show 2013

02 February 2013 - 02 March 2013

Best in Show is Objectspace's annual graduate exhibition showcasing a selection of outstanding work in the fields of Applied Arts and Design. Now in its ninth year, Best in Show 2013 functions as a platform for students launching their careers, while also providing an opportunity for the public to view a range of the latest exciting work to emerge from tertiary organisations.

Bliss

25 January 2013 - 27 February 2013

Bliss alludes to the "three wise monkeys" in the well-known maxim, "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil". Despite the title, it doesn't take long to note that the mood is anything but ecstatic; a degree of unease exists beyond the obvious playfulness apparent in the first glance. The monkeys' aping gestures and blank smiles signal the artist's interest in the psychological state of the human condition - its propensity to opt for superficiality and disinterest.

Blikfang

24 November 2012 - 20 December 2012

Inspired by the notion of blikfang, a Danish word meaning ‘eye-trap', Keith investigates her ongoing enthraldom with objects both old and new, creating installations that include t-shirts, handmade textiles, 20th century art and antiques.

Kirsten Haydon: Ice Mosaic

16 November 2012 - 19 December 2012

A visit to Antarctica was the inspiration behind this elegant body of work. In Ice Mosaic, jeweller Kirsten Haydon explores the history of the vast and frozen continent, as well as the experiences of various visitors to the area through the notion of the souvenir.

The Absolute Object of Desire

24 November 2012 - 19 December 2012

New Yorker columnist Andrea Lee has written "...for the past several years we have been living in a gilded age of handbags: a rococo time of profligacy, opulence, heights of stylistic genius and depths of vulgarity, but, above all, a time of exponential proliferation and vitality. Since the turn of the millennium, the role of the handbag has changed from that of a useful but peripheral accessory to the absolute object of desire."

Kobi Bosshard: Objectspace Masters of Craft

08 September 2012 - 17 November 2012

Objectspace is delighted to present the second Objectspace Masters of Craft exhibition, Kobi Bosshard: Objectspace Master of Craft, curated by Dr Damian Skinner, New Zealand's foremost contemporary jewellery commentator.

Objectspace's Masters of Craft exhibition series celebrates the achievements of outstanding New Zealand practitioners working at the highest level in the fields of craft, design and the applied arts whose practice is distinctive, enduring, influential and redefining of tradition.

Roseanne Bartley: Seeding the Cloud

12 November 2012 - 28 September 2012

Roseanne Bartley's installation "Seeding the Cloud" arises from her ongoing jewellery project "Seeding the Cloud: A walking work in progress" that reconfigures the purpose jewellery plays in our lives. New Zealand born and now Melbourne based artist Bartley poses an alternate vision for engaging with and thinking through sustainability and craft, through the language of jewellery.

Reading Room: Tessa Laird & Peter Lange

03 August 2012 - 26 September 2012

"Reading Room" is an installation of new work by Tessa Laird and Peter Lange. Laird's considerable library of clay books scattered atop and around Lange's brick furniture forms the basis of this site specific installation created for the Objectspace Window Gallery.

Ubiquitous: Aspects of Contemporary Pattern

30 June 2012 - 01 September 2012

"Ubiquitous: Aspects of Contemporary Pattern" is a thematic exhibition exploring contemporary pattern with works made by New Zealand makers and designers within the last 10 years.

In presenting this exhibition, Objectspace seeks to explore the enduring appeal of pattern and pattern-making for contemporary New Zealand makers. "Ubiquitous: Aspects of Contemporary Pattern" presents work by practitioners working across a wide range of media including design, craft, applied arts, sculpture, print-making and photography, demonstrating pattern's contemporary relevance.

Sample of Samplers

30 June 2012 - 18 August 2012

What we recognise as a sampler emerged in sixteenth century England. Samplers at this time were made by wealthy women as reference guides of particular stitches, motifs and border designs at a time when pattern books were rare. Needlework for members of the leisured classes was an essential social accomplishment and for others needlework proficiency was a means of economic survival.

Meliors Simms: Extraction

08 June 2012 - 01 August 2012

Embroidery was traditionally considered to be an essential accomplishment for all ladies: an occupation of model domesticity to while away the interior hours, perhaps working on a trousseau or household linen. Meliors Simms' installation "Extraction" presents a selection of hand stitched works - made reusing old domestic textiles - that do not consider household affairs, but instead are preoccupied with pollution and environmental harm. Simms examines the consequences of our consumption on a global level, working to an interior rather than landscape scale and repurposing familiar domestic materials salvaged from domestic discards or secondhand shops.

7UP Talkfest

18 June 2012 - 23 June 2012

7UP is a free talkfest for all with a stake in New Zealand's craft sector. It is a unique opportunity for makers, designers, students, teachers, collectors and organisations to learn about sector successes, stories and changes. 7UP includes evening talks and installations and concludes with sector leaders assessing our field, its wider environment and future. 7UP marks the completion of over seven years of programmed activity at Objectspace.

The Crystal Chain Gang: Fancy Fools Flight

28 April 2012 - 09 June 2012

"Fancy Fools Flight" is a new body of work by Martinborough-based glass artists Jim Dennison and Leanne Williams who since 2004 have worked collaboratively as the Crystal Chain Gang. Together the pair have pushed the boundaries of the medium, utilising cast glass to create innovative work that traverses the territories of art, craft, design and industry. Curated and toured nationally by the Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui, "Fancy Fools Flight" features an impressive new body of work which challenges the possibilities of the medium of cast glass.

Kapiti Ceramics: The Brian Wood Collection

11 May 2012 - 09 June 2012

"The driver when I started collecting ceramics was my relationship with the potters... As my collection grew it began to include works by makers I didn't know. After shifting cities and countries a few times I have honed my collection down to those works I could not bear to part with, and as it happens, these are the Kapiti works that I first collected. The reason I can't part with these pots is due to my connections with their makers." - Brian Wood

Jill Studd: Unembedded

20 April 2012 - 06 June 2012

Jill Studd's evocation of some of the most challenging contemporary global issues presented through the domestic medium of knitting wool is charged by a particular appreciation for the prosaic. This installation of evocatively titled "knittings" - Unembedded, Green Cuisine and the Proletarian Plates - eschews any of the domestic vestiges that might be associated with knitting or wool, rather occupying the realm of political or protest art.

The Lives of Linen

17 March 2012 - 09 May 2012

An early twentieth century guide regarding household linen advises: "Every housekeeper delights in a goodly supply of household linen....it is a true economy to buy an adequate supply of linen at one time, for by this method every article will last much longer....An ordinary outfit that will give good satisfaction is one dozen table cloths, six dozen napkins...several tea cloths and sufficient centrepieces, sideboard covers, scarves, doilies...to give sufficient change when some items are in the laundry."

Best in Show 2012

17 March 2012 - 21 April 2012

Best in Show is an important ongoing Objectspace project that showcases outstanding new applied arts graduates from tertiary institutions around New Zealand. Best in Show 2012 is the eighth exhibition in this series, and features 18 emerging practitioners on the cusp of exciting creative careers. Areas of practice in Best in Show 2012 include graphic design, ceramics, product design, textiles, video art, contemporary jewellery and furniture.

Talente: One Year On

09 March 2012 - 18 April 2012

Objectspace is delighted to present "Talente: One Year On" - an exciting installation to be held in the Objectspace Window Gallery. It will showcase the new work of 2011 Talente exhibitors Rachel Bell, Corrina Hoseason, Sam Kelly, Flora Sekanova and Anzac Tasker. These five makers and designers were selected to represent New Zealand at Talente in Germany in 2011.

Manon van Kouswijk, Fabrizio Tridenti and Ted Noten

07 February 2012 - 10 March 2012

Objectspace is delighted to present two engaging installations by three internationally renowned jewellers Manon van Kouswijk, Fabrizio Tridenti and Ted Noten, timed to coincide with JEMposium.

Caroline Earley: Domestic Disturbance

27 January 2012 - 07 March 2012

Domestic Disturbance is a ceramics installation by former Nelson, and now United States, based artist Caroline Earley. It is a response, in part, to Earley's return to the United States after sixteen years in New Zealand.

Sherril Jennings: Ladies a Plate

05 November 2011 - 24 January 2012

Sherril Jennings' "Ladies a Plate" installation combines seemingly incongruent fragments from the past and integrates them into the present. Through the repurposing of remnants which provide the primary material for "Ladies a Plate", disparate parts have been unified, creating an assemblage of women reflecting past generations.

Nimamea'a: The fine arts of Tongan embroidery and crochet

19 November 2011 - 22 December 2011

Objectspace is delighted to present "Nimamea'a: The fine arts of Tongan embroidery and crochet" - our first major project focused on making from the Pacific.

The Glenn Jowitt Collection

25 November 2011 - 22 December 2011

Auckland photographer Glen Jowitt is internationally renowned for his images of Pacifica peoples, their culture and lives. In the course of his work he has made over 20 visits to Pacific Islands in the last 30 years and he is closely linked to New Zealand Pacific communities. It is not surprising that he has a collection of handmade works from the Pacific, mainly hats, fans and placemats, which are displayed in the living room of his house and which bear silent witness to this sustained professional practice.

Karl Fritsch: Rings Without End

04 November 2011 - 23 November 2011

"There is always a reason to make a ring.

But I can also make a ring without a reason."

Karl Fritsch has been primarily making rings since 1992, apart from an occasional other piece of jewellery in between. He works on dozens of rings simultaneously, moving between them, starting a new ring whenever a fresh idea appears. Fritsch likes the format, the ability to try a ring on and see it immediately as he is working on it. "It's made with your hands and worn on your hands," he says. "It's so close to how it's produced."

Type Specimens: A Berlin Miscellany

08 October 2011 - 21 November 2011

In February 2010 New Zealand graphic designer Tana Mitchell, then resident in Berlin, discovered an expansive collection of letterpress type in the basement of the Druckwerkstatt im Kulturwerk des BBK. Dusty, neglected and mostly unused, the BBK letterpress type collection consists of a vast and incomprehensible collection of metal and wooden letterpress type. Often unlabeled and incomplete, the collection comprised various fonts, from 6point and up, with a range of decorative & display typefaces. The Druckwerkstatt im Kulturwerk des BBK has a fully functioning printing press and with this Mitchell began printing, accounting for and making sense of the collection, with her own somewhat arbitrary methodology. Likening her activity to that of an entomologist in the field, the BBK typographic collection became the habitat from which Mitchell gathered her specimens.

Ann Verdcourt: Still Lives 1980 - 2007

08 October 2011 - 05 November 2011

Ann Verdcourt is one of New Zealand's most innovative and dedicated ceramic artists. This exhibition at Objectspace considers three decades of Verdcourt's career through her still life works, an enduring theme from which she continues to draw lively inspiration.

Kennedy Brown: Pacific Allsorts

23 September 2011 - 02 November 2011

The three pieces of furniture in Kennedy Brown's Pacific Allsorts installation continue his exploration of the relationship between the traditional and modern in New Zealand furniture design. This most recent investigation, created for Objectspace, focuses on the blending of traditional Pacific construction methods with contemporary furniture design.

Lugosi's Children

27 August 2011 - 01 October 2011

"Listen to them. Children of the night! What music they make!"

Few can forget Bela Lugosi in his famous role as the blood-sucking Count in Tod Browning's 1931 cult classic Dracula, delivering these immortal lines of dialogue in his sonorous Hungarian accent as a pack of wolves howls outside in the darkness.

The idea of Lugosi's offspring, his children of the night, and the music that they might make, is the concept that underpins the thematic group exhibition Lugosi's Children at Objectspace.

Jasmine Watson: Subsequence

22 August 2011 - 21 September 2011

The enamel brooches and objects by Jasmine Watson in the exhibition Subsequence relate to her ongoing interest in pattern and symmetry. Watson states, "My work is inspired by ornamental patterns and complex detail based on mathematical principles. I am interested in geometry and tessellations; interlocking shapes that can assemble into elaborate ornamental sequences, repeating to infinity."

Hannah Bremner: Wunderkammer

09 July 2011 - 06 August 2011

The Wunderkammer, or cabinet of curiosities popularised in Renaissance Europe, was a place for extraordinary natural and manmade objects whose categorical boundaries were yet to be defined. As a precursor to the modern museum, which gave form to accepted taxonomies of natural and manmade things, the Wunderkammer was viewed as a microcosm or theatre of the world.

Utilising Objectspace's Window Gallery to create a present-day Wunderkammer, Hannah Bremner presents her curiosities in this public setting. Rather than being displayed in a private cabinet for the viewing pleasure of a privileged few, Bremner stages her work in full view of a busy pedestrian thoroughfare.

Yunomi and Choko: the art of the everyday

09 July 2011 - 06 August 2011

Yunomi (tea beaker) and choko (sake cup) are everyday Japanese ceramic drinking vessels designed specifically for the consumption of green tea and sake. Yunomi are tea vessels usually made from ceramic material, being taller than they are wide, with a trimmed or turned foot different from the formal chawan, or tea bowl which is used in the Japanese tea ceremony. Like the yunomi, the choko, or sometimes ochoko, is a ceramic vessel used for the informal drinking of sake.

Eye Catch: Jewellery and Photography

11 June 2011 - 06 August 2011

The relationship between photography and art is now a committed one; in fact, it is arguable whether art can exist without it. Like European Old Masters artworks some jewels are only ever seen by a handful of people. And so the photographic representation itself becomes a known and sometimes desired object and eventually part of jewellery's discourse. Eye Catch is Objectspace's first photographic exhibition. The categories in which the photographs are grouped are porous, their borders open: jewellery in portraiture; as prop; as product line; as self portrait; as emblem; in fiction; as artefact; in the news; and in time and place. Eye Catch is not a definitive collection of jewellery in New Zealand photographs; it "contains what Cook and Freeman caught after trawling, albeit with the gimlet eyes of jewellery practitioners" says writer Frances Walsh who interviewed the curators about their selection.

Blue Willow

14 May 2011 - 08 July 2011

Blue Willow is very likely the world's most popular dinnerware pattern as it has been in production since the late eighteenth century. Although inspired by Chinese ceramics the Blue Willow pattern was developed by British commercial potteries to meet the huge demand for Chinese style wares. The story of the young lovers who are transformed into doves was created to specifically promote the pattern. Since then Blue Willow, in all its variations, has continued to enchant Westerners. This installation, from the collection of Susan Andrew features tableware that explores variation in terms age, colour and pattern together with commercially and hand produced table linen, such as embroidered doilies, tray cloths and tea cosies both, which feature elements of and co-ordinate with Blue Willow.

Lynn Kelly: Souvenirs

11 June 2011 - 07 July 2011

A memento or token of remembrance, perhaps of a person, place or event; souvenirs are originally a fragment of context, but over time become emblemic of this context. Lynn Kelly gathers and combines objects from past and present, acknowledging a diversity of influences within her jewellery practice.

Inspired by New Zealand plants and historical botanical drawings, with the assistance of Creative New Zealand Lynn Kelly travelled to London's Natural History Museum in 2008 to view and examine plant specimens collected by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander in 1769, during the first scientific investigation of New Zealand's natural history. While there, Lynn Kelly also researched British nineteenth century metal objects and jewellery at the Victoria and Albert Museum. This time in London was significant in influencing the recent direction of her practice. "My new body of work views historical New Zealand - in particular colonial influences - through a contemporary lens," Lynn Kelly states.

Colonial Goose

06 May 2011 - 08 June 2011

The idea of making do with what's available is a fitting analogy for Pauline Bern's jewellery practice. Bern has always utilised locally sourced materials that are connected to her in some way and worked to transform them into something new. In this instance, a selection of plants from her Devonport garden provided the primary material. 'I want the works to elicit curiosity, intrigue, surprise, humour and perhaps nostalgia,' Bern says. 'I am not attempting to emulate botanical forms, rather to appropriate the extraordinary, unexpected, and often un-noticed details in nature, into a contemporary jewellery context.'

Why Milan? New Zealand designers reflect

14 May 2011 - 04 June 2011

Why Milan? New Zealand designers reflect is a collaborative exhibition project and magazine feature presented by Objectspace and Urbis magazine. The exhibition showcases seven outstanding contemporary New Zealand designers; Phil Cuttance, David Trubridge, Well-Groomed-Fox, Rod Fry, Simon James, Designtree, and Punga and Smith. These designers based both locally and overseas, have utilised the prestigious Milan design week - arguably the biggest design fair in the world - to showcase their work to an international audience.

Richard Parker: Master of Craft

05 March 2011 - 07 May 2011

This exhibition surveys the career and practice of Richard Parker, a defining figure within NZ ceramics, whose singular vision has sustained his career for over 30 years and produced works that are uniquely recognisable. The exhibition and 120 page book features works loaned from leading public and private collections around New Zealand. The curator, Richard Fahey, says "Parker had his own picture of what a pot should look like", and that although Parker's practice is grounded within the traditions of studio ceramics, "as an artist, his innovative approach seeks to redefine for us new ways we may understand the decorative object."

Talk

01 April 2011 - 04 May 2011

Deborah Crowe has long been fascinated with textiles and embroidery. Once a practice that involved embroiderers spending untold hours hunched over doing 'fancywork', embroidery has of course entered the twenty first century. As an artist, Crowe has something interesting to say about these two fields and over the last few years has created hundreds of witty, observational works that showcase her obsession with textile samplers in combination with machine embroidery.

Structure: Life

01 March 2011 - 30 March 2011

In this installation, Wellington based object maker and contemporary jeweller, Vaune Mason, elevates the remnants of non-human lives. She says that a tendency to focus on minute things has led her to imagine "a whole world of memories untold in the lost lives of common insects, birds and animals." The viewer is encouraged to see these constructions as Mason does; not as macabre constructions, but as testament to the innumerable, yet precious, untold lives of small animals everywhere.

The Art of Engagement

29 January 2011 - 27 February 2011

'Touch, Pause, Engage' was originally intended to offer the Australian community a glimpse into the Contemporary Jewellery scene in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and to reset the trans-Tasman rivalry between our rugby-loving brothers and sisters. Known primarily as the call the referee shouts before two rugby teams lock into a scrum, 'Touch, Pause, Engage', re-presented at Objectspace as 'The Art of Engagement', has now become an invitation for artists to converse through jewellery, as well as a call to audiences to interact with the work in both its physical and conceptual manifestations.

Pop Up!

29 January 2011 - 24 February 2011

While the term 'pop-up' books is widely used, the more correct term is actually 'movable book'. This covers any book with moveable parts and includes; pop-ups, pop-outs, transformations, tunnel books, volvelles, laps, pull-tabs and pull-downs. The collector behind this installation acquires books for pleasure and reference. The pleasure she obtains from her pop-up books derives, in part, from the pleasure that they provide for others, especially children, although not all pop-up books are designed for children.

Best in Show 2011

29 January 2011 - 24 February 2011

The Best in Show exhibition series is an annual fixture in the Objectspace calendar. Inaugurated in 2005, the aim is to showcase Objectspace's selection of talented emerging applied arts graduates from tertiary institutions around New Zealand. Areas of practice covered in 2011 by these 'diamonds in the rough' include graphic design, digital design, textiles, ceramics, contemporary jewellery and furniture.

Night Cities

17 December 2010 - 26 January 2011

In comparison with the daytime, the city at night entails dramatic changes in visibility, movement, rhythm, activity, inhabitation and light. Yet our 'night cities' are rarely considered as a topic of architectural investigation. The Night City studio project, run in the first year of the Master of Architecture (Professional) degree this year at Unitec, offered twelve students an opportunity to approach architectural design through research into lighting conditions found on their chosen site. Students focused on Karangahape Road, as its environs support a unique, active nightlife and contain a variety of urban morphologies and lighting conditions.

The Museum of True History: recent acquisitions

06 November 2010 - 18 December 2010

Modelled on, but very different from, the highly prestigious Museum of Jurassic Technology, in Los Angeles, California, the Museum of True History - known affectionately as 'MOTH' by collection enthusiasts and museum professionals alike - is a humble, but by no means diminutive example, of five centuries of collecting traditions. It is not the first institution of its kind to inhabit the sometimes obtuse eclecticism of the private collection. The Museum of True History however does negotiate the relatively unbroken ground of the antipodean lifestyle in all of its normalised, contradictory and highly inoffensive splendour.

One Brown Box: A Storybook Exhibition for Children

06 November 2010 - 18 December 2010

In this exhibition, designed primarily for children, Bronwyn Lloyd and Karl Chitham treat the humble brown box as a plain structure with unlimited imaginative potential while at the same time bringing together two of their primary enthusiasms: making up stories and making objects from paper and cardboard. One Brown Box is made up of adaptations of five classic children's stories including The Princess and the Pea, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, and Hansel and Gretel, each told from the perspective of overlooked, minor and absent characters from the original tales, illustrated with large and small models made entirely from boxes and paper.

Lisa Walker

06 November 2010 - 15 December 2010

This installation presents a selection of recent neck pieces by Lisa Walker, each of which utilises a range of materials from New Zealand collected by Walker when she returned home from Munich last December after 14 years abroad. The construction of the neck pieces resembles that of contemporary Polynesian lei, where the designs frequently draw upon found materials, both natural and manufactured, in bright colours and textures. Walker's works also refer to developments in contemporary international jewellery as well as to the 'Bone Stone Shell' jewellery movement that emerged in New Zealand in the 1980's.

Shore Party

01 October 2010 - 03 November 2010

Philippa Durkin's ceramic works featured in 'Shore Party' pay homage to the early Antarctic explorers. She writes, "there is an ever growing interest and canonization of anything and anybody connected to Antarctica. The continent looms large in the New Zealand psyche. After spending seven months conserving the heroic huts of Shackleton and Scott, I have an intimate connection with the objects."

Imitation on Paper - nineteenth century wallpaper in New Zealand

04 September 2010 - 30 October 2010

European settlement in New Zealand happened at the same time as enormous advances in the wallpaper industry enabled it to be produced in quantities never before imagined. Wallpaper fashion reflected the convention that each room within a house should be decorated differently and in a style and colour which reflected its use: it was only walls in service spaces that were not papered. Wallpaper enabled many to enjoy the latest decorative styles cheaply and quickly in response to changing fashion and taste.

Talking to Me: collecting and making

18 September 2010 - 30 October 2010

The domains of makers and designers Vita Cochran, Andrea Daly, Warwick Freeman, Simon Gamble, Genevieve Packer, Emily Siddell and Richard Stratton are the locations of diverse accumulations of collected objects in addition to works from their own practices. The collections of these designers and makers are in some cases diverse, but despite the expansiveness of some of the collections there is a focus to them. Each of these collections in some way inform and resource the production of their owners. 'Talking to Me' has discovered that makers' collecting and collections are closely inter-related to their making practice, providing a new and revealing lens for better understanding that practice and, in some cases, the conception and development of individual works.

Drapes for Real Men

03 September 2010 - 29 September 2010

Drapes for Real Men references the traditions of textile and its functional and domestic associations, utilising printing to embellish the textile surface. The resulting textiles celebrate the handmade product but with an agenda, the content undermining the traditional expectations of what is pattern and the adornment of a domestic retreat. In this case every real man's home is his bunker.

Manawa wera - Defiant Chants: weaving meaning within contemporary practice

07 August 2010 - 11 September 2010

Sing - recite - repeat - inform - reiterate - impart - provoke - react - respond. All of these kupu (words) illuminate the concept of chants or waiata and express the ways in which oral traditions can communicate deeper insight and meaning to events, people and relationships. Whether motivated by political struggle or individual desire and ambition, the narrative message found within chants has the power to elevate and emancipate agendas and positions. This practice is applied here to describe the pairing of contemporary Maori weavers Ngaahina Hohaia and Karl Rangikawhiti Leonard.

Okoshi-ezu: Unfolding the New Japanese Architecture

06 August 2010 - 01 September 2010

This exhibition employs the ancient okoshi-ezu technique to represent certain streams of development in contemporary Japanese architecture. A number of contemporary architects are producing projects in which the realised buildings resemble okoshi-ezu models. As these architects have sought to reintegrate the elements of structure, spatial division, and envelope that modernist dogma separated, they have created architecture that is highly conducive to being modelled - and understood - using the thin, surface-oriented okoshi-ezu technique.

Domestic Splendor

03 July 2010 - 28 August 2010

The development of pressed glass technology revolutionised domestic interiors in the mid nineteenth century, as glassware, for the first time, could be produced at a cost that made it available to many. Up until that time glassware had been the preserve of the rich. Glass collector Margaret Oldham was an early collector of contemporary New Zealand studio glassware but in the early 1990s switched her focus to Victorian and Edwardian pressed glass tableware and has assembled a collection of over 500 pieces. Pressed glass was, until recently, a field largely unperturbed by collectors and has only just become considered as interesting as cut and engraved glass. Beyond her long standing affinity with glass Margaret Oldham she says she likes pressed glass for the reason that "it was for everyday usage "and because "these are products of stupendous craftsmanship on the part of the mould makers".

Mathew McConnell: Chapter Three: Sleights of Hand

09 July 2010 - 04 August 2010

Encountering Mathew McConnell's installation Chapter Three: Sleights of Hand, it is hard not to feel that there's a whole lot of winking and nudging going down and not all of it is in the best of taste. Concepts explored by McConnell include displacement and transformation. These ideas, filtered through McConnell's peculiar meditations on 'thingness' and 'objecthood' remind one that his type of approach hasn't had a lot of airtime in the context of local craft practice.

Metadecorative: New work by Mary Curtis

03 July 2010 - 31 July 2010

"Metadecorative', the word Curtis solders together to title this exhibition, points to her work as decoration about decoration, as decoration that investigates the intricacies of decoration's histories, languages and forms to produce new forms of decoration. For Curtis, these investigations have her exploring European museum collections, trawling library shelves, reading historical and contemporary writings on decorative arts and practices and sifting through the contents of second hand stores. While the research activities are diverse and the garnered treasures eclectic, the work at the bench is precise. It seeks to produce jewellery pieces that have the feel of the present through the quotation of remembered shapes, textures and patterns.

Simon Gamble: Piix

10 June 2010 - 07 July 2010

Piix is a new series of conceptual furniture objects by Simon Gamble, who considers digitally controlled cutting machinery as holding "dormant potential for crafting unique objects." He observes that digitally controlled cutting is becoming more and more commonplace in manufacture and that its use "allows for outputs from the virtual to the physical world." Employing an innovative creative approach that differs radically from the mundane tasks these machines are typically used for, Piix unlocks the latent potential for crafting bespoke objects using CNC (computer numerically controlled) milling.

Meccano Man: Laconic Constructions

27 March 2010 - 26 June 2010

John Lyall has had a lifelong obsession with Meccaco. Working on a rug design project for Dilana Rugs several years ago, Lyall decided to work with his beloved Meccano, creating "seven different Meccano rugs as a recapitulation of one of the most famous products of Liverpool."

Quotidian: finding inspiration in everyday design

15 May 2010 - 26 June 2010

This exhibition posits that the quotidian (def: everyday, commonplace) is a useful lens for understanding aspects of contemporary design practice ranging from fashion, furniture, graphic, product to spatial design. Specifically it demonstrates how the quotidian is a resource for contemporary designers and the participating designers in particular; Alt Group, Nat Cheshire, Formway Design, Adrian Hailwood, Peter Haythornthwaite, Guy Hohmann, Jamie McLellan, Jonty Valentine, Matthew von Sturmer, Katy Wallace, and Cybele Wiren.

Humming on a windless slope

06 May 2010 - 09 June 2010

Lauren Winstone regards her recent work as deliberately akin to drawings or preliminary tests. In keeping with what minimal artists of the 1960s referred to as 'Literal' objects, bringing this concept to craft practice and treating the pot as a primary form to be explored for its "object-ness", Winstone describes her process in this series of work as an attempt "to present an object as a perceptual problem in the viewing encounter."

Best In Show 2010

27 March 2010 - 08 May 2010

Now in its sixth year, Objectspace's annual graduate exhibition continues to present outstanding graduates from New Zealand tertiary institutions in the fields of Applied Arts and Design. Providing a valuable snapshot of the trends and issues in contemporary creative practice, Best in Show 2010 showcases seventeen newly emerged voices in contemporary Jewellery, Fashion, Textile, Object, Furniture, Ceramics, and Graphic Design.

Dip

26 March 2010 - 05 May 2010

Vessels are not ordinary functional objects in Cheryl Lucas's ceramic practice. For her they are conceptual 'containers' through which she comments on topical subjects such as the depletion of the land by pests and our throw-away consumer culture.

Transmogrifier

22 January 2010 - 23 March 2010

Katy Wallace observes that "New Zealand is saturated with discarded furniture located in demo yards, house-lot auctions, traders, and on the side of the road. I have always considered this low status material as a significant waste, and as a 'fuel' in waiting to be worked into a new entity." Transmogrifier showcases the beginning of a new body of work in which Wallace treats this 'fuel' to her unique and successful design process.

Auckland Studio Potters Collection

28 January 2010 - 20 March 2010

The collection of the Auckland Studio Potters is a working resource for the organisation and it members which largely features works made by visiting local and international tutors. These are works produced at short workshops where works have been progressed to stage where they can be bisque fired. In this selection are works made by some of the Fletcher Challenge Ceramics Awards judges who conducted workshops when they were in Auckland. The installation features works by Jeff Mincham, Ron Nagle, Akio Takamori, Takeshi Yasuda and Torbjorn Kvasbo.

Fletcher Challenge Ceramics Award: a cultural enquiry

28 January 2010 - 20 March 2010

The Fletcher Challenge Ceramics Award (1977-1998) was for many years, New Zealand's most enduring art award, certainly the most internationalist award operating in the visual arts and one of the most generously sponsored. This exhibition displays, for the first time the winning pots as a group. This project, curated by Grant Thompson, considers the core cultural co-ordinates of this event; the position of ceramics in the culture and in the mind of the public, the value and nature of collections, internationalism, sponsorship and the relationship between flagship events and contemporary practice. All of these themes are still highly relevant issues within the contemporary visual arts.

Leonor Hipolito: Apparatus

16 December 2009 - 21 January 2010

An Objectspace summer window installation by Portugese jeweller Leonor Hipolito, Apparatus comprises a range of works reproduced after medical tools and fashioned out of tree trunks and branches. Delicately hand made, allowing the wood grain and shape to subtly influence the final form, these 'tools' serve as reminders of our relationship to the natural world.

Jamie McLellan

18 November 2009 - 19 December 2009

Designer Jamie McLellan says "over the years I have learned to live with and celebrate my inner engineer. More and more I am finding the beauty of an object lies in its engineering, how it's put together. I find both a purity in exposing this and at the same time a higher a level of detail being possible without the need for anything superflous." McLellan's abilities were recognized in the early 2000's with several outstanding projects for the UK based design firm, Tom Dixon. McLellan has since moved back to New Zealand, setting up and developing an independent design studio with an international clientele. This installation surveys a range of products that McLellan says "exhibit many of the qualities I try to infuse in anything I design, from a bicycle to a piece of furniture."

To Have And To Hold: Making Collections

23 September 2009 - 19 December 2009

Reveals the hand of private collectors, what and why they collect the objects they own. The exhibition features selections of works from 18 collections; cars and contraceptives, tools and jewels, toys and tiki, handkerchiefs and designer sunglasses. The motivations of the collectors are as diverse as the objects they collect and range from motives including devotion and fashionability, saviour and sentiment, patronage and philanthropy, amusement and reference. Contending that collectors deserve to be acknowledged as more than just object consumers, Curator Philip Clarke notes that these 18 collectors demonstrate that "collecting is a cultural practice that enlarges and enriches public life."

Latticework Vases

05 November 2009 - 15 December 2009

Deborah Dell is intrigued by the history of ceramics. The relationship that familiar forms have within the discourse of ceramics has long held her attention, in particular the vase. She observes that "vases have always existed as functional objects, as well as existed in the decorative and the contemplative realm. My interest in the vase is how all of these subjects converge."

Overheard Conversation

23 September 2009 - 14 November 2009

An abiding interest in topiary (hedge and shrub sculpture) is one distinguishing feature of American ceramic sculptor Scott Chamberlin's artistic practice. Like a witness to an 'overheard conversation' - the conversation being New Zealand's Diaspora of recently immigrated peoples and our relation to the landscape - the new works that have resulted bear traces of his present inspiration but they also lean on his experiences as both sculptor and topiarist.

Gilded Blessing

17 September 2009 - 04 November 2009

Employing differing art forms, Gilded Blessing (the cello is a Chinese 'Blessing' brand) is a collaborative audiovisual installation between gilder Sarah Guppy and composer Eve de Castro-Robinson. Both were attracted to the idea of exploring the musical instrument as a metaphor and a conduit for traditional artisan skill and contemporary sound practice. Gilded Blessing has been configured so that while near the cello, the viewer taking in the sensuous gold gilded form simultaneously informs a proximity monitoring camera. In some sense the viewer is able to 'play' the cello in the act of moving around but not actually touching it.

I Came Back As Someone Else

23 July 2009 - 16 September 2009

As endless streams of fashion advertisements, globalized brands and chain stores attest, the enormous variety of social functions involving garments are easy to overlook. Through dress and fashion we perform many roles but among the most important are to project confidence whilst protecting insecurities, physical or otherwise. Kirsty Lillico's textile-based sculptures address this duality and also act on a deeper level, as prompters, reminding the viewer of garments additional abilities to either bottle-up or externalize our perceived individuality.

Tea Bowls From A Non Tea Drinker

25 July 2009 - 12 September 2009

Potter Lex Dawson was drawn to the rituals of Japanese and Islamic tea drinking, and their accoutrements, through accounts of them by American poets and writers. It was his interest in these rituals that prompted him to take up pottery night classes in the 1970s. Since then he has been making ceramics and has formed his own collection of tea bowls and related objects. This installation features tea bowls and related dishes made by Dawson and other potters. The second part of the installation is a homage to a Kiwi tea ritual - the smoko - made by Dawson.

Printing Types: New Zealand Type Design since 1870

25 July 2009 - 12 September 2009

The word 'Designer' is a loaded term which for most of the population inspires visions of glamorous personalities, high fashion and covetable objects. Let's face it, the glossy and multifaceted world of design has held us enthralled for decades. Within the varied sub-industries of design however, there are numerous career pathways that garner relatively little public acclaim, despite occupying important roles within contemporary society. Type design is one of these roads less travelled and 'Printing Types: New Zealand Type Design Since 1870' is a new exhibition which directly addresses this important field.

Aerial Antics

04 June 2009 - 22 July 2009

Aerial Antics is a pattern designed in response to the ongoing, predominantly static portrayal of the pied fantail (piwakawaka) in souvenirs and products, directed at both New Zealanders and foreigners. It is also a response to a personal experience that contradicts this common portrayal, and sets out to create a souvenir that acts as a substitute for the experience. The fantail, depicted perched on a branch at a 45 degree angle with tail splayed, has featured on postage stamps, the now obsolete NZ$1 note, local album covers, artists' works and an abundance of souvenirs. It even adorns all of Upper Hutt City's street signs.

Fancywork: Beaded Bags

02 May 2009 - 18 July 2009

In an age when leisure was a large aspect of some women's lives the making of 'fancy work' was widespread. Within this category the making of beaded bags was one of the most ambitious of undertakings. Collector Paul Orsman acquired his first beaded bag in 1974 and at its largest his collection was around 300 items. This selection from his collection features bags from two distinct eras, the Victorian era and the Art Deco period. Bags from the latter group are characterised by the bold colours popularised by the Ballet Russe and the use of Bakelite frames and handles. The value of these bags, for their collector, lies in the aesthetic pleasure they provide together with the deep pleasure of having saved these 'outmoded' but costly pieces of 'fancy work'.

2nd May 2009 - 18th July 2009

In from the Garden

06 June 2009 - 18 July 2009

Twentieth century German conceptual artist Joseph Beuys famously proclaimed "every man is an artist" and it seems that we have built upon this notion to include craft. It is perhaps easy to utilise statements like this as truths, yet for artists engaged with craft practice, this type of belief does not accommodate the important idea of skill. In from the Garden showcases the practices of four establishing contemporary artists with feet firmly in the skilled terrain of craft practice.

Sugar Mountain

23 April 2009 - 03 June 2009

Although these are new pieces of jewellery in Anna Wallis's catalogue of works they seem familiar, not in a seen-this-before kind of way, but in a same-but-different kind of way; a bit like climbing a mountain I guess. You're moving along, one step after another, watching where you're going, paying attention to what is immediately in front of you and then you pause, look up and out and things are not quite as they were, you have arrived somewhere you weren't before. You are still on the mountain and still with some distance to climb, but you are definitely somewhere new, somewhere you weren't before.

New Threads: Contemporary Male Weaving

18 April 2009 - 30 May 2009

New Threads showcases a selection of male New Zealand weavers and aims to dispel long held misunderstandings about the role men have played in the history of weaving. Although the makers in New Threads reference techniques and materials from the raranga traditions of Maori, not all the makers are Maori. Irrespective of their background their works demonstrate a contemporary and dynamic balance between the conventions of the indigenous peoples of New Zealand and ideas and materials from further afield.

Sashimono: Japanese Fine Boxes

18 April 2009 - 29 April 2009

Sashimono is an installation of contemporary fine wooden boxes by highly esteemed Japanese craftsman Suda Kenji. Sashimono is the Japanese word for the traditional woodworking techniques employed to create boxes and furniture and it also refers to the objects that are created. Suda Kenji says "The space within the box is a source of mystery, a box is capable of shutting off a section of space, and so to open the lid is to gaze into the world. I find myself fascinated by this concept of the box and produce many myself. While I give due consideration to the function of boxes as containers, that is not my only consideration when making them; I also focus on decoration, appearance and texture."

Autopoios

19 March 2009 - 22 April 2009

Applying the transdisciplinary study of systems theory to her art practice, Caroline Earley has recently been exploring the idea of "a closed, dysfunctional system using vessels reminiscent of scientific glass forms and their appendages." Earley describes these works as "reminiscent, but not quite like, common pottery forms."

Ice Terrane

27 February 2009 - 09 April 2009

A captivating and significant exhibition of works by contemporary jeweller Kirsten Haydon, Ice Terrane is inspired by the untamed Antarctic landscape and the history it has engendered in New Zealanders' hearts and minds. Haydon has been making work about Antarctica since 2005, when she was New Zealand Antarctic Arts Fellow and travelled to the continent.

2D/3D

12 February 2009 - 18 March 2009

This window installation embodies a form of duality, in both a literal and a critical sense. Kate Barton studied first as a contemporary jeweller before following this up shortly after with studies in animation. Barton manages to extrapolate one into the other, despite the sometimes restrictive specificity and material concerns of these different practices.

Selections from a collection of small British ceramics

24 January 2009 - 21 February 2009

The selection of British ceramics displayed here was collected by Fiona Thompson mostly during the 1980's and complements a larger New Zealand collection. It's challenging to understand the cultural isolation that prevailed here as recently as twenty years ago. Despite popular enthusiasm, local knowledge of international crafts was limited; this showed in the work of local potters who, with notable exceptions, seemed stuck in an Anglo-Oriental time warp. Fiona's collection was formed against this tendency and on a shoestring budget, with pieces more often than not acquired from the makers themselves. Their size reflected a need for portability with a prime consideration being what could be carried without causing the airport scales to trip into excess.

Best In Show 2009

24 January 2009 - 21 February 2009

Best In Show 2009 was Objectspace's fifth annual exhibition in a series which showcases a handpicked selection of outstanding craft and design graduates. The Best In Show format has proven itself to be an important event within the New Zealand craft and design exhibition calendar and Objectspace is proud to have represented a range of new voices over the last five editions of Best In Show. The fourteen exhibitors in the 2009 edition encompassed the exciting and varied terrain of spatial, graphic and textile design along with ceramics, jewellery and object art installation.

Exotic Blend

17 December 2008 - 11 February 2009

A reflection upon cross cultural heritage, Jacqui Chan's Exotic Blend signifies her desire, as a contemporary jeweller, to embody the particular form of chinoiserie endemic to her New Zealand upbringing. With this body of work Chan was drawn to tea tins for the symbolism they engender. The exotic imagery depicted in tea tins is, she observes, equally distant from modern China as it is from England. Cut up, pierced, folded and tricked into wearable brooch forms, the tea tin is reclaimed by the artist.

Tekoteko

15 November 2008 - 20 December 2008

This collection of Tekoteko - an ancestor figure which is found in either freestanding form or attached to the gable of a whare (house) features works in a variety of media made principally for the tourist market dating back to the early twentieth century. This collection belongs to distinguished curator, collector and writer Mick Pendergrast.

No Rules: Rediscovering Embroidery

15 November 2008 - 20 December 2008

Uncovering a range of embroiderers' work that challenges many preconceptions about stitch 'No Rules: Rediscovering Embroidery' gathers a selection of 18 makers who have broken free of convention, or redirected it in unexpected ways. These makers have uncovered eloquent personal directions, their common link the inevitability of stitch as their medium of choice. Such exploration is re-discovering the world of stitch, reclaiming it, and opening it to new possibilities.

Digital Craft

14 November 2008 - 16 December 2008

In this installation Danelle Briscoe has employed digital fabrication to explore the physical construction of unusual architectural forms. It is a process she refers to as "crafting the atypical" in architecture. Briscoe uses stereo-lithography, a method and apparatus for making solid objects by successively "printing" thin layers of ultraviolet resin one on top of the other, to produce an undulating, double-curvature wall-like piece.

Fold

11 October 2008 - 08 November 2008

In this window installation, Ainsley O'Connell explores the creative potential of paper folding. The sculptural and architectural possibilities in O'Connell's four year investigation into simple folded objects rendered as cast glass are successfully realized. The artist engages with "the transformation of the mundane flat sheet, through the craft-based fold, to emerge as a sculptural art object, seeking to explore how folding can be used to design architectural forms."

Basalt Ware and Georgian Glass

11 October 2008 - 08 November 2008

The black bodied porcelain created by Joshua Wedgwood - Basalt ware - in the 1770's was inspired by the Etruscan black wares being excavated at Etruria in Italy. Wedgwood's Basalt ware was received with enthusiasm by the affluent upper and merchant classes and became so popular that over 170 other factories imitated it. Georgian glass too exhibits the elegant designs proliferating in eighteenth century England. With the advent of the cutting wheel, the Georgian glass makers of Ireland and England produced hand cut faceted glassware that has never been surpassed. This glassware was not just decorative like the overly fussy wares of the following century.

Objectspace Limited Editons 2008

11 October 2008 - 08 November 2008

Objectspace Limited Editions provides an opportunity for discerning collectors to purchase exclusive new designs by leading New Zealand makers working within a number of making traditions in Aotearoa New Zealand. It is an ongoing initiative that works as a professional development opportunity for object makers and as a fundraiser for Objectspace. In 2008 makers were invited to submit designs for works that would be future heirlooms.

1839 Exchanges: Jewellery by Jason Hall

11 October 2008 - 08 November 2008

1839 Exchanges: Jewellery by Jason Hall is an exhibition about jewellery, identity and cultural exchange explored through a series of amulets created for Frederick Edward Maning, an Irishman who arrived in Aotearoa in 1833 and became a trader. Maning is a well known Pakeha Maori, a term that refers to Europeans who lived as Maori in the early phase of colonisation. Maning, who initially advised Maori not to sign the Treaty of Waitangi, later became a land court judge in the 1860s, and a member of the European colonial gentry.

Liquid Life

06 November 2008 - 04 October 2008

Liquid Life is a slightly unusual proposition for Sharon Fitness, whose practice is often aimed towards adornment at the edges of wear-ability. Fitness is driven to create "temporal art experiences for random audiences." In this installation everyday objects are derailed. Liberally drizzling objects in liquid silicone, before removing the colourful film and displaying the resulting hollow forms en masse, Fitness suggests an un-hierarchical world which often features utilitarian and somewhat banal domestic things.

More Than Beads

06 September 2008 - 04 October 2008

Beads have been made, traded and used since 38,000 BC - the first documented find. They have no purpose other than that which people assign to them and in various cultures and systems they have operated as repositories of sacred knowledge, possessors of curative powers, prompts for prayer and ritual, passports to the afterlife and standard units of value in market systems. They are among the earliest evidence of abstract thinking as they materialise abstract notions such as power and wealth. The emergence of the modern concept of jewellery is associated with the emergence of identity in relation to large scale communities and in many societies social differences were demonstrated through the display of adornment.

LISA WALKER-Unwearable

06 September 2008 - 04 October 2008

Unwearable promises to be an exciting and innovative installation for Objectspace. The title of this exhibition pulls in two directions. Some of the most recent works strain at the limits of wearability in size and intention. They bring to mind earlier European jewellery experiments which prodded function and the relationship to the body in order to liberate jewellery and align it with investigations taking centre stage in other art practices. Being unwearable, though, as Walker's work yet again demonstrates, doesn't mean leaving behind the realm of jewellery.

Save For Best

02 August 2008 - 30 August 2008

Kristy Palleson is inspired by 'crafty' and utilitarian forms. With respect to these influences however, that is where the comparisons usually end. The Otago trained ceramist is inspired by the traditions of media other than ceramics and routinely works in a different medium to that of the objects she draws from in her practice.

Clay Economies

02 August 2008 - 30 August 2008

The works in Clay Economies traverse the industrially mass produced and the handcrafted; the ornamental and the utilitarian; the authored and the anonymous; the high and low status; the visible and the barely acknowledged. By assembling such a diversity of works the intent is to expand our understanding of contemporary ceramic practice by considering the multiplicity of ceramic production and consumption that exists beyond the narrow confines of studio pottery.

A Point of Beauty

11 July 2008 - 22 August 2008

I began collecting hat pins because of my Grandmother. I loved hearing her stories about life in the "olden days". She talked about such things as lace-up boots, corsets and hat pins which fascinated me as a child growing up in the UK in the 1970's. She gave me my first three hat pins; the turquoise ones proudly displayed by my husband's Grandmother's silver elephant. Collecting came easy to me. My parents and I would frequent antique fairs where I would spend my hard earned pocket money. At the beginning there were too many to choose from, now it's a matter of hunting them out. But each purchase is as exciting as the first; they are all very special and often beautiful. Hat pins were functional, essential fashion accessories in their day and yet now seem almost ridiculous and impractical. - Sarah Cheesman

The Tomb Of The Unknown Maker

28 June 2008 - 26 July 2008

In an age where high-tech gadgets and mass produced luxury items proliferate ceaselessly, it is easy to forget the work of millions of unknown craftsmen who skillfully labour to establish the final forms and materiality of commonly used objects. Trudie Kroef's window installation The Tomb of the Unknown Maker is a pean to the skill of these often unappreciated makers. As Lucy Hammonds observes, Kroef's work seeks "to redress this imbalance through translating the manufactured into an obvious craft vernacular".

Strange/Familiar

28 June 2008 - 26 July 2008

Strange/Familiar is a new exhibition of sculptural ceramics by Otago based artist Nicholas Mullany. Working "in a manner that is methodical and borders on the neurotic", Mullany's gestalt gestures are physically self evident. Writer Christine Whybrew observes, Mullany constructs works that are "reminiscent of Lego creations". Mullany says his working methods enable him "to create objects that are transitional in nature to navigate the often uncanny relationship that exists between the maker and the object."

The Floor Pictures of Beatrice Cross

27 May 2008 - 10 July 2008

After a career in the fashion industry, Beatrice Cross started making rugs for a new home in 1973. In the words of her daughter Jane Cross, after "looking at a plan of a Frank Lloyd Wright house she decided to base a first rug on the floor plan of her own new house. And having produced this first one she then enthusiastically embarked on 25 years of rag rug making, incidentally redefining the art of the rag rug, taking it out of it's homely, crafty origins and repositioning it firmly in the field of contemporary art."

Precious

27 May 2008 - 21 June 2008

Precious is a new window installation for Objectspace by Bay Of Plenty-based ceramic artist John Roy. Precious comprises of two opposing figures of similar stance and proportions that appear to be whispering to one another. Perhaps questioning the respective values, condition and age of these similar yet differing works, the viewer is immediately drawn to the most singular difference between these two objects: One figure is finished in the punctured surface treatment and off-white matte glazing that Roy is known for, while the other figure is treated to a new and shiny golden veneer.

Uhengaparaoa: Works by Tangimoe Clay

27 May 2008 - 21 June 2008

Based in the small town of Opotiki, in the Bay Of Plenty, Tangimoe Clay became interested in flax in the late 1980s and has spent a number of years honing her craft. Tangimoe's works have attracted the attention of an increasing number of collectors and in 2006 she was exhibited in the international touring exhibition Toi Maori: The Eternal Thread. Steeped in a tradition many generations old, Uhengaparaoa: Works by Tangimoe Clay is a rare opportunity to witness a contemporary Maori craftsperson successfully negotiating and thoroughly engaged with her craft.

Outside: Inside

12 April 2008 - 17 May 2008

In this installation by Rachelle Pedersen, intricately created works have been created from cotton and wool yarns using a Macrame technique. Referring to the internal structures of the body, finely knotted channels appear to spread across the human form.

A Lace Life: The Alwynne Crowsen Collection

12 April 2008 - 17 May 2008

In 1966, Henderson Valley resident, Alwynne Crowsen came across an article in The Lady, a periodical sent to her by an Aunt in England, that suggested it was not possible to teach yourself lacemaking. Since then Crowsen has proved The Lady wrong. In addition to teaching herself the art of lacemaking, Crowsen has passed her knowledge on to countless others via weekly community classes and the Auckland Embroiderers' and Lacemakers' Guild, which she co-founded in 1970. Crowsen has seldom undertaken commissions or given her work away, instead she has made her own collection.

Scentiment

01 March 2008 - 05 April 2008

Originating in a time before the understanding of molecules and microbes, scent was worn for its amuletic, talismanic and medicinal properties, as well as enhancing and beautifying the body - much the same as the purpose of jewellery. Scentiment is a moving image installation by Andrea Simper which incorporates a series of work of the same name, exploring the similarities of these two body-enhancing accessories, scent and jewellery.

Requiem

29 January 2008 - 05 April 2008

Malcolm Harrison was a leading New Zealand artist and maker who died in November 2007. Working principally in the fields of embroidery textiles and from the late 1970s, he was very largely responsible for positioning those fields as areas of contemporary arts practice worthy of critical attention. In 2005, and to much acclaim, Malcolm Harrison was the inaugural recipient of the Creative New Zealand Craft/Object Fellowship and in the following year he presented 'Minus Reason' an exhibition of new work at Objectspace.

Redefining Agility: craft/science/sport

01 March 2008 - 05 April 2008

The designers and engineers featured in Redefining Agility apply contemporary manufacturing processes and materials to the production of specialist sporting equipment. Their objects expand the notion that craftsmanship and new technologies may go hand-in-hand and, like many designers and engineers, those featured in Redefining Agility are fusing new scientific and material developments to limit compromises whilst enhancing safety and performance capabilities.

The Loving Cup

23 January 2008 - 24 February 2008

Joanna Auld's installation for the Objectspace window programme explores the phenomenon of the trophy. The Loving Cup recognizes our competitive culture, "where we are defined by our acquisitions, our qualifications, the numerous lines on our C.V... The Loving Cup is for me the ultimate prize, as I have found my life's love."

Best In Show 2008

29 January 2008 - 23 February 2008

Best In Show 2008 is Objectspace's fourth annual exhibition of recent object related graduates from New Zealand tertiary institutions. For the 2008 exhibition we will be showcasing fifteen outstanding new graduates spanning jewellery, product, textiles, fashion, object and installation art. The Best In Show concept utilizes a simple selection criteria centered around the ambition to uncover the very best new talent. Objectspace is an ideal platform from which to introduce these makers to a public audience and the wider creative community.

Memento

21 December 2007 - 21 January 2008

A collaboration between Ilse-Marie Erl and Simon Gamble, Memento is an Objectspace window installation featuring a range of exquisitely worked organic objects which the makers have embedded with USB digital memory chips. An insightful glimpse into the streamlined and often impersonal looking world of high-tech gadgets, Memento asks, "are we designing for ourselves or the machine?"

Far Sight

17 November 2007 - 22 December 2007

Far Sight is an Objectspace Vault installation comprising unsold and not for sale works from the collection of Peter Deckers. "My jewellery works are often displayed within the context and concept of the ideas, mediated by political, social, and cultural structures, values and meanings. This has always been an integral part inside my work and practice. In this exhibition the contexts are absent and/or broken up. The remaining collections of mixed works will formulate its own context within the light-displays and distortions of the lenses." - Peter Deckers

Small Wonders: 7 Installations By 7 Curators

17 November 2007 - 22 December 2007

The intensity of our connection to miniature objects can compel us to give life to these inanimate things. Miniatures are by nature the tiniest of objects and it is their size, as much as any particular content, which elicits our attention. Small Wonders is the outcome of a six month long curatorial workshop. In a diverse selection of installations - featuring over twenty makers - the curators in this exhibition have considered various qualities of 'The Miniature.'

For The Whanau

17 November 2007 - 20 December 2007

For The Whanau is a Window installation for Objectspace. These works in whale tooth Kipa has made especially for his family as an heirloom collection. They were not created as exhibition pieces and Objectspace is privileged to exhibit them. Rangi Kipa works in the fields of taa moko, sculpture (wood, stone, bone, corian) and ethnographic taonga. In all of these fields he has established an international reputation for innovation while constantly drawing inspiration from his Maori heritage.

The Inside Story

13 October 2007 - 10 November 2007

The Inside Story is an exploration into formlessness by Dunedin based artist, Blue Black. Comprising a range of expressionistic and organic ceramic forms suspended from a modified wire bed frame, this installation represents the end product of a highly personal and physical making process.

Moderne Buttons

13 October 2007 - 10 November 2007

From the Ruth Meier Collection comes a new Objectspace vault installation of American and European buttons mainly from the 1920 to 1940 period - one of the greatest periods of button design and production. The invention of new synthetic materials such as Bakelite created opportunities for new button designs and shapes that captured the characteristics of the modern age. Alongside commercially produced buttons are one-offs made for the haute couture market. Before returning to live in New Zealand Ruth Meier was a Europe-based button dealer.

Homeliness

13 October 2007 - 10 November 2007

Homeliness features the work of four emerging New Zealand artists, Jacquelyn Greenbank, Erica Van Zon, Andy Kingston and Loren Clements. These exciting new artists reference craft traditions in an approach to contemporary art making that could be characterized as "object-centric."

Mr Moorhouse's Garden

08 November 2007 - 06 October 2007

A window installation for Objectspace, Ben Pearce's metamorphic sculptural objects are painstakingly handmade and reminiscent of retro children's toys. Pearce suggests that these works are at once 'solemn and lost, yet in search of each other for cues and dialogue'.

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European Voices

02 October 2007 - 06 October 2007

An installation of works by 20 European jewellers especially curated for Objectspace by leading European curators and writers Liesbeth den Besten and Love Jonsson. European Voices highlights the diversity of aesthetic expressions found in European contemporary jewellery and creates a discussion between various positions, traditions and objectives. The installation features contemporary work from Demark, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

ShowRoom

08 September 2007 - 06 October 2007

ShowRoom puts the spotlight on the lesser-known side of contemporary New Zealand furniture practice, revealing an active and diverse range of designers and makers, intent on producing original and innovative work while sustaining themselves in a small and often conservative local market.

Souvenirs Of Pitcairn Island

08 September 2007 - 29 September 2007

Collector Adam Gifford has assembled a collection of rare Pitcairn Island wood carvings. The opening of the Panama Canal turned the Pitcairn Island from one of the world's most remote places to a popular stop on a busy shipping route. The Pitcairners were quick to take advantage and produced beautiful wood carvings, a selection of which are on show in Objectspace's Vault space.

Hats With Wings

23 June 2007 - 25 August 2007

The hats in designer Marilyn Sainty's collection are strong sculptural forms and the collection itself is notable for the number of works that have been designed by other fashion designers and for the number of works that play with the idea "what is a hat?"

Lei for Walls

28 July 2007 - 25 August 2007

A maker based in Northland, New Zealand, Christine Butler has been practicing creatively in various media for over twenty years. 'Lei for Walls' employs various domestic craft techniques, including crochet and sewing.

Metaphysical Heart: Jewellery by Peter McKay

28 July 2007 - 25 August 2007

Taking its name from the Metaphysical Heart series, a long-running narrative in brooch form, Metaphysical Heart: Jewellery by Peter McKay is a retrospective of over three decades of jewellery, surveying the diversity and extent of McKay's work, and looking for the common threads of technique and concept that bind his work together.

Jo Torr

23 June 2007 - 21 July 2007

A window installation for Objectspace, Jo Torr's Pacific Crossings and Transit of Venus III are based on 1770's dress styles fashionable when James Cook was exploring the Pacific. Constructed predominantly of Tapa cloth, these works defy easy categorization as both sculptural and wearable objects.

Tepeke Koura

23 June 2007 - 21 July 2007

Literally translated, Tepeke Koura means Coal Sack, a mariners term for the Matariki or Pleiades constellation. This exhibition explores a diverse range of contemporary approaches to customary practices.

Refresh

19 May 2007 - 16 June 2007

Refresh is the title of Jane Whitten's window installation for Objectspace. A self confessed 'collector and organizer,' Whitten is an established Canberra based artist whose work has attracted considerable attention in both Australia and North America.

The Crafted Container

19 May 2007 - 16 June 2007

The Crafted Container is a collaboration between Jessica Barter and Stephen Brookbanks. This exhibition addresses "the home as an instrument of self-articulation and the idea that the home itself is inscribed and impressed with traces and stories of the occupants."

Mind's I

14 April 2007 - 17 May 2007

A window installation for Objectspace, Mind's I is a narrative of exploration and discovery. The three series of work present in Mind's I reflect upon various times in the artists life and act as mementos of hope, knowledge and growth.

Heiner Zimmerman

14 April 2007 - 12 May 2007

An installation of contemporary works by internationally renowned visiting German blacksmith Heiner Zimmermann. Atelier Zimmerman is a world famous family blacksmithing workshop, now managed by Heiner, known for its commitment to traditional craft technologies and contemporary design.

Best in Show 2007

14 April 2007 - 12 May 2007

Best In Show 2007 is Objectspace's third annual exhibition of recent graduates work from New Zealand tertiary institutions. The emerging makers we have chosen this year span the varied terrain of jewellery, furniture, ceramics and installation art. Best In Show utilizes a selection criteria centered around an ambition to uncover a range of new and emerging practitioners from around the nation.

Jewellery Out Of Context

10 March 2007 - 05 April 2007

Jewellery Out Of Context (JOC) was originally curated by Peter Deckers and Dr Carole Shepheard as an exhibition for the 2006 International Jewelers and Metalsmiths' Group of Australia conference. JOC 'Junior' has recently been revised as a touring exhibition and will later be traveling to Canada, The Netherlands and Germany. Objectspace is the New Zealand venue for the exhibition.

My Life As A House

27 January 2007 - 03 March 2007

The early nineteenth century saw the production of dolls houses as objects for children - initially for the children of the rich - as instruments for the teaching of household management. The advent of mass production during the Victorian Age saw the emergence of the dolls house as child's play toy. These two dolls houses from the first half of the twentieth century - one from New Zealand and the other from England - in different ways relate to the various strands of dolls house history.

Albino Wood in Blue Ribbon

27 January 2007 - 03 March 2007

In Yasmin Dubraus practice, vines, flowers and springtime buds recall the decorative attempts at reflecting on and possessing wilderness familiar to many cultures.

The Faux

27 January 2007 - 03 March 2007

This exhibition explores an Alice in Wonderland world where nothing is what it seems. Furniture is recyclable, snack food takes on giant uneatable proportions and the accoutrements of the lavatory become soft sculpture for the living room.

Push Play

08 December 2006 - 21 January 2007

This is an engaging window installation of process works by jewelers Renee Bevan & Ross Malcolm. 'Push Play' is an exhibition of objects, rarely viewed outside of Bevan & Malcolm's workshops.

Tony Kuepfer's Bottles

30 September 2006 - 21 December 2006

This impressive selection of tall bottles made by glass artist Tony Kuepfer has been collected by Stuart Park as part of his ongoing fascination with New Zealand glass.

Brickwork

08 December 2006 - 21 December 2006

'Brickwork' is the result of a creative NZ craft/object fellowship received by Peter Lange in 2005.

Imaginary Friends

28 October 2006 - 02 December 2006

Imaginary Friends is a new body of work by acclaimed New Zealand ceramisist Janet Green. This work explores Greens ongoing fascination with eastern votive imagery.

8+1

28 October 2006 - 18 November 2006

This exhibition is the result of eight participants attending a workshop given by Rian de Jong in January 2006 in Sydney, Australia. The group came together from diverse backgrounds and interests. During the workshop the participants were encouraged to put their usual practices to one side, and to engage with fresh materials and new ideas. The group had a warm exchange and the subsequent workshop pieces revealed how far each participant could go when letting their imaginations free within a new space. The workshop 'Transportation' lends itself to this exhibition 8+1 as it travels to the home countries of each of the participants.

More Than Meets The Eye

30 September 2006 - 21 October 2006

A spring inspired window installation by glass artist Julie Baverstock.

Helen Britton: Urban Paradise Playground

30 September 2006 - 21 October 2006

Helen Britton is an Internationally acclaimed jeweller based in Munich. She is having her first New Zealand exhibition at Objectspace in partnership with the Manukau School of Visual Arts.

Suspending Belief

22 July 2006 - 30 September 2006

Like the tea-cosy and other homely arts, the padded coat hanger is a relic of women's work, from a period of home-made and hand-made domesticity in New Zealand that we're rapidly losing. Ruth Watson's collection questions issues of culture, value and history through the variety of forms and diversity of approaches of an otherwise largely ignored domestic object.

Ladies and Gentlemen

06 September 2006 - 30 September 2006

This window work has been created in conjunction with NZ Fashion Week by Beth Ellery resident designer for Scotties.

Lanois, Goldenpoint and Angelus

07 August 2006 - 02 September 2006

An intricate and vibrant installation of paper-craft objects by Jenny Nielson.

Save the Snails - Guadalcanal '44

10 July 2006 - 05 August 2006

Glass artist Lee Brogan wants us to consider the impact of governmental and corporate relationships on the natural environment through her installations in cast glass.

New Black

15 May 2006 - 20 July 2006

This vault installation brings together two impressive collections which explore the darker side of 18th & 19th Century British design. Peter Shands collection of Black wedgewood basaltes titled "The Black is Sterling" has been cleverly cast with a private collection of mourning and memorial jewellery titled "Remembrances of the Departed".

The Complete Set

15 May 2006 - 10 June 2006

Keely McGlynn's installation "The Complete Set" relates her relationship with the New Zealand isles. In this work McGlynn gives equal status to all three islands relating the significance of her personal experiences of living in each place.

Vonney Ball

12 June 2006 - 08 June 2006

Vonney Ball's Window Installation features a diverse group of slip-cast earthenware vessels which have their foundations in a classical aesthetic. Her interest in European art, history and architecture has informed the shapes, forms and imagery she has developed in her practice.

The Sleek New Shape of Excitement

27 March 2006 - 13 May 2006

Stephen Rainbow shares his passion for 1950's British design highlighted in his collections of Poole ceramics and English Ford motor cars.

Stuff of Life

17 April 2006 - 13 May 2006

Marlyne Jackson's installation Stuff of Life references the wealth of associations made possible by the process of knitting things together. Jackson is a maker. She has developed a broad skill base which includes, but is not restricted to, an appreciation of the handmade and domestic craft.

Works from Beaded Loop series, Chroma series and Crimp series

27 March 2006 - 15 April 2006

This installation by UK based jeweller Susan Cross has occurred as part of the Manukau School of Visual Art's International Workshops series.

Chandelier

04 March 2006 - 01 April 2006

Chandelier featured glass artists who were invited to create lightworks. The exhibition was held in conjunction with the Society of Glass Artists conference "The Object as an Eloquent Statement"

Big Bad Wolf and Friends

30 January 2006 - 25 March 2006

This collection of knitted soft toys has been collected by Justine Douglas from opportunity shops over the past 15 years.

Play

01 January 1970 - 25 March 2006

In her installation "Play" Leanne Clayton explores her combined Samoan and European heritage. Clayton's hand-printed, individually crafted 'family' of calico toy bears references her memories of childhood and domestic craft.

Body of Work

30 January 2006 - 25 February 2006

This collection of jewellery from Jennifer Laracy explores symbolism related to a passage from The Caged Skylark by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Best in Show 2006

28 January 2006 - 25 February 2006

This is the second time we have held this annual exhibition, which is a showcase of craft and design related work from 2005 tertiary graduates.

Robinson Crusoe Syndrome

14 December 2005 - 28 January 2006

In an installation that includes books, ceramics and furniture from a number of centuries John Perry's collection explores the Robinson Crusoe Syndrome.

Ticklish

19 December 2005 - 21 January 2006

Shelley Norton's installation, Ticklish, features rings made from discarded plastic wrappings which transform the discarded and undesired into the desired.

THE GREATEST SHOW: Warren Tippett's pots from a life less ordinary

02 December 2005 - 21 January 2006

This survey exhibition of Warren Tippett ceramic works curated by Moyra Elliot illustrates Tippetts place as a seminal figure in the history of New Zealand studio ceramics

The History of the Cup (clam cup)

05 December 2005 - 18 December 2005

Clam cup is one piece from a series of works created for an exhibition titled The History of the Cup. Working with the basic shape of the cup, such an everyday item, Janet Green wanted to elevate the status of this familiar form, from the ordinary, to the extraordinary.

Sweets for my Sweet

21 November 2005 - 04 December 2005

Renee Bevan explores issues of desire and romance through her series of chocolate inspired alternative material brooches.

Cabinet Of Curiosities

01 November 2005 - 26 November 2005

To accompany Au revoir Marilyn Saint a Cabinet of Curiosities has been installed. Marilyn Sainty has filled the display cabinet with a selection of curiosities from her work space. These curiosities include bolts of fabric, swatches, photographs, invitations, labels, buttons, cards and postcards, drawings which as an assemblage, gives clues about this designers inspiration and the texture of that inspiration.

Au Revoir Marilyn Sainty

29 October 2005 - 26 November 2005

Au revoir Marilyn Sainty presents a selection of garments designed by leading Auckland fashion designer Marilyn Sainty, who closed her workroom at the end of October 2005.

Fetish and the Feline Form: A Body Pierced

25 October 2005 - 19 November 2005

This window work by ceramicist Kirsty Gardner explores the fetish through her ceramic feline altars. Gardner combines issues of spirituality with diverse ideas related to body adornment and the domestic pet. Kirsty Gardiner emigra

Cosy Times

06 September 2005 - 22 October 2005

Rosemary McLeod's book Thrift to Fantasy: Home Textile Crafts of the 1930s-1950s which celebrates domestic handcraft and the spirit of 'making do' has been a 2005 best seller. A selection of Rosemary's own collection of tea cosies made from materials ranging from wool to kangaroo skin features in the vault.

Some ... Progress

20 September 2005 - 22 October 2005

In this window installation Melbourne based maker Simon Cottrell brings together a collection of forms; brooch, cup, jug and container - exploring the nature of process.

Designs on Antarctica

24 September 2005 - 22 October 2005

In this new installation, maker Raewyn Atkinson alludes to the competing and complex designs - economic, heroic, political, social - that various expeditions and nations have had, and still have, for Antarctica. Raewyn Atkinson first visited Antarctica as an Antarctic Arts Fellow and this new installation builds on works she has created since traveling to Antarctica in 2000 and 2003.

Re(ady) Made Installation

23 July 2005 - 17 September 2005

Re(ady) Made: A Sustainability Primer looks at the question of sustainability through the idea of reuse (the readymade), and recycling. This installation uses found objects and a recycled plastic manufactured by Pacific Plastics Limited, Otaki, to explore the ways in which industrial design often relies on unsustainable practices. Re(ady) Made proposes a cycle of resource use as an example of the possibilities if industrial designers think about the larger context of their activities.

Limelight

20 August 2005 - 17 September 2005

In his first Auckland show Wellington based greenstone carver Joe Sheehan is putting greenstone, making and cultural issues into the "limelight". The limelight cast by these superbly carved greenstone works address issues of commercialism and spirituality and challenge us to rethink the 'default position' in relation to how we think about and look at greenstone carving.

Hey Tiki

14 June 2005 - 03 September 2005

This collection of 'tiki' and 'tiki inspired' objects is one of the collections belonging to distinguished curator, collector and writer Mick Pendergrast, author of numerous publications about Maori fibre.

Doing furniture conversations

23 July 2005 - 13 August 2005

This installation by Wellington furniture maker Tim Larkin looks to a dark and visceral space. Through the use of pegboard - "as a type of hysterical pine plantation it represents nature reduced to 'standing reserve' " â€“ and by breaking it, threading it, burning it, planing it and oiling it he reveals its poetic nature and shows that this hyper-refined industrial product can return to its primordial 'nature'.

Fell in love with stitches

24 May 2005 - 16 July 2005

Sandra Bushby reinterprets historically innovative Louis Comfort Tiffany art jewellery designs by creating felt embroidered objects and placing them in an installation setting.

Ornaments for the Pakeha

18 June 2005 - 16 July 2005

Jason Hall's jewellery operates around a smart discovery, which, plainly stated, is that the things which we have in common are also the things which keep us apart. The work in Ornaments for the Paakehaa plays with this idea. The bone pickets of Home reveal the central tension of being Paakehaa. Our cultural forms donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t come from here, just as the white picket fence of the colonial villa sits apart from the land it dissects. Yet, made of bone, these brooches don't belong anywhere else. Aotearoa is the final resting place.

Provocative Material

24 May 2005 - 11 June 2005

Architects from the practices of Aimer Naismith, Architectus, Cook Sargisson & Pirie, Cheshire Architects, Noel Lane, Jasmax, Pearson Architects plus Elvon Young & Davor Popadich take a provocative position on contemporary material issues through large scale experimental constructions and installations that address architecture's relationship to materiality.

Minus Reason

23 April 2005 - 21 May 2005

In 2004 Creative New Zealand awarded the inaugural Craft/Object Fellowship to leading maker Malcolm Harrison. The announcement was made at Objectspace in June 2004 and so it is fitting that his installation of new works, Minus Reason, is shown for the first time at Objectspace. The installation is inspired by Francisco Goya's masterpiece "The sleep of reason produces monsters"

Pates Pottery

29 March 2005 - 14 May 2005

"Something colourful, cheerful and frivolous" is how writer John Davenport has described Pates Pottery. Benjamin Chow's collection demonstrates this sentiment perfectly in his extravagant vault display of Pates ceramics.

Best in Show 2005

19 March 2005 - 16 April 2005

Best in Show presents a selection of works by outstanding 2004 craft and design graduates whose work spans jewellery, furniture, textile and graphic practice. Featured designers and makers are from Auckland University of Technology, Elam School of Fine Arts, Manukau School of Visual Arts, Unitec Design School and Whitecliffe College and they have been selected by their teachers.

Seventeen Years' Work

01 February 2005 - 26 March 2005

David Trubridge is one of New Zealand's best-known designers of contemporary furniture. His maquettes, or working models, were built as part of his design process and as a collection offers an insight into the artist's creative thinking.

Superstrata

25 February 2005 - 12 March 2005

An installation of experimental ceramics by John Parker.

Home & Entertaining Design Awards

29 January 2005 - 19 February 2005

Objectspace in partnership with Home & Entertaining present the finalists of the Home & Entertaining Design Awards 2005. The Award support New Zealand's leading-edge design in products for the home. The judging panel rated the form and function of a host of local designs and selected winners in categories ranging from kitchen and bathroom products to furniture, textiles, lighting, and storage.

Blanket Stitch

03 December 2004 - 22 January 2005

Curator Carole Shepheard brings together a diverse range of new textile work which innovatively uses the utilitarian blanket. Blanket Stitch features works by makers Suzanne Tamaki, Susan Jowsey, Hannah Howes, Sue Weston, Rona Ngahuia Osbourne, Beverley Rhodes, Paula Coulthard and Katharine Morrison.

Festoon

14 December 2004 - 22 January 2005

A festive display for the Christmas period by jeweller Mary Curtis

Contemporary New Zealand Silver from the Collection of the James Wallace Arts Trust

19 December 2004 - 19 December 2004

In 1995 notable Auckland collector James Wallace commissioned a large sterling silver table service from the then Auckland-based silversmith, Peter Woods. The Wallace Service comprises over 130 pieces of cutlery, functional and decorative objects. The centerpiece, which is over a metre long, is an illuminated three dimensional representation of Auckland and the Waitemata Harbour including the city foreshore, the Customs House, Rangitoto Island and the Harbour Bridge.

The Jar Known as Pinchmetight

19 December 2004 - 19 December 2004

The Jar Known as Pinchmetight is an installation of works from the collection of maker Denis O'Connor. These works are shards from pots that did not survive the rigours of the firing process. Placed in a museum case, these works that in one sense ‘did not work' - but ‘do work' as beautiful and informative objects - contest the idea of works being ‘of museum quality', an accolade bestowed on the most accomplished of works.

The Ring Project

26 October 2004 - 11 December 2004

The Ring Project was developed by jeweller Pauline Bern based on investigations begun in 2003 during a residency at the Grey Street Workshop in Adelaide.

Talking About

26 October 2004 - 27 November 2004

Talking About involves a group of experienced 'players' including Don Bassett, Moyra Elliott, Ngarino Ellis, Richard Fahey, Bronwyn Fletcher, Louis Le Vaillant & Rigel Sorzano, Sean Mallon, Anna Miles, Cushla Parekowhai, Elizabeth Rankin and Grant Thompson choosing an object and engaging in some in some serious and strong object-play through the medium of writing.

Engage

28 September 2004 - 23 October 2004

Engage is a new experimental furniture design installation by Tim Wigmore that explores issues of form, material, sustainability and use.

Left at the Members Lounge

10 August 2004 - 25 September 2004

Left at the Members Lounge reflects on aspects of the 'members lounge' by considering the practice of new makers, their relationship to the traditions of the 'members lounge' and the manner in which they have taken a step leftward and forged new directions in field of object-making.

Left at the Members Lounge

10 August 2004 - 25 September 2004

Left at the Members Lounge reflects on aspects of the 'members lounge' by considering the practice of new makers, their relationship to the traditions of the 'members lounge' and the manner in which they have taken a step leftward and forged new directions in field of object-making.

Levi Borgstrom

19 September 2004 - 19 September 2004

Levi Borgstrom's entry in the 1986 edition of The Craft Hunters Guide - written by Fiona Thompson and Len Castle - is to the point; it simply says "Maker of spoons of distinction". Borgstrom was a maker who made just one type of object, hand carved wooden spoons. His lifetime's experience as a wood carver and whittler, his single focus as a maker and the traditional knowledge of earlier generations all converge in these spoons to make them works of great presence.

Light Vessels

25 January 2005 - 01 January 1970

These hand cast concrete vessels by Rigel Sorzano are part of an ongoing project by the artist relating to the mystery and shifting shape of the spiral form. Here her exploration has been one of process as much as form; the individual characteristics of a piece, as developed during casting, have been exploited through exaggeration, piercing, or wearing away.

Archive

19 November 2016 - 04 February 2017

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14 November 2015 - 19 December 2015

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