Main Gallery
Installation view
Installation view
Installation view
Ice ports 2007
Maker: Kirsten Haydon
Materials: enamel, copper, steel
Courtesy of the artist
Ice falls 2006
Maker: Kirsten Haydon
Materials: enamel, reflector beads, copper, oxidised silver
Courtesy of the artist
Installation view
Ice Terrane
27 February 2009 - 09 April 2009
Maker:
Kirsten Haydon
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.
Although only in Antarctica for a short period of time, Ice Terrane is testament to the opportunity this fellowship represented. Haydon's beautiful and innovative jewellery objects reflect the restrictive climatic conditions prevalent in this region. Utilizing a variety of materials and techniques including reflective glass beads, enamelling and photo-transfers, the works in this exhibition elegantly explore the extreme nature and beauty of our southernmost continent.
Ice Terrane essayist, Robert Baines, observes that Haydon continues to be deeply influenced by her experience of Antarctica. Recent jewellery works consisting of "micro mosaic, blocks and beads, penguins and more penguins and the visiting aeroplane situated in the landscape" are visual statements investigating our desire to inhabit and understand a little more about what is possibly the most untenable continent on earth.
Baines notes that Haydon was encouraged by Stephen Pyne's book, The Ice. He writes that Pyne's descriptions of ice have been "influential in Kirsten Haydon's development of symbiology from the most basic form of ice crystal to convey a unique group of work. ice shifts, ice friends, ice shapes, ice moves, ice blocks, ice flows, ice falls, ice travels are depicted.
Kirsten Haydon is an expatriate New Zealand jeweller currently based in Melbourne. Previous exhibitions and awards include; poppy's poppies (2000); in the drawer (2002-4); The Dowse Gold Award (2005); reflections of ice (2006); room with a view (2006); on the shelf (2007). Ice Terrane is presented in New Zealand exclusively at Objectspace as part of the Auckland Festival 2009 Visual Arts programme.
Kirsten Haydon was interviewed for National Radio's 'The Arts On Sunday with Lynn Freeman.' A podcast of this interview is available for download here.