Window Gallery

Yasmin Dubrau works across disciplines that include jewellery, ceramics, painting and weaving. The concept for this exhibition began when she returned to New Zealand after several years in Japan – just after the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011. Concerned about the impact of such environmental disasters on food production and ruminating too on how traditional and spiritual connections to gardening were disappearing, Dubrau playfully reflected on various scenarios attached to the notion of growing big vegetables . This installation might be interpreted as a whimsical imagining of the radiation-contaminated vegetable garden the artist left behind in Japan.

Inspired by the paper folding craft of origami – Dubrau uses origami units to build her paper constructions, sometimes in tandem with other folding techniques, which can be more freestyle.

She says she enjoys “the lightness of paper and its approachability; it lends itself well to playing and painting.” Her painted forms retain the fluid brushwork and freshness evident in her two-dimensional paintings. Nuanced in composition and rich in expression –the multi-faceted paper forms in this installation have an “aliveness” that is generated in part by the sense that there is more to be discovered through the “unfolding” of the objects.

In their light and sometimes, frivolous appearance, the works I make are often direct responses to encounters in my life, both real and imagined;things that might inspire amusement, happiness, or, possibly a sense of irony or absurdity.

A recent horticultural course introduced Dubrau to the geometric structure found in plants, minerals and crystals and the cyclic relationship between these elements and soil. Wondering about Nature conveys the artist’s delight in making connections to the geometric components found both in nature and origami.

Dubrau has exhibited nationally and internationally. Her website address is: www.yasmindubrau.com