My Little Pony and Friends a new exhibition by Jay Hutchinson

‘My Little Pony and Friends’ is a play on the awkward physiological progression of the male child into adolescence. When childhood fantasy dissolves and another emerges.

This exhibition includes nine new works, eight hand-embroidered textile pieces depicting vandalised superheroes and Disney princesses and the recently completed ‘My Little Pony’. The pony took over 500 hours to hand stitch, making it his largest and most intensive work to date.

Exhibition opens 6:00pm on Monday the 2/3/15 at ABSOLUTION, The Tannery, 3 Garlands Road, Woolston, Christchurch, New Zealand

 

Belle, digital print on cotton drill hand-embroidered with polyester thread
Belle, digital print on cotton drill hand-embroidered with polyester thread

absolution The Tanner Wo

SURE TO RISE EXHIBITION 2014 WELLINGTON

Sure To Rise is a pop-up exhibition opening Friday the 31 of October, in the James Smith building in central Wellington. It show cases new work from seven artists who have consistently produced strong evocative and sometimes challenging work. From 2011 and 2012 all seven artists would be  part of a small group that showed at  ‘a gallery’ a small Dunedin gallery at the far end of  Princess Street. The gallery showed artists that produced work that fell in-between what would be shown in the handful of local commercial galleries and the one or two art project spaces.
From Philip James Frosts signature messy colourful works of text and line mixed with pop and grime. To Sharon Singers fairytale fantasy dreamscapes that hint at a darkness that lurks just bellow the surface. Singers works echoes the dark distopian urban photographs by Justin Spiers. Rachael Taylor has produced an intimate series of what could be botanical illustrations from a distant world. Simon Attwoolls new prints inspired by a random box of photographs of unknown children and the recent spat of high school shootings.
Sam Ovens with another humorous attack on current social politics rendered in violent colours and a larger than life hand-stitched ‘My Little Pony’ By Jay Hutchinson.
Please join us for a drink at the opening at 6:00pm Friday 31st October
Ground Floor, Saint James Building, Corner of Cuba and Manners Street
Wellington, New Zealand. Exhibition open for viewing 9:00am till 5:00pm Saturday and Sunday 1-2 November
agallerypresents.com
Copies of the Publication B L I N D / H A T E still available…

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Simon Attwooll talks about art work from his series THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT that will be in the exhibition SURE TO RISE

The premeditated school photograph documents a person in that time but doesn’t normally function in any other way. The ambiguous context in which these images are displayed initially feels uncomfortable. We feel empathetic toward these strangers on display as we have all sat in the familiar school photograph setting yet there is an interesting discordance in the way we are familiar with the school photograph construct yet it is also generic and distant.

In The Kids Are Alright the source material came from a deceased estate being auctioned on Ebay. The late school teacher had innocently collected photos of children that she taught and documented the name of each child and date on the back. We are used to seeing these reference images in the media most commonly to describe something negative. I purchased these photos around the time of the Sandy Hook Massacre where one of the teachers sacrificed her life to hide the children from the gunman and a collection of cropped school photos were broadcast of the ones who weren’t so lucky.

This work instead celebrates the people who overcome societal failings in order to give so selflessly and acknowledge something positive. The work challenges the initial face value and assumptions we attach to familiar scenarios and suggests alternate readings.

http://www.simonattwooll.com