Steven Junil Park, Scraps Coat, 2022. Collection of Bronwyn Lloyd
Rona Ngahuia Osbourne, Hine-te-iwaiwa (Doll), 2022. Collection of Bronwyn Lloyd
Caroline McQuarrie, Woollens and Worsteds, 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Jhana Millers Gallery
She Shed is 2021 Blumhardt curator, Dr Bronwyn Lloyd’s dream space of wool craft. Featuring the work of seven contemporary makers; Vita Cochran, Lizzy Leckie, Caroline McQuarrie, Rona Ngahuia Osborne, Steven Junil Park, Daegan Wells, and Georgina May Young; this exhibition demonstrates the timely revival of heritage craft skills and the value of slow crafting.
Located in the historic Petone Settlers Museum on the Petone foreshore, this exhibition highlights this versatile, dynamic and nostalgic material through the many forms created by this diverse collection of makers. Wool becomes the foundation cloth to tell stories about identity, cross-cultural exchange, and connectedness to nature. It even becomes a woven page to record the experiences of women working in primary industry in Aotearoa.
Several of the works in She Shed reveal the artists’ knowledge of every aspect of the materials they use. In other works, concern about the impact of consumerism is evident through the artists’ desire to prolong the life of old and discarded materials through patching, shredding, dyeing and recomposing the wool, transforming this most resilient of natural fibres into something new.
She Shed opened in conjunction with Threads Textiles Festival as part of the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts 2022.