Lost & Found at Ignition 09

People lose things. We found them. Here they are – Lost & Found - an exhibition merging photography, graphic design and art at the Ignition Fringe Festival in Hamilton.

People lose things everyday. Have you ever noticed a random shoe by that tree in the park, a bus ticket under a pile of leaves in the city or a single lost glove buried in snow outside the airport terminal? Ordinary to most, these are the things that have inspired Megan Baker, Anna Wilkinson and Scott Newth, a group of friends who work in the creative industries, to create the exhibition 'Lost and Found'.  

In the middle of winter November 2007 Scott, who at the time was traveling around Europe as an audio engineer for the Datsuns, began to take snapshots of his travels. Often stuck out in the industrial areas of small European cities he began to notice a large number of lost single gloves, many lying around dark alleyways or swept out onto the kerb, not one glove was the same. He began to photograph them. This became a sort of obsession for Scott, who was often left wondering where the other half of the pair ended up and where these gloves had come from. What was their story? Two years later and 40 odd glove pictures at hand, Scott decided it was time to do something with these lonesome gloves. Working closely with Anna, they began to create a collection of exhibits based around visually telling the story of each character.

Megan is also interested in documenting her surroundings. After a few afternoons walking around Garden Place in Hamilton she began thinking about how people move about the city, in particular how they all interact through this one place, all with their own unique agendas. She began to collect pieces of rubbish she found on her travels and started to undertake a study through the items lost in the street, items she found that told stories of where the city dweller had been. 

"I am using an alternative method of mapping to visually discover what is found. I aim to transform these items from where they originated to tell stories of where they have been," she says.

After an interesting discussion at lunch one day the three decided that these projects should be documented in some way, and so decided to collaborate on a project, Lost and Found was born.

"Being a part of the Ignition Fringe Festival is an exciting departure from working on industry based projects. It allows us to do some more personal experimental projects with less boundaries, to explore some new areas of design and to push ourselves more creatively," says Anna of the event. "By the very nature of being "Fringe", there is an expectation for exciting thinking and innovative outcomes."

The "Lost and Found" exhibition opening will be held at 5.30pm on Friday 19th June at Rocket Coffee Roasters, Barton Street (behind Scintilla and Soul gallery), Hamilton. Exhibition will run from Friday 19th June – Sunday 28th June, 9.00am – 4pm. 

Entry is free/koha.