A Magpie's Wish
'A Magpie's Wish', at KINA in New Plymouth, is an exhibition about secret wishes, daydreams, treasures and trinkets explored from a female perspective.
Featuring paintings by Rachael Garland (Wanganui) and ceramics by Katie Gold (Nelson), these two artists loosely play with notions of femininity in divergent ways.
Rachel Garland’s mixed media paintings are an amalgamation of the real and the imagined. Depicting scenes from her current domestic realm alongside more fantastical, dream-like imagery and symbolism, these paintings provide us with strong narratives about domestic life and motherhood.
The bird figure - particularly the Magpie - appears throughout Garland’s paintings and is laden with metaphorical and symbolic overtones. Here, Garland uses the bird as a metaphorical symbol for ‘spirit’. Magpies have also had a place in art as signalling impending good news, or as messengers of ‘hope to come’.
In contrast to Garland’s reflective, mystical paintings, Katie Gold’s ceramics are colourful blasts of energy. Using clay as a medium to make the everyday fantastic, Gold’s shoes, boots and handbags celebrate the joy of female fashion accessorising.
Gold approaches fantasy through whimsical fun in colour and subject matter. By referencing the fairytale Cinderella, Gold makes links to the magical influences behind her work. She describes her work as “a promise of romance and excitement - all little girls grow up believing the Cinderella myth that shoes can magically transform their lives”.
Both Garland and Gold’s work in 'A Magpie's Wish' play with ideas that provoke us to think about our own stories that define our real and imagined lives.
A MAGPIE’S WISH
11 September – 7 October 2009
On show in the KINA gallery
101 Devon Street West
New Plymouth
www.kina.co.nz
Please call Kina (06) 759 1201 or email: gallery@kina.co.nz for further details.
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KINA NZ Design + Art SpaceKINA is a boutique design store, art gallery and on-line shop proudly supporting New Zealand/Aotearoa designers, craftspeople and artists. This is the perfect place to shop if you are looking for a distinctive slice of New Zealand made art and design. Everything at KINA is New Zealand made; even the music played in the design store is home grown.
Showcasing not only special one-off objects of beauty, KINA is also a popular destination for affordable gifts which express the enviable Kiwi individual spirit and style from jewellery, ceramics, sculpture, glass, limited edition prints, handmade NZ crafts, greenstone, weaving, kiwiana souvenirs and presents for all.
KINA also has monthly exhibitions in the attached gallery space by predominately Taranaki artists.
Based in New Plymouth, KINA is now open all hours to shoppers worldwide, since the launch of the on-line shop in 2006. New products are added regularly to the on-line shop, so it pays to make frequent visits to the new page. Better still, you can become a friend of KINA and receive a monthly newsletter about exhibitions and new products.
With a wonderful range of jewellery and gifts, KINA also offers free gift wrapping, gift vouchers, a professional packaging service and world-wide delivery. Remember posting gifts overseas with us is GST free.
The KINA team are committed to following sustainability principles of recycling, reducing and reusing wherever possible. Along with directly supporting local environmental projects we like to share our knowledge and experience with the arts community as well. It’s true we’re greenies at heart and wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s not alright to leave it to others. We all need to make an effort.
PS: WE LOVE TO GIFT WRAP
