Masterworks Gallery, 30 July-19 August 2017
Two new exhibitions with costume and textile interest open at Masterworks Gallery in Auckland at the end of July. Weaver Christopher Duncan is part of Room for Conversation, with ceramicist Aaron Scythe and glass artist Layla Walter. Duncan’s work is linen, cotton and silk; some silks are vintage, others dyed with Tasmanian Blackwood or walnut.
Scythe also features in the other exhibition opening at the same time, Pretty and Practical: The Button Show. The show’s title comes from a series of buttons of the same name made in the 80s by feted New Zealand jeweller Warwick Freeman, some of which are included in the exhibition.
Inspired by conversations with clients and artists about textile art and projects that noted the scarcity of the kinds of buttons that complement such projects, the gallery invited its artists to design and make some buttons. The response was ‘overwhelming’, and unique, handcrafted buttons in glass, ceramic, pearl, bone or metal have been arriving for the opening on Sunday 30 July.
The buttons live up to the title and brief: works of art to delight the senses that are still functional. Pretty and Practical is a collector’s dream, the answer to the maker’s dilemma of embellishing that garment with a worthy button; a delicious detail for a special textile object.
Photographs supplied by Masterworks (weaving photo by Christopher Duncan).