Welcome to another year. We hope you’ve all been able to enjoy relaxing time with family and friends, and members should have received their copies of the glorious summer issue of Context just before Christmas for their holiday reading.
This issue included three papers from the Nelson symposium: the 2020 symposium in Auckland will be earlier, 31 July – 2 August, and the call for papers is now open. You have a couple of months to scope out your perspective on 2020’s Vision: Hindsight, Foresight, Insight theme; abstracts are due in early March. Full details on the symposium page.
Also in the latest issue, reviews of several of many of the textile exhibitions from throughout 2019. If you’re in Wellington, or visiting, you can see Suffrage in Stitches at the Wellington Museum until early April. Other exhibitions around the country include The Pompoms at Christchurch’s CoCA gallery. Designers Julieanne Eason and Carl Pavletich of Shades Arcade have used more than 150 metres of crimson fabric for “an immersive installation made up of ten giant pompoms which dance and swirl to a choreographed routine” (until 2 February). The Dunedin textile community is looking forward to the opening on 10 January of Areez Katki’s much-lauded Bildungsroman, featuring embroideries drawn from exploration of his cultural heritage (Indian/Iranian/Zoroastrastrian). Areez will be in Dunedin for the opening weekend to present a talk on Saturday 11 January at 1pm, and a hands-on workshop 2-4pm (booking required).
Other exhibitions still on through January in the North Island include Nomads, the exhibition at the Dowse featuring Zena Abbott and Emma Fitts. In Auckland, there’s jewellery: at Te Uru, Handshake 5, and at Objectspace, Elena Gee: World/Body/Myth. Objectspace is also currently exhbiting Ena Snuggles, a quilt created by Mark Braunius in collaboration with Brenda Ronowicz.
There’s more to come during the year, so we’ll keep you posted. Thanks to all of you who have let us know about other events and exhibitions during 2019 and keep the information coming.