Te Rongo Kirkwood Exhibitions

Te Rongo Kirkwood

As Above, So Below

22 Apr - 17 May 2017

Exhibition Works

As Above, So Below I
As Above, So Below I (2017)
As Above, So Below II
As Above, So Below II (2017)
As Above, So Below III
As Above, So Below III (2017)
Black Sun
Black Sun (2017)
Ascension: I am the Sun / Son
Ascension: I am the Sun / Son (2017)
Ascension: I am the Sun / Son (Portrait)
Ascension: I am the Sun / Son (Portrait) (2017)
Ascension: I am the Moon
Ascension: I am the Moon (2017)
Ascension: I am the Moon (Portrait)
Ascension: I am the Moon (Portrait) (2017)
God Particle I
God Particle I (2017)
God Particle III
God Particle III (2017)
God Particle II
God Particle II (2017)
Music of the Spheres: Tawera / Venus / Lucifer
Music of the Spheres: Tawera / Venus / Lucifer (2017)
Whiwhi Part III (Future)
Whiwhi Part III (Future) (2016)
Whiwhi Part I (Past)
Whiwhi Part I (Past) (2016)
Whiwhi Part II (Present)
Whiwhi Part II (Present) (2016)
Music of the Spheres: Sun / Son
Music of the Spheres: Sun / Son (2017)

artist interview

 
  
Te Rongo Kirkwood discusses her exhibition As Above, So Below with Milford Galleries Art Consultant Vanessa Jones
Video production: Fabia Oliveira
 

exhibition text

Te Rongo Kirkwood works with a combination of materials, amongst them fused glass and textiles, and for this new collection of works, she takes the realms of the heavens and the earth as inspiration. Combining Māori mythologies, scientific observations, and exceptional craftsmanship, Kirkwood has created sculptural objects that walk across many worlds.

The Heavenly Realms pieces present seemingly abstract patterns on fine glass oblongs. Akin to Sumerian tablets or runic inscriptions on stone, their messages may be read providing the viewer has the key. In this case, the patterning turns out to be visualisations of the radiowave frequencies emitted by each celestial body. Suggestive of ritual and worship, other works may be worn. Replete with symbolic geometries and markings, they hint at potential transformations and revelations.

Alongside these are a set of the glass cloaks for which Kirkwood is most well known. Harakeke weaving techniques are combined with fused and etched glass forms to create cloaks that function as sculptural objects within a gallery but which can also be imagined draped across shoulders or wrapped around a body. The past is not referenced in passing but is present within each woven strand of flax fibre, carved motif, and the very form of each cloak.

Te Rongo Kirkwood has realised concepts of the heavens and the earth through a complex language of colour, texture, form and function. Each of her works is a sum of exquisitely rendered parts, which come together to illustrate a larger whole.

 
This exhibition was realised with the generous support of Creative New Zealand 

Exhibition Views