Victoria McIntosh / Smother
Christchurch contemporary jewellery gallery, The National, presents Smother by Victoria McIntosh.
Showing at Chambers@241 from 14th – 23rd September 2011.
According to Dunedin-based artist Victoria McIntosh the words “envelop, wrap, enshroud and surround” are only a lexical nudge from “smother”. For, the blanket that warms and covers can smother and choke. Smother presents new works that teeter between forms of warm-comfort and harmful restriction to explore the process of creating and presenting oneself to the world.
With Smother, McIntosh collects and literally twists quatrefoils of sure and weighty cream antique blanket. In her works evocatively entitled Blanket Protection these are: stitched together as if they were the linen and lace of an Elizabethan ruff; embellished with pearls and fluttering white cotton threads in the style of an unusual boa or winter-weight lei; and pulled so tightly that they twist around each other in rope-like loops. With the equally playful yet edgy work Strand of Pills, the artist develops another material theme around the gelatine pill case that glitters and shimmers along with the pearls of its thread. In Choker, blanket and pills are brought together in antique pastry boats to press the length of the neck.
The works of Smother are, first and foremost, collectable objects that relate to the body and its socialisation. They are elegantly beautiful while they push the boundaries of what can be worn with a level of comfort. As the artist will show, these works are concerned with the ways in which the mechanisms we employ to present and protect ourselves can bind and harm us.
Jodie Dalgleish, 2011
For a review of “Smother” by Victoria McIntosh on Eye Contact click here
For further information or enquiries please contact 021 0430 533 or info@thenational.co.nz
THE NATIONAL is a Christchurch gallery dedicated to contemporary jewellery. Due to the February earthquake the gallery has lost its premises in High St, and is pleased to be able to present this solo exhibition at Chambers@241 in September.
chambers241 