Finn Ferrier
sculpture
sculpture
8 Oct - 5 Nov 2016
New Zealand Fashion Museum: Intellectual Fashion Show 2016
Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland
New Zealand
New Zealand Fashion Museum: Intellectual Fashion Show 2016
Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland
New Zealand
In 1959 artist June Black staged the original Intellectual Fashion Show at the Architectural Centre Gallery in Wellington. That exhibition included paintings, ceramic wall sculptures and a provocative commentary, offering the concept of an ‘intellectual fashion house’ where the visitors were invited “to dress the mind away from commonplace associations…”.
It explored the metaphorical nature of clothing, and its relationship to our need for self-validation, dramatization, reassurance and the assertion of audacity. During her lifetime June Black imagined and named many conceptual costumes as an escape from and an armour to protect ‘the self’ against the rigours of daily life, social hypocrisy and cultural expectations, while also encouraging flamboyant self-creation.
The Intellectual Fashion Show 2016 is to reframe June Black’s inquiry within a relevant and contemporary context. To do so we offered 65 creative practitioners from many fields the opportunity to choose a metaphorical costume from June Black’s imaginative wardrobe and experiment with its expressive potential to fashion the body and the mind.
What would a Costume to be worn over a heavy heart look like? Or a Hat for elevated thoughts? And what makes for a Costume in which to invite undiluted pleasure?
The Intellectual Fashion Show 2016 is collaboration between Blikfang Gallery and the New Zealand Fashion Museum. It is a unique multi media exploration of the power of what we wear to give shape to our lives.
Curated by Doris de Pont and Janie van Woerden.
http://www.nzfashionmuseum.org.nz/intellectual-fashion-show-2016/
It explored the metaphorical nature of clothing, and its relationship to our need for self-validation, dramatization, reassurance and the assertion of audacity. During her lifetime June Black imagined and named many conceptual costumes as an escape from and an armour to protect ‘the self’ against the rigours of daily life, social hypocrisy and cultural expectations, while also encouraging flamboyant self-creation.
The Intellectual Fashion Show 2016 is to reframe June Black’s inquiry within a relevant and contemporary context. To do so we offered 65 creative practitioners from many fields the opportunity to choose a metaphorical costume from June Black’s imaginative wardrobe and experiment with its expressive potential to fashion the body and the mind.
What would a Costume to be worn over a heavy heart look like? Or a Hat for elevated thoughts? And what makes for a Costume in which to invite undiluted pleasure?
The Intellectual Fashion Show 2016 is collaboration between Blikfang Gallery and the New Zealand Fashion Museum. It is a unique multi media exploration of the power of what we wear to give shape to our lives.
Curated by Doris de Pont and Janie van Woerden.
http://www.nzfashionmuseum.org.nz/intellectual-fashion-show-2016/
Finn Ferrier
(b.1981) lives in Auckland New Zealand. Ferrier has been exhibiting as an artist since 2002. His practice is focused on the object, story telling, materiality and place.
Ferrier’s Wharfware series began in 2009 as an excercise in exploring the materiality of rope.
This website contains a partial archive of my rope-work, representing one part of my practice.
Contact:
finnferrier@orcon.net.nz
Recent Events/ Exhibitions
2022
Dowse Museum: acquisition of ‘Covid Cup’ for their collection.
NZ Maritime Museum, acquisition of a body of work for their collection (2022)
New Zealand Maritime Museum, Edmonston Gallery temporary exhibition (2022)
Objectspace: Weekly Objects. Series of editioned garlands.
(07-2022)
Soft Landing, Page Galleries, Wellington (02-2022)
Finders, Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui (12-2021 - 05-2022)
2021
Finn Ferrier: Ockham Lecture Series, Objectspace, Auckland
Leading Lights, Masterworks Gallery, Auckland.
Meet The Maker: Finn Ferrier. NZ House & Garden Magazine (April 2021)
Changing Threads 2021 Awards, Arts Council Nelson.
Award Finalist
2020
Finn Ferrier: Soft Garniture. Te Uru Art Gallery, Auckland (2020-2021)
A Few Too Many Hangups,
The Tuesday Club, Auckland
2019
The Nineteen Gallery: Relocating Frances Hodgkins. Auckland Art Gallery (2019)
Wharfware
These rope vessels were originally constructed with idea that they could be made at sea by a sailor, passing time by creating decorative objects for their surrounding. These vessels are the logical progression from the practice of decorative knots.
More recently I have been thinking about my rope works like ceramics. Instead of working with the materiality of clay to express form, I work with rope and the inherent properties of this material. I do not use any chemical bonds. Friction, tension and gravity determine the shapes, along with personal experience and tacit understanding.
These vessels are made in one direction with one piece of rope, with exception to handles, which are applied afterwards.
The conception of this rope-work series originally came about as an exploration of the ‘critique of preciousness’ a central theme in contemporary jewellery where it is the concept and making that determines the value of the object over a material value.
These vessels are intended to reflect a simple and elegant use of rope and rhythmic forms that allude to the processes of making and cyclical time.
++ See Ockham Lecure Series page for a talk on my practice ++
Photography: Sam Hartnett / Finn Ferrier
finnferrier(at)orcon.net.nz
