We are proud to announce our new exhibition: Peripheral Vision - In Search of Form by Sylvia Sinel
This body of work is the result of a year full of challenges and change. A year when my usual clay practice ended up on the back burner, as I said goodbye to my pottery studio and kiln due to a relocation.
Instead, the search for form led to new exciting discoveries when I started exploring the materiality of polystyrene, cardboard, recycled plastic and other packaging materials. Anything found in the rubbish bin to be exact.
The first few playful experiments working this way, happened already a few years ago, during the Covid lockdown. I created a little group of suspended recycled plastic forms and referred to them as “Litter Angels”. Then a little later, when Cyclone Gabrielle hit New Zealand and my studio ended up without electricity, I sat down and observed the ‘’Litter Angels” closer, and started documenting them with my paints.
I have always been interested in the mystical and in that which you can’t see, but what is still very much present in the periphery. The space where we find faith and hope, the space where magic happens. I’m also very intrigued by the concept of a Kaitiaki, the Māori word for spirit or guardian of a place. The Romans used to refer to the same concept as a Genius Loci - a protective spirit of a place.
As I have explored the 3D forms as paintings, they have taken on their own life and transformed into what you see here in this exhibition. It has been a pleasure to make them and see them come alive.
The exhibition opens on the 11th of November at 2 pm and will be held at the gallery in our exhibition space.
