Everyone’s from somewhere else ($220 individually, installation POA)
This fascinating little body of work was made in my workshop on the Kaipara harbour. It’s made from a range of native New Zealand timbers, including 50,000 year-old Swamp Kauri, Rewa rewa, Rimu, Macrocarpa, Pine, Kauri, Cedar and some unknown.
Each ‘chair’ starts off as a spindle individually turned and crafted on a lathe, sanded, and then painted in heritage colours from the Resene range; as both an architectural, and historical, reference. Each spindle is then quartered, turned inside out, and fixed to a piece of timber which forms the ‘seat’.
The form represents two different styles and aesthetics, being somewhat contemporary on the exterior (square and angular) while harking back to traditional New Zealand colonial shapes on the interior.
The title plays on the individuality of each piece, while nodding to the current global debates around immigration, cultural heritage, and polarising politics around ‘the other’. An object as utilitarian as a chair at once grounds us, and reminds us that – just like the variations of colour, history and shape evident in these timbers – we are all human, and ultimately all the same.
Everyone’s from somewhere else ($220 individually, installation POA)