A MAGPIE’S WISH

On show in the KINA gallery
11 September – 7 October 2009

KINA’s exhibition A MAGPIE’S WISH is a show about secret wishes, daydreams, treasures and trinkets explored from a female perspective. Featuring paintings by Rachael Garland (Whanganui) and ceramics by Katie Gold (Nelson), these two artists loosely play with notions of femininity in divergent ways.

Rachel Garland’s mixed media paintings are an amalgamation of the real and the imagined. Depicting scenes from her current domestic realm alongside more fantastical, dream-like imagery and symbolism, these paintings provide us with strong narratives about domestic life and motherhood.

The bird figure - particularly the Magpie - appears throughout Garland’s paintings and is laden with metaphorical and symbolic overtones. Here, Garland uses the bird as a metaphorical symbol for ‘spirit’. Magpies have also had a place in art as signalling impending good news, or as messengers of ‘hope to come’.

In contrast to Garland’s reflective, mystical paintings, Katie Gold’s ceramics are colourful blasts of energy. Using clay as a medium to make the everyday fantastic, Gold’s shoes, boots and handbags celebrate the joy of female fashion accessorising.

Gold approaches fantasy through whimsical fun in colour and subject matter. By referencing the fairytale Cinderella, Gold makes links to the magical influences behind her work. She describes her work as “a promise of romance and excitement - all little girls grow up believing the Cinderella myth that shoes can magically transform their lives”.

Both Garland and Gold’s work in A MAGPIE’S WISH play with ideas that provoke us to think about our own stories that define our real and imagined lives.