MY CHOICE: Nicky Bousfield / January 2022
January 2022: Nicky Bousfield
Each month a member of our community is invited to browse our online collection and select six of their favourite artworks. Each My Choice selection, together with personal responses to the works, will be available to view on the Sarjeant Gallery website for one month at a time. The January 2022 My Choice has been selected by Nicky Bousfield and is available to view until 31 January, 2022.
Nicky Bousfield is a textile collector and artist from Whanganui, also working in photography. Locals may recognize Nicky as a model for Julia Holden’s work during her residency at Tylee Cottage in 2018-19. Nicky was a ‘live’ painting/photograph as Wartime Wendy and also a subject for Her Indoors. She also modelled for J K Russ’ portraits a decade earlier in the same central city locations. With a background in fashion design and art practice, Nicky uses patterned textiles in collage, photography and sculpture. She also makes hanging sculptures using knotted string, updating the retro art of macrame. Works have been exhibited in the Whanganui and Taranaki regions, and a photograph took a prize at the Taranaki Art Awards. Nicky holds a degree from Otago University and also worked in Dunedin for designers and theatre productions.
Don Driver Red Table and Chair 1981/8/2A-B
“I remember seeing this on my first visit to the Sarjeant as a teenager. I recall it standing in the rear wing, by the stairwell. It opened my eyes to the possibility of sculpture, using mundane objects. The scale of it lifts it into fantasy, and makes you feel like Alice has taken the shrinking pill. I can’t imagine it in any other colour, with the same impact.”
E.M. Taylor Maui Taming The Sun 1982/24/1
“My favourite NZ artist. Maori legend was one of his main themes. The monochrome woodcuts are all wonderful but this coloured version is spectacular. No wonder they admired his work in Eastern Europe, it reminds me of USSR propaganda posters. It’s a very modernist aesthetic as seen in school journals of the time. The tension and energy in this tiny work is thrilling.”
Andrew Ross Stairs, Old Chronicle Building 2010/5/3
“The Chronicle building is a sacred space for creatives, and I recognize the Writers Room in this shot. I’ve watched Andrew setting up for photographs and it takes a long time and a studied eye for detail. The light source is perfect and the arrangement is stately but serene.”
Regan Gentry The End of the Tether 2008/6/1
“Your sense of smell is not something you expect to be stimulated in a gallery but I distinctly recall the pleasing scent of jute as I walked around this. I have worked in macrame knotting over the years so it’s a nostalgic scent. I admired the large scale square knotting in this work. The bridge is a hometown icon so for me it drew many threads together.”
Philip Clairmont The Clothes Line (in a Canterbury Nor Wester) 1975/4/1
“Another memory from my early gallery visits. This is the work that opened my eyes to the paint medium. It’s a riot of colour and movement. It’s hard not to be affected by it. I love the inclusion of fabric pieces, which must have been an early inspiration on my own work with textile collage.”
Peter Peryer Neenish Tarts 1984/13/1
“I used to keep a postcard of this photo on my fridge. Peter took a snapshot of me on his phone outside the McNamara Gallery years ago but I doubt he printed it! I just admire a simple photo of geometric shapes and I can taste the tarts looking at them. It has a busy rhythm like a textile design.”
Category
Past Exhibitions 2022
