This Saturday the 24th of June my first solo exhibition titled A net woven from my own hair will open in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Presented at Chez Derriere, the current program for Te Tuhi's off-site Parnell Project Space, this will mark my first exhibition in Aotearoa New Zealand. The exhibition is curated by Felixe Laing, the current curatorial intern at Te Tuhi. Beginning her research project in July 2022, she is running her project Chez Derriere over the course of 2023 at the Parnell Project Space. Chez Derriere, in its literal French translation, describes ‘a place of business or home at the behind’. The name refers to its physical location in the back of Parnell but also as a space for experimentation and emerging practice. The name Chez Derriere also references Felixe’s family history of her parents as restaurateurs.
Through Chez Derriere, Felixe is exploring the role of the ‘host’ in the context of hospitality in relation to the role of the curator in contemporary art - thinking about how to host and care for audiences, artists and ideas within exhibition making and alternative event based curatorial models. Felixe sees Chez Derriere as a space for play; shifting focus away from resolved outcomes and centering playful research, performance and participation.
A net woven from my own hair takes its title from a 1986 essay by Ursula Le Guin called ‘The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction’. In this essay Le Guin posits that before the tool that forces energy outward, we made the tool that brings energy home, suggesting that the first cultural device was probably a recipient made from textile, and our home a similar recipient for holding people. Using this concept as a point of departure, the exhibition explores personal cultural narratives of home space using the textile medium, while responding to the fractured architecture and transient heritage of the Parnell Station site, which is damaged by fire.
There will be an opening celebration on Saturday the 24th of June from 3pm to 5pm, and an informal talk with myself and Felixe at 2pm on the same day. All are welcome :)
