Fiona Pardington
... Immortally Yours
25 August – 17 September 2011
Opening reception
5.30–7.30pm Thursday 25 August
Level 2/147 Cuba Street
Wellington
{Suite} Gallery is pleased to present ... Immortally Yours by Fiona Pardington, featuring six works made recently while the artist was in Paris completing a Laureate Artistic
Creations Project with the Musee du Quai Branly.
I bought the flowers at the Porte de Clingancourt flea market in Paris and photographed them where I was staying in Rue
des Levis, Villiers, Paris, in May this year.
The flowers were remnants from an estate of a milliner who had died at an advanced age. They were in a plastic bag,
squashed under a whole lot of old books and ephemera up one of the side streets at the markets. I had been researching a
museum collection in Paris of haute couture hand made flowers. When I got to Paris I was unable to access the collection
because the museum was being moved out of the city. I went looking at Porte de Clingancourt for the best part of a day
as I had a feeling I could find something. At the last moment before I left I found them. I steamed and shaped them over
a pot of boiling water and photographed them on a table in the lounge room.
Fiona graduated from the University of Auckland, New Zealand with an MFA (First Class Honours) in photography. She has
participated in many exhibitions at major institutions, including Christchurch Art Gallery (2009) and Museum of New
Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (2006). Born in Devonport, New Zealand and of Kai Tahu, Kati Mamoe and Scottish descent, Fiona
lives and works in Waiheke Island, New Zealand.