SITE 2014: An art experience not to be missed

SITE 2014: An art experience not to be missed

The celebrated annual Dunedin School of Art student exhibition, SITE, opens next Saturday 22 November, featuring contemporary works from soon-to-be graduates of the School.

SITE showcases both undergraduate and postgraduate student works, as part of Otago Polytechnic’s annual end-of-year student showcase, Excite.

Works are available for purchase, and visitors have a valuable opportunity to converse directly with the artists as they peruse the show.

“It’s with much fanfare and delight that we open our doors to the public for SITE 2014,” says Coordinator, Rachel Allan. “Artworks are installed in the workshops and classrooms, transforming the working environment of a contemporary art school into a gallery.”

An array of forms and media will be on display, from artistic disciplines such as painting, print, photography, jewellery, textiles, electronic arts, ceramics and sculpture.

Among the exhibiting artists is Millie Leckie, whose interactive work challenges perceptions of what jewellery can be.

She hosted a relational project titled Mould your own Brooch on a busy Dunedin street earlier this year, attracting the involvement of 33 public members. Each was challenged to mould a brooch in a short time frame using coloured play dough selected by lucky dip, and a safety pin. Millie filmed their creative experiences.

“I hoped this method of making would bring back a sense of childhood playfulness for the participants,” Millie says. “I liked the idea that the real value of the brooches was the process and experience of making them – that’s the treasure beyond the jewellery itself.”

Millie later created individual moulds from each of the original play dough brooches, filling them with a mixture of melted crayon and hot glue. Once fired, these became solid brooches that were gifted back to their respective ‘creators’. All of the project participants have been invited to attend the SITE 2014 opening wearing their own brooch.

Footage of the initial street-side creative process will be screened at SITE, using an iPad mounted into a builders’ apron that can be worn by exhibition attendees.

“This work plays with ideas of gender, feminism and craft,” Millie explains, “through the incorporation of the traditionally feminine domain of craft in the creation of the brooches, and the use of the stereotypically masculine builders’ apron to hold the iPad, for example. I particularly liked the connotation of the word ‘apron’ in that context,” she smiles.

SITE 2014
Dunedin School of Art, Riego Street
Saturday 22 November, 10.00am-4.00pm
Monday 24 November - Thursday 27 November, 12.00pm-4.00pm

-ENDS-

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