Gold.Flax.Paper Exhibition was held in the Carnegie Gallery Hokitika, 1 March – 27 April 2019.
Artists
Gold.Flax.Paper is a collaboration of three Hokitika artists:
- Kira Birchfield, jeweller – gold
- Anne Daniel, fibre artist – flax/harakeke
- Kate Buckley, visual artist – paper
Kira Birchfield – gold 
Anne Daniel – flax
The natural environment strongly influences our work. While our work is very different, it is also very complimentary.
Flax
The exhibition provided motivation to create a new body of work. For some time, I have been wanting to create more sculptural wall art. Freshly woven harakeke is quite flexible and can be manipulated into three dimensional shapes. They hold their shape when dried.
I also created a series of 2-dimensional works based on circles, and a large rectangular piece with plaited koru.
I enjoy creating coloured works. But, for this exhibition, I deliberately chose to work mainly with natural undyed fibre. I kept colour to blues and greens, which are dominant in our environment.
Exhibition opening and artist talks
There was a good turnout to the opening and to the artist talks we gave the following day.
Acknowledgments
This is the first time I have exhibited in an exhibition like this. It was a challenging and fulfilling experience. I was thrilled with the emotional response people had to my work. It is most rewarding and satisfying when people feel something and get pleasure pleasure from what I create. And then selling work is always a bonus.
I would like to thank my fellow artists and friends, Kira and Kate. Also, a special thanks to Louise who helped us set up the Gold.Flax.Paper exhibition.