Jessie Wong and co-curator Emma Ng put out the word, and most of those invited made something new for it, across ceramics, weaving, woodwork, metal and cloth.
A bronze comb by Shannen Young and Binh Minh Ha reads as fine art. Augustina Binyamin’s stainless-steel bench takes on the presence of sculpture. On a wall, the intricacy of Kathryn Tsui’s beaded weaving comes into focus, every thread of it copying a cheap nylon market bag. A gallery lets you get near enough to see how a thing was made, and Objects by Women rewarded anyone who did.
These are artists: 11 women working across ceramics, weaving, woodwork, metal and cloth, who are carving out creative lives here.
Yu Mei’s show at Gow Langsford put that work in front of people who hadn’t yet met it. “I wanted women’s design and craft to be visible and appreciated in the context of fine art,” says Yu Mei founder Jessie Wong, “and for visitors to be inspired by the hands that make these items.” This is what arts patronage can look like now in Aotearoa.
When Jessie and her co-curator Emma Ng, who had worked together on Common Material, the inaugural Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington design biennial, put the word out, most of the makers crafted something new in response to their invitation.
Jessie came away with plenty herself: the hand-cut joints on Josephine Jelicich and Binh Minh Ha’s hall table, the sense of self in Turumeke Harrington’s sculpture. “All the type of things I think about when designing a bag,” she says. Her latest, the Pania, took more than three years.
“I also loved the collegial sense of working together,” says Jessie. Although many were already collaborating, Yu Mei put them in a room together. People came out talking about the makers. One day was enough to do that. There should be more of them.
yumeibrand.com
Words Alice Lines
Photography Jack Fisher
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