Gertrud Wagner (ed) FLOWER POWER : Exhibition Review, INUNISON Magazine, Issue 2, pg 19, 2004. UNITEC Institute of Technplogy, Auckland , New Zeland.
The years opening exhibition at SNOWWHITE is Fabricated rooms: a display of five art works giving the beholder accessible pieces that reflect the essence of Pacifica, interiors, and nature.
Enamel on clear PVC gives silhouettes of flowers in mainly pinks and pastels. Spray-painted fluoro-colours contrast the heavy, block prints, as do the flourishes of swirls and brocade that decorate the centre piece bouquets. Artworks named “Powder Puff” and “Treasure the true” remind me of upholstered furniture and old style wallpaper with their lavish, ornate patterns. This is a good thing. Jane Henzell says: “Fabricated Rooms responds to the common dreams ‘dreams and disasters' that often occur during the rejuvenation of interior décor, and enables the viewer to ponder the highs and lows of New Zealand suburban culture.
My immediate impression upon walking into the gallery in Building One was “I wish my shower curtains were as beautiful and true as these renditions.” Again, a good thing. The realness and not mass-produced essence of the works stamped an indelible impression on me. I dabbled with the idea that maybe, with the interior aspect the architraves represented, maybe this was a window into the outside. Yet nature was actually part of the interior too – as the fabricated foliage clung to not only the glass the PVC seemed to represent, but also the wooden picture railing above. Nature permeates our interiors, through natural images such as those of these plasticized flowers.
In actual fact, “images of flower forms, catalogued Pacifica patterns and fabrics play homage to my ongoing fascination about colonial New Zealand flower painting,” says the artist. “This New Zealand iconographic tradition is re-evaluated in ‘Fabricated Rooms', in terms of the repositioning of the figurative and representation of flowers with-in the New Zealand painting practice and Auckland's suburban and visual culture.”
Hanging from architraves satisfied both the practical and creative purposes of the artist, an interior design and painting lecturer at UNITEC. Her works are an accurate reproduction of the original.