Govett-Brewster Seniors: Emerita Baik 'O'

Open Window
Second Friday of the month

Meet at Monica's Eatery 9.30 am ready for a 10 am start.

Talks for older people keen for a regular dose of art and culture.

Join us for free-flowing conversations and experiences of contemporary art inside the current exhibitions. No knowledge of art is needed!

This month, we will look at our latest Open Window exhibition, O by Te Whanganui-a-Tara-based artist Emerita Baik.

'O'
9 Jul - 7 Nov 2022

Made up of a series of soft sculptures, based on the form of carved wooden Mandarin ducks often gifted in pairs at Korean wedding ceremonies. Mandarin ducks mate for life, and will mourn for their partner after their passing. As a gift, the ducks contain wishes of wealth, health, fidelity and fertility.

Baik’s ducks are constructed from fragments of hand-dyed and painted fabrics and wrapped in bottari - a method for bundling goods for gifting or migrating. Baik’s materials are redolent of domestic comfort; of making home and finding rest. In their arrangement, though, the ducks gesture to a sense of displacement, motion, and the lived experiences of existing between cultures and languages.