Riding the Wind - Christine Hellyar & Samantha Lissette

This exhibition includes recent botanic drawings by Christine Hellyar, with bronzes by both Hellyar and Samantha Lissette (an artist new to Fe29) sitting comfortably alongside.

CHRISTINE HELLYAR was born in New Plymouth (1947). She completed a DFA (Hons) in 1970 at Elam, where she subsequently taught part-time. Since leaving in 1996 to work full-time in her studio, she has accumulated numerous awards, including the first Adam Award (for her significant contribution to NZ art - 1988); Dept. of Conservation residency, Mt Taranaki (2003); Tylee Cottage Residency, Sarjeant Gallery (2005); McConnell Properties Stoneleigh Sculpture Award (2009); and resident botanic artist at the Auckland Botanic Gardens (2011). Exhibiting consistently in NZ and internationally, Hellyar’s work is held in most NZ public collections, including Auckland Art Gallery, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, Museum of NZ Te Papa Tongarewa and Christchurch Art Gallery.

The first series of drawings in this exhibition, Finding Ferns in the Forest, reflects an activity Hellyar finds almost sculptural. The accompanying Found Fern sculptures are about how we like to own things - “I like the way the word found is part of the word foundry, and the way even big bronzes can look like jewellery.” In the second series of drawings ‘Rangiora’, Hellyar shows the graphic nature of the plant alongside its forest companions.

SAMANTHA LISSETTE was born in Dunedin in 1970 and currently resides in Auckland. Exhibiting regularly throughout NZ and internationally, her work is in public and private collections across NZ and China. She is a member of Medal Art NZ (MANZ) and exhibits with International Art Medal Federation (FIDEM). She has a degree in philosophy from Auckland University (1996) and in her art practice explores the relationship between ‘designed’ elements in the natural world and man’s adaptation of them. There is a strong narrative quality to Lissette’s work, questioning aspects of the human condition. Often employing humour or irony, she brings a sense of playfulness and delicacy to a medium traditionally associated with weight and substance. She works extensively in all scales of the bronze medium, from monument to miniature.

In the exhibition title piece, Riding the Wind, Lissette captures that moment of updraft as the wind catches leaves and carries them upward. Amongst the leaves, a snail has found himself caught in the flight, forced to surrender and go with the flow of life - an analogy for us all to let go of control. Lissette has received public and corporate commissions for her work. Her most recent public commission is the Little Blue Penguin Project at Campbells Bay Beach on Auckland’s North Shore - a little blue penguin from this series is included in the show.