Whenua/ Occupation Artist: Reflect/Containment-Uncontained: Refinery ArtSpace

Whenua
Vicki Lenihan, Rongomaiaia Te Whaiti, Alix Ashworth, Caitlin Donnelly, Mya Morrison-Middleton:
E honoa ana mātou mā te whakapapa; he whānui mātou. He uri mātou o Tahu Pōtiki i kōnei.
We are connected by whakapapa; we are family. We are Ngāi Tahu.
Whenua – meaning both land and placenta – connects us to Papatūānuku: we are all children of her womb. Whenua binds us to our place in the world. Because we are from and of the whenua, we belong. As Ngāi Tahu object-based artists, we have a powerful attachment to our whenua; it nourishes and validates our mana, mauri and wairua while we do the same for it: every decision, every action we undertake is inextricably intertwined with the health and future of our whenua and of us. This collection of works explores our connection to whenua, to our place in Aotearoa and Te Waipounamu.

Occupation Artist: Reflect
Vivien Atkinson, Becky Bliss, Kelly McDonald, Sarah Read, Nadine Smith, Caroline Thomas
Hey hey, it’s our birthday! It’s ten years since Occupation: Artist opened our workshop-in-a-shopping-mall and started presenting quick-fire exhibitions and performance pieces for bewildered Wellington commuters. Since then we have supported each others’ professional development, exhibited widely, travelled together to masterclasses and conferences, and hosted local and international artist residencies in the studio.
Though our individual practices are based on diverse personal interests, we’ve found great strength as a group that is able to engage with the community via large-scale public art projects. These typically address socially-conscious subjects (think climate change, traffic pollution, property prices) and encourage public interaction. Materials to date have included a truckload of ice, many many toy cars, and of course lashings of our trademark gold leaf.
It’s wonderful to be here together in Nelson and we can all agree that, one way or another, it’s been quite the decade. Come and visit our open-studio/exhibition space to see some of the things we’ve made over that time, to get golden in one of our convivial workshop sessions, or simply to say hello and sample the cake of the day.
Here’s to another ten years of making our work and getting it out there.
In exhibition from 14th April – 6th May.

CONTAINMENT / UNCONTAINED | HSDCTC collaboration (HandShake project + Dialogue Collective + TempContemp)
Following on from the success of the Handshake exhibition at our first #NJW in 2021, another amazing collaboration is taking over the Refinery ArtSpace for #NJW2023: HSDCTC Collaboration, three jewellery artists’ groups from Aotearoa, the UK, and Australia, have joined forces to explore the ‘CONTAINMENT / UNCONTAINED’, reflecting on the relationships between jewellery objects as well as themes of freedoms and restrictions. This exhibition encompasses the stormy journeys that triumphantly sustained the demoralising worldwide pandemic and actual geographical borders.
Each of the twenty artists conclude their collaboration voyage at the @the_refineryartspace with their dissected theme studies and jewellery objects supported by images, texts, and video. Make sure you bring some extra time to explore their findings!
Artworks pictured by: Mandy Flood, Peter Deckers, Leila Costa, HSDCTC Collab exhibition.
In exhibition 14th April – 6th May

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