Ideas given wider brushstroke

Wanganui's Andrea Gardner and Jack Mischalski join seven emerging and established artists in a new exhibition on March 5 at the Lysaght Watt Gallery in Hawera.

Second Lives: Reinventing the Ordinary will present artworks by the nine established and emerging artists from around New Zealand who give everyday objects a new purpose with the aim to inspire visitors to look at the world around them differently.

The exhibition will give new meaning to a wide variety of everyday materials intended for other functions, curator of the show and South Taranaki District Council arts co-ordinator Michaela Stoneman said.

"Second Lives strives to broaden definitions and ideas about beauty, function and necessity and explores how crafty we need to be to reduce the waste in our lives in this era of global consumerism."

Joining Gardner and Mischalski are New Plymouth artists Jane Mitchell and Sheela Stoneman, and Julie McDonnell, Richard Pearse, Andi Regan, Miranda Smitheram and Adrian Worsley from Taupo, Wellington, Wanaka, Auckland and Te Aroha respectively.

"Each of these artists has a mission to create objects and scenarios that propose clever takes on upcycling. A wide variety of the materials are intended for other functional purposes, but in Second Lives the objects take on new life. A testimony to the power of reinvention, the work demonstrates that perception goes a long way in jump-starting innovative recycling."

The show is part of Te Ngira: New Zealand Diversity Action Programme, run by the Human Rights Commission in March each year.

The public is invited to the opening at 6pm, on March 5 where the artists will speak about their work.

Second Lives: Reinventing the Ordinary, March 5-31, Lysaght Watt Gallery, 6 Union St, Hawera.

Open: Monday-Friday 10am-1pm Saturday 10am-1pm