Month-long residency with NZ Glassworks in Whanganui leads to exhibition for Te Rongo Kirkwood

Auckland-based artist Te Rongo Kirkwood will have the first exhibition of 2022 after being the inaugural recipient of the NZG Glass Residency in June last year. Photo / Bevan Conley

Auckland-based artist Te Rongo Kirkwood will kick off the first exhibition of the year for New Zealand Glassworks Te Whare Tūhua O Te Ao.

Kirkwood spent a month in Whanganui and the New Zealand Glassworks' (NZG) workshop last year, being the first recipient of the NZG Glass Residency in June 2021.

The residency aims to give artists who work exclusively in glass an intensive time and the opportunity to develop a new body of work.

NZG manager Scott Redding said the goal of the exhibition was to show the development and progression Kirkwood achieved over the four-week period.

"It is really pushing her in a new direction."

The residency is supported by funding from Creative New Zealand.

Photo / Bevan Conley

Kirkwood has been working in glass for 15 years, and draws from and explores her Māori (Waikato, Taranaki, Te Wai-o-Hua, Te Kawerau, Ngai Tai ki Tamaki), Scottish and English ancestry.

The residency gave her a chance to work on ideas she hadn't delved into before.

"These works are derived from research based on the hue or gourd form, experiments exploring the many different uses of the hue as a vessel by ancestral Māori for both mundane and ritualistic purposes," Kirkwood said.

"My focus in the residency was to experiment with texture, colour, symbolism and pattern in order to begin to develop a language based on the use of the vessel for various sacred purposes such as blessing, consecration, sanctification and purification."

Photo / Bevan Conley

With 2022 the United Nations International Year of Glass, New Zealand Glassworks plans to hold three exhibitions over the year as part of the celebration.

The exhibition opens at New Zealand Glassworks, 2 Rutland St, on Friday, January 21, and runs until Sunday, March 27.