A new public exhibition by Sara Hughes has opened at Tauranga Art Gallery until 27 October 2017. Willow is an interactive installation as part of their major atrium project for 2017. Hughes discusses the exhibition below:
My new installation for the Tauranga Art Gallery titled 'Willow' extends on my deep interest in the ways that art can interact and engage with site and add to people’s experience of place. During visits to Tauranga in the lead up to this exhibition, I have come across a range of factors that have informed my ideas and thinking. Discovering an old stained glass window (from Tauranga’s first Library built in 1931) housed within the current Library (opposite the Gallery) sparked my curiosity to learn more about Willow Street; its history and its architecture. This research informs the project giving it layers of meaning that can be approached in a range of ways by the audience.
Key aspects of the work are the geometries of the built space we live within. I have referenced specific shapes and forms found on Willow Street to engage in a wider dialogue about urban space. Silhouette’s from window frames and positive and negative architectural shapes will be echoed throughout the atrium; overlapping in transparent layers of vinyl on the gallery windows, on the walls of the atrium and within the wooden blocks in the centre of the lobby that invite viewers to create their own architectural structures. I have been working with the Menz shed to create these blocks, sourced from local wood - personal, physical and conceptual connections are an important aspect of this work.
My two sons aged 3 and 5 are a strong influence on my current practice and I enjoy watching them create and demolish elaborate block constructions. This visual and spatial learning is an important developmental phase for children and continues to intrigue adults. My work picks up on this intrinsic human desire and need to build – inviting people of all ages into the lobby to engage with my project and ideas.
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