Exhibitions » Exhibition Archive » Hirschfeld Gallery Archive » The Nita Gini Collection: Lauren Lysaght
Lauren Lysaght, Swan Lineage (detail), work in progress 2009-10. Courtesy of the artist.
The Nita Gini Collection: Lauren Lysaght
26 June - 15 August 2010 in the Hirschfeld Gallery
Lauren Lysaght presented a unique gathering of ‘Crown Lynn’ objects, drawing on her grandmother Nita Gini’s collection. These objects wereall constructed by the artist using cardboard, plaster of Paris and an array of other craft and found materials. Lysaght also created the plinths and display furniture for the exhibition, using bizarre and highly theatrical materials including fake leopard-skin fabric, wood veneer and found items.
Veering dramatically from the formality with which collections are often presented, The Nita Gini Collection represented a singular and idiosyncratic response to the Crown Lynn story familiar to many New Zealanders. The exhibition adopted a brassy, mischievous and indomitably homemade aesthetic to consider objects we often call ‘precious’, in a new and extremely colourful light.
Gregory O’Brien writes in response to this body of work, ‘An artist pathologically interested in unpromising and unlikely materials, Lauren Lysaght is in fine iconoclastic form…’ Larger-than-life, this work continues a story where the objects have become almost characters in their own right. The Crown Lynn narrative is far from complete, in The Nita Gini Collection it continues, irreverent and exultant.
Media release
Further Reading
Lauren Lysaght - Essay by Curator Abby Cunnane
Lauren Lysaght - Suggested Further Reading