Two bird exhibitions to adorn Space Gallery

Nga Manu, Nga Manu (The Birds, The Birds) opens today at Space Studio and Gallery in St Hill St and is the work of the Junior Tui team at Durie Hill School.

The team comprises about 100 students and their exhibition is based on the art of The Very Hungry Caterpillar artist, Eric Carle, who uses a collage technique.

It runs alongside an exhibition of book illustration art by Amy Haarhoff, who is also using birds as her theme.

Amy is a friend of locally-based illustrator Sandra Morris, and it was she who approached Space proprietor and curator Sarah Williams with the suggestion that Amy's work would make an ideal exhibition.

"I thought what a fantastic opportunity and it would fit in really well with the exhibition the school is running," says Amy. "The main characters in the book I've illustrated are New Zealand birds."

Amy was born in South Africa but her family, which she describes as "quite British" moved to the UK. She now lives in Palmerston North after having moved to New Zealand when she was 13.

"I've got five big, big, big framed drawings and six smaller ones, and then I've got about 28 little polaroids, like a snapshot of each character from the book.

"It's been an interesting process trying to adapt the book for an exhibition."

Amy is working towards a Master's degree in illustration. Her exhibition, Characters from the Aotearoa forest, appears in Space's pop-up gallery.

Nga Manu, Nga Manu is in galleries one and two.

The Junior Tui team teachers Lana Hook and Anna Webster, with Sarah, made the exhibition happen.

Sarah's daughter, Addisyn, attends Durie Hill School.

"Anna is Addisyn's teacher ... and we've talked about doing stuff for a while," says Lana. "We just decided, because we had the opportunity, with Sarah as part of our school, that we could display something in her gallery."

Lana says since the children know the books of Eric Carle they would use his collage techniques to create art. The birds idea came later but fitted in with the project.

Anna explained the process of creating the art.

"You have to paint tissue paper first. The kids painted their tissue paper using sponges and corks ... making different textures, then they have to cut out their tissue paper like pieces of a puzzle and piece them together."

The children have also made invitations for their parents for the exhibition opening, which will be a busy event, with the children singing a couple of songs and Amy Haarhoff doing a reading.

Nga Manu, Nga Manu and Characters from the Aotearoa forest are on show from Wednesday, November 11 to Saturday, November 14 at Space Gallery in St Hill St.

"It is a short show so we really want to get as many people through the door as we can," says Sarah. "Space is absolutely delighted to be including a children's exhibition as part of the programme: it's nothing we've done before and it's something we're keen to continue. The young artists of the community are just as important as the practising artists we work with every day."

Paul Brooks
Whanganui Midweek 11/11/20