Weird Science
An Exhibition of Glass
30 JAN 2025 - 23 MAR 2025
The up and coming glass exhibition will showcase thirteen talented glass artists from around Aotearoa as well as one Australian based New Zealand artist, who are exploring their medium under the concept of Weird Science.
This exhibition has been timed to line up with the NZSAG glass conference happening 21 - 23 February 2025.
This exhibition has been timed to line up with the NZSAG glass conference happening 21 - 23 February 2025.
Step into the extraordinary with Weird Science, a new exhibition at UTOPIA Gallery, co-curated by gallery owner and artist Angela Tier and glass artist Emma Camden. This collection brings together thirteen artists who push the boundaries of glass as a medium, exploring its transformative possibilities through innovation, science, and artistry.
Glass, a material born of silica and heat, is a paradox—fragile yet enduring, transparent yet solid. It’s this duality that fuels the creative energy of the artists featured in this exhibition. Through casting, blowing, fusing, and flame-working, they manipulate molecules into mesmerizing forms, crafting objects that challenge perceptions and spark curiosity.
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Emma Camden’s monumental cast glass sculptures evoke alien machinery, their geometric forms and surface manipulations inviting viewers to marvel at the techniques behind such vast, intricate creations. In contrast, Ruth Paterson’s ethereal cast glass religious icons reimagine sacred relics, their transparency and radiant light creating an otherworldly aura, as if divine power itself has been captured in glass.
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Cathy Tuthill’s Trilobites resurrect ancient marine creatures, reinterpreting their fossilized forms with vibrant colour and dynamic presence—a revival of life from extinction.
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Meanwhile, Clare McGlynn delves into the eerie and provocative world of chimeras, her anthropomorphic figures blending human bodies with rabbit heads. Her work resonates with contemporary debates in science, recalling experiments that blur the line between human and animal.
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Lisa Bates magnifies the microscopic world, stacking glass beads that echo the forms of cells and bacteria. This theme extends into the work of Jarred Wright, whose organic borosilicate glass sculptures explore nanotechnology and microbiology, bridging the gap between science and art.
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George Agius, a storyteller through glass, presents a bold yet delicate narrative, her organic forms questioning the science behind modification and scale. Vicki Fanning takes us to the cosmic scale, with Little Cub, a flameworked glass piece inspired by galaxies colliding, reflecting on our relationship with cyberspace and modern interconnectivity.
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Levi Hawken’s cast glass sculptures offer a gritty nod to urban landscapes, evoking brutalist architecture and futuristic interiors that blur the lines between the physical and imagined worlds. Similarly, Ben Young’s layered glass landscapes juxtapose concrete and metal to explore the tension between man-made structures and the natural environment, revealing a world both alluring and strange.
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Environmental concerns take centre stage in Kelda Morris’s fused and embroidered glass designs, which evoke the organic beauty of petri dishes and the cycles of life. Elizabeth McClure rounds off the exhibition with her scientific approach to glass melting, creating forms that feel like reimagined lab equipment, highlighting the fragility of this resource and the role of sustainability in art.
Weird Science is an exhibition of boundless creativity and technical mastery, showcasing the diversity of glass as a medium and the ingenuity of its artists. Prepare to be intrigued, inspired, and drawn into the experimental and scientific wonder of art glass. Thanks to Scotty Redding for his writing contribution. |
Good Bones
Richard Wotton Photography
8 NOV 2024 - 25 JAN 2025
Richard Wotton is based in Whanganui and has been taking photographs over a span of five decades. The exhibition features work over this time, including some very recent photographs of the Sarjeant Gallery rebuild.
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Embassy 3 Cinema facade, 34 Victoria Ave, Whanganui 2022
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Embassy Theatre facade, Wanganui January 1994
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Richard Wotton is a Whanganui artist who graces us with his passion for architecture, quiet spaces, nature and people. His selective eye knows what appeals and speaks to viewers through a shared relationship with these things, as well as the connections we share with one another.
Sarjeant Gallery, foyer niche, November 2 2023
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Wotton had been photographing as an artform since the 1970s before taking on the role of staff photographer at the Sarjeant Gallery, in 1987. Throughout most of the next three decades, he continued making personal work in his free time, although his output was somewhat diminished. Since his retirement from the Sarjeant, he has built up a large body of images, recording, documenting and sharing with the community his passion for people, plants, places, the principles of design and buildings.
Sarjeant Gallery East Wing January 12 2024
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Good Bones is a fitting title for this exhibition; it shows us the good bones of our culture and the humanity and dedication Wotton has demonstrated by the continuous refinement of his craft over many years. In the exhibition you will see an intimate collection from each series spanning his career.
Tape Series #11, Whanganui 1984
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Neville Mawhinney's swimming pool, Whanganui 1984
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Photographs include his time spent traveling in Europe, images which reveal his keen eye for simple lines and colour, his magnetic pull to document interesting people, buildings and everyday simple spaces that we might overlook, but he shows us the beauty. What magic he shares with us, the viewers!
Coiffeur, Nérac, France 1984
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Church facade, Veiano, Italy 1988
Camposanto, Pisa, Italy 1988
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Richard Wotton’s works are represented in national and private collections across Aotearoa. His contribution to the history of photography in this country is important, beautifully executed and timeless.
Parapara landscape, SH4, near Whanganui 2009
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Post Office, Bulls 1981 (demolished 1983)
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Morgan Tompsett, Wellington 2016 From the series Marking Time
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All enquires regarding framed works in the exhibition, unframed prints and sizes are welcome. We encourage you to get in touch with Angela at UTOPIA Gallery today.
2051: Predator Free Aotearoa
1 Aug - 26 Oct 2024
Angela Tier Pest Bombs Stoneware 2023
Angela Tier Elixir Flask Stoneware 2023
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In New Zealand we have four species of rats. First came the Kiore with Polynesian explorers and once was widespread across Aotearoa before European settlement and is now confined to Fiordland and many offshore islands. The Norway Rat was introduced in the 18th century and is common in wet habitats, urban areas and offshore islands.
The Ship rat is widespread throughout New Zealand after being introduced in the North Island in 1860s and South island in the 1890s, this rat has thrived here and continues to be an ongoing problem, especially when it comes to managing our native species population and protecting them from declining numbers and extinction. Lastly, we have the common house mouse also a problem for our native species. |
Angela Tier Elixir Flask Stoneware 2023
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On Netflix they aired a series called Unnatural Selection. If you watch Episode Three “Changing the Entire Species” you will meet a scientist from United States offering a gene edited solution to our rat problem in Aotearoa to help with our Predator Free 2050 target; a policy which was declared by Prime Minister John Key.. Gene editing rats is considered unnatural, it is untested in the environment, it seems risky, and it is likely to work by eliminating rats from our country in the short term, but how are we going to meticulously monitor and manage non GM rats coming in on ships and planes for a re-infestation? Rats may not be wanted here, but in other environments they are needed, they are important to the health of the grasslands and forests, being pollinators and a major source of food for predators. What if our GM rats escape on boats and planes and cause the beginning of the end for Rattus Rattus worldwide?
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Angela Tier Bad Science Installation Gordons Bush Okoia 2024
So how do the youth feel about traditional methods of predator control and possible future technologies? A research thesis by Lucy Dickie from the Otago University was completed in 2017 asking people aged 18 – 24 years what their views are of Predator Free 2050. The results summed up showed the following common views: “Traditional forms of control such as traps and bait stations were viewed positively, in contrast to aerial drops of poison, which was viewed negatively. Respondents seemed open to the potential use of gene drive as a predator control method. Throughout the survey, concern was expressed for the welfare of the targeted animals, which may have contributed to the support for gene drive.”
It seems likely that the youth will endorse the gene drive option in time to come if predator control efforts start to wane from the PF2050 goal. As you enter the gallery space you are confronted by an installation of one hundred ceramic rats by local artist Angela Tier. The rats are curiously attracted to a rat king specimen, a widely debated phenomena with theories that argue it is naturally occurring to a cruel man made form of pest control. This appears to be a science experiment that questions morality, a mad radical determination to achieve the 2050 Predator Free target. What lengths will we go to reach this goal as a nation? What risks are we willing to take? Are we opening Pandora's box by releasing gene edited rats into our environment? Are we about to cause a catastrophic event with unmanageable consequences? These are the questions posed by Angela Tier with her plague of toxic yellow rats.
It seems likely that the youth will endorse the gene drive option in time to come if predator control efforts start to wane from the PF2050 goal. As you enter the gallery space you are confronted by an installation of one hundred ceramic rats by local artist Angela Tier. The rats are curiously attracted to a rat king specimen, a widely debated phenomena with theories that argue it is naturally occurring to a cruel man made form of pest control. This appears to be a science experiment that questions morality, a mad radical determination to achieve the 2050 Predator Free target. What lengths will we go to reach this goal as a nation? What risks are we willing to take? Are we opening Pandora's box by releasing gene edited rats into our environment? Are we about to cause a catastrophic event with unmanageable consequences? These are the questions posed by Angela Tier with her plague of toxic yellow rats.
Sarah Urwin Specimens Stoneware 2024
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Award winning artist Sarah Urwin has created a glorious trap tower with an array of native birds, it is a lure, a temptation for pests, it entices with the promise of a feast but at the same time it could collapse onto a predator with one little movement. A precariously balanced tower that reflects the delicate balance of our eco system. Here we see the birds ban together to fight for their survival with "no.8 wire" ingenuity and desperation to save their species with a steeple of sacrifice! Sarah Describes her work as "A rambling, ramshackle structure, Specimens plays with dualities and contradictions. The black and white shades evoke the silver gelatin photography of the Victorian era, and the boxes remind us of specimen cases. But the edifice is thrown into chaos. Native species are categorized and compartmentalized, but also stacked and jumbled. The structure is massive and strong, but also precarious and threatening to fall. These dualities gesture towards the dualities of humans' relationships with our natural heritage: both a predator and a protector, both consigned to history and also holding hope for a different future."
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Sarah K Matthew Kokako Digital Collage Print 2023
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Sarah K Matthew Kaka Beaks Digital Collage Print 2023
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Sarah K Matthew Of Gorse Digital Collage Print 2023
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Sarah Matthew is inspired by the design of the Bauhaus as well as by English textile designer William Morris. Sarah has worked towards the Predator Free 2050 goal by living and working on Aotea/Great Barrier Island and Raoul Island managing pests and monitoring native species. Sarah describes her prints as a collage, creating meaning through appropriation and a combination of found imagery, forming dialogue and expressing ideas that become coherent when viewed as a collection. She uses this method of collecting imagery to create a superficial sense of familiarity and the use of commercial production to create these prints is a nod to post-modernism and our indulgence to consumerism. These prints highlight the impact of colonialism on our natural environment, for example using Gorse as a symbol for both this damage and regret. “From Extinction to Icon” is a collection of prints that speak about the value we place on our environment and how it can be dictated by fashions, which can have a destructive impact on our natural world. The common outlook here is that whatever we humans do, we make the biggest impact or difference with our actions. Understanding the consequences of our actions ensures that we think ahead for generations to come.
