E(xhibition) Day

It is there! Last night was the opening of my exhibition, Fibre Reactive - New Work by Diana Parkes, at Expressions in Upper Hutt, NZ. This was an evening function and the anticipation mounted as the day progressed. I had not viewed the exhibition until just before everyone arrived, and my own first impressions were WOW! Almost two years of work displayed together, what a treat! And although I am very familiar with each individual piece I had never been able to view all the pieces together as a whole. Being a solo exhibition, and a large gallery space, it means that the works are well isolated from each other. It is a luxury to have work displayed like this as often we have to be content with our work crammed salon-style, with other works close on either side, and perhaps even above or below. The curator has done a great job and I am one happy exhibitor.

Between us, my friend Joan and I managed to take some photos of the opening. In due course my professional photographer will be taking a series of better images and I will eventually post some of these on my blog. In the meantime, here are some views:

Some of the crowd waiting for the gallery doors to open....

My installation called Fashioning. Non-wearable garments made from calico (muslin) and based on toiles. Each with patterning in an indigo coloured dye, and long arms with red hands! I asked for these pieces to be animated and was thrilled in the way they floated skywards. Actually there were five garments but after having got four up they couldn't work out where to put the fifth, so left it out. It pays not to be too precious about these things! I think they look great.

The 12 Out of the Print Box pieces.

The exhibition title, somewhat obscured.


General view.

another general view.