kirsty gardiner profile

Kirsty Gardiner - Ceramicist
For most of her life Kirsty has been an 'op' shop enthusiast. 
A full time ceramic and mixed media artist living in the Wairarapa, her work is influenced by her childhood, natural history and the stockpiling of objects d'art collected over the years.
​Artists Statement:
'It seems that all my work is influenced from experiences working in the Collection Store at Aratoi, Museum of Art and History, and a bird book I purchased 25 years ago, published by the Dominion Museum, paintings by George Edward Lodge and text by Charles Fleming - whose daughter I met at my last exhibition - what a fantastic experience that was!
The 'slip cast' Huia are inspired by a very old shirt box containing Huia bird skins that came into the museum around 2009. I was so profoundly affected by this pair of juvenile Huia and thus began my version of their untold story. Around the time that I purchased the book, I also acquired thousands of ceramic decals. I have used them over the years to embellish my work and give it an atmosphere of being from a previous era, a nod to a by- gone age.
"Conus Avarius" is a series directly inspired by the book of birds mentioned above. The crochet cloaks worn by the fictitious birds I have created are inspired by three WWI cloaks also in the collection. These Kakahu were created as a fundraising effect for the men away at war. A local farming family purchased them. They were made from candlewick, duck feathers, wool, in fact anything available as materials were in short supply. Along with this idea is my fascination with the idea of putting two incongruous forms together, an example being, a large shell as the body and a bird's head, and the eye will read the form as a "bird".

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