Te T-Shirt Show


Curated by Sonja van Kerkhoff + Virginia Guy

Hikurangi Art Station, 31 King St, Hikurangi, Northland, Aotearoa
The exhibition Facebook page | blog | blogs about the show

20 Artists:

Elaine Arkell (London, U.K.) | Maureen Baker (Whangarei Heads ) | Hamish Oakley-Browne (Whangarei) | Susan Burgess (Christchurch) | Megan Corbett (Hikurangi) | Virginia Guy (Hikurangi) | Brian Harris (Auckland) | Dulcie Hering (Hikurangi) | Sen McGlinn (Kawakawa) | Lesley Anne Morgan (Te Awamutu) | Julia Newland (Whangarei Heads) | Benjamin Pittman (Hikurangi) | Lisa Ponweiser + Mt Hutt College students (Methven) | Jason Ratahi (Opunake), Jacob Squire | Ursula Safar (Wales) | Te Kowhai Trust (Whangarei) | John Thomson (Hampshire, U.K.) | Raewyn Turner (Auckland) | Sonja van Kerkhoff (Kawakawa) | Jacqueline Wassen (Maastricht, The Netherlands)

overview of the show

A show where The T-Shirt is the medium.

 overview of the show

L to R: (detail) Greener (made in Holland) by Sonja van Kerkhoff,
(below) Foxy by Julia Newland. Custom made T Shirt.

Front row
Ode to the cessation of bleeding by Lesley Anne Morgan. A sculpture with sleeves in celebration of menopause,
(back) 'Arch Overload' - Portsmouth Festival - 1990 by John Thomson. (thomsonart.co.uk)
Alternative Activities for the Addicted by Elaine Arkell. "Well, yes I once was a foolish smoker with teeth all stained and brown … The wrangle with nicotine was long and hard and this work came through and out of that wrangle. The alternative Drawing Activity that I offered was Spirograph and not the easy peasy 21century version, I got my hands on an original 1960’s complex 4 biros version of spirogragh with a booklet that involved careful reading and pure concentration to achieve the outcomes depicted. I wore these t shirts in "Your Art Here (too)" on Camberwell Green, South London for Daniel Lehan's Camberwell arts Week event in 2010. These also had an outing to Brighton with David Medella and the artists of the London Biennale for the project, Longshore Drift".
Love Me Knots (with twists) by Sonja van Kerkhoff

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Love Me Knots (with twists)
by Sonja van Kerkhoff

Elephants for Peace by Elaine Arkell. "These were made for Sonja van Kerkhoff's 'Colonisations' performance for the 2009 Go Ganesh Go art project on both sides of the border on the island of Cyprus. Sonja then re-wore the t-shirt for the 2010 performance of ‘Colonisations’ in Luxembourg. Whilst Go-Ganesh-Go was running I wore the Go-Ganesh-Go t-shirt that remained here in the UK, this led to conversations about the show and my speaking to people about Sonja's performance (sonjavank.com/perform.htm). The drawing of the elephant for the t-shirt I wore back here in the UK is appropriated from the drawing from the 'Just So Stories', 'How the elephant got his trunk', the story answers the question how did the elephant get his trunk? And the imagined answer is; the resistance to the pulling power of the crocodile in the swamp. Pity the writer was a man of his time and die-hard colonialist."
T-Shirt Plastic by Maureen Baker. T Shirt made out of fused plastic bags.
Out of Sequins by Brian Harris. Aluminium spin-offs from a custom made machine by Brian.

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L > R:
(detail) T-Shirt Plastic by Maureen Baker. Fused plastic bags.
Out of Sequins by Brian Harris. Aluminium spin-offs from a custom made machine by Brian.
De-composition (with biogradable rubberbands) by Sonja van Kerkhoff

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Image on the Right:

Tīmatanga Kaitiaki (Protected or guided beginning, start or intro) by Jason Ratahi. A T-shirt of slogans in Māori and New Zealand English.
Red by Sonja van Kerkhoff. Padded and filled T Shirt.
Rabbits by Dulcie Hering.
Tao Shirt by Susan Burgess.
'seed,crop,harvest' from the album CLAY CLASS DFA Records New York, 2012 by John Thomson. My kinetic sculptures feature in the music videos of the U.K. band, Prinzhorn Dance School.
'I begin I end' What I do in between is up to me by Megan Corbett. Original printed design sewn onto a T-Shirt.
Rabbit by Dulcie Hering.
(detail) Apron with anti-spasmodic, anti-arthritic, anti-rheumatic galbanum by Raewyn Turner.
Prime Site by Elaine Arkell. "The vests were part of an installation for the show 'Prime Site' What's that in the woods?" Millfield House and Grounds, Enfield, London in 2004. They hung on a washing line above a shoe where a growing tree had a divided trunk. The conceit of the piece was updating the nursery rhyme of the 'Old Woman and the shoe.' Millfield House is near to Silver Street Overground and is an impoverished area of London with high levels of deprivation, close to the large Gladys Aylward Academy. This work was shown again at the TamTam Festival Leiden in 2009, where the washing line was shown as Dispossessed, Disparaged and Disappeared (Prime Site) in the front window of the Spoortje Community Centre.
Forget Us Not by Ursula + Alison. "We designed this T Shirt for our gardening business in rural Wales which is to care for the gardens of the oft 'forgotten' in our society: the elderly. The shirts have been worn by each of us too."

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L > R
Red by Sonja van Kerkhoff. Padded and filled T Shirt.
Ōpuketanga by by Lisa Ponweiser and her students at Mt Hutt College.
Rabbits by Dulcie Hering.
Tao Shirt by Susan Burgess.
(detail) Apron with anti-spasmodic, anti-arthritic, anti-rheumatic galbanum by Raewyn Turner.

Next Row
Black Skies by by Jacob Squire. Cultural collision of NZ nostalgia with the classic Japanese based Yu-Gi-Oh card game.
2 shirts: Elephants for Peace and Peace Elephants by Elaine Arkell.

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