North Canterbury News: August 10, 2023

Chairs for the Kaiapoi River
By SHELLEY TOPP
Four chairs painted by
Waimakaririartists Christine
Watton, Ruby Whitty, Paul
Smith and Cheryl Muirson,
will be auctioned to raise
money for conservationwork
on the Kaiapoi River.
The auction willbepart of
The Chair Kaiapoi exhibition
to be held at the Art on the
Quay Gallery in the Kaiapoi
Library.
The unusual exhibition is
the brainchild of Kaiapoi
upholstererNigel Cook, who
has apassion for chair design.
His idea for the exhibition
came about aftervisiting
galleriesinMilan,Korea,
Australia and the United
States.
‘‘We were surprised to see
areas just devotedtochairs.
Thereismuch interest in
including designand art
together so Ihope we can
achieve this at the Kaiapoi
exhibition,’’ Nigel says.
Althoughhewas initiallya
bit nervous about his idea for
The Chair Kaiapoi he need
not have worried becausethe
firstpersonhespoke to about
it was Kaiapoimulti­media
artist MarkLarsen who liked
the concept.
Two days later he had a
prototype for the exhibition
all set to go.
‘‘I feel so luckypeople have
got behindthe idea,’’ Nigel
says
The Chair Kaiapoi
exhibition will include work
from 28 contributors and
another‘‘20 or so’’ who have
been working with Nigel on
chair design at his upholstery
workshops.
‘‘The event has many parts,’’
he says.
There is the four chairs to
be auctioned, then there are
three other artists creating
items from dismantled chair
parts, and others who have
createdtheirversion of art
with the chair theme.
Anotherpart of the
exhibition involves chairs
that tell astory including The
Murder Chair, which is said to
move around the room on its
own.
‘‘My contribution is called
Rising Fromthe Ashes,’’
Nigel says.
‘‘When SuttonsKaiapoi
factoryburnt down the only
thing left was achair sitting
behind the block wall outside
the office.Ihave resurrected
this chair using cordage.’’
Nigel’swork has attracted
the attention of American
architect and educator Jude
Le Blanc who was an
associate professor at
HarvardUniversity for six
years.
‘‘I met JudeLeBlanc in
New York through our
common interest in chair
design and he has offered to
write apreface to any
catalogue of my work.’’
The Chair Kaiapoi opens on
September 14 and closes on
October18. The four chairs to
be auctioned can be seen at
the Resene ColorShop in
Rangiora, ITM Kaiapoi,
Have achair ... One of four chairs which will be auctioned on the
opening night of The Chair Kaiapoi exhibition. It is displayed by
members of the Rangiora Resene ColorShop where it will be on
display until the exhibition opens.
PHOTO: SHELLEY TOPP
Fabric HouseatSydenham’s
The Tannery, and the Kaiapoi
Library before The Chair
Kaiapoi exhibition opens.
NEWS
The North Canterbury News, August 10, 2023
Come andView NZ’s Best Range
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9
InCommon
campaign
By SHELLEY TOPP
AWaimakaririInCommonposter
campaign focusing on whatpeoplehave in
common has beenlaunchedatWoodend.
Theinitial InCommoncampaign was
developed in response to the Christchurch
Mosque shootings in 2019, andencourages
peopletoexaminetheir thoughts and
beliefs aboutothers who, at first glance,
mightseem different to them, andfocus on
thecommon things humansshare.
TheWaimakaririInCommoncampaign
is acollaborationbetween the
Waimakariri DistrictCouncilcommunity
team,and the Christchurch InCommon
project team withthe posters featuring
peoplefromWaimakariri.
Councilcommunity development
facilitator MartinPughsays the council
supportsthe kaupapa (principle) of the
project andworked with migrant support
group Global Locals of Waimakariri
(GLOW), the WaimakaririAccess Group
andothers to localise the campaign.
‘‘We wereinspired by seeing the
campaign in Christchurch and thought we
couldlocalisethis to Waimakariri,’’ he
says.
‘‘We wanttoshowthe connectionsthat
we have acrossour differences,across
cultural barriers, acrossdisabilityand
accessibility issues, acrossage andstages
of life.
‘‘As adistrict, Waimakaririisbecoming
more diverse every year and we want to
celebrate our growingdiversity.
‘‘It hasbeen great to workwith
community members and puttogether a
great campaign specifictoWaimakariri
involving our migrant andother smaller
communities,’’ he says.
Some of the posters will be installed in
thestandalonedisplay boxes outside the
Rangiora Library in PercivalStreet.
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