The following pages will contain an overview of artworks created between the years 2008 and the present. Barkcloth, cotton fabric, and lace are the main ingredients of many of my works.
…in the Sunset. Kay George’s Art Studio on Rarotonga held an exhibition dedicated to Polynesian voyaging. I participated with a large scale needlepoint lace, shaped like a sail, using unusual materials such as builders’ line and plastic coated aluminium foil. It was acquired by the University of the South Pacific, Rarotonga (Cook Islands) for permanent display in their foyer.
Machine-sewn lace, barkcloth and eco dyed cotton fabric were woven together across cultural boundaries. The work was exhibited in 2012 at Massey University in Wellington on occasion of the International Natural Fibre Forum.
The breaking up of bark cloth and fibres help the merging of tapa with other materials such as bark fibre and thread to create a ‘hybrid’ shell inside whose womb-like protection I can feel at home without feeling totally excluded. Home, my body shaped sculpture, is included in Mary Schoesser’s fantastic book “Textiles – The Art of Mankind“.
In 2008, an unexpected opportunity came my way: to study towards a master’s degree in art and design with AUT (Auckland University of Technology) while based on my home island of Atiu (Cook Islands). Third Space was my final exam work and exhibited in 2011 as part of the Love Lace exhibition at the Powerhouse museum in Sydney (Australia).
Many years later, my dream to close the circle and take my fibre and lace installation to Europe came true. In 2024 the art association Col·lectiu d’Art of Matadepera (Catalonia, Spain) invited me to show Third Space in the exhibition space El Pla, Matadepera (Catalonia, Spain).
The the Girona Lacemakers Guild gave me the opportunity to continue the Tercer Espai series, which weaves together fibre and cultural narrative in 2024 at Espai Santa Caterina, Girona (Catalonia, Spain)
Fifteen years after its completion, in 2025 Third Space’s thirty-five suspended textile pieces celebrated my 75th birthday at the municipal library Xavier Figueres Frasnedo in L’Ametlla de Mar (Catalonia, Spain) opening with a live dance performance.
I felt very privileged to receive an invitation to show Third Space in 2026 at the Krasno Selo Cultural Centre in Sofia (Bulgaria). The set-up was quite different and many viewers visited the slide talks accompanying the exhibition .
