Rui comes to town!

The gorgeous Rui Kikuchi is over from Japan for a few days. She’ll be showcasing a new body of exhibition work in the gallery for the next 3 weeks. Made from PET bottles that have been hand sawn, shaped and dyed, the works reflects the wondrous underwater environment. Please join us this coming Tuesday 1st Feb 6-8pm to meet the artist and celebrate her work. – BK.

“In manipulating an abundant material in the human world, such as the PET bottle, my aim is to consider the mundane object and recognise beauty within it. In extending our humility to see a value in these materials, it is my hope that we reduce the nonchalant use of goods and that can lead us to experience wonder in the everyday.

Since becoming an adult, I have become very curious about nature and love to pore over books about sea creatures, plants and fungus. I am very lucky to have visited the Great Barrier Reef to see first hand the diversity, colour and strangeness of such an alien world. Being immersed in the ocean, I found sea creatures to be beautiful in their grotesqueness and peaceful in their abundance. Although I am sure that these experiences are influential to my work, I am not conscious of presenting my pieces to resemble marine life, rather as I play and experiment with the material, I learn of the potential that is hidden within it. I find that the material itself speaks and teaches me about what kind of augmentations and transformations it wants to take. Control is not just about domination over a material but also the ability to listen to it and recognise that the material also strives to become beautiful.” – Rui Kikuchi