I WILL ENVER FADE AWAY FROM YOU

LONNIE HUTCHINSON

Exhibition Dates: 4 December 2015 - 13 February 2016

I Will Never Fade Away From You is a collection of work from Lonnie Hutchinson’s ongoing practice. A Māori (Ngāi Tahu) and Samoan woman, Hutchinson makes work informed by her heritage, feminism and historical issues over a broad range of media. I Will Never Fade Away From You is her most recent exhibition using sculptural, video and paper works. A large steel comb sits in the middle of the gallery, bright red and much too large for a person to use. Drawings of leg-spread naked women decorate the comb and remind audiences of the comb’s relationship to the body. We navigate the gallery space in relation to this object and think about its relationship to our own body - is it too large for us or are we too small for it? This is not just any comb - its shape comes from modern combs worn by Samoan women though also resembles the shape of Samoan thatched huts (fale). The form of the object draws audiences to ethnicity while the images on it remind us of gender.

Image: Lonnie Hutchinson Monumental Red Comb Form 2009