Parlour Projects is delighted to present Emma Fitts, In The Rough: Part II, opening Friday, November 9, at 5pm.
In her book, On Weaving, Anni Albers writes about our tactile sensitivity and the surface quality of material, saying that we touch things to assure ourselves of reality but that most of our experiences today are with an already pre-formulated material rather than unformed material. Albers refers to this unformed material as material ‘in the rough’.
With textiles and tactility at the centre of her practice, Fitts presents collage and photographic work made during her recent residency at the McCahon House in Titirangi, Auckland. These new works enter into an imaginative dialogue between the writing of Anni Albers, the interior design of Eileen Gray and the portrait painting of Romaine Brooks. Combining the site of the McCahon House with this group of remarkable historical figures, new ideas of portraiture and architectural decoration emerge.
Emma Fitts completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury in 2002 and a Master of Fine Arts from the Glasgow School of Art in 2010. Her individual practice and collaborative work as Fitts & Holderness and Victor & Hester has seen her participate in exhibitions and residencies both nationally and internationally. Fitts returned to Christchurch in 2014 as the Olivia Spencer Bower awardee. More recently she was awarded the Fulbright-Wallace Arts Trust Award, which will see her undertake a ten-week residency at Headlands Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
In the Rough: Part I was exhibited at The National in Christchurch in September 2018. The final part in the series will be exhibited at Te Uru in Auckland in February 2019.
The public is invited to attend an opening reception for In The Rough: Part II this Friday, November 9, from 5 to 7pm at 306 Eastbourne Street East, Hastings. For further information or enquiries please email sophie@parlourprojects.com.