Artists speaks for the environment

Artists speaks for the environment
New works by Annabel Menzies-Joyce

Opening at the Ashburton Art Gallery is a wonderful thought provoking exhibition by Tai Tapu based artist Annabel Menzies-Joyce which explores the environment in which we live. Her exhibition, Unless takes its name from the beloved children’s book The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. He writes, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not”. Menzies-Joyce’s exhibition like the story of the Lorax helps us to connect with the natural world and explores our own relationship with nature. Her handcrafted glass, porcelain and clay sculptures explore concerns surrounding industrial intensification, global warming and water pollution.
Annabel Menzies-Joyce is a strong advocate for the environment, speaking not only through her art practice but also as one of the co-founders of the Tai Tapu Sculpture Garden in Christchurch along with her husband Peter Joyce. The garden has become their collective mission to not only support contemporary sculpture practice but also to enhance native biodiversity in Canterbury. Since it opened in 2010 over 7,000 native trees and shrubs have been planted with the aim to recreate a podocarp forest of totara, matai, and kahikatea on once a bare one-hectare paddock. This responsibility extends to her exhibition with New Zealand native Akeake seeds (Dodonaea viscosa) given and encouraged to be planted by children who visit her exhibition.
Menzies-Joyce gained a Diploma of Fine Arts from the University of Canterbury (1978) and a post-graduate Diploma of Landscape Architecture from Lincoln University (1980). She has been exhibiting in New Zealand since 1992. Menzies-Joyce first established herself as a painter, and has exhibited in a number of galleries in the South Island. Around 2005 she moved from painting on canvas to casting glass from her home studio.
Unless will open to the public on Sunday 16 July at 2pm. Annabel Menzies-Joyce will be in attendance and will present an artist talk at the opening. Free- All Welcome.
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