"Lady and the Deep Blue Sea" A. Flowers 2019 |
Arwen
Flowers
Arwen
Flowers is a New Zealand-born artist, raised in the beautiful ranges, forests,
and beaches of the West Coast of Auckland. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Art
Degree (BFA) in the early 90’s, specializing in painting and photography at
Elam School of Fine Art, Auckland.
Arwen’s
recent artwork on canvas utilises a unique mix of media—dressmaking patterns,
graphite, charcoal, metallic foil and paint. Through this unique multi-media
approach Arwen references landscape and oceanic forms while exploring
intersections, crossovers, and parallels between historical and modern European
and Pacific Island cultures, often from a feminine perspective.
‘I’m
curious about the experience had by indigenous South Pacific women and the
wives and daughters that had been brought to settle there from England and
Europe, when they met and needed to live along-side each other. How did they
feel? What sorts of influence did they have on each other?’ she says.
Arwen
sources materials to use in her art from second-hand shops or recycle centres
to create small collages on paper as a way of experiencing creative joy and
freedom. The collages evolve naturally into combinations of craft and pattern
which reflect her historical European ancestry and her place of birth in the
South Pacific. Arwen’s larger work on canvas expands upon those initial
collages.
Arwen will be based in the Helensville Memorial
Hall for the ARTS in the VILLE Labour Weekend )ct 26th-28th
2019.