Robyn Walton

Bells and Whistles

Curated by Moya Lawson at Play_Station Space, Wellington, 2019

The artists in Bells and whistles consider the potential of objects, as found or overlooked entities. In particular, they investigate the implications of mass-production’s mechanical hands, and the needs that it satisfies. They share an interest in reinvention, using modest methods of craft to reframe the contexts which they draw from. Moving beyond simple appropriation, they mirror, echo or completely transform their subjects. By doing so they characterise, with unabashed imagination, the fleeting ‘thingness’ of the material world that we inhabit. Coined by Dada, glitzed by Pop and curdled by a Koons-esque capitalism, what relevance do these inanimate beings have in the present day? At a time when we are equally drowning in physical waste as we are in virtual realities, such work briefly intercepts our distractions with a curious, quiet power. 

- Moya Lawson