Hand-Hooked

Come and make your own hand-hooked mini rug with Knitted & Knotted artist Erica Van Zon.

Wellington based multi-disciplinary artist Erica Van Zon is interested in notions of trickery, pastiche, fakes, and remakes, and often re-mixes popular culture and art icons in her work. Her hand-hooked rugs express a particular interest in media traditionally associated with craft, and the use of colour and pattern inspired by well-known symbols and sites. Her first rug, made in 2007, was a recreation of a brown, orange and cream Scandinavian rug design her Dutch parents had at home in the '70s and '80s. Her latest work Rothko was inspired by Houston’s 1971 Rothko Chapel, an intimate sanctuary open to people of all beliefs featuring the mural canvases of American painter Mark Rothko. Sirius refers to the star constellation of the same name. Van Zon hopes that these works can act as a tool to keep life in perspective, and remind people of their own personal position in the universe, particularly in reference to domestic settings.

‘I had thought about a tribute to the Rothko Chapel and a feminist reading of it through my current interest in hand hooked rugs. I was thinking about the untouchable surface of the Rothkos, their scale and sombre, sublime presence and the worship-like quality that the chapel has on different levels. I wanted to re-make it into something covering the floor in a tactile way, domestic-scaled, and taking space in a horizontal manner.

Recently I visited the Carter Observatory here in Wellington. It was quite moving to be able to see the rings around Saturn through the telescope; the planet was just hovering there, so big yet far away. After that trip I researched on the internet and decided to make a rug based on the stars; the design is Canus Major, with Sirius at the top, the brightest star in the night sky.' Erica van Zon

Bookings on: 04 570 6500

Event listed by TheDowse

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