Sketch piece in Art News 2019 For Jay Hutchinson’s exhibition ‘The archaeology of the discarded, forgotten and thrown away’ at the Suter Art Gallery, Nelson
Jay Hutchinson ’Turn left, then left again‘ 2019, hand-embroidery on digitally printed cotton drill x 9, from the exhibition ‘the archaeology of the discarded, forgotten and thrown away’
Jay Hutchinson ‘The archaeology of the discarded, forgotten and thrown away’ at the Suter Art Gallery, Nelson 21/9/19 until 1/12/19
The archaeology of the discarded, forgotten and thrown away. 21/2/19 at The Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi O Whakatu
Review By James Dignan on Jay Hutchinson’s exhibition”on the way to work” at Olga Gallery, 32 Moray Place, Dunedin (originally printed in the O.D.T 28/3/190
Jay Hutchinson latest exhibition at Olga Gallery continues his ongoing exploration of the urban environment with a sonnet to detritus. The artist has photographed litter he has seen on the roadside during his daily commute, and used these photographs as a basis for embroidered works on printed canvas.
Hutchinson has long been fascinated with urban life and the borderline between art and pollution. Some of his misspent youth was involved in tagging, the large and often baroquely embellished graffiti signatures often seen around a city.
As such, his move to professional art has seen him questioning the often arbitrary line between high and low art, and also has led him to the understanding that commercial branding is in itself a form of professional tagging.
Even after a product has been consumed, its logo-adorned wrapper will often be found as roadside litter while simultaneously continuing to advertise its product.
Hutchinson has subverted the idea of rubbish being an unattractive pollutant byproduct of commercialism by reclaiming it as art and presenting it in the gallery space using that most delicate and even genteel of media, embroidery.
What was literally throwaway has been elevated to something of commercial and aesthetic value, and this has produced a pleasing, thought-provoking and wryly witty exhibition.
24 Hours at the Sweatshop x Company of. Strangers
24 Hours at the Sweatshop x Company of. Strangers
24 Hours at the Sweatshop is a 24 performance work where a single worker will cut, sew and print T-Shirts in a simulated sweatshop setting. The project aims to highlight the labour involved in producing an every day product that everyone is familiar with as well as a critique on fast-fashion. T-shirts can be purchased @companystore through a donation to woman’s refuge #companyofstrangers #24hoursatthesweatshop #idfashion #fastfashion #agallerypresents
On the way to work
An exhibition of new hand stitched works by Jay Hutchinson based on debris and pieces of trash he collected on his way to work. Discarded pieces of rubbish are photographed and printed onto silk and hand stitched.
The exhibition opens on Friday the 8th of March at 5:00pm at Olga Gallery, 32 Moray Place, Dunedin and will run until March 26, 2019
Thanks to New New New Corporation for generously suppling the exhibition opening with their awesome product
A. Caldwell, A Recipe Book (an a gallery presents limited publication)
Allan Caldwell kept a small black note-book with recipes collected during his professional life as a baker for Ernest Adams. It was discovered by Julia Loach (Allan’s great-granddaughter) and her husband Jay Hutchinson in 2018 inside a box in the shed of the house Jules grew up in. Inside the recipe book were also included hundreds of clippings of letters and other correspondences to newspapers which Allan painstakingly collected after publication.
Clippings, pages and page-spreads were photographed by Jay for A Gallery Presents. Some attempt has been made to give thematic order to the letters and they are reproduced here along with page spreads from the recipe book.
copies of the book are available from agallerypresents@gmail.com for $35 including postage (within in New Zealand)
A. Caldwell, a Recipe Book (an a gallery presents limited publication)
