18 May 2012

Furniture to ready by

23/11/2011 10:37:00 a.m.

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Holly Beals at one of her tables.

Holly Beals at one of her tables.

BOOKS will return home to the old Wellington Central Library building when City Gallery opens its Mobile Library exhibition in the Hirschfeld Gallery this week.
The local art publishing culture is presented in an exhibition of artists’ books, small imprints and other independently produced publications, borrowed from bibliophiles around New Zealand. Gallery visitors will be able to read lesser-known publications and the contents of bookshelves created by designers Luke Wood and Alice Baxter. They will use reading furniture especially created for the exhibition by Newtown furniture designer Holly Beals. Her challenge was to create furniture that could carefully display the publications in the exhibition and provide a comfortable space to rest, chat, and read the books. She’s done this with furniture that sometimes displays books in an unconventional way and allows people to interact with the books displayed.
“I’m interested in peoples’ reaction to everyday objects, such as tables and chairs,” Beals says. “I like to reinvent that experience and create something that’s a little more special.”
Beals has designed two large macrocarpa reading desks that allow people to look at books “at the right height” as well as with those displayed under glass. Two “gallon” tables are joined by a felt hammock allowing for a “playful” display of books, and a large bench seat has holders to display small publications and newspapers.
“This exhibition is about presenting books as objects as well as for reading. I’ve loved the opportunity to help people move and interact with books in a certain way, and being able to present the works of others using my works.”
Beals is director of Candywhistle, a small interior design business specialising in furniture. Since taking over in 2007 she’s grown the business designing furniture for bars and cafes around the city. She’s now looking to move from her Newtown studio.
“There’s just not the space there, she says. “I had to make the furniture for this exhibition in the backyard of my house.”
Beals is originally from Auckland but moved to Wellington in 2004 to study architecture at Victoria University.
“I came here to do architecture but fell into furniture design. I enjoy the scale of an object such as a chair. It’s a human scale so it’s more intimate.”
Alongside Beal’s furniture and the collection of publications Mobile Library will showcase the work of Wellington- based typographers Kris Sowersby and Joseph Churchward. Sowersby has received international recognition for his Feijoa and National Typefaces while Samoan-born Churchward is a prolific producer of typefaces used internationally.
Mobile Library is one of three new City Gallery exhibitions opening this week for the summer months. Prospect: New Zealand Art Now is the fourth of the gallery’s Prospect series of New Zealand contemporary art, and Israel Tangaroa Birch’s exhibition Ara-i-te-uru opens in the Deane Gallery.
A Mobile Library, Prospect and Ara-i-te-uru, City Gallery, November 26 to February 12, 2012.
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Cover Story

Best of Wellington 2011

Briefs

  • A question of nutrition

    Controversial Washington-based nutritionist Sally Fallon-Morell is to speak in Wellington on March 29.
    Fallon-Morell is the co-founder of the American food lobby group the Weston A. Price Foundation and the author of Nourishing Traditions. She advocates for the consumption of nutritionally dense foods such as lacto-fermented vegetables, stocks and broths, and whole raw dairy products.
    Fallon-Morell will speak at St Patrick’s College Hall on March 29.

  • Relay for cancer

    Organisers say Sunday’s Relay for Life is full to capacity with hundreds of Wellingtonians registered for the event.
    A total of 88 teams, made up of 10 to 500 members, plan to take part with a further 25 teams on the waiting list.
    The 24 hour relay, the Cancer Society’s biggest fundraising event of the year, takes place at Frank Kitts Park from 4pm on March 31.

  • Osteoarthritis awareness

    Arthritis New Zealand has launched a nationwide campaign raise awareness about osteoarthritis. 
    Arthritis is New Zealand’s leading cause of disability, affecting 305,000 adults, and osteoarthritis is its most common form.
    The campaign features television commercials and an interactive website.


  • Wild walk

    Take part in the Big Walk at Zealandia on March 31.
    Walkers can choose a two, five or 10 kilometre walk catering to all fitness levels.
    Money raised will go to the Foundation for Youth Development.

  • School pool

    The opening of the new Khandallah School pool this week means hundreds of children will be able to continue their swimming lessons.
    The pool was the first to receive a grant from Wellington City Council’s Schools Pools Partnership Fund, a fund set up in 2010 to help schools improve their pool facilities.
    Grants from the fund have also been made for pools at Wellington East Girls’ College, Barhampore School and Tawa School.

  • Easter bikers

    Motorcyclists are invited to get on their bikes and collect Easter eggs for families support from the Wellington City Mission.
    The charity run on April 1 is organised by motorcycle lobby group BONZ.
    Eggs can be donated at Red Baron Motorcylces in Alicetown. The registration fee for bikers is $10, plus the cost of Easter eggs.

  • Crafty

    Made on Marion opens on the site of the former Golding Handicrafts site in Marion St, from April 1.  They will continue to supply craft materials.

  • Ze upgrade

    Taranaki Street fuel users will notice that the Z Energy’s former Shell Service Station is closed.  Z are doing a “total revamp”.
    The job will take four weeks.

  • Newlands Moves

    Developer Ayal Aharoni has agreed to build only 90 instead of 220 houses on his six and a half hectares above Ngauranga Gorge in Newlands.  Only low density occupation will be allowed on the remaining 8.4 hectares.


  • Baring Head

    There's a new  draft plan out for what should happen at Baring Head.  It outlines how the Greater Wellington Regional council would like to manage the newest addition to its regional parks network. Grazing animals will go, motorised vehicles will be prohibited, predators will be controlled, and the lighthouse will be preserved. Submissions are invited.


  • It’s a wonder

    A new childcare centre in Newtown says it is dedicated to helping kids grow up healthy in mind, body and spirit. Little Wonders Childcare on Rintoul Street is an independent early childhood education and learning centre, the sixth centre to be opened by its Auckland-based owner. It caters to 100 children aged between three months and five years old and has been open for a little more than seven weeks.

  • Festival treats

    CHILDREN have not been forgotten by organisers of the New Zealand International Arts Festival.
    For a perfect first theatrical experience White tells the story of friends Cotton and Winkle who live in a world where there is no colour and everything is startlingly white. That is until a brightly coloured egg tumbles out of the sky and changes their world for ever.
    White plays at Capital E from March 7-11.
    The tale of Peter and the World also promises to be a magical night for all ages. Sergei Prokofiev’s classic children’s tale is told through film and live music from the NZ Symphony Orchestra at the Michael Fowler Centre on March 9.
    March 11 is Young Writers and Readers Day and readings from children’s writers and illustrators Lynley Dodd and Gavin Bishop.

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