Furniture to ready by
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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