For a long time I’ve been searching for an idea on which to base a body of work. You’ll have already noticed my fascination with plants, flowers and the local landscape. I also have a deep fondness for teacups and the accoutrements of home. Finally, my recent return to Malaysia developed my thoughts around disconnection, identity through place, and my diasporic lineage.
These have all combined to give rise to two related bodies of work; Tangled Routes and Strange Company.
Tangled Routes will be a visual catalogue of items of pottery that have been passed down to me, which demonstrate how heritage can be convoluted and intertwined. I sometimes wonder what it would be like to whakapapa to one place over several generations, and to have heirlooms that show this lineage. Instead, I feel my lineage has drifted me to this place and left me with, for example: a tea set that was influenced by Western design, made in Japan, shipped to Malaysia, and bought by my paternal grandmother; and a ginger jar that was made in China for the western market, exported to New Zealand, and purchased by my maternal grandmother in Invercargill.
The first item I’ll be doing a portrait of is this small gaiwan or tea bowl. My family in Malaysia ran a business selling high-end furniture, lace and antique store. When it was wound up, the remaining inventory was distributed between the family, and I received this gaiwan. I’ll be researching it in parallel with creating the linocut, but for now I know that it originated in China and was likely from the late Qing dynasty.
Strange Company will be a series of pieces using plants through which to explore connection and disconnection to place. I have developed two initial designs, yet to be titled.
The first design combines three types of plants:
- in the foreground are chrysanthemums and peonies – these featured in the Chinese décor that surrounded me as a child in Malaysia – on wall panels and gift boxes and ceramics;
- in the background are the tall trees that I grew up reading about in British children’s books (such as The Faraway Tree, the Wind in the Willows and Brambly Hedge), and which now dominate my local landscape, a landscape which has been colonised and farmed for generations; and
- in the greenhouse are native flowers. They are behind glass for a myriad of reasons – they are precious and to be protected, they have in a sense swapped places with the exotic plants as it becomes harder to thrive here in the face of climate change and invasive species, and they are the plants I feel least connected to as if there were a barrier between them and me.
The second design for Strange Company features our native basket fungus (which has many Te Reo names, including tūtae whetū and tūtae kēhua), harakeke seed pods, and japonica sprigs, which I have been encountering along the fence lines on my winter rambles. I’ve always found basket fungus to be far-fetched, and I am fascinated by the japonica’s spiky tendrils and clumps of bright blooms in the middle of winter. The harakeke’s seed pods are sculptural and finger like. They are each peculiar looking, and together become an unexpected arrangement – echoing the way our natives now find themselves unexpectedly in the company of introduced plants like the japonica.
How to Reserve One of These Artworks
As usual, I will be sharing progress on these via social media, as I print by hand a limited edition of each artwork. If at any point you would like to reserve one of the edition, you can message me at soonlee.spicer@gmail.com. Reserving one does not oblige you to purchase it (you’ll obviously need to like the finished result), but simply means that once finished I will set one aside for you to check if you would like it before it making it available to the public. This is the way most of my work sells.
- Tangled Routes – Tea Bowl : Approx A5 sized, planned edition of about 12, price for newsletter subscribers is $80 (full price expected to be about $110)
- Strange Company – Glasshouse full of Native Flowers: Approx A2 sized, edition of about 8, price for newsletter subscribers is $330 (full price expected to be about $420)
- Strange Company – Basket Fungus, Japonica, Harakeke: Approx A4 sized, edition of about 16 – price for newsletter subscribers is $125 (full price expected to be about $160)
Soon-Lee Spicer - Artist 