Anna Whitley – Fingers Gallery

“Anna Whitley is fascinated by the way that objects come to represent mythologies constructed around them. For some time she’s been particularly interested in the mythology of the office – ostensibly an environment of order and control focused on commerce, but in reality often a place of personal colonization and emotional variety.
In her previous bodies of work “Stapled” and “Hole Punched” Whitley approached this dichotomy largely through material exploration, and the incessant, repetitive actions involved also had her thinking about craft process and the significance and boundaries of making by hand.
Board Meeting continues those trains of thought, with a focus on narrative. Importing materials from the office into a jewellery context naturally raises discussions of preciousness and value, but Whitley is more interested in the mismatch of the commercial and the personal. Finding ways to express the unexpected intersection between public and private lives in an office space has led her to put aside preconceptions about form and the nature of jewellery in order to develop relationships between whiteboard, laminate, hobby craft and pets – an unlikely combination which gives these works a disarmingly bizarre quality.”
Rigel Sorzano September 2008

Fingers Gallery

Contemporary New Zealand Jewellery

www.fingers.co.nz