“Pretty Tools & Silly Weapons” is an autobiographical exhibition, looking back at the work Hellyar has done since 1977. “I have been making sculpture for more than 50 years and I want to remain an active artist rather than just someone who is part of an Art History programme. I also want to learn from my own life.”
The ideas in many of the works relate to ancient technologies and to museum practices, both things Hellyar is recognised for. In the 70s, she spent periods living in the UK, and travelled around Europe visiting many museums and galleries. This experience fuelled an interest in the way objects are collected and displayed as ‘artefacts’.
“Tools have been something I have always loved and grown up with – in the garage, garden shed, kitchen and sewing room. My interest in weapons began when we lived in Edinburgh near the Royal Scottish museum and my studio was around the corner from the Antiquities Museum. I did many drawings of the weapons I saw, as well as others that existed solely in my head. Drawings of North American Indian tools and weapons followed in the late 70’s, when we passed through the USA on the way home to New Zealand.
Once back home, I became more interested in Pacifica and spent a lot of time in NZ museums. In the 1990s and 2000s I zoomed in on 18th Century Pacifica and did the Mrs Cook’s Kete installation at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford with Maureen Lander”.
Hellyar has always enjoyed putting opposites together so peace and war, soft and hard resulted in “Pretty Tools & Silly Weapons”.
Most of the works in the exhibition were created in 2015, and exhibited once – in 2015 in the IN + OUT exhibition, Pah Homestead, TSB Wallace Arts Centre, Auckland.
“Claims” are totally new works. They compare painting and sculpture and make use of ideas related to ownership. In the 6 works, there are approx. 2000 signed, miniature paintings representing a lifetime’s work – to date, Hellyar’s sculptures, drawings and paintings total 2199.
“As I have aged, I have become increasingly interested in beauty and I hope other people will be able to see beauty in these sculptures.” Christine Hellyar
Christine Hellyar was born in 1947 in New Plymouth. She completed a Diploma in Fine Arts (Hons) at the Elam School of Art in 1970. Working in both sculpture and installation, Hellyar’s work incorporates a wide range of materials, from found natural items such as grass and stones, to clay, fabric and plaster, latex, lead and bronze for casting.
Over the years, consistent themes in Hellyar’s work have included ‘her celebration of the environment, her interest in people’s interaction with nature, the validation of the domestic and a questioning of traditional gender roles’.
In 1981, Hellyar took up a part-time teaching position at Elam, School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland where she remained until 1996, when she left to work full time in her studio. During this time, she was awarded the first Adam Award for her significant contribution to New Zealand Art. This afforded her the opportunity to complete her first large outdoor bronzes.
Hellyar won the Department of Conservation residency (Mount Taranaki) in 2003 and in 2005 she participated in the Tylee Cottage Residency at Whanganui’s Sarjeant Gallery. In 2009 she won the McConnell Properties Stoneleigh Sculpture Award and in 2011 she was the resident botanic artist at the Auckland Botanic Gardens.
Exhibiting consistently in New Zealand and internationally since the 1970s, Hellyar’s work has been included in major exhibitions including the 1982 Biennale of Sydney; When Art Hits The Headlines (National Art Gallery, Wellington 1987); NZXI (Auckland City Art Gallery, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, and Contemporary Art Institute, Brisbane, 1988); Three from NZ (Long Beach Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 1990); Headlands (MCA, Sydney, 1992); and Treasures of the Underworld (New Zealand Pavilion at the 1992 Seville Expo, Amsterdam and various New Zealand venues, 1992 to 1994).
Hellyar’s work is held in most New Zealand public collections, including the Auckland Art Gallery, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and the Christchurch Art Gallery. She was an active member of the New Zealand Society of Sculptors and Painters and is now an active member of “Outdoor Sculpture 2001” which celebrated the new millennium by installing eight new permanent sculptures in the Auckland Domain.
In a career spanning 50 years, with shows in Australia, the USA, England, Holland, Spain, Hungary, Japan, Korea and Singapore, Hellyar has made and exhibited over 750 sculptures, 15 large installations and countless paintings, drawings and photographs. She now works mainly in fibre for indoor sculpture, and bronze for outdoor sculpture. Her 2D work is in a wide range of media.