For further artist information, images & price enquiries please contact Lydia Baxendell: lydia@gallery33.co.nz

A sweet aroma is permeating through gallery thirty three, walking around the space the pop popping of bubble wrap underfoot mimics the bursting of seeds, pods and blooming flowers. The synthetic scent of what could be gorse fills the room. A picturesque stroll through the rugged Central Otago landscape informs this body of work where environmental and seasonal extremes are explored and celebrated.

Vegetable sheep theory derives from a mysterious mistaken identity where rumoured sheep killing kea in search of grubs mistook the vegetable sheep (a woolly-like alpine plant - Haastia pulvinaris and Raoulia eximia) for real sheep, feeding on their flesh and killing them. Madeleine Child and Philip Jarvis rework this idea of mistaken identity. They transform the ordinary and mundane using a multitude of processes, handmade and found objects infused together with a heady dose of poetic humor and splendor.

A distinctive decoy flock of sheep mimics the clustered alpine plant and name-sake to this exhibition. These iridescent Vegetable Sheep made from ceramic, Egyptian paste, fimo flowers, coiled strips of painted sponge and sparkling glass beads are humorously tied with sheep docking rings. Flattened wire bed springs hang as paintings forming modular abstract patterns or warped Minimalist incarnations at factory intervals. Some are spray-painted and radiate bright colour and texture, others gleam with a newly nickel-plated surface. Gorse Getting Away - ceramic gorse objects are accessorised with divisive fencing and barbed wire, these sit in a nouveau-style plinth and emblem of consumerism – the shopping trolley. Ceramic rain clouds Tairei Pets named with local flavour add to this diverse landscape. They glow with reflective glass beads, balancing tentatively on their steel precipitation.

Vegetable Sheep Theory celebrates the transformation of the ordinary where narratives of the landscape are re-told through unique objects and lush surfaces. The possibilities of materials are stretched and the artist’s hand is evident in every art-work.

Catalogue essay by Anna Muirhead 2009

Taieri Pets (2009) ceramic, wire, glass 200-400mm high	Gorse Getting Away (2009) ceramic, wire 300–500mm high	A Patch of Blue Coming (2009) foam, paint, glass 500x520x70mm

Double (2009) rusted and nickel pated wire 1400 x 720mm	Vegetable Sheep (2009) ceramic, egyptian paste, sponge, glass 350 x 400 x 100mm approx ea	Double (2009) painted wire 1620 x 675mm

Gorse Stems (2009) ceramic, wire 465 x 180mm ea	Sun Burst (2009) foam, paint, glass 485 x 710 x 75mm

With an arts foundation in ceramics, glass and sculpture, Madeleine Child and Philip Jarvis have an established reputation both internationally and nationally for their playful yet serious sculptural, multi-media practice. Their work is held in numerous collections including AIR Vallauris, France, Museum het Princessehof, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands, Frans Hals Museum, The Netherlands, Shepparton Art Gallery, Australia, Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, NZ, Otago Museum, Dunedin, Auckland Museum and Canterbury Museum, Christchurch.

Click on the link to the artist home page for further images, prices and information: Madeleine Child & Philip Jarvis

Madeleine Child and Philip Jarvis would like to thank the support of Creative New Zealand