It’s difficult to define Elizabeth Thomson.
Elizabeth Thomson Photo: RNZ/Charlotte Wilson
She captures dreams: fantastic installations of hundreds of flocked white moths flying on the walls of a blank white background; trails of tiny bronze leaves marching across a blank landscape; glowing, watery paintings which change shape as you come close to them and gradually reveal their secrets under the light.
Part sculptor, part painter, part architect, part miniaturist, she uses a multitude of techniques and tools to create works that are described as pushing the notion of ‘beautiful’ into new territories.
In the words of Gregory O’Brien, City Gallery Wellington:
"The alluring and perplexing surfaces of her work take us into a tactile, sensual world of roughness and smoothness, hardness and softness, opacity and translucence.
"The materials she uses, which include hand-formed glass, bronze, zinc, glass beading and fibreglass, attain new and often surprising nuances of meaning and association, hinting at emotional states as well as referencing the forms and processes of the natural world."
Images reproduced courtesy of Two Rooms, Auckland, and Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington.
Born in Auckland in 1955, Elizabeth Thomson travelled extensively before enrolling at Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland, studying printmaking and sculpture and graduating with a Master of Fine Arts in 1988.
North by Northwest Photo: Elizabeth Thomson
She was already holding solo exhibitions and since then her works have been exhibited in galleries around the country and overseas.
She has created numerous site-specific commissions and had a major 20-year touring retrospective in 2006, My Hi-Fi My Sci-Fi, referencing her interest in music as well as the order and chaos of Nature.
In 2011, she was invited onto an artist residence programme in the Kermadec Islands, an experience that affected her profoundly and resulted in one of her many exhibitions inspired by the sea.
Rosette Photo: Elizabeth Thomson
She works to music in the vast spaces of her studio, which is a former stainless-steel pressing factory in Newtown, Wellington. It’s big enough for an apartment on the mezzanine, where the whole family live, including the dog.
Solaris VII Photo: Elizabeth Thomson
Art, Life, Music is a series in which Charlotte Wilson explores the connections between music and art, visiting celebrated NZ artists, in their studios, to talk about their work and their life and their love for music – because each of these artists has a connection to music, in some way. Here, they choose their favourite pieces, and explain in their own totally unique and various ways, what makes them tick.
Music details:
DEBUSSY: Arabesque No 1
Noriko Ogawa
BIS CD 1405
FOURTET: Our Navigation
Kieran Hebden, aka Fourtet
From the album “Beautiful Rewind”
Text Records (2014)
CHOPIN: Nocturne Op 9 No 1
Claudio Arrau
Philips 416440
