Molly Timmins, Middle Garden II, 2022. Embroidery on canvas, 20 x 25cm. Courtesy: the artist and Sanderson Contemporary Art.

Sanderson Contemporary Art presents an exhibition by Molly Timmins, Hybrid Gardens.

Timmins (Ngāpuhi, Pākehā) is interested in exploring heritage and the natural environment. From a family of many generations of gardeners this has provoked Molly’s fascination with the natural wonders of Aotearoa New Zealand and the women who have painted this before her. Utilising the delicate practice of embroidery interacting with paint she seeks to create a new world within the canvas while speaking to a rich history of female landscape artists.

In this exhibition, archival imagery of Timmin’s grandmother’s glasshouses are depicted alongside the contemporary bromeliads featured in her mother’s gardens and nursery. This survey aims to observe the intergenerational relationship of gardening, as both a hobby and profession. Personal and familiar imagery is used to speak about other women like the artist’s grandmother who would ‘stitch, craft, and paint for leisure’ and investigates how this can intercept with gardening.

By using embroidery in conjunction with painting the artist aims to question the hierarchies of artistic disciplines within the art world, embroidery and craft traditionally being viewed as a ‘domestic’ art form. The artworks in which figurative references are absent aim to articulate the process of embroidery as a repetitive stitch, whilst using the colour palette as a way to embody the movement and light in particular gardens.

‘Much like an embroiderer, a gardener painstakingly tends to her work for production, design, and leisure. She nurtures flowerbeds, and curates flourishing patches with the same ambition and satisfaction as when holding a needle and thread.’ Timmins 2022

Opening Event: 3 September, 11am – 1pm