Fancy Fools Flight

It's always exciting to receive copies of art catalogues that I've written for. The calibre of design and image reproduction is so fine these days that the finished publications look incredibly slick and appealing. The images above are from the catalogue accompanying a brilliant exhibition by Martinborough glass artists, Jim Dennison and Leanne Williams (The Crystal Chain Gang), which is currently on tour to selected North Island Public Galleries until 2013. The exhibition Fancy Fools Flight, curated and toured by Greg Donson from the Sarjeant Gallery, has just ended its showing here at Auckland's Objectspace and is making its way to the Suter Gallery in Nelson.

The stars of the show in my opinion are the selection of ornate decanters assembled on a cleverly designed multi-leg table. Each of the decanters is sealed by an exquisitely crafted novelty stopper, some with bird forms, some with human figures, and some with strange, unidentifiable life forms.

I was fortunate enough to be given an open brief for the writing assignment, so I opted to write a fanciful pirate story inspired by one of the bottles with a pirate figure stopper. It was the most fun writing assignment I've had for a long time!

For those of you living in the North Island, look out for the exhibition at a Gallery near you. It is a wonderfully conceived and executed show and well worth a visit.