A passion for collecting
16 June 2010 Dianne Cadman’s workspace at Sandz Gallery and Studio in Hamilton is lined with boxes – as are her bedrooms at home and at her bach.
The imagery she uses is collected from various sources such as newspapers and books, and categorised thematically. Her passion for collecting started as a child, Dianne’s mother says. “Her room is full of collections of ornaments, paintings and books. She is very sentimental.”
The Hamilton artist, who has been working at Sandz Gallery for more than ten years, wants to continue developing her artistic skills and her career as an artist because it brings her great joy.
Two recent sources of joy and pride are recognition for her work in two mainstream exhibitions – one in Christchurch, the other in Bretagne, France.
Her work, Contemporary On, is one of 65 works selected to feature in the 2010 COCA Anthony Harper Contemporary Art Award exhibition in Christchurch, running until 3 July.
She is also one of 132 artists from around the world whose collage work featured in the 12th International Collage Exhibition in France. Her 13 selected mixed media works feature varied themes, displaying an interplay of both typography and imagery.
One collage from each of the artists will go into the collection of Art Colle, the museum of collage in France. The museum is shifting into a seventeenth-century chapel in Bretagne and will re-open in 2011.
Dianne’s collage work combines her talents for jigsaw puzzle imagery and c images with three-dimensional elements. She assembles compositions with tape and traces them with carbon paper, using processes of sourcing, selecting and elimination of images to create her distinctive work.
Stuart Shepherd, artist and curator, is impressed by Dianne’s “finesse, sophistication, design, line, material and process”.
Emma Fletcher, team leader at Sandz Gallery and Studio, says that for Dianne, art seems to be an innate and a necessary process.
“Art is a fantastic vehicle for Dianne to pursue her desired methods and achieve success through exhibitions, and for others to get an insight into a different way of thinking,” she says.
Contemporary artist Gaye Jurisich describes Dianne’s works as meticulous. “They show intense commitment to a process. The ideas – layered, covered and uncovered – lead to journeys that the viewer can travel, making sense as they go.”