Allona Goren, Marcos Guzman, Iris Eichenberg, Tracy Keith, Meredith Turnbull, Manon van Kouswijk, Benjamin Lignel, Steve Carr, Isobel Thom, Jacquelyn Greenbank, Cat Fooks, Sung Hwan Bobby Park, Warwick Freeman, Jen Alexandra, Gavin Hipkins, Maia Kreisler, Kate Fitzharris, Wayne Youle & Aaron Beehre

Candles & Sticks was a multidisciplinary exhibition project that brought together the work of 19 artists, designers and other makers from Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, France, and the USA. The first iteration of this project was presented in Melbourne in 2022, curated by Manon van Kouswijk (Melbourne-based artist/educator) and Sassy Park, and realised with artist Allona Goren.

This new exhibition, curated for The National by Caroline Billing and Manon van Kouswijk, included work by seven artists from the original Melbourne 2022 exhibition, and we were excited to include work in the Ōtautahi iteration from twelve new makers.

Candles & Sticks presented a range of works that reinterpreted and/or reflected on the candlestick as an object that held, supported or framed a candle, or on the ritual of burning candles. Artists’ responses could be object- or image-based, autonomous or functional, sculptural, durational, with scope for diverse approaches and interpretations of this subject and matter.

“Sculpturally, the candlestick could be thought of as a composition made up of a base, a foreground and background, vertical and horizontal, light and shadow. Beside the formal and material possibilities at play in this object, the burning of candles was ritual and symbolic, celebratory and commemorative and could be found in the public as well as the private realm.

We were curious to see how artists/designers/ceramicists and other makers might rethink / rework / remake this object as it had so much sculptural and poetic potential that went beyond it being merely a functional object. There was drama and transformation in the melting of wax, the flickering of flames and the throwing of shadows.” — Manon van Kouswijk, 2022