Big teds and a special dress

Often the stories behind art enliven the art itself and so it might be for Amanda Newall’s new exhibition at the Sofa Gallery at the University of Canterbury.

Disparate Threads – With Fanny Buss and the Three Bears weaves together textiles, costumes, carpet, drawings, video and family photographs.

The three bears are human life-sized wearable versions of the teddy bears given to Newall, her cousin and her aunt, by Newall’s maternal grandmother decades ago.

The first, Blue Ted, was created by Newall while on a residency in Andalusia, Spain. She prowled the countryside – blindly, because the furry costume has no eye holes – sucking air through a snorkel.

Newall wanted to bring the original Blue Ted to New Zealand for exhibitions and performances, but bits of Andalusian wildlife, twigs and landscape were caught in its fur and biosecurity folks back home wouldn’t have liked that.

So she made a second Blue Ted for a show in Queenstown and will display it alongside Pink Ted and Brown Ted in Ilam.

Unfortunately, original Blue Ted is currently lost. Newall vacuum-packed him into a suitcase for transit to a theatre conference in Accra, Ghanain July, but the luggage never made it to the first stopover. Since, the suitcase has been recorded passing through Heathrow three times and Gatwick once.

Newall discovered the Fanny Buss dress in an Auckland op-shop last year. She hadn’t heard of Buss before, but as a fabric artist Newall was immediately drawn to the dirty and ochre velvet long-sleeved dress with a hood that cost $25.

It looked hand printed, probably with a cut potato. “It is a work of art primarily and a garment second,” she wrote by email from her home in England.

Buss attended Ilam art school (she flatted with Rita Angus) before becoming a textile and fashion designer active from the 1950s to the 1980s.

Also in the show is a self portrait of Newall in carpet.

Many of the works were created while Newall was the 2022-23 recipient of the annual Olivia Spencer Bower Award.

Disparate Threads – With Fanny Buss And The Three Bears at Sofa Gallery opens this Wednesday.