Judy Darragh

Aotearoa New Zealand, b.1957

Cats and Dogs

  • 2003
  • Piano wire, fur, lycra and plastic found objects
  • Purchased, 2003
  • 2003/101.a-rrrr

Since the 1970s, Judy Darragh has explored the tensions between high and low art, and the difference between what is tasteful or tacky. In the early 2000s, she turned her focus to the cheap plastic ware that had become ubiquitous in New Zealand. “Where once there was a second-hand shop, there is now a two-dollar shop – the 2-minute high from the $2.00 spend.” Here, that overwhelming artificial deluge is paralleled by another – a quivering shower of fluorescent objects raining down ‘like cats and dogs’.

(We do this, 12 May 2018 - 26 May 2019)

Exhibition History

earlier labels about this work
  • This installation was part of an exhibition called ‘Truth and Beauty II’ in which Judy Darragh explored the tension between high and low art, and kitsch versus good taste. The fluorescent objects emerging on wire from the wall refer to rain, as in “it’s raining cats and dogs”.

    Darragh’s love of kitsch things has been an important part of her multi-media work since the 1970s. She uses discarded everyday materials, out of which she creates new meanings and objects.

    Darragh was born in Christchurch and studied visual communication and design at Wellington Polytechnic. She has exhibited widely, in galleries and non-gallery spaces. She founded the Blue Room Gallery and Shop in 1985.