CHRIS CHARTERIS

Chris and Black Star, 2004

Chris Charteris has worked as a full time artist (sculptor, carver, jewellery maker) since the mid 1980s and lives with partner Lizzy and son Atawhai in the paradisiacal setting of Kuaotunu on the Coromandel Peninsula.

Chris’s working process and creative kaupapa are much informed by his early training as a carver. Being of Kiribati and Fijian heritage, Polynesian forms: traditional tools, ceremonial objects, patterns, taonga and body adornment are a natural source of contemplation and design and reflects his interest in mans historical interactions and ongoing relationship with nature. These influences have gradually synthesised into a more personal, refined aesthetic.

Kouma, 2005, Pounamu

"I attempt to express my diverse cultural inheritance in a way that reflects the universality of forms. I regard my work as sacred work and I attempt to create things that have richness, spirit, meaning and purpose".

Describing himself as a beach-comber and ‘professional scavenger’, Chris often uses found materials. In 2006 to express his ecological concerns and ongoing support for the whaling moratorium, he fashioned whale ribs sourced from a local beach into forms reminiscent of whaling harpoons. 

Wasekaseka,  2005

Chris is also known for his jewellery and body adornment inspired by traditional breast plates, wasekaseka, pounamu and whale tooth pendants, scaled to suit commemorative and ceremonial use. In 2000 considering the Maori concept of the wharenui as representing an ancestral body, Chris used round granite stones as giant beads for a necklace/wall installation entitled Forces of Land and Ocean. While Chris continues to use natural materials (pounamu, bone, shell and fibre braiding) his experimentation now includes man made materials such as Perspex.

Pacific cross, Basalt, 2006

Enjoying a growing ability to be less conscious of his working process, Chris has adopted a more freely experimental and intuitive response to materials and ideas. He enjoys working collaboratively with other artists as a way of breaking up time spent on solo exhibitions and private commissions. Chris has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions including an FHE exhibition of New Zealand artists in Shanghai (2006); Pasifika Styles (2006-2008) at University of Cambridge Museum, UK and solo exhibition Kotuku (2007) at FHE Galleries, Auckland. With a growing international profile Chris’s work can be found in public and private collections within NZ and abroad. 

Represented by FHE Gallery