Jay Hutchinson

Ōtepoti Dunedin

Jay Hutchinson is a New Zealand artist based in Dunedin. He graduated from the Dunedin School of Art with an MFA in 2008 and works with numerous mediums including hand-embroidery, performance, drawing, video and fabric construction.

‘One of the potential aims of art is to make people look again at things that they would normally disregard — to view things in a new, unexpected light — and in doing so to see them as if for the first time'. This is a major feature of the fabric and installation art of Jay Hutchinson.

Hutchinson’s work takes the throwaway, literally, and raises it to a level where it is no longer worthless. Using as his subject discarded scraps and rubbish found on his daily journeys, he reclaims the items by recreating them and reinventing them as intricate and attractive embroidered pieces. This allows us to appreciate that even the detritus of everyday life can have its own surprising and subversive beauty.'

James Dignan, Otago Daily Times, March 3, 2022