Karin Montgomery is one of 14 artists, makers and designers exhibiting in How to make a home, a show exploring the small universe of home and the material politics of the objects and adornment we live with over time. We asked Karin four quick questions about their work in the exhibition and what makes a home, read her responses below.

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Objectspace: Can you briefly describe the material and making of your works in How to make a home?

Karin Montgomery: My works are made from paper, wire, pigments of various kinds, glues and sealers - but the most important material is time. The making of the work is determined by the seasons. My specimens usually require two exemplars from the garden — one which is completely disassembled in order to better understand the engineering of the plant and another to guide the process. I need to finish before the latter one collapses beyond recognition.

OS: Can you share some of your thinking behind the works?

KM: I have made two previous Fagus Sylvatica or Copper Beech specimens based on branches at different moments in their life cycles. They are very enticing because of their colour; their leaves transition from green to red to deep purple. The species is a treasure of 17th century Germany that was first noted in the Possenwald Forest in 1690. I have been unable to work out when the first tree was cultivated in Aotearoa, but until recently it has been a fairly common sight in my immediate inner city neighbourhood. This particular example was partly prompted by the loss of large old trees in the area. A major maple in the street was recently taken down and another Fagus has been removed at a time when we need their shade and colour more than ever. When I got the branch that this one is based on home, it was not in the first flush of youth. I find the underrated textures of age and decay very beautiful and have tried to represent them as accurately as possible.

OS: How do you feel your work connects to domestic spaces and/or the way we adorn and dress them?

KM: My work relates to the history of bringing flowers and plants into our houses. A branch like this is a more austere variety of the impulse to connect to nature. I enjoy the elegance of its simple curved form and the fact that it is an ‘imperfect’ specimen. It is something that not everyone would choose to admit. It makes you think about the aesthetic conventions that determine what we import into our houses. It is not easy to detect that the Fagus is a handmade object but that is an important aspect of what it brings into the home.

OS: How to make a home posits that what makes a home is the persistence of ‘things’ that inspire us to feel like we belong. Can you tell us about an object that has made, or does make, your home a home?

KM: The Fagus may be something of a contradiction to this idea. It is connected on some level to my desire to live with very little and be more attentive to what I do have. Probably what I value most in the house are things that have a connection to friends and people I know well. I have a Marilyn Sainty ‘Binocular’ Chest of Drawers made around 1997. It is special to me because Marilyn designed it. It is beautifully made from a warm Walnut veneer. It is pared back and very sophisticated, and I have lived with it for a long time. It does not have sharp edges but sensual curves. At the same time it is very practical; it houses a multitude of small items of clothing.

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More about Karin Montgomery

Karin Montgomery’s exceptional paper craft reflects her attentiveness to the ecology of her garden and immediate inner-city neighbourhood. Her work has its origins in a time of pandemic lockdown and widespread biophilia. The foundations of her art are in decades of aesthetic experience. For many years she worked as a textile importer, kept bees in her garden and developed an appreciation of botanical art – Dutch C17th flower painting, Mary Delany’s English C18th ‘paper mosaicks’ and Fanny Osborne’s C19th studies of native flora on Aotea Great Barrier Island. Montgomery is interested in the history of plant migration and has researched whaler gardens in Aotearoa and the Chinese origins of ubiquitous local species.