Exhibition one: 12 December – 9 January
Lisa Watkins
Three Acts of Joy, 2025
DVD cases, melted plastics, CD roses and resin shards, mirror.
Three Acts of Joy brings together discarded DVD cases, melted plastics, CD roses and resin shards, all arranged on an old bedroom mirror sourced from my New Lynn neighbourhood. These once-ordinary objects — things we watched, carried, cracked, stored and forgot — gather again as bright, delicate botanical forms, transformed into small acts of colour and hope.
These materials, once rented from the dairy, stacked on shelves or played on rainy evenings, now sit outside their original purpose. In their new botanical shapes, they carry threads of care, resilience and gentle regrowth — the soft but powerful things that hold communities together.
Installed inside the Neighbour Hood Support Group noticeboard, the work reflects the quiet heartbeat of this place: dairies that become part of the whānau, the long hours and unseen labour of small family businesses, and the little moments of kindness and recognition that make a neighbourhood feel like home. It also acknowledges how our ways of connecting have shifted — from physical places to digital spaces — alongside the calm, steady influence of the nearby Whau River and its winding waterways.
Bio: Lisa Watkins (MyShinyMadness) is a multi award-winning, West Auckland sustainability artist whose practice transforms discarded and overlooked materials into bold sculptural works that celebrate colour, regeneration and, above all, joy. Working with plastics, DVDs, CDs, industrial offcuts and household debris, she reshapes the familiar materials of suburbia into vibrant botanical and abstract forms — creating and sharing joy in every piece.