Wellington's stiltdancer displays forgotten treasures

Not content with dazzling local and international audiences with her performance and costume arts, Stiltdancer Emily Buttle will exhibit some of her paintings at Toi Pôneke Gallery from 2 October.

Emily recently uncovered some paintings that she made in her father's garage twelve years ago, from around the time when she was sewing a collection of dresses for her sister's wedding.

"This display clearly unearths a lot of memories for me," says Emily. "I was spending a lot of time with my family, and I was full of excitement about all aspects of art while experimenting with lots of different mediums. This collection took me a week to produce, and has been rolled up and stored in my Dad's garage ever since."

Emily is founder and director of the international stilt dancing company, EMPRESS Stiltdance. She spent ten years based in Amsterdam and has performed at huge international events such as Berlin's Love Parade, London's Notting Hill Carnival and the Edinburgh Arts Festival.

Since returning to New Zealand in 2006, she established the Wellington branch and headquarters of EMPRESS Stiltdance at Toi Pōneke, Wellington Arts Centre.

When Emily returned from overseas, she was delighted to rediscover the paintings stashed away in the garage, "so full of the energy of that time in my life".

She has always intended to return to painting and plans it for "much later on, when contemplation and time are more on my side and physical action fades into the background".

Gold from the Garage opens at 5pm on Tuesday 2 October for one week only at Toi Pōneke Gallery, Wellington Arts Centre, 61 Abel Smith Street.