This woven elm bark basket is filled with material gathered from beaches near Judy McIntosh Wilson’s home in Waikuku, north of Christchurch. By ordering these items and presenting them within a gallery space, she reinforces their beauty and invites us to see them as distinct, individual objects, rather than just part of the general beach debris.

Wilson’s work belongs to the category of Earth (or Environmental) Art in which the forms and forces of nature are put into another context or setting. Earth Art usually rejects the commercialisation of art and supports ecological concerns.

Wilson was born in North Canterbury and graduated from the Canterbury University School of Fine Arts in 1958, specialising in sculpture. She has exhibited throughout New Zealand and her work has featured in significant international exhibitions in North America and Europe. Her fibre work is held in collections in Brussels, Bahrain, Canberra, New York, London, Tokyo and Vienna.