This exhibition presents thirty works by Adele Younghusband from the collection of the Whangārei Art Museum, displayed on and alongside structures and objects designed by Melbourne-based artist Esther Stewart and New Zealand architect, designer and artist Gerard Dombroski.

Constructed out of stored recycled materials from the various properties, projects and exhibitions of the Whangārei Art Trust, this exhibition aims to ground Adele’s work in the day-to-day materials of the physical exhibition space and the work of the institution, while also offering her a metaphorical homecoming to the organisation she fought so hard for as the original founder.
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Adele arrived in Whangārei in 1919, intent on setting up a photography business. She was forty-one years old and the mother of three children: Joyce, Terry and Lance. A solo mother was not unusual at the time, as the war and Spanish Flu epidemic had destroyed many families. However, Adele was remarkable in that she had left her spouse, Frank Younghusband, the previous year – a fact she would likely not have shared with the conservative community around her. Neither would she have mentioned that she was still single on the day before her 26th birthday when her daughter Joyce was born, with Frank cited only as “informant” on the birth certificate. Clearly, Adele was a free-spirited woman of resolve and many passions, foremost amongst which was her lifelong commitment to art...

-Writing by Dr Zana Bell