A visit to Judy Darragh’s Western Springs studio is like taking a look at the inner workings of her brilliant mind.

The white-walled space is filled with works that embody both her effervescent energy and her long-spanning career that bridges painting, sculpture and installation.

Born in Christchurch in 1957 and now based in Auckland, Darragh has made a significant contribution to New Zealand’s vibrant art scene since her career began in the boom-and-bust era of the ’80s. She has been called the “Queen of Kitsch” because of her fondness for the bold and bombastic, her love of nostalgia and her appreciation for extravagance. A much-respected figure in the arts community, she is an advocate, mentor and activist, and is the co-editor of the publication Femisphere. She taught at tertiary level for many years, and has played a pivotal role in developing several artist-run spaces, as well as public gallery Artspace.

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Human connection is central to her work; her prolific making is shaped by a sharp sense of curiosity that’s fed by conversations with friends and collaborators.

While the synthetic materials filling her studio have played a large part in her practice of late, she is currently on a “plastic detox” and is turning her hand to organic matter. These include mussel shells, driftwood, and kauri gum. Armed with a glue gun, she recently took up an artist residency at Karekare House located at one of Auckland’s windswept black-sand beaches (well before Cyclone Gabrielle).

It is not unusual for Darragh to experiment with new materials and mediums.

When Broadsheet visits, she is wearing her sold-out Astral Graffiti shirt – a collaboration with New Zealand clothing brand Checks. She has an ongoing series of bejewelled Dogs Dinner brooches that are highly coveted at New Plymouth’s Jewel and the Jeweller. Right now, she is also working on an upcoming exhibition at her long-time dealer gallery, Two Rooms in Auckland.

On her studio table is an “exquisite corpse project” that she is making with friends – whereby a sheet of paper is folded three times and hidden from two other people who each draw a section of a figure. This exercise was used by surrealists to boost creativity and collaboration, and Darragh finds herself drawn to the influential movement. Scanning the room, it’s easy to see how her own imagination allows her to create work in wildly new and unexpected ways.

“The surrealists believed the object finds you,” she says, about the philosophy that she has made her own.

Darragh routinely rescues and reuses materials in true trash-to-treasure style. Her studio is full of banal and bizarre household items in new compositions, and they challenge viewers to think outside the traditional confines of visual art.

Around the space, there’s a spray-painted horse statue, plastic wine glasses in warm hues and an assortment of kitchen funnels. These are collected on walks around her neighbourhood, second-hand shops and industrial supply stores. Once she’s done with her works, she occasionally pulls them apart to recycle or return to charity – 3D works might become 2D images and resurface again in her own circular economy.

Her studio is in a converted garage behind her house. The previous owner used the space to store adventure canoes and fix cars, and the roller door now has windows sitting alongside it to let in natural light. On a warm day, you can hear the rustle of the bamboo plants lining the steep driveway, and Darragh’s Burmese cat Coke sits sunbathing on the warm concrete.

Back inside, one wall divides the studio space from Darragh’s archives. As with many senior practitioners, there is another offsite storage space where the rest is kept, and she says her son Buster (who is currently living overseas) can sort through the archives one day. While Darragh has reached retirement age, she is still a live wire, with sparkling wit and personality.

Her work is disarming in its playfulness, irreverence and commitment to the unconventional. Like Darragh’s personal aesthetic, it captures your attention immediately and stops you in your tracks. Limbo was one of her best-known works; striking large-scale meteorite forms suspended in Auckland Art Gallery Toi O Tāmaki’s North Atrium in 2011. Te Papa did a major survey exhibition of her work in 2004 titled Judy Darragh: So…You Made It?, and currently her gleaming floral sculptures hang in the parlour of hotel Naumi Studio Wellington.

Darragh’s use of material objects is laden with humour and concerns about contemporary life. They speak directly to the spaces they inhabit, like an assemblage of plastic garden chairs she’s revisiting from a former work. But you won’t catch her lounging around planning her next artistic project. As modern life continues to embrace hybrid working environments, the contemporary artist is no different. Offsite thinking is an important part of Darragh’s practice; she relies on regular walks for problem-solving and ideation.

“I don’t beat myself up if I’m not in here,” she says, before referring to a sheet of paper on the wall. “That’s my brain on the wall with ideas, touchpoints, moments I keep going back to.”

Words and phrases like “the shitverse”, “sun damage”, “speedway”, and “whispers of deep space” fill the mind map, and conjure vivid images of the concepts Darragh is currently toying with.

Play is integral to her practice, as well as exploration with different techniques that range from filmmaking, photography and graphic design. “I nibbled around the edges before coming to fine arts,” she says of her training. “I still feel like I’m playing in the studio and finding new ideas.”

The longer you keep practising, the more relaxed you get with your ideas, she says. “That’s when everything works.”

Judy Darragh is represented by Two Rooms Gallery in Auckland.

judydarragh.co.nz