liandongmei4

Every handbag carries its own story Dunedin artist Kerry Mackay admits she got a bit carried away with her latest exhibition. Ms Mackay's self-described "handbag fetish" became the inspiration for her master's degree in fine arts four years ago and the contents were revealed at this week's opening in the Dunedin School of Art Gallery. "Every bag has a story. Pandora Charms Bracelets

They're all like picture-book stories for me," she said. "Carried Away - 101 handbags make an exhibition of themselves" took four years to complete while Ms Mackay worked full-time as senior lecturer in visual arts at the Dunedin College of Education. "I found them all in secondhand shops and re-skinned them; gave a new surface to an old thing," she said. Some of the bags border on the bizarre; like a cat taking a pheasant on a walk.

Cheap Pandora JewelryAnother is covered in eyes and the piece de resistance is a handbag mirror ball. A crucifix has been formed with bags carrying icons of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. "They were called 'So Obviously Rex' bags and in New Zealand in the 1940s and 1950s they were considered a good bag to give for 21sts and wedding gifts and things," she said. "I remember sitting in church with my mother when she had one of those. Pandora Bracelet Charms

It was about the age I first started noticing handbags. I talked to a lot of my mother's generation about them and even tracked down some women who used to work in the factory in Christchurch. "They were all serial numbered and were originally made of leather until the '60s, when vinyl was seen as fashionable. Pandora Jewelry

" Handbags only became a common accessory in the 1880s, Ms Mackay said, when women began to travel more regularly. "The handbag designers soon started getting more experimental. "The more exotic they were, the more gorgeous women thought they were," Ms Mackay said. "There were lots made of exotic leather and fur, like alligator and armadillo, after the war with all the rationing of materials like leather.

Pandora Charms "I've got photos of women walking around in the 1940s carrying handbags that look like taxidermy," she said. "I do sometimes wonder if my art is taxidermy or upholstery." A recent survey in England revealed the average 30-year-old woman owned 21 handbags and bought a new one every three months. The exhibition is on until June 30. Pandora Charms On Sale