Whanganui artist Lauren Joan Lysaght knows how to convey serious messages with humour and inventiveness.
Her exhibition, "The Silence of the Sheep", at the Rayner Brothers Gallery in Glasgow St explores the things that people keep quiet about and the reasons why they do it.
The series of idiosyncratic masks are made from sound-proofing fabric.
"I bought a bulk lot on Trade Me and I didn't have a purpose in mind," the artist says.
"It was only when I started creating the masks that I realised how well it fitted with the theme."
A vinyl snakeskin print handbag has been transformed into a slithering reptile in the hair of the Sisss Silence mask while there are tears flowing from the eye hole of a mask representing sorrowful silence.