Rebecca Smallridge

Regeneration

Regeneration is a new series of paintings I have developed over the last two years, and the outcome of my Master of Arts research project. As the tittle suggests, my practice focuses on environmental concerns, in this case, the sharp decline in our indigenous biodiversity due to human intervention. I have drawn attention to the temperate forest ecosystem of Paparoa National park, an area of national significance I share an affinity with.

I’m interested in the inherent beauty and ecological value of wild places, whilst examining the interconnections within nature and humanities vital role of land stewardship.

My new works begin on the floor. I’ve employed a wet on wet watercolour technique where I drop ink and natural pigments onto a flat surface and allow the media to expand and overlap into organic shapes. Shadows of leaf forms are layered and integrated with observational drawings of native, botanical specimens.

Karen Greenslade

Where the Creek Runs 2018-2020

Paintings inspired by Westland’s Waimea Creek and its surrounds.

Translations of Waimea include lost and forgotten. These works are a tribute to a thousand freshwater creek environments throughout New Zealand encompassing the meandering waters, still pools, rushes of water, the stones and rocks, lichens, mosses, shrubs and trees all there by interventions of chance. These works are intimations and interpretations of past and present natural worlds.

Some of the works are mediated by images of floral textile design derived from the domestic worlds of women and combine with a depicted New Zealand natural world as symbols of quiet intrusions into the lost and forgotten places where creeks run. Such intrusions remind us of the complexities of living within a colonised land such as New Zealand and the difficulties of preserving the integrity of the natural environment. This exhibition is an acknowledgement of the women in my family from past times and from the present, and their love of this land and its gifts.

Alix Ashworth

Singing them home

Forgive me ancestors

For I have forgotten you

Four pillars

Four Atua

Four spirits forgotten

Left on the lonely path

I gather the bones

Hold them close

Ki taku manawa

Sing the bones

Sing life and spirit

Warm the cold Souls

Of spirits forgotten

Make their bones yours

Step foot on their path

The lonely Are Not Alone

……..

Each vessel embodies the essence of one Atua I have lost.

As I explore my connection to the land and to being tangata whenua I shelter the small knowledge I have.

Placing them in the warm clay offering them a place to rest and grow.