Message to the mountain : 3rd Nature, Puke Ariki
I am still working though all of the photographs from our travels to South Australia and New Zealand, even though we have been back almost a month. Time is much more compressed now we are back in Canberra, as we try to juggle our energies.
Here are some images of my installation at Puke Ariki as part of SCANZ 2013 : 3rd Nature exhibition in New Plymouth.
Message to the mountain – window view
The work is composed of a series of digitally manipulated aerial photographs of Taranaki mountain. Here is a closer view of the work.
Message to the mountain, digital collage
It was a really amazing opening of the exhibition with a dawn ceremony led by Māori elders. The exhibition also featured some excellent work by lots of artists (check out the link above) which I hope to feature in later blogs.
This picture has a better view of Taranaki in the window.
Mountain in the window
Mt Taranaki was the key theme in the work I produced while at SCANZ2013. I was fascinated by this stunning geographical feature, which is iconic in the landscape of the region. The stories, history and physicality of the mountain are deeply imbedded in local narratives, through education, tourism and commerce.
It was the first time in the Fauxonomy project where the geographical subject did not feature coastline and estuarine environment. Leading up to the residency, I studied satellite imagery of the area to inform the work for the exhibition. What I found initially, was that the etches in the volcanic soil had the appearance of creeks and rivers after heavy floods, which evoked rivers of lava in my imagination, of times long past. Spending time in the area and walking around the base of the mountain revealed that it is now a landscape of water, with deep creeks and lush vegetation. Fortunately the creeks were not flooding when we went walking on Taranaki as we might have been stuck in some bits!!