ARTIST STATEMENT:
My current body of work examines the postcolonial identity, and ecology in Aotearoa. I am specifically investigating the historical and contemporary exchanges between Pākehā, Māori, birds and the environment. Taking into consideration a museum context - a space that activates encounters between indigene and bird, indigene and colonizer, bird and taxidermist.
Native birds are the predominant subject matter of my current work. Birds were one of a few creatures to inhabit Aotearoa prior to European colonisation and have special significance in Māori folklore. Birds are considered tapu, messengers from the spirit world and are under the guardianship and protection of Tāne, God of the forest. Some deceased Māori chiefs were reborn as the Kotuku (White Heron); a highly valued and respected bird.
I derive inspiration from images of taxidermy sourced from the Auckland Museums online database. My project The Children of Tāne, critiques the westernised culture of the natural science museum. Museum institutions act as assumptions for what nature is at a particular time, for a particular group of people. They enrich our cultural understand, but risk suggesting the superiority of Western culture at the expense of other knowledge systems, beliefs and practices.
I am currently working in oil paint. The transformational qualities of paint and indigenous Māori culture act as modes of resistance against the homogenising nature of globalisation. The conceptual ideas in my current work resonate korero aoteatea (cosmological narrative), Māori folklore, and symbolise motifs in nature. The work displays surreal and poetic narratives.
