LANDSCAPE AND MEMORY
OVERVIEW
The importance of connection to place is real and abiding.
The view is not separate from the viewer, place is not separate from those who inhabit it. Engagement with place must be maintained, even if through memory alone. Landscape we carry with us, even in absence, those we are physically remote from become so amplified, so deeply a part of us.
It is this understanding of place I aim to capture and communicate – here on the South Coast of England and in memories of landscape in Aotearoa New Zealand, my childhood home.
Explorations have been made through photography, location and studio-based sketching, contextual research and physical investigations, to develop ideas towards 3D resolutions in wood. My material holds a primitive familiarity, a warmth. It’s reassuring to me that it already has its own life and narrative, we have an immediate dialogue. I believe we are collaborators.
LANDSCAPE AND MEMORY
MEMORY STICKS 2022
Whilst researching Māori whakairo (wood carving) and also Hinemihi o te Ao Tawhito whare tupuna (Hinemihi ancestral meeting house, controversially located at National Trust property Clandon Park, Surrey, for nearly 130 years), I found myself immersed again in the rich practices and spiritual beliefs of the Māori.
I am not of Māori descent; I am a pākehā, a New Zealander of European heritage, but growing up in Aotearoa New Zealand you are surrounded by te reo Māori, the Māori language, and by Māori culture. It is a source of national pride and identity. I wished to honour the influence this has had on me through my subject matter and the act of hand carving.
Both crafted from responsibly sourced Ash, turned on lathe and hand carved.
330 x 40 x 40mm. 2022.
These objects are meditative pieces, carved with memories of landscapes. They invite touch and interaction, serving as a physical act of remembrance.