He kOTuku rEREnga tahi

 He kOTuku rEREnga tahi

When it comes to Social Media, I’ve recently found myself in a rather negative space. To be clear, I don’t mean fits of depression, self-loathing or acts of self-harm. I simply mean feeling robotic, less human if you will. I had this realization about a month back when I found myself scrolling through the mountains of posts that were appearing on my Facebook and Instagram feeds.

You see, I’ve long been a person where any spare minute of the day was spent making patterns out of clouds, watching the way shadows form around objects, making patterns out of coins on a table or just sitting and watching life! However, recently I found myself scrolling. Scrolling, scrolling and scrolling for no reason. I knew serious action was needed when I found myself reading memes! I’ve never read memes, I don’t like them. But, it was in a moment of reading a meme when I realised I’d lost touch with my creative instincts. Action was needed!! So, I did three things. First, spend less time on social media. Second, read a few books. Third, go for a few walks.

The first book I pulled off the shelf was ‘The Dark Is Light Enough by Vincent O’Sullivan, a biographical portrait. The second was Victory Over Death: The Art of Colin McCahon by Rex Butler and Laurence Simmons. Once I’d finished these books, it led me to visiting the Hōtere Garden Oputae in Port Chalmers, which in turn led me to wanting to create a response to what I saw. What I didn’t want to do was simply photograph the garden, what I wanted was to create an artwork that was a response to my time in the garden. Upon leaving, I asked myself, did I have anything to say and what was it?The resulting image/s (which turned into an unlinked series) I hummed and harred a lot over posting. They are probably the most personal things I’ve ever done. So, with a touch of nervousness and a lot of honesty today on my blog I present an art work I call:

He kOTuku rEREnga tahi

One thought on “He kOTuku rEREnga tahi”

  1. I can imagine what those textures in your photograph feel like I think this an amazing piece of work yep I absolutely love it

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