Fruits of My Labour, 2025

Tapestry, rag-rug, handloom weaving.

Wool, linen and silk.

I was riding a wave with my art practice when I got Long Covid and my brain went all woolly. Important Art People need definite “yes” and “no’s” and I couldn’t figure out what I was and wasn’t capable of. I was just slow and sad. I let a lot of people down at that time. I’m sorry.

We bought a house in Torea Granity and found a Lucinda Williams CD in the local Op shop. We popped it on in the car, like Lucinda we were also heading out West. There was something in the way she sang about the citrus blossom, the heavy fruit falling to the ground, that made me want to get stoned on the earthy ways.

I learnt about gardening in the rain and how to prick out seedlings at the Westport Community Garden. Until one day a sign appeared on the common room whiteboard.

14 October

Focus on personal project

Create backyard culture

Strengthen family bonds

Build your world

Sow your own seed

Do your own work

Create meaning

Self lead

Home

Life boat

Next time I went to Tuesday garden group the centre had closed.

“There is so much entropy on the coast” Davey said.

But what is entropy?

“It’s an idea from Physics about energy states, but in a poetic way it can also apply to human behaviour. It relates to states of chaos - a random gradual decline into disorder.

There’s a theory out here about the eccentricity of the people. Apparently, as coal weathers and breaks down it lets off a toxic gas which makes you go a bit loopy. Combine that with the radioactivity resonating out of the solid granite hillside and you get Granity Insanity. We laugh about the Granity Gas, but seriously wonder, could it be having an effect?

On the tree line above our whare we mistake the lights of Stockton Mine for a full moon rise. Night and day they are slowly breaking down a whole mountain. Carting it away 30 coal wagons at a time.

Matua in a high viz rain-cape comes to collect our scrap metal. He reckons out here we need as much as we can get. Restores the weighty balance of things at Waimarie. “With all that rock heading off to China; they’re sinking down and we’re floating up. Won’t be long and we’ll just be able to grab hold of the sky hook.”

I started making compost.

Probably the hardest thing about accepting my creative block was taking some personal responsibility for my part in allowing that to happen.

I had smoked the cigarette of self doubt.

Creativity is often compared to fire, don’t feed a fire and it eventually goes out. Leave it unattended and it can blow you and everyone else up.

A wood-stoking potter friend of mine told me that fire is at a human scale. A mouse can’t tend a tiny fire. Small sticks don’t burn. It’s a question of volume. You need it as much as it needs you.

I pulled out bindweed till I got head spins. I double dug beds. I set the scene for Spring. I thought about painting broad beans tend-riling up old sheets with oil paints mixed with candle wax. Meanwhile my looms sat patiently waiting, my yarns unspooled.

Sharing my garden plans with a friend brought tears to my eyes. And now I know why. When I garden I don’t feel alone because gardening is a collaboration with Nature. It’s working with actual living things that have their own unique intentions. The whole thing is real and happening. When I’m tired, she takes the lead. Beauty responds to my inactivity.

On the other hand, making art is not like this. It’s a force that propels, but ideas only come in to being when they are able to be seen, heard or felt by someone other than the person who dreamed them up. It’s hard times for the artist who can’t complete this circle.

For me gardening has become the rhythm of my year and weaving is my secret health, it’s what keeps me ticking along.

The small tapestries are all based on drawings of vegetables I have grown (and eaten!) on the beautiful whenua where I live at Torea Te Tai o Poutini. The cup is wood fired pottery handmade by my beloved Davey.

Life Boat, 2025 is inspired by a knotted rope door mat. Some people call this the lovers knot as its spiral entwining is unending. To me making rag rugs is the slowest form of painting.

The tartan wool blanket is hand-spun singles woven in the MacArthur Tartan. The sett is accurate but the colours are my own or rather the sheep’s own naturally coloured fleece. The MacArthurs are a warp thread in my ancestry, they who were weavers.

Finally I want to thank all those friends who saw these works in the back of my car over the last couple of months. Those living room floor “show and tell” sessions around the islands, were really encouraging. Thank you. Also to Marilyn for teaching me to weave tapestry. It was exactly what I needed. And to Katie for inviting me to show in ViewFinder I am so happy to share these works in such a gentle way.

Annie Mackenzie lives in Torea Granity, on the West Coast of Te Waipounamu. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the University of Canterbury Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha. Mackenzie has established herself as handloom weaver over the past decade, learning her craft through the New Zealand Woolcrafts Society of Spinners and Weavers Guilds. In 2016 she was awarded the Creative Fibre, New Weavers Award, and in 2019 she was the first weaver selected for the Sarjeant Gallery’s Artist in Residence at Tylee Cottage in Whanganui. She was awarded the Olivia Spencer Bower Fellowship in 2020 and was the recipient of Dame Doreen's Gift from the Blumhardt Foundation in 2024.

Shift of Tides
Physical Theatre Performance
by Karolina Gorton and Pipi-Ayesha Evans

Thoughts, actions, ideas, situations have a beginning and an end. Often these beginnings and endings are not defined, linear nor consistent. Often, we don’t have control over them. Sometimes we think that we do, but really? Do we?

The circle of life with the first breath to start and the last one to finish. We walk through our life collecting our experiences and memories. We walk through life carrying the luggage of our ancestors. We carry our own burdens, but we have the strength to lift them. We are not helpless… Are we?

We walk through life into the future with our eyes directed into the past. Our hearts are between yesterday and tomorrow. We walk through life between the shift of tides - where happiness meets pain, where we lose ourselves only to be found again, where existence brushes against the void.

Karolina Gorton is an artist, activist, and cultural animator with extensive experience in theatre. She has been involved with several festivals, including the New Zealand Fringe Festival (Wellington), the Victoria Fringe Festival (Vancouver Island, BC), the Luma Light Festival (Queenstown), Theatre-Action (Suwalki, Poland), Masks (Poznań, Poland), and the Nelson Arts Festival. Additionally, she is a co-creator of the Nelson Fringe Festival. Throughout her life, Karolina has trained and collaborated with various theater and performance groups, such as the Body In Space Physical Theatre Company (2012-2017), Inside Out Physical Theatre Company (2017-2022), The People’s Republic of Improv (2019), Raspberry Productions, Zen Zen Zo, and the Umbrella Project. Her theatrical training includes techniques such as Viewpoints, Suzuki, Butoh, contact dance, improvisation, and mask work. Karolina is passionate about storytelling, enjoys collaborating with others, and is dedicated to co-creating projects that aim to make the world a better place.

Pipi-Ayesha Evans is a theatre and circus performer from Whakatū. She specialises in physical theatre, stilts, aerials and performance art. She has performed throughout Aotearoa and the world. Pipi’s work has been described as: ‘Utterly charming in a ghoulish kind of way.’ (Theatreview), and ‘Seductive yet disturbing, graceful yet jarring, unequivocally captivating and above all absolutely fearless.’ (Regional News). For the past two years Pipi has been working with Dreamcast Theatre in the Solomon Islands. She worked with them teaching circus and theatre skills, supporting their production of the Pacific Games ceremonies and mentoring Dreamcast to continue teaching circus in the Solomon Islands.

Hacked

TheSeeHere is an artist-led group founded in 2010 by graduates and tutors of the Whitireia Contemporary Jewellery degree course. Over time, the group has evolved to include a diverse range of practices. For their Nelson Jewellery Week project, the challenge was to create a cohesive collection that would reflect the varied skills and ideas within the group. Inspiration came from the Schmuck (Munich) exhibition, where artists from Sofia Björkman’s Platina Gallery transformed a dismantled piano into wearable art.

For their own project, the group chose an old clock purchased from Trade Me. Like the piano, the clock offered both wood and metal for exploration. The “demolition party” was a hit, with the dramatic uncoiling of metal springs generating excitement. Nearly every component was claimed by members, who are now transforming them. Some into wearable pieces, some drawing inspiration from the clock or the theme of time itself, choosing not to work with the actual clock pieces but instead using them as a creative springboard.

The result promises a unique fusion of practices, highlighting the collaborative spirit and innovation of TheSeeHere’s members.

TheSeeHere, founded in Wellington in 2010, has occupied unused window spaces in a number of commercial premises.  The founding members were all jewellers associated with Whitireia and the space was seen as a much-needed place in which experimental contemporary jewellery could be trialled and exhibited to a public audience.  Over the years, the membership has changed and now encompasses a vibrant and diverse range of practices.  Members continue to embrace the concept of the gallery space as one to take their work in new directions often exhibiting work that tests boundaries and would not fit into any of the other commercial or public spaces. Nelson Jewellery Week marks the group's first foray outside Wellington. 

Follow @the.see.here

Tenderness Language, 2025

Steel, paper, pens, fabric, hanger

I found haiku along the way and then forgot about them. After moving here I started writing them at work on my smoko breaks. I find joy in the counting of syllables and the way the words
look on the paper. So much can be said in such a tiny space. It is fascinating. I find the practice grounding and it keeps me connected to the larger current of consciousness. I hope you find something within them.

My name is Trevor Montgomery. I was born in Los Angeles but lived for most of my life in San Francisco. I moved here to Whakatū Nelson in 2020. I have been a songwriter and musician since I was 18. I briefly attended art school and then started playing in bands.We made some records and started touring all over the world. I continued to move from project to project and eventually started singing and writing my own records. I perform now as Young Moon. I found poetry by accident through a gift I bought for a friend - The complete poems of EE Cummings. It did not work out with the friend and the book lived with me until one magical summer in Austin Tx when I read it. Around the same time, I read Grapefruit by Yoko Ono. These two coincided to change my brain and my relationship with language. I am forever grateful for that.

Follow Trevor here

Under one Sun, Under one Moon, 2024

Wood, plaster, paint, aluminium, lights, wire, motors, plastic, concrete, copper, fabric.

Much of our lives is dictated by our work and requires us to be in movement, away from friends, family, and community. Our connections have moved into digital spaces that can only offer an ephemeral and non-nourishing substitute for in-person relationships. The online platforms for these kinds of connections are mediated and manipulated by corporations that extract from our need for interconnectivity.  They do not have our best interests at heart but often they are all we have so we acquiesce to communicate in these ghostly realms. Our emotional and physical capacities are spent on systems that do not care about us, our connections or the planet we belong to. We are sold the idea that we should always look outwards, that being in constant movement is to be a successful individual, but where does that leave our roots? The demands of the modern experience leave us little time to spend time in closeness with others, to relish the human dignity of meaningful connection without transactional expectations. 

As we go about our lives in opposite time zones we are able to align a couple of times a day, sharing a conversation or a sunrise/sunset. For the majority of the day these works spin separately from one another, but twice a day they will align and connect, illuminating one another. Though the currents of modern life carry us away from each other, distancing us from the connections that give our lives meaning, we find hope and solace in remembering that we live under one Sun, under one Moon.

About the artists:

John Harris began work as an electrician, and moved into mechanical and electrical design through his company Johnny Electric Ltd, specialising in designing and building record cutting devices and record cutting machines. Other projects have included mechanical prop design and building but he has recently been applying his approach to artworks in collaboration with his partner Steven. His process is iterative and focussed on re-designing and recreating older technology with modern manufacturing processes.

Steven Junil Parkis a multi-disciplinary artist based in Ōtautahi, working under the name 6x4. Under this label he produces all manner of functional objects with a focus on clothing and textiles. These one-off pieces feature recycled, repurposed, or vintage materials; valuing resourcefulness and the memory of materials. His practice is heavily process-based, where materials come alive while being worked to create a language to commune with the intangible. He sees the tacit knowledge that comes from the practice of craft as a way to understand what it means to be a human being.

The Garage Project: Beneath the surface, 2024

Photographs on board

For her final Bachelor work, Emma-Leigh Perrin writes: When presented with a blank canvas, with no rules or regulations, what do we do?  We splash it with paint, each stroke of a brush representing a small piece of ourselves. The colours and the shapes are all pieces of us.  A garage is much like this.  An empty room without the societal expectations of the household. It is a space without rules, a space to fill with pieces of ourselves. Through this project, I have documented the small details we are able to learn about a person through the things that they own. Although, anonymity is a very vital part of the images to allow the viewer complete freedom to analyse the contents, to give the viewer utmost permission to be nosey.  The owners of these garages have used these spaces to provide an inner look into their lives, to put their personalities on show.  You, as a viewer, are invited to visually enter these spaces and see what hidden symbols you can find. Consider it a “Where’s Wally” except “Wally” is the owner and you must build him yourself using tiny puzzle pieces you find within the image.  Wally – The Frankenstein version.

Emmie-Leigh Perrin is a photographer and videographer recently graudated from the Bachelor of Arts and Media programme at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT).   The Garage Project is part of her final work and illustrates her interest in art, illuminating societal constructs manifesting in everyday life.

Follow her work here:

Instagram: @emmieslens

Facebook: @Emmie’s Lens

www.emmieslens.nz

He Kura Taiao e Hokia, 2024

A treasured home will always be revisited.

Ano me he Whare Puungawerewere, 2021

Alas a beautifully weaved carved house, intricate like a spiders web or, behold a beautifully carved weaved house, collecting spiders webs.

Me aro koe ki te haa o hineahuone, 2024

Pay heed to the dignity of women.

Object 1: Carved native timber ( Kauri), Stain and varnish

Object 2: Weaved adornment for the neck and upper torso. Weaved Nylon and synthetic cords, upcycled chandelier pendants/ buttons and black chain.

Ano me he Whare Puungawerewere, 2021 began as a lament for a place, I long for, and as I returned to Aotearoa a mother, in search for the place that raised me, I drew inspiration from an old waiata ‘ Te Moemoea o Whakatu’, a composed by Hone Nuku-Tarawhiti, that speaks of the whakapapa of Whakatū Marae, and the intentions of the time. Ano me he Whare Puungawerewere, asks us to revisit the Marae, the purpose and function of Marae, not only for whanau but within a community. Alas, a beautifully carved and weaved house, intricate like a spiders web, or behold, a beautifully carved weaved house, collecting spiders webs.

Samara Davis is a multi-media artist based in Whakatū who pushes the envelope of tradition in her work that explores themes of identity, biculturalism, colonisation, connection and disconnection through intrinsically made objects exploring the marae and the whāriki (woven mat) as places for connection, understanding and the sharing of knowledge. This installation also celebrates Changing Threads, The National Contemporary Fibre Arts awards which celebrates 15years, 2024, two successful works submitted by Samara Davis.

Mata-onerua, 2024

2024, Onerua collected from home in Tāmaki Makaurau, plywood, tanalised glass

Mata-onerua speaks to the process of composting in an art context. Onerua or compost is a soil enhancer that aids in the reciprocal nature of giving back to the whenua. As a reiteration of a previous kaupapa Hei whare onerua, this work presents another cycle of life. The onerua containers were informed by windows of a whare to view onerua as a cultural landscape. Mata as translated to eyes or face, that reflects tangata and whenua. As a gift of onerua to Whakatu, Mata-onerua presents the cyclic transformations of life and foundations of whakapapa.

Sculptural installation artist Java Bentley, speaks to hangarua as a way of connecting to the cyclic nature of all things and thus whakapapa. Acknowledging the natural world as interconnected and that is constantly evolving gives an opportunity for tangata to also change and adapt as kaitiaki. Focusing on hangarua materials, Bentley visually presents the whakapapa of materials to discuss the relationships tangata have with our everyday landscape.

As a site-specific artist, she is informed by the environment and community. Recently completing her Masters in Māori Visual Arts at Toioho ki Āpiti in Palmerston North in 2024, she continues to give back her mentors Karangawai Marsh and Kura Te Waru Rewiri.

Java Bentley (Ngāti Kahu, Ngāpuhi, Samoa, Pākehā)

Website javabentley.com

Instagram @javabentley

The Genius, 2023

Embroidery cotton thread and linen

In about 1986 our family bought our first microwave. We made a long family trip from the North Shore out to East Auckland to buy it second-hand. It was massive by today's standards and had wood grain sides, The National Genius. When we got home it was plugged in and we cooked something, my brother and I stood in front of the display counting down out loud from 5 minutes until we were bored.

Pretty soon we started to cook almost everything in it - whole chickens, circular trays of muffins, chocolate cakes and Milos. For years we used the timer function for various tasks around the house that were not microwave related. In the same sort of sense that you can preserve your family memories through a sampler, I have been inspired to preserve my family history by creating a long stitch embroidery of this key part of my childhood.

Erica van Zon (b. 1979) currently lives and works in Wellington. Since completing her Masters at the Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland in 2007 she has exhibited in artist-run spaces, private galleries and public institutions. Solo exhibitions include: Salad (Melanie Roger Gallery, Auckland 2023), Deep Deep Icy Blue (Jhana Millers Gallery, Wellington, 2022), Peppermint Twist (Jhana Millers Gallery, Wellington, 2018), Verdant Geometry (Scape, Christchurch, 2018), Opal Moon, Local Lime (Sarjeant Gallery and Objectspace 2017-2018), Coffee Perhaps (The Dowse Art Museum, 2016), Dogwood Days (Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 2014-2015); The Light on the Dock (City Gallery Wellington, 2013-2014).

Erica van Zon is represented by Jhana Millers Gallery, Wellington and Melanie Roger Gallery, Auckland.