3 November – 12 February, 2023
Exhibition Opening: Wednesday 2 November, 6-8pm
Photography Gallery, Upper Foyer and AV Room
Listening to a Wet Land is a research project comprising an essay film and a series of large-scale prints made from camera-less ‘river exposures’. Situated in the fragile waters of the Hauraki Plains, the visual research is primarily field recordings. Both the digital moving image and analogue photographs explore stories of loss, of damage incurred in the politics of land use, as well as stories of hope and the potential for repair through agency of the more-than-human.
These cameraless works have been termed ‘river exposures’. They are exposed to water in the absence of daylight by submerging film in lightproof holders in the Piako awa’s tributaries. Farm run-off and saltwater combine with sediment and bacteria. Algae have grown and bacteria have eaten away at the negative’s emulsion: durational accretion created by the water’s action and reaction with its chemical compounds. The films have been placed in the river for 2-4 weeks depending on the season and moon phase, then developed by hand in a darkroom.
The artist would like to acknowledge and extend gratitude toward tāngata whenua of the Hauraki Plains, Ngāti Hako, the land and waters where this research is situated, and where she has visited as manuhiri while making work. It is with a deep respect for Te Ao Māori and its inherent interconnected understanding of the more-than-human world that this research seeks to understand some of Hauraki’s social and ecological system stories, their connections, and interdependencies.
The exhibited series are river exposures made in collaboration with the Piako Awa, Hauraki Plains.
Chromogenic Photographs from 4x5” Negatives
Each title has a specific time and location:
Waxing Gibbous to Waning Cresent, June II, -37.429838, 175.510886,
Waning Cresent to Waxing Gibbous, June, -37.429838, 175.510886,
Waxing Gibbous to Waning Cresent, June I, -37.429838, 175.510886,
DAZZLED (NUMBED?) BY A MYTH
The essay film Dazzled (Numbed?) by a Myth (2022) explores the fragile ecology of the Hauraki Plains through two readings. The first traverses past social and ecological transformation in the Plains. The latter reading grapples with what remains — shifting margins and precarious territories.
Single-channel digital video and sound projection, 13.09 minutes, looped, 2022
Artist: Kate van der Drift
Narrator: Geva Ngapō Downey (Ngāti Tamaterā, Ngāti Porou)
Dialogue Editor: Jackson Hobbs
Passages used with permission:
Part I
Geoff Park, Ngā Uruora: The Groves of Life
Victoria University Press, 1995.
Part II
Letter to Barbara Hurd, citing her work in Stirring the Mud: On Swamps, Bogs, and Human Imagination
University of Georgia Press, 2008.
Exhibition Article: