Casting On, Casting Off
Settled Sediment, (installed) watercolour paint, sediment paint, graphite and watercolour pencil on Canson watercolour paper, 1500 x 3000 mm
Casting On, Casting Off
Becroft Gallery, Lake House,
37 Fred Thomas Drive, Takapuna, Auckland
14 - 27th October 2023
Artists: Sonja Drake, Wendy Lawson, Abbie Read & Louise Keen.
Casting on, Casting off, is an exploration of moments and states of transition in everyday interactions with human and non human kin using the natural environment as an anchor. To be in transition, are we ever far from it?
My work here is a response to the contamination of Wairau Creek, a site relevant to my settler heritage. Among the cast-off rubbish collected at a recent Wairau Creek clean-up, I came across a broken-down asbestos barrel mostly submerged in the glutinous sediment under the mangrove forest. Encrusted with growth, roots and branches growing through, it blends with the environment but is still easily seen. Most of the contamination here is not visible.
A porous co-existence is hosted within the sticky sediments. Plants and animals live in, burrow through, track across, eat, excrete and mix the silt, sand and mud of the estuary floor, mixing the densely loaded surface layers with the less contaminated layers below. Two men on the rocks cast a line in, chilli bin waiting, birds are fishing too. Lichens absorb toxins from the atmosphere as other life forms absorb from their environment. A gradual seep through porous membranes.
My work here is a response to the contamination of Wairau Creek, a site relevant to my settler heritage. Among the cast-off rubbish collected at a recent Wairau Creek clean-up, I came across a broken-down asbestos barrel mostly submerged in the glutinous sediment under the mangrove forest. Encrusted with growth, roots and branches growing through, it blends with the environment but is still easily seen. Most of the contamination here is not visible.
A porous co-existence is hosted within the sticky sediments. Plants and animals live in, burrow through, track across, eat, excrete and mix the silt, sand and mud of the estuary floor, mixing the densely loaded surface layers with the less contaminated layers below. Two men on the rocks cast a line in, chilli bin waiting, birds are fishing too. Lichens absorb toxins from the atmosphere as other life forms absorb from their environment. A gradual seep through porous membranes.
Porous Membrane, (installed)
Watercolour paint and pencil on Canson watercolour paper, 1500 x 1150 mm
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Top to bottom: Afloat, Ashore, Porous, (installed)
Watercolour on panel, 150 x 150 mm
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Settled Sediment