After completing Stem and Heartwood, I received a grant from Creative New Zealand to make works on the theme of Passage, ‘Past Migrations to Aotearoa’. The grant enabled me to dedicate several months to research, experimental play and fabrication as the floating sculptures evolved. I used Anne Salmond’s ‘Two Worlds’ to reference and inform the works, and combined the dual themes ‘migration of virus’ with ‘past migrations to Aotearoa’.
Crucial to the content and intention of these works is the selection of location for photographic documentation. By the time the ‘Passage’ works were exhibited in the gallery space, each had its own floating and performance history.
I included with this exhibition a small, photocopied artist’s book, ‘Echoes’, that explored the Octavio Paz poem, ‘The Broken Waterjar’, some lines from which I had embossed onto the works.