There is a single thread that connects everyone, everything, every action. It is like a line of spider web, strong as smoke, never still, touching and sending messages throughout time and existence. Some places are alive with this connection and the Poplar Crescent pavilion on the banks of the Ōtākaro Avon River where this work stands is one of them.
The scene references the universal story of a water/land dwelling Queen, part human, part mythical. She moves through otherworldly gateways protecting the land and those who dwell within her sight. This piece of land is a gateway, stretching out from this formal rectangular building, along the river bed, around the two magnificent waka often tethered here like mythical horses, through the hallways of the newly built homes, the sacred empty site to your left, the community garden, across the bridges and into the Town Hall.
This image could only exist here, it belongs to this place. It is a glimpse of a reality we have shut away, if we only open our eyes and listen to the language not spoken but felt.
Gallery: glimpse behind the scenes
If the final installed image is like a still from a play, these preliminary photographs suggest a character off set. The Queen’s cigarette puts her into a modern era and suggests a disregard for human rules, while the seated pose has an early colonial Goldie-like quality. These photographs were taken in remnant native bush on the Port Hills, chosen because the artists wanted to create a sense of a time and place before human occupation.
