Exhibition

Fiona Pardington - EREWHON: Left for Dead in the Field of Dreams

Fiona Pardington - EREWHON: Left for Dead in the Field of Dreams 30 May – 21 September 2014

Fiona Pardington created a new body of work in 2012 to be shown at the Biennale of Contemporary Art in Ukraine. Entitled EREWHON: Left for Dead in The Field of Dreams, Pardington returned to her portraiture roots (having worked mainly with still-life for several years). The installation comprises seven portraits of Maori and mixed-race women from Ngai Tahu making facial expressions used in traditional Maori ceremony and adorned in potent mythological symbols.  The work is a powerful invocation to the female ancestors.

“The women have individual Moko Kauae, a form of traditional female tattooing that is a symbol of cultural prestige and power. Some portraits of the wahine/women are making the facial expression potete or the closing of the eyes. This is often followed by pukana, their eyes glaring, open wide showing the whites, with a frightening, tightly held mouth that is drawn down at the corners. Portraits expressing pukana and potete are accompanied by others holding an outward gaze, and a reflexive downward gaze. The pukana is traditionally implemented to emphasize particular words in waiata/dance or haka/ceremonial dance. The pukana in this case serves to symbolically underline the words and frame the presence of these oracular goddess-women. Seaweed from the South Island, Te Wai Pounamu, surround each wahine, representing the God of the Sea known as Tangaroa. Seaweed can also be read as an earthly metaphor for Aka, or the spiritual, silver cords that link each person to their higher spiritual body or being. Their faces appear upside-down to suggest that they are being born into the world, not standing on the ground.”  Fiona Pardington