Group show with Raewyn Martyn & Jess Charlton @ Te Whare Hera
Reproductive Surfaces presented new work by three artists working playfully within a shared system: translucent cellulose paintings grafted into the surfaces of Te Whare Hēra’s gallery space, and backlit within its harbour-facing windows.
Tessa Russell’s, exploration of biopolymers derives from her wanting to create better versions of the materials she is often questioning within her works. Inspired by the innovative and mindful ways Māori have always created, using natural resources that can be returned to te taiao, Tessa creates her own recipe for what she calls kirihou Māori.
Tessa writes: these pieces are to acknowledge Te Atiawa the traditional custodians of the lands on which our show is located, as well all mokopuna of the diaspora. As I sit looking out from this gallery I think of the manaakitanga shown to the settlers when they arrived. Tāngata whenua shared knowledge, resources, language, themselves, and their land. In my pieces I share our whakapapa, the clay our first woman was formed from. I attempt to create the most natural water soluble bioplastic I can, made from bark cellulose, Spermaceti whale oil, Red ochre and water. I continue to ask the question: is any plastic ever good plastic?
TOI BY TESSA 