Without End

Teresa HR Lane

Sanderson Contemporary
Osborne Lane, 2 Kent Street
Newmarket, Auckland

07 September - 03 October 2021

Sanderson Contemporary is currently closed under Level 4.
The gallery is now offering an online preview of 
Scott Gardiner and Teresa HR Lane's concurrent exhibitions: 
Light Years by Scott Gardiner
Without End  by Teresa HR Lane

Teresa HR Lane is interested in rearranging the world, obscuring our gaze with her wry sense of humour and ease at inciting the surreal.

Since relocating from Auckland to a small farm on the slopes of the sacred maunga, Whakarara, Lane’s practice has dramatically shifted into a new landscape. After a long absence from the land where she grew up, Lane has reacquainted herself with the rural; this time overlooking Matauri Bay, Te Tai Tokerau. Here she considers the significance of this place; where a giant Kauri forest once stood, also known as the area where Kupe gave a great feast ‘Te Whakarara-a-Kupe’ and lastly Matauri Bay, where Samuel Marsden landed with the word of God.

This new body of work considers a scarred and spiritual land with its complex local Māori and Pākehā history. Finding new inspiration through her poignant and playful selection of locally sourced material, second-hand Forest and Bird magazines, historic reference books on farming, forestry and native birds, all present a new set of questions.

This line of enquiry has led Lane into the treasure trove of early photographs depicting Kauri logging from the Alexander Turnbull Collection. It is now that her collages begin to take shape. Lane reframes farming and absence by also photographing the local landscapes, which then morph into her surreal and absurd works.

Each day I photograph this land and sky, a visual paradise that is steeped in a collective misunderstanding and unresolved conflict. The land is now naked, covered in nothing but livestock. (Teresa HR Lane)

In this body of work, Lanes’ familiar use of the nude morphs with native birds and shifts into this new landscape; questioning her relationship and responsibility to this land, starting with reconstructing a distinctive sense of place in her confronting and fantastical collages.

This is Teresa HR Lane’s third solo exhibition at Sanderson.