Doctor of Fine Arts Examination Exhibition

Wendy Brandon

Projectspace Gallery
Building 431, Elam School of Fine Arts, 20 Whitaker Place, Auckland

14 - 16 February 2024

Opening 11.00am Wednesday 14 February 2024

My doctoral research project documents the loss of some ordinary, local, edge-land places that are small incidents of erasure in an accumulation of loss that has wider, existential consequences for global ecosystems. The central theme of the thesis is that by making a commitment to close, embodied looking in such places, it is possible to envision lines of sight to the overarching themes of our time; capitalism, neo-liberalism, environmental degradation, and the myth that the earth’s resources are limitless. The exhibition photographs are presented on handmade paper using harakeke (flax) plant fibres and organic material gathered in the now-erased places. This collaborative, making with, papermaking process serves several purposes including that, as artefacts, the photographs might encourage reflection about relationships with the natural world that are more relational, regenerative and survivable than profit-oriented bottom lines. Contemporaneously with photographing places that either remain under existential threat or are now disappeared from the world, the project includes photographs made in a small group of food forests and community gardens chosen for the qualities of hope, resilience and community activism that reside in them, and to invite reflection on the role of hope in this time of eco-crisis.

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