Ellen Murray.
Data Wall at QUT Kelvin Grove
Artist Statement
Honohono is an exhibition that explores healingherenga (interconnectedness)ancestral ties and our kuleana (responsibilities) to the environment. Leading with an indigenous frameworkit explores boundaries and their malleability: the skin as a permeable surface between ourselves and the elements as extensions of ourselvesthe borders that prevent us from entering lands where our ancestors walked and heard birdsongsthe borders that keep our ancestral artifacts behind glass to be preserved yet inaccessible.
This gathering of artists and artworks is the culmination of a public diplomacy creative exchange with Kānaka Maoli/U.S. lead artist Tiare Ribeaux. This Leonardo Creative Impact Lab utilised community-driven processes and expanded media art projects to address the challenge of climate change. Local artists have explored climate change in Aotearoa New Zealand using indigenous methodologies interwoven with their personal creative practices. Ribeaux facilitated these interdisciplinary collaborations drawing on her own media art practice and Hawai’ian cultural heritage.
The creative prototypes in this exhibition weave and traverse these questions and themes through multiple mediums including videoprojectionsculptureland artaugmented realitysoundmapping and more in an attempt to Honohono.
About the artists
Creative Impact Lab Ōtepoti Dunedin (2023–24) is a collective of 10 artists ranging from science communication to theatre to multimedia art. The collective combines their broad skillset to explore Ōtepoti Dunedin’s environment and heritage.
Ellen Murray is a writer and photographer. Her travel writing and creative nonfiction celebrate place-based narratives and traverse themes of trauma and grief. Her photography focuses on natural landscapes. After graduating from the University of Southern Californiawhere she studied theatre and danceEllen completed her certificate in creative writing through the Writers’ Program at UCLA Extension. Recentlyshe crossed the Pacific and now lives in Ōtepoti Dunedin with her two cats. Ellen is a PhD student at the University of Otago studying magical realism and trauma narratives in performance. Outside her studies and Creative Impact LabEllen is working on an essay collection.
Virginia M Gautusa Virginia is a 44 year old Samaoan bornDunedin based visual artisst/entrepreneur. Virginia is renowned around the globe in Polynesian communities for her authentic and cultural depiction of the ethnic Polynesian diaspora – Culture Through The Lens.
Savannah Kerekere (Rongowhakaata) is a self-taught multimedia artist based in Otepoti. Savannah’s work is heavily influenced by her Maori heritage and often explores our connection to the elements – nga huanga. Drawing inspiration from Maori stories of creation and her desire to reconnect with the Maori languageSavannah uses art as a channel for knowledge and healing. Her work has been featured in multiple group exhibitions and she will co-host an exhibition and workshopMana Wahine in the Dunedin Fringe Festival 2024.
Credits: Ellen Murray; Virginia M Gautusa; Savannah Kerekere