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Pare Kawakawa : Navigating Grief

22/5/2020

 
It's 12 months since I finished Pare Kawakawa & as Puanga/Matariki draws near it seems appropriate to reflect & share.
I've never been able to write about this work here & yet I have shared it elsewhere.
It hung in our LTTL exhibition last year & it's in a book ! 
I dunno.
Sometimes these things are just too close. 

Pare Kawakawa is in the studio with me.
It keeps me company.
It sits adjacent to the high south facing window & through the window I can see the sky.
A sky just like any other day. 
Picture

this is what I wrote in May 2019 when I completed Pare Kawakawa & submitted it for consideration for publication.
‘Pare Kawawa: Navigating Grief’ is a kawakawa leaf monoprint which has been appliqued on to a fabric background & embellished with embroidery.
The materials used are cotton fabric, cotton thread & textile paints.
It is a new work which came about because I wanted to articulate the impact that the shootings & subsequent deaths of the 51 people in the mosques in Christchurch has had, & continues to have, on our nation &, of course, it has become a way for me to process my own grief.
New Zealand is a small nation & to lose 51 people in this way is incomprehensible.
When I realised I knew one of the 51 my already broken heart felt like it might explode.

I wanted this work to remember them, to represent the 51 people who have died.

I wanted the work to be quiet, to be gentle but not fragile.
I wanted it to be light; to suggest the time & the light that comes after the heavy darkness of death.
The moment when things shift, spirits lift, time expands, stretches to infinity & the mind can quieten so that the heart can remember.


​And, above all else, I wanted it to be beautiful.

I have found it impossible to write about & very difficult to talk about it. 
There seem to be too many words, too many stories & I find the words & the stories become chaotic when I try to write them down. 
My thoughts become cluttered & disorderly. 
The sheer volume of words becomes as unbearable as the grief.

When I sit & stitch I don’t question. My choices are clear & instinctive.
I simply make one stitch at a time.
I intuitively know what to do.  
I trust the process & my heart guides me. 
My mind is free to wander & when the tears come I pause to let them fall.
It will be nice when I am able to stop crying . . .  but it seems that it won’t be today.

Pare Kawakawa has been included in an anthology 'Grief Become You - a narrative of loss' edited by Maya Stein & published in December 2019

Kawakawa Dreaming

7/1/2020

 
Kawakawa Dreaming
Kawakawa Dreaming (detail)
Kawakawa dreams of a time when the forest returns

​she is patient
she holds her ground
& she waits

she provides homes for insects
she feeds birds who visit her
& in return they bring her other’s seeds

which fall to the ground beneath her

​seedlings grow
under her & around her
​over her & above her

so she recedes
becomes the forest floor
nourishing as she yields

& in a clearing at the edge of the forest a tiny black seed knows it’s time . . .

Picture
Kawakawa Dreaming is a 3 colour monoprint of a heart shaped kawakawa leaf which has been embellished with embroidery & hand quilted.
Materials used are waterbased fabric inks, unbleached cotton fabric, cotton threads, cotton batting.
Dimensions are 32.5cm x 32.5cm framed.

I have donated Kawakawa Dreaming to an Art & Creative Auction which is raising money to be donated to the Red Cross Australia Fire Relief fund.

The auction is being organised by Ruth Ribeaucourt & will be held on Instagram at Ruth's account @Ruthribeaucourt. I’m going to suggest you follow this link to her page for the latest event update.
The auction is scheduled to run between Jan 10th to Jan 12th 2020.

​
Currently, approximately 250 creatives, from 25 countries, have donated works or services.

It feels good to part of a global event which has the potential to make a difference on the ground (pun intended) &, also to know Kawakawa's dreams can come true.

Please support in what ever way you able

Arohanui
Sal x 

Vital Transformations : Mauri Ora  July 2018

25/7/2018

 
The Cross Pollination series is happily hanging in the company of friends.
Here my 3 works are hanging beside MiSun Kim’s gorgeous ink on paper work & Howard Tuffery’s stunning andesite sculpture. 

Vital Transformations is the name of this exhibition & it is on at 'Koru on Devon' a gallery space, upstairs at 18b Devon St East, New Plymouth.

These 3 works were selected to part of ‘Vital Transformations : Mauri Ora’ which comprises 3 exhibitions held in 3 different locations in the New Plymouth CBD over the month of July. 
​The entire exhibitions feature almost 30 works by as many artists. 

Each exhibition has a different kaupapa (theme) & the works have been curated accordingly. 

It’s a quiet & unpretentious event with a message that is not immediately apparent.

The curator, Ian Clothier, has written an essay for each exhibition which hangs alongside. 
The last two images are of a couple of pages of the essay he wrote to hang with this exhibition & include his interpretation of our works.

It has been wonderful to be part of this exhibition. 
It is wonderful to be in the company of people who feel & think about environmental things with the passion , enthusiasm & love that I feel for the world we live in.

Ian's attention to detail, selection & grouping of works allows each piece the time & space for it's voice to heard.
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    About
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    Hi, I'm Sally
    I'm a fibre artist who loves botanicals - especially NZ native plants
    you can find me on 
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