Learn to Tuft | Stacking Memory / PŌKĀKĀ
Jessica Covell
20th December
2025
Seedling Swap | Stacking Memory / PŌKĀKĀ
Jessica Covell
17th January
2026
Open Day | Stacking Memory / PŌKĀKĀ
Jessica Covell, Peter Cooke & Hugh Lindsay
13th December
2025
Again, I Remember Pain: Digital Collage Launch
Aliyah Winter
15th November
2025
anamnesis Artist Talk
Aliyah Winter
15th November
2025
An Information-soaked Talk to Clean your Brain Cells
Liam Krijgsman & Sionainn Byrnes
25th October
2025
Dinner and a Show
FATHERR & Priscilla Rose Howe
24th October
2025
SHOP

All

BAD HYGIENE ZINE WORKSHOP
4th October
2025
Conversations about "Creativity Belongs Here" | advocacy event
20th September
2025
He Hokinga Mahara | Artist talk
Melanie Tangaere Baldwin & Georgina May Young
6th September
2025
He Hokinga Mahara | Storytime
23rd August
2025
Through the Fray | Artist talk and BBQ
Isabella Lepoamo, Jude Hanson Stevens & Zac Whiteside
19th July
2025
Leap to the Place of Two Pools | film screening
Kah Bee Chow, Selina Ershadi, Erin Robideaux Gleeson, Kite, Sonya Lacey & James Tapsell-Kururangi
6th June
2025
reception | performance
Oliver Connew, Yukari 海堀 Kaihori & Alex Laurie
30th May
2025
FOLLOW
reception | artist talk
Yukari 海堀 Kaihori & Alex Laurie
3rd May
2025
... we all become all of these things | rimu kōrero
Megan Brady
17th April
2025
... we all become all of these things | poetry reading
Megan Brady
8th April
2025
How to Improve the World | talk and discussion
Nguyễn Trinh Thi
6th March
2025
Film screening: Jumana Manna and Rosalind Nashashibi
12th December
2024
Whakawhanaukataka workshop and kōrero
30th November
2024
The calm wind shapes the boat launch and artist talk
Susu
25th October
2024
SUBSCRIBE

Past Event

Seedling Swap | Stacking Memory / PŌKĀKĀ

Hātarei 17 Hānuere

Saturday 17 January

2026

Blue Oyster, 16 Dowling Street, Ōtepoti Dunedinter

A tufted rug made by Jessica Covell, yellow branch shapes on a dark brown background.

Jessica Covell, Stacking Memory / PŌKĀKĀ (detail), 2025.

Saturday 17 January, 2026
UPDATED TIME 12-1pm*

Bring along surplus seeds, seedlings, produce, etc. to swap with other visitors!

The seedling swap marks the end of Stacking Memory / PŌKĀKĀ by Jessica Covell, a project that remembers and celebrates the native trees that could have once been plentiful in the place Blue Oyster now rests.

Thanks The Halo Project: Beyond Orokonui for providing some native seedlings to start us off.

*Please note: the timing of this event has changed.

We changed it so folks can attend the Emergency Rally for Palestine in The Octagon at 1pm. The gallery will be closed for the duration of the Rally so staff can attend too. Let’s go together. Long live Palestine!

Event accessibility information

Access to the gallery is via a slope and three steps.
A wheelchair ramp is available!
Refreshments are provided at all events.
Seating is available.
There is a toilet on-site (not wheelchair accessible).

Do contact admin@blueoyster.org.nz with any access questions or requirements, we’d love to have you with us.

Pencil sketch of a pōkākā tree by John Wallis, 1844.

John Wallis Barnicoat (1814-1905), Bokaka Tree, the bark of which yields a beautiful black dye. May 1 1844 [artist’s inscription], 1844, pencil on paper: 104 x 206mm, Hocken Collections – Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, 94/273

Jessica Covell

Jessica Covell is an Ōtepoti Dunedin-based installation artist, curator, and project director exploring the intersections of art, community, and play. Through a series of Spectacle and solo projects, Covell has created collaborative experiences that celebrate accessibility and connection.

Covell’s playful, immersive works invite interactivity. Her fibre-based tufted installations explore colour, texture, and pattern and often double as social experiments.

Recent site-specific works focus on the connections between plants, people, and place. Covell’s practice is continually shaped by memories of nature.