Upcoming Exhibition

Stacking Memory / PŌKĀKĀ is an exhibition of new work by Jessica Covell. Her tufted sculptures, inspired by pōkākā trees, can be touched and rearranged by you, the visitor. They enable tactile reconnection with the historic forest of Bell Hill, before the mauka was beheaded and its body was used to fill in the estuary it overlooked. Blue Oyster sits on this site.

Stacking Memory / PŌKĀKĀ locates itself in time, history and natural cycles. It’s easy to imagine touching trees as something which humans have been doing for the 300,000 or so years modern humans have been walking the earth.

Jessica has used wool of varying shades to give the textiles depth. The bark shimmers slightly, dark purple merges into hawthorn (a shade of dark brown) as the fruit goes from base to tip, the green hues swell and recede. There is a strong sense of tactility in the works. The raised edges of  the lichen provide ridges to caress - the same way we run our hands along the trunks of trees on a bush walk. Notice the difference in feeling of the wool versus the exposed native wood (rimu, tōtara, kahikātea, mānuka and kānuka). Along with pōkākā, these rākau are thought to have been common to this place.

Stacking Memory / PŌKĀKĀ is a lament and a call to move swiftly in the present for future growth, acknowledging the painful past while encouraging us to create a more nurturing future.

By interacting with the sculptures (stacking, restacking, arranging, rearranging), you are engaging in a practice of care. A playful tension between you and the work occurs as you use your body to alter the forms it might take. Memories recalled, imagination sparked - as we shift them, lift them and change into new configurations we’re asking questions. What could this work look like? What did this place used to look like? What could it look like in the future? What do we need to do to honour the past? Can we rebuild our environment with the past in mind?

Acknowledgements

Blue Oyster Project Space would like to acknowledge and thank Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe and Waitaha, for their ahikā and manaaki for the whenua we live on; Creative New Zealand, the Dunedin City Council and the Otago Community Trust for their funding which enables this programme to happen; and our wonderful volunteers and board members for their kind support.

The artist would like to thank Chris Miller, Kate Caldwell, Cliff and Sue Francis, Pete Giles, Sam Cooper, Peter Cooke and Anna Moore at Hereweka Garden, and Hugh Lindsay.