Across Te Waipounamu, ti kouka are in bloom. These abundant sprays of flowers mark the changing of the seasons heading into the summer months.
A plant with significant importance to Kai Tahu, the ti kouka flower sits, resplendent, at the centre of Fiona Pardington’s Still Life Ti Kouka Pannicle with Heitiki.
Pardington’s still life images create a meeting point between realms of the physical and spiritual, the past, present and future. Her ti kouka shelters a pounamu heitiki, the phosphorescent colour of its eyes echoed within the floral bursts. Other objects emerge from the shadows — a skull, a toppled bottle, an ageing wooden dining table. Using her camera lens, Pardington (Kai Tahu, Kati Mamoe, Ngati Kahungunu, Clan Cameron) binds together histories of art and photography with the mauri of these taonga that she has gathered together.
Still Life Ti Kouka Pannicle with Heitiki is the most recent acquisition into the Dunedin Public Art Gallery collection, purchased by the Dunedin Public Art Gallery Society as part of a larger group of Pardington’s still life photography. It is making its debut as part of the exhibition ‘‘He reka te Kumara’’, which uplifts matauranga Maori through purakau, waiata and toi Maori. The exhibition runs until March 20.
Lucy Hammonds is Dunedin Public Art Gallery curator.
