Current Exhibition

Kirsten Cooper

'FROM HERE TO NOW'

17 August - 14 September

Kirsten Cooper's first solo exhibition explores our constantly shifting relationships with Land. We build homes, communities and cities on it and out of it. We fleetingly pass through as occasional visitors and tourists. We extract from it to build, or to manufacture from, or otherwise exploit for our support and protection. At the core of this enquiry is: how do we occupy this Land? How do we share it? And how do we care for it?

Kirsten draws inspiration from her travels to Croatia, Italy and France, to Japan, to the Centre and the Western coast of Australia, and around New Zealand. She travels in the course of her work as a freelance television creator, and to spend time with family and friends living (often) far from Nelson where she is based.   She has recently begun to incorporate extracted earth and natural materials in her practice. There is repetitive mark making with assorted brushes, creating nuanced transitions and impressions of landforms and built environments. Natural earth and mineral pigments such as yellow ochre, titanium dioxide, and black and red iron oxides (more usually employed in the glazing of ceramics) are blended with walnut oil, a process that has been used by image makers for centuries.