Becky Nunes 2014

Ohinerau

My current work investigates the volcanic cones of Tamaki Makaurau (Auckland). Sacred maunga (mountains), rich resources & reservoirs, tourist landmarks, public parks: these peaks are embedded in our daily lives and simultaneously somehow invisible. Websites maintained by Druids on the other side of the world pay homage to the ley lines of connectivity that string them together. Archeologists point to rich records of precontact Maori habitation.  All are modified; some have been mined into extinction. With recent legislation restoring the role of local iwi as kaitiaki (guardians), a new era for these maunga is beginning.

I experience these places as rich sites of psycho-geography. Utilizing aspects of the derive, and ritualizing my presence in these places, objects are offered up to be re-presented through the forensic medium of photography. My practice intersects with the post-documentary, relying as it does on a co-authoring with the anima mundi or world soul. We are entering a phase of accelerated ecological crisis that is truly global. No aspect of the landscape remains unmodified or free from the traces of our shifting human values and appetites.

This triptych strings together a set of sigils that acknowledge the uneasy coexistence of diverse cultural and consumer practices.