Mia Foulds
Threadbare

9 April – 17 May 2025

Constantly and unknowingly we leave ourselves behind and leave our frayed edges to
constantly unwind.
Unwind unwind unwind again,
undo, untie, unfurl, misplace.
Misspell what’s left, what’s done, what’s fake, illegible it stays as we fray and fray.

Threadbare centers the motif of the bed as a site of abjection. Hosting a poetic practice that describes elements sitting on the fringe of the abject; cast-offs, dust and small debris from personal and public spaces of living and working. The gathered cast-offs take with them the remnants of human connection and movement through the space of their collection. Joining the accumulation of past recorded life also resting upon our skin. I’ve made my bed, do you care to lie in it.

Not quite a visceral disgust, hovering between subject and object. The act of noticing, crucial. They are the skin cells caught under our nails, the unrecognised hair attached to the hem of trousers and the sweat residue our palms constantly deposit. Disgust grown through volume, the orchestrated cast-off’s fall and rest on murmurings of their natural habitats. Omnipresent, although only registering slight distaste when worn on our skin, adorned on our clothes and tangled within our sheets. Stemming from the bed, the most comfortable space, constantly disturbed and constantly relocated.

The collected cast-offs live within a collection box, occasionally borrowed to form the poetry adorning the walls and floor, then once again returned to the collection box. Holding with them the trace of the latest space installed and the memory of the text’s formation. The text leaks from readability, slightly illegible it is overlaid, removed and left to be noticed.

To consume, to devour, to stuff and to gulp.
layers peeled back and poked.
A soft beneath we let pour out and overflow,
down our pant legs and soaking our socks
holes in the fabric as pores to absorb,
Wary of staining and satin touch.

Images by Ardit Hoxha

Tutu Fingers
Star Booty

20 February – 29 March 2025

Star Booty inquires into the elemental forces defined within Māori cosmology, where stars and celestial materials are explored through whatu, muka and kōwhatu, which are intricately connected through woven patterns revealing whakapapa whetu (cosmological genealogy). Star Booty is a working collation of Mahi toi exploring physical and metaphysical relationships that bridge the stars to our current physical beings through a lineage of Matauranga Maori that was woven through the stars of Ikaroa and beyond.

Tutu Fingers often work alongside Kōreo Tuku Iho from their respective kaumatua and Purakau Atua, divulging and connecting the physical to the remembrance of our tipuna. We affiliate this mahi to Hine te iwa iwa, atua of childbirth, weaving and moon cycles. With celestial energy settled within our bodies and channelled through our fingers, we materialise this through our hands.

‘Galaxies are embedded in your body, those are your connection beyond, only a few have the mana for its markings, my moko’. – Kuia, Taha Moke Te Kaute a tohunga Matakite in conversation with Arapeta on raperape patterns and celestial creation.

The materials chosen for this installation connect ancient Maori-Moana-nui-a-Kiwa traditions with contemporary practices, encapsulating the historical and cosmological narratives embedded in kōwhatu and stars. We show alignment to contemporary praxis by modes of aho (genealogy and illumination) and modern crystal formulation, utilising alum – this modernity paired with traditional methods of whatu and stone work aims to pull the viewer into an understanding of whakapapa whetu through both a motif of Atuatanga¹ and remembrance to wayfinding.

Whāia te mātauranga hei oranga mō koutou 
Seek after learning for the sake of your wellbeing

There is a vast knowledge hidden within the stars, we know through socially activated Matauranga Maori to look to Matariki for action of hauora, Nga whetu iwa symbolic of new growth, grievance, kai, of aroha. We recognise through this time of Matariki, a glimpse of the connected tension between Rangi and Papa, the stars and ourselves. This arisal of connection, the ties between ngā ao and those between beings are keenly propositioned through our Mahi Whatu. Kūpenga bear a state of kotahitanga within them, the oneness that weaves universality i te ao, exploring the seen, unseen as we know it and through the ambiguity of borders activate newfound or hidden knowledge previously beyond reach.

A glimpse beyond the barriers of Te Ao Marama, Tutu Fingers guides the viewers into Tuarangi ā Te Pō (Gallery R) through spatial weaving, Wawata Whetu, illuminating a state of ‘dreaming linked to celestial creation’ (Kuia, Taha Moke Te Kaute) from which stardust is clustered, transformed and crystalised into tangible matter.

Traversing to Mārama ā Iwaiwa (Gallery M) viewers are guided through wā into Uhoturamarama, circulating Ngaa Uho, portals from where aho (light, divinity and life) is funneled into the realm of Rangi and Papa.

¹Byron Rangiwai. (2022). Towards an Understanding of IO through Atuatanga. Sage Journals, Vol18 issue 4, 529-537. https://doi.org/10.1177/11771801221117288

Images by Ardit Hoxha

Mark Schroder
VAPOUR TRAILS

16 January – 8 February 2025

Derivative Art Investments
in association with RM Gallery and Project Space

presents 

Mark Schroder’s VAPOUR TRAILS

An emporium of disenlightenment and various exhibits, particulars, and testimonials. A regulatory delight. An omnishambles of potions and powders. The lingering scent of perspiration and ointment. Derivative ceramic items abound alongside bad paintings and some badly painted things. Loads of new content. For a limited time only.

Keywords: trade-offs, grey areas, medicinal, competing priorities, quackery, green tape, wishing well, on the hoof, rinse and repeat.

(Use your inhaler.)

Be mindful. Beware. Be well.

Images by Sam Hartnett & Ardit Hoxha