Exhibition statement
This body of work, ‘Narratives + Fragments,’ emerges from the impact of my six-week residency in the Hokianga, on my practice and on my very being.
I lived just above the town, in a beautifully restored 1876 Wesleyan Methodist Church – the first church to be built in the settlement, then called Herd’s Point. The Hokianga’s many harbours and inlets made it a hub for trade, and Rawene prospered around this activity and economy. Most notable was the trade in giant kauri logs milled for buildings, boats, spars and gum, which went offshore in vast quantities.
The stories and myths of these forests are historically and culturally significant. They gave me the opportunity to put paint to vintage architectural materials, giving voice to our plundered virgin forests and the lost, treasured Huia, who lived in the ecologically rich canopy environments of these great giants.
They are our ecological ancestors - architectural beings, time embodied.
Working on woven harakeke and salvaged architectural remnants as substrates, I am fascinated by the ways these materials carry stories: of use and utility, hope and prayer, weather and time. What does the landscape look like when seen through a window built for worship? And how does that view shift when the lens is not sympathetic to what is lost? Or to the insistence that we treasure what remains for tomorrow and beyond?
These works are an entry-point into meaningful dialogue that encourages collective enquiry around preserving our heritage. Also, it is about the importance of our own personal heritages. They are ‘charged’ with symbolism and allegory and reflect my personal point-of-view.
The works I painted in Rawene asked: What holds belief? These works ask: What holds consequence?
Painting these works was not to memorialise their subjects, but rather to refuse their disappearance from our consciousness. Linda Gair 2026
Exhibition Wednesday 25th March - Saturday 18th April
Opening Event Saturday 28th March 3-5pm
Artist's Talk 11am Saturday 18th April
