Te Taiao - The Natural World
Projects exploring our relationship with the natural world, and articulated in novel woven cloth.
Take Me With You - BDes Honours research project, 2014
This collection is the outcome of a deep enquiry into my attachment to hills, and wild and rural landscapes. The familiar concave and undulating forms are a metaphor for the comfort and sense of belonging I experience in such places. The collection offers a contemporary aesthetic to strong, naturally coloured wools, showcasing wool’s unique characteristics including warmth, strength, versatility and integrity.
Field Works 2019 and ongoing
The Ways of Water 2025
Part of a group show The Soil Addresses Us As One curated by Steven Junil Park, within a wider exhibition Close Knit at Te Ara Atea, Rolleston curated by Erin Lee. The Soil Addresses Us As One tells the story of Gina Russell’s vision and mahi as Growing Textiles NZ to grow European linen flax and botanical colourants applying regenerative and organic farming methods.
The Ways of Water consists of 3 complex supplementary pile weave textiles. Each represents a manifestation of water in the cycle of growing and preparing linen flax; Rain, Linen - 100 Days, and Dew. Linen dyed with indigo grown by Growing Textiles NZ is draped below the works; clean water returning to the aquifer through living soil to restore the health of the whenua.
Wayfarer - Cloth and Coat 2023
Codesign with Associate Professor Deb Cumming, Toi Rauwharangi (College of Creative Arts), Massey University.
Night Sail to Rakiura 2021
Double cloth cushion. Undyed wool yarns
Observing the stars when on night watch, sailing from Otepoti Dunedin to Rakiura Stewart Island