"This work is documented on private farm land in Mākara. Land originally and eternally Māori land, Taranaki Whanui ki te Upoko Te ika lands as far as I understand. I chose this site for its vast, rolling bare hills; a perverse characteristic admired by many Pākehā. Bare land.
The ‘I’ appendage or ‘I’ strap on represents patriarchal and colonial inheritance or endowment. The ‘I’ strapped to my body becomes my central focus of the performance as I have to iterate my movements and adjust my body to explore the landscape. I am threatened by the land, is it too steep? I may fall. Too muddy? I may get stuck or slip. Prickles. In privileging my ‘I’, the land became a threat and inconvenient.
Centralising of the ‘I’ or the selfhood relates to the way ego and entitlement attached to yearning for place or belonging can be a hindrance or boundary to authentic non-hierarchal relationships with land. As I walked through this land, engaged primarily by the pain of the ‘I’ on my thighs and calculating where and how to place it on my journey I hardly noticed how far I had journeyed. The I is the biggest thing in the world to me, but it is so insignificant in relation to the scale of the whenua. I disappear. I am temporary. Again the indigenous wisdom I have the privilege of contemplating, Whatungarongaro te tangata toitū te whenua.
The ‘I’ appendage is inspired by or imagined with Rosanna Raymond’s body adornments in her SaVĀge K’lub works in mind. Rosanna invited me to live and work at her home and studio Ana Pekapeka in Tamaki Makaurau in 2025. This was the place where this video concept was realised." - Artist Statement
