Jamie Berry

Wai whakaika (2022)

2 min 23 secSingle channel / Digital Video / Colour / Sound

"In 'Wai whakaika' the water drips, trickles, erupts outwards, collapses in on itself. Streams cross the screen longways and crosswise, refracting into blinding vanishing points. The three stylised female figures, with their seven heads, a row of fourteen gimlet eyes, gaze out at the viewer, while abstract and material flows cascade down the frame, or erupt upwards and outwards, bounding from wild axes of reflection.

It’s at once peaceful and never at rest. The accompanying soundscape rises and calms, overlaying birdsong with a percussive rattle and the chuckle of water flowing. Air bubbles are provoked by the churn of currents, and the downward coursing of the lines and lattices leaves the distinct impression of tukutuku panels, or the track of tears."

—Matilda Fraser

Other works by Jamie Berry

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