My practice explores the understanding, interpretation, and purpose of ornament in the socio-historical context of Aotearoa New Zealand. I am guided by my relationship with place, buildings, and processes of decay. I question the ways in which our history has been memorialised. The work emerges from attempts to problematise colonisation and settlement here by recasting familiar objects in an unfamiliar light.

Still no easy place acknowledges the connection with my ancestors’ lives: the tool-ornaments I make from everyday objects serve to reinterpret meaning and act as counter-memorials to events in our colonial history, as distortion and interpretation occurs. The repetitive, cumulative processes I employ sit closely with the subject matter, resulting in work imbued with a sense of discomfort.