By - Annie Smits Sandano X Vanessa Wairata Edwards
Dimensions - 70cm W x 50cm H
Medium - Hand printed dry point etching with watercolour
 
This work is a co-created piece for Dream Pavilion's Exhibition, Cloud 9.
 
The watercolour painting component, by Annie Smits Sandano, is loosely based on images of viruses under a microscope. In past work Annie has questioned colonisation and paralleled it with virology - where a foreign species invades an already existing ecosystem. Images of viruses under a microscopic lens often are alluring abstract forms - visually drawing you in, but with a sinister undercurrent of what is actually being depicted - an invasive agressive organism. 
 
The drtpoint component is by Whanganui-based artist Vanessa Wairata Edwards. Vanessa wotks with predominantly with printmaking - wood cut and in this case dry point etching. The birds depicted are native New Zealand birds juxtaposed with silhouette mirrored absent or ghost/Kēhua forms and relics of invasive species within a New Zealand ecosystem. Vanessa works with themes of social amnesia, historical accuracy or lack thereof and how this currently sits with representation and visibility/invisibility of culture and heritage. 
 
Images of Silence Kēhua are accompanied by imformation on both artists, the exhibition and gallery install images from the Cloud 9 group show of co-created and response works the painting was created for and exhibition intorduction text by Kate Mullins.