Hand carved pakohe necklaces on silk, honouring the elegance and simplicity of form.
“These necklaces act as portals and talismanic keys, connecting to matriarchal power of the wharetangata, the womb. In some healing traditions it is thought that both male and female bodied people carry a spiritual womb, their own vortex of creative power.
Kōtukutuku is a native plant medicine used to connect to feminine power and the animus for healing matters related to the feminine and the mother, its dark nature referencing the colour of the stones. Kōtukutuku means “To let go.”
There is a period of time right before one lets go, where everything gets chaotic. There is a build up of pressure, internal stress, energy feels compressed until the letting go occurs. This can translate into a menstrual cycle, pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion, birth. It relates to orgasm, to death, to cathartic release, and to the practices of shamanism and magic.
When we learn how to relax into letting go, when the letting go is asking to occur, the process becomes easeful. When we learn how to become water; as receptive as a still lake, flowing as a river, relentless as the tide, we undoubtedly also learn to soften the mechanisms of the psyche enough to let go and access a deeper, embodied wisdom.”
made for the exhibition Bodies of Water (2024).
As part of Materialise Group Show by HANDSHAKE8 collective, exhibited at The Arts House Trust, Pah Homestead, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, and at The Refinery, Whakatū Nelson, Aoteaora New Zealand,
Bodies of Water (2024) are talismanic adornments of matriarchal power for the matrilineal, drawing upon ritual, healing, embodiment and place.
Hand carved pakohe necklaces on silk, honouring the elegance and simplicity of form.
“These necklaces act as portals and talismanic keys, connecting to matriarchal power of the wharetangata, the womb. In some healing traditions it is thought that both male and female bodied people carry a spiritual womb, their own vortex of creative power.
Kōtukutuku is a native plant medicine used to connect to feminine power and the animus for healing matters related to the feminine and the mother, its dark nature referencing the colour of the stones. Kōtukutuku means “To let go.”
There is a period of time right before one lets go, where everything gets chaotic. There is a build up of pressure, internal stress, energy feels compressed until the letting go occurs. This can translate into a menstrual cycle, pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion, birth. It relates to orgasm, to death, to cathartic release, and to the practices of shamanism and magic.
When we learn how to relax into letting go, when the letting go is asking to occur, the process becomes easeful. When we learn how to become water; as receptive as a still lake, flowing as a river, relentless as the tide, we undoubtedly also learn to soften the mechanisms of the psyche enough to let go and access a deeper, embodied wisdom.”
made for the exhibition Bodies of Water (2024).
As part of Materialise Group Show by HANDSHAKE8 collective, exhibited at The Arts House Trust, Pah Homestead, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, and at The Refinery, Whakatū Nelson, Aoteaora New Zealand,
Bodies of Water (2024) are talismanic adornments of matriarchal power for the matrilineal, drawing upon ritual, healing, embodiment and place.
