1. Where did you grow up and what were the influences around you?
Sad to say I am a Gypsy child, although not in the conventional sense. Born in Gisborne, then Auckland, Kerikeri in the Far North, Taranaki and finally settling in Hawkes Bay for the last five years.
My parents are strictly religious. Born again Christians (Destiny Church like environment) we were raised in the church and the school it ran, attending church 6 days a week. Force fed spoonful’s of god and the church’s versions of history and a woman’s place. It birthed a child with a curiously scientific mind and a despise for everything that sought to control information and people. Any surprise I turned into an activist!
My parents did encourage my strong love of the environment. My biological father was a ranger in the Gisborne National park after retiring from the army, so perhaps it was in the genes as well.
My grandfather was the most pivotal character in my young life. He taught me his passion for photography, a love of Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, he encouraged me to do things that girls weren’t allowed to back in those days. Signing me up for Young Eagles Association, I learnt to fly a plane, he took me fishing and through the bush, teaching me about plants and their value beyond the ordinary. He was a magical man, and his death destroyed my faith in the world for a long time. He was my soft place to fall. The beacon light in a life of darkness. Or so my younger self believed.
Through a lot of my work I talk about identity or rather utilising my practice to understand my own identity. A direct result of scrambling to unravel and understand myself as a bi-racial woman. Much of my heritage lost through the white washing processes of the church. It would be amiss of me to discuss my influences without discussing this point.
2. When you were a child what did you wanted to be?
A Marine Biologist.
3. If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?
Nothing! Absolutely nothing. Whenever one considers this question, I think it is always imperative to contemplate the butterfly effect. If I changed anything about myself what would the ripples of that be…. I am happy evolving into whatever it is that I am going to be at the rate I am now, thankful for every low, bad habit and mistake that has shaped me to now.
4. What do you see when you look in the mirror?
Continuous fluidity
5. What do you wish you'd never worn?
That goth look in the 90s! Nah, I rocked that… mmmm defiantly those matching three-piece ensembles that my mother made me. I kid you not, Hat, top and pants, all in the same gaudy loud floral prints…. Bless her, she tried.
6. What wouldn’t someone know is your secretly great at?
God a tonne of things! I’m a mean monopoly player (literally, ask my kids, there have been tears) I like to keep talents close to my chest to be honest. Secret powers that only come out every once in a while.
7. What are you not good at?
Socialising! I love/hate it!
8. Whats your secret passion?
History! Or rather the interwoven connections that exist through out humanity. The similarities and common bonds that tie us all together. Religious and cultural mythology and imagery especially.
9. What is your favourite art work?
This is always changing but currently Rothko’s black series
10. Favourite building?
Zaha Hadid Miami Apartments – I don’t know if it’s the ultra-clean sci-fi look about it or the slightly disturbing bio organic looking features but to me its balanced vibration solidified in architectural grace
11. The book that changed you...?
The Bible
12. What is your greatest regret?
Nothing
13. Who are your real-life villains?
Myself
14. What is your five year plan?
Don’t have one! I have long term goals but the journey and experience is far more important than the destination. I have a rough idea of where I would like to end up but the thing I’ve learnt the most over the years is that, if you think you have plans, the universe has news for you! I’d like to spend my days chasing the sun around the world. Painting walls, filming amazing people’s stories through documentary making… keep pushing to give voice to the issues and people that have none of their own.
15. What's the point?
To live is the point
Describe your life in six words
I’ll give it to you in three (always the over achiever)
DEFY, DEFEND, ADVOCATE
I’ll give it to you in three (always the over achiever)
DEFY, DEFEND, ADVOCATE