(She / Her)

Waipā Gothic

Installation of found and precious objects

Justine made Waipā Gothic as an experiment while thinking about how she defines and purposes jewellery. Justine's ‘tool-ornaments’ are made to adorn built structures, people, or both, and are conduits designed to prompt contemplation of cultural identity. The materials she selects locate her in her practice and in place, and are connectors to her stories and their settings.

The materials used in Waipā Gothic reference Justine's family’s farming history. They intervene on the walls and floor, evoking unease in the space, at once unnatural and familiar. The work sits in the context of the Pākehā preoccupation with the truth of this identity and recollects childhood memories. Justine is curious and somewhat unsure about the way in which Pākehā have adopted the term ‘gothic’. She is seeking to better understand where her work might sit in the context of this term that has been defined by the editors of The Darker Side of Kiwi Culture as 'endemic to New Zealand's self-representation'.

Justine's practice is an ongoing investigation of how she understands, interprets, and purposes ornament in the socio-historical context of Aotearoa New Zealand as a Pākehā contemporary jeweller, as she contemplates how jewellery may be defined, and how its potential hybrid nature can reframe and reimagine our interactions with place. She frames her view of Aotearoa ever mindful of the conjoined impacts of colonisation and capitalism. The work emerges from attempts to view this place through a problematising lens, speaking to her rerekē identity by transforming familiar objects in unfamiliar ways. The tool-ornaments she makes acknowledge the lives of her ancestors and serve as counter-memorials to events that are part of her colonial heritage. She employs repetitive, cumulative processes which sit closely with the subject matter and materials used, resulting in work reflecting a land imbued with a sense of discomfort.