GMT+13 exhibition images from Axis Gallery, July 2024.
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GMT +13 was a solo exhibition at Axis Gallery Sacramento of all new color photographs that consisted of images created while I traveled throughout Aotearoa New Zealand in early 2024.
Aotearoa (“Land of the Long White Cloud” in te reo Māori) New Zealand is known for its “green” reputation and striking landscapes, especially those that have been set aside as National Parks. Those landscapes have been made famous by The Lord of the Rings and many other projects that have been filmed there.
My prints highlighted the ways in which the land has been shaped by years of human intervention. First Māori (maw-ree) and then English settlers have transformed the islands. Where there were once native Kauri forests there are now scenic pasturelands devoted the country’s famous sheep and cows.
Despite its progressive political reputation, Aotearoa New Zealand is currently wrestling with divisive American-style politics as the current right-wing government enacts major changes on topics ranging from the environment to Māori rights. This is not simply the primordial land of common imagination.
In previous shows I have used a variety of approaches to explore how photographic images are constructed and consumed. For many of us, photography is a way to escape to another place via our phones, or to nostalgically look back on a trip we took. Far from a comprehensive view of Aotearoa New Zealand, GMT +13 is part exhibit, part public work in progress that demonstrated my struggle to make sense of the thousands of images I created, and more generally, of a place that feels so familiar and so unfamiliar all at once. My exhibit included several large-scale prints that invited viewers to all but step into the natural scenery, as well as small prints that pull back to look at wider vistas.
GMT +13 was on view from July 5–28, 2024.