Work by a Victoria University of Wellington third year architecture student will feature in a virtual exhibition by New Zealand-based Pacific artists.
The Drowned World, curated by Daniel Satele for Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust, includes seven works by tertiary students. The exhibition investigates the relationship between human life and water.
Incorporating a mix of installation, performance, drawing, moving-image and web interactivity, each artist looks at our relationship with water from a different angle.
Studying toward a Bachelor of Architecture at Victoria, Elyjana Roach’s project draws on her training to test the possibilities of an amphibious living environment that embraces a more watery future.
Elyjana says studying encouraged her to broaden her thinking and be explorative—themes she has infused into her piece titled The City that Waits.
Inspired by her for passion for nature, Elyjana’s work imagines a somewhat empty world that pre-existed before civilization, but had since been hidden and drowned—an underground treasure waiting to be found.
“I wanted to evoke a desire for people to imagine and explore the city for what it shows, but also for the places it does not show—leaving the audience to imagine for themselves what is beyond the boundaries of the ink on the page,” she says.
The Drowned World is available online at www.tautai.org/drowned-world/ from Wednesday 4 December, with a launch event in Auckland that evening.
