Fiona Pardington

Wairua o te hau is 1301SW’s debut solo exhibition with the acclaimed New Zealand artist and Māori (Ngāi Tahu, Kati Mamoe and Ngāti Kahungunu) woman Fiona Pardington. Marking her first solo presentation in Australia in eight years this exhibition presents a series of new works continuing her relationship to image making and its ability to capture hidden things, death, beauty and history.

Pardington has long mined the collections of natural history museums, seeing her capture significant objects of Māori heritage such as hei tiki (greenstone pendants), while this new collection focuses on the now extinct huia bird and other birds of cultural significance. This investigation and documentation is an act of re-claiming, breathing new life into these now stagnant creatures to raise awareness of the importance of conservation and cultural history — a process interrogating death whilst celebrating collecting and preservation.