Swallowing Geography

Swallowing Geography (8 October 2021 - 13 February 2022), curated by Megan Tamati-Quennell CNZM at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, was an exhibition that explored our relationship with land and place. It was about how we absorb the landscape and our built environment, and how we take in the histories of sites and places.

Some geographies elicit a celebratory recognition of rich and distinct local cultures that have evolved over time, or iconic features – natural or manmade – encountered. Other landscapes hold traumatic histories and speak of environmental and cultural exploitation; of rupture, violence, displacement, alienation or, as artist Ana Iti puts it, of a friction ‘that parallels the processes of colonisation and industrialisation in Aotearoa.’ Taranaki contains both.

Swallowing Geography was centred on the particular whenua (lands) and histories of Taranaki, where the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery stands, but also encompassed, as Kate Newby’s work describes, peripheral situations, ephemeral interactions and the overlooked everyday. These were notions realised by four leading contemporary New Zealand artists invited to create site-responsive installations for the exhibition: Matt Pine (Te Ātiawa, Te Ātihaunui-a-Pāpārangi, Ngāti Tūwharetoa), Shona Rapira Davies (Ngāti Wai ki Aotea), Kate Newby (born in Auckland, lives in Floresville, Texas) and Ana Iti (Te Rarawa).


ISBN: 978-1-98-854319-2

Publication date: 2024
Exhibition curator: Megan Tamati-Quennell
Publication editor: Gwynneth Porter
Photography: Bryan James
Publication design: Warren Olds
Copy editing: Marie Shannon
Contributors: Matt Pine and the Matt Pine Trust, Shona Rapira Davies, Kate Newby, Ana Iti, Te Ingo Ngaia, Damon Ritai, Megan Tamati-Quennell and Zara Stanhope
Softcover
Full colour
295 x 210 mm
72 pages