This early piece was one that I felt very connected to and can still vividly remember creating it. ‘Into the Barrenlands’ was a piece created to resemble my experiences living ‘down South’ while in New Zealand and to my home in the North.
Each Caribou representing each location. The antlers link my experiences of New Zealand to the North. New Zealand being the lower caribou on the left and the North symbolized by the caribou on the right. In New Zealand there’s an old Maori story that a fisherman caught something large with a ‘hook’. To his surprise it was the North Island of NZ. If you look closely on the necks of the Caribou, you will notice hooks. I too used these symbols to express my connection between NZ and the North.