The natural world, the elements and the creative process

4 minutes read
Posted 17 July, 2025
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Te Atamira’s latest exhibition, Elemental, takes a look at the foundational forces – earth, water, fire and air – that shape our natural world and the creative process. It will run until September and features an array of Kiwi artists, interpreting these elements and incorporating them into their work.

The full list of featured artists is Rowan Giselle Holt, Niki Henipaiaro White, Ruby Wilkinson, Shannon Courtenay, Brigid Allan and Koko. They will engage in a dialogue with nature, responding with reverence, intuition, and a deep sense of reciprocal connection.

Courtenay is a ceramic artist based in the Cardrona Valley. She primarily works with hand-built and slip-casts, where she explores the quiet dialogue between natural landscapes and the act of making. Over the past few years she’s been moving toward slower and more intentional ways of making and living.

“It was actually Anthony Morris who first introduced me to ceramics,” Courtenay says. “I started working with him in his studio on the weekends while I was still studying at Elam. I was still painting and drawing as my main thing and it took a few years before clay crept into my degree properly. Elam was where I was introduced to mould-making and slip-casting though. I have been using that process ever since.”

She loves living in the Cardrona Valley and appreciates the movement and fresh energy that consistently passes through. Equally, she finds a lot of peace at her studio on Kind Farm Animal Sanctuary – think a herd of horses running beneath the snowy mountains. She describes the exhibition as thoughtful and grounded – first getting involved as she was selling her functional ware at the Te Atamira Shop.

“I was also involved in the Summer in the South | Raumati ki Tonga exhibition. I was honoured when Emma and Olivia asked me to be a part of Elemental, seeing a connection between my work and the other artists.

“All the artists are engaging with nature in different ways, whether through material, form, or process. It creates this quiet conversation between the works. It feels spacious and honest.”

She hopes people take a moment to pause when they’re wandering around the exhibition, too.

“The pieces I’ve made are inspired by the stillness of rocks and ideas of balance, presence, and how we interact with the world around us. I’m learning to work more slowly and with more care, and I hope that energy comes through.”

Allan has a background in geology, fine arts, and education and is based in Wānaka. Her practice is spontaneous and responsive, embracing chance as a guiding force. She’s lived in many different places around Aotearoa, meeting many precious people along the way, which has been fundamental to her as a person, an artist and a mother of two young adults. Beyond art, she also has a passion for climbing. While she has many different degrees, geology and art have crossed over a little.

“For me I think it is in the feeling, Geology took me to a world that has become the backbone to my practice. When I am in the wilderness, I feel the same as when I am painting,” Allan says. “Being in isolated wilderness is like nothing else. The connection between Geology, Science and Art is very deep for me. But more on an intuitive level.

“It determines how I operate as a person and respond when in the making of my work. I am not sure Geology specifically influences my work, but the residencies I have been on all orient themselves around wilderness areas. Here, my response to these experiences are culturally, historically and socially site specific. I have a real respect for the mountains as physical structures, being inside them walking and climbing are some of my favourite things to do, this also fuels my creativity.”

Allan first got involved with the exhibition as she has been working as an Art Educator at Te Atamira. After taking a body of work to Director Olivia Egerton, the exhibition prep evolved and there was a need for another artist, and Allan’s work fit with the brief. She describes the evolution of her involvement as serendipitous.

“For my work, the aim was to enhance the formal element of text and meaning through the responsive, uncontained aspects of the cyanotypes. Again, it's helpful if you have time to read Koko's words in the works and let them settle.”
She describes the exhibition overall as quite powerful.

“This may be due to each artist having worked with the environment in some way to create their work, you can quietly sense the mauri of each work. There is this juxtaposed feeling of order and wildness.”

Coming up for Allan, she will take this collaborative body of work and a small series of paintings to an exhibition at Lizzie Carruthers Art Studio in Wānaka in mid-September – the works are being published as a book of poetry, Slackin the Jaw by Koko. And for Courtaney, she’s recently teamed up with Sofi Restaurant in Wānaka for a long-term collaboration – the first result of this is a tagine that you can see in use now, from kitchen to table. Both artists want to extend a huge thank you to Te Atamira for having a space to allow this type of work, and to everyone for coming out to support.

Elemental will run for free at Te Atamira until Wednesday, 3 September. It reminds us that making is, in itself, an act of alignment with these essential rhythms. For more information on each of the artists and the exhibition, head to teatamira.nz/events/elemental


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