Media Release – 8 April 2016
They say this island changes shape by Eleanor Cooper
Curated by Rebecca Boswell
30 April – 28 May 2016
Opening Friday 29 April, 5.30pm
Artist talk Saturday 30 April, 11am
While in residence on the pre-settler state of Raoul Island, the only inhabited island in the Kermadec archipelago north
of New Zealand, Eleanor Cooper developed a series of new work They say this island changes shape investigating ideas of remoteness and possibilities of foregrounding nature.
Within an opportunity of exchange and immersion in a unique place, this exhibition engages forms of foraging,
storytelling, documentation and sculptural experimentation—and amounts to a series of attempts to develop forms of
sensory rapport with the natural environment.
Included in this exhibition will be a collection of found material, each object chosen because it contains a different
story of arrival to the island, kites the artist has constructed from bits of grass, bird feathers and mahoe.
Eleanor Cooper (1988) is an Auckland based artist with a BA/BFA (hons) from the University of Auckland School of Fine Arts. She has
recently been based as a conservationist on Raoul Island with the New Zealand Department of Conservation.