June 27 - July 26, 2025
Rimurapa - installation view
Rimurapa - installation view
Rimurapa - installation view
Rimurapa - installation view
Rimurapa - installation view
Rimurapa - installation view
Rimurapa - installation view
Rimurapa - installation view
Rimurapa - installation view
Rimurapa - installation view
Rimurapa - installation view
Rimurapa - installation view
Inky black and white photographs of kelp (rimurapa) comprise Neil Pardington’s new show at Jonathan Smart Gallery. They are at scale – be they details or more complete shots of the plant. And they are startling.
Shot in the studio (having been collected from Huetepara, Lyall Bay) in high contrast against white or light grey, the plant fragments feel like they’re floating and falling inside big sheets of paper. Edges are cut in; the amount of detail, of patterning and of texture is wondrous. Yet the works feel very poetic.
One suite of four closely cropped Rimurapa works is delightfully anthropomorphic. The sequence is full of movement – a dance between blacks and off-whites, between weathered kelp and shapes like tuna which occupy the negative spaces.
Other details are equally evocative. Rich, oily, sheeny blacks predominate in Rimurapa #17 and #18. I’m reminded somehow of preserved mutton birds, of titi, and the fact that Ngai Tahu still carry and store titi in kelp poha.
Rimurapa #20 bristles with a sense of coiled, viral menace, while Rimurapa #1 embodies the exact opposite. Its battered, sinuous lengths still grow it seems, feathered and floating, offering renewal and hope across the relentless currents of time.
JS
In the following 'Selected works' segment, seven of the fourteen Rimurapa works are featured.
Images of all exhibited works are to be found in the 'Details of works' section at the bottom of the page.
Selected works
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Installing...
Jonathan, Neil & Owen hanging Rimurapa #12
2024
pigment print on archival photo rag, unmounted, ed of 15
2150 x 1120mm (medium size also available)
Exhibited in
Rimurapa
2024
pigment print on archival photo rag, unmounted, ed of 15
2150 x 1120mm (medium size also available)
Exhibited in
Rimurapa
2024
pigment print on archival photo rag, unmounted, ed of 15
2150 x 1120mm (medium size also available)
Exhibited in
Rimurapa
2025
pigment print on archival photo rag, unmounted, ed of 15
1800 x 1120mm (medium & small sizes also available)
Exhibited in
Rimurapa
2024
pigment print on archival photo rag, unmounted, ed of 15
1450 x 1120mm (medium & small sizes also available)
Exhibited in
Rimurapa
2024
pigment print on archival photo rag, unmounted, ed of 15
1450 x 1120mm (medium & small sizes also available)
Exhibited in
Rimurapa
2024
pigment print on archival photo rag, unmounted, ed of 15
1450 x 1120mm (medium & small sizes also available)
Exhibited in
Rimurapa
2025
pigment print on archival photo rag, unmounted, ed of 15
1450 x 1120mm (medium & small sizes also available)
Exhibited in
Rimurapa
2024
pigment print on archival photo rag, unmounted, ed of 15
430 x 560mm (medium & large sizes also available)
Exhibited in
Rimurapa
2024
pigment print on archival photo rag, unmounted, ed of 15
430 x 560mm (medium & large sizes also available)
Exhibited in
Rimurapa
2024
pigment print on archival photo rag, unmounted, ed of 15
1120 x 1450mm (medium & small sizes also available)
Exhibited in
Rimurapa
2025
pigment print on archival photo rag, unmounted, ed of 15
1120 x 1565mm (medium & small sizes also available)
Exhibited in
Rimurapa
2024
pigment print on archival photo rag, unmounted, ed of 15
1410 x 1120mm (medium & small sizes also available)
Exhibited in
Rimurapa
2024
pigment print on archival photo rag, unmounted, ed of 15
1410 x 1120mm (medium & small sizes also available)
Exhibited in
Rimurapa