Accompanying his new exhibition Nurture Nature, Iain Cheesman’s artwork The River Is is being installed on our foyer wall.

Cheesman’s exhibition Nurture Nature celebrates the act of slowing down and looking. Within the gallery space, painting, sculpture, embroidery, taxidermy and poetry sit together, creating a landscape for the viewer to navigate. Cheesman introduces birds as the focal point of his landscape, and as a bird watcher himself, hopes that the viewer will take on this role of nature observer within the exhibition.

The River Is also connects to the observation of nature. This work is inspired by a childhood memory in which Iain’s grandmother’s friend uses a wooden divining stick to search for water underground.

I think he twitched the stick a bit fraudulently, but he fooled me and I saw water bubbling up from below…. imagination is the great irrigator of life.

Where we live in Waiuku we catch most of the water we use; it runs off the many roof structures we have. There nothing divine in this, it is just the act of interception. We catch it and feel like we own it, but then it flows through our fingers and is gone.

The River Is speaks to the value of water; the value that cannot be commodified, measured, or owned.

Main image: Iain Cheesman, The River Is, 2023, tarata, apricot and elm divining sticks and balls of wool

Left image: Iain Cheesman, The River Is, 2023, tarata, apricot and elm divining sticks and balls of wool