Already Ancient Aotearoa
Jeromy Van Riel is a man of many talents, one of which is carving.
Using beautiful stones that he finds, he then transforms them into works of art which are absolutely stunning, many of which truly are breathtaking. Embedded within the stone and through the way in which it’s been carved is a kōrero (story), and by no means is this kōrero finished.
These pieces have been made to be worn, meaning that they accompany you on your adventures, every time you touch it, everywhere you take it with you, this all adds to the kōrero, this is your influence upon your beautiful piece. When you see that amazing light shining through the trees when you walking through the bush, you can hold your piece in such a way so that you can wonder at how light interacts with it.
Our brief was to capture in photographs, and then video, the way that these stones interacted with light. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, and it soon became apparent that this was going to be extremely challenging in places. Simon’s knowledge of Physics soon came into play.
Some of these pieces are transparent in many more ways than I’d naively thought possible, being honest here, I’m not even sure that I’d ever considered a stone to be transparent, yet here right before my very eyes are many incredibly beautiful pieces of stones with light shining right through them. The dance that the light takes through the stone is purely magical picking up the most devine colours en route to your eyes.
My mind drifts towards the time of the formation of the stone and the conditions of where and when that happened. What I’m looking at and photographing is a visual representation of those times. Held within the patterns I can now see, is information and knowledge about those times. When the stones are carved into these materials, the kōrero they bring adds another layer on top of these already ancient patterns.
As we work our way through the pieces, I feel their energy represented in the different ways in which the light interacts with their shape and translucency. Just like the waves in the ocean hitting the harbour wall, the light bends around the edges, the way the edge is shaped determines the way the light is scattered. If that edge is also translucent, really beautiful things happen.
And then there are the windows. It’s not until the piece has fairly strong light passing through it, that you get to see how it’s, and now and there are these windows in the stone which you really had no idea existed until you looked in this very distinct way. In my world, this is very special indeed.
Taking photographs captures a single moment in time. These pieces are so much more than a single moment in time, so to really capture that we needed to shift from a single image into video. The photographs allowed us to slow down and study the way the light interacted with the pieces, what we were now about to discover is the way the pieces interact with movement.
The physical properties of each piece; weight, shape, placements of string attachments - all determine the way in which they will rotate. Even after an extensive search for an ideal device to evenly rotate the pieces we noticed differing motions between the pieces. Capturing each piece seemed to add a new set of information into what we knew and we realised that the strings were acting as torsional springs, which have all been twisted and woven by hand producing unique rotations.
Simply capturing the pieces isn’t enough, further work then comes in the post production. This is the part of the process where I get to really investigate the colour and intensity of the photons that pass through and reflect from these stones. Each one has been so different. There are most definitely patterns and similarities about the way in which the materials have been carved, smooth round corners as opposed to hard edges for example. As we all know, the devil is in the detail.
Adjustments needed to be made intentionally and subtly in order to maximise the end result. Once again, the process isn’t quick, there are no super fast results, but all the while the magnificence of the materials and the kōrero shaped into them continues to refresh and revitalise.
As we were working together, Jeromy expressed a liking to an image I shot of Ngā Kurakura o Hinenuitepō (Aurora Australis - this is one of two Māori names for the Aurora Australis I can find, and this one resonates more with me today) a wee while back looking South over Whakatipu Wai Māori.
I have a very fond affection for aurora and airglow, although I wouldn’t describe myself as an aurora chaser. When I see them with my naked eye, the feelings they generate help me explore further my understanding of just how small we are in such an enormous arena. I start to wonder at the physics of what’s happening, staggered that I’m getting to watch, in real time, a dance between subatomic particles unfold right in front of me. These collisions that look so beautiful are a result of cosmic waste being spewed towards us from stars. In this instance, the star was our sun.
Looking at the night sky, especially here in Aotearoa, allows us a rare opportunity to view the past just how it was. Turn away from man made creations and you’ll be looking at, for very much the most part, what you would have seen if you stood there, 100, 200, 500, 1000 + years ago.
Now we’re thinking about times really gone by, it’s not so hard to think back even longer, to when the earth was forming. Rocks hardening from molten lava, then embarking on a journey at the slowest of paces, this is the time when these stones’ kōrero began.
This image seemed the perfect backdrop to create a really stunning Hero Image for Already Ancient Aotearoa
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Lakeside looking South
$550
Signed Limited Edition of 10
Printed on Ilford Gallerie Smooth Pearl
584mm x 413mm