May the Winds Not Carry Us Out to Sea II

May the Winds Not Carry Us Out to Sea II | Installation and Performance | Brydee Rood 2022 | Whanganui NZ

This new iteration of May the Winds Not Carry Us Out to Sea explores experimental sound collaboration, directed and performed with a selection of musicians from Brass Whanganui collectively known as Damn Raucous Brass, on site in the Gonville Town Hall as an interarts presentation with my large windsock soft sculpture. Presenting this work in the old Gonville Town Hall September 23 - 25 2022 with GCUR - the Gonville Centre for Urban Research, enlivens & sustains a publicly accessible, creative activation of the space for the community to enjoy. This free community art event was generously supported by the Whanganui District Creative Communities Scheme

Images: Brydee Rood 2022

Becoming a Sunset

Becoming a Sunset | Installation | Brydee Rood | AOS 2022 Whanganui NZ

Becoming a Sunset is composed of a series of te Rā inspired sun panels, 38 variations of staring into the setting sun for a room with 38 windows on L4 of the Brutalist building, 133 Wicksteed St, Whanganui.  The materials used are heat-fused, collaged, assorted international and local rubbish bags - collected and archived over the past 15years of installation and performance practice responding to waste and plastic pollution.

Images: Brydee Rood 2022

Island, Is Land, We Land

Island, Is Land, We Land | Performance, Live Installation | Welcome to Nowhere Festival | Brydee Rood 2021 | Mangamahu NZ 

Island, Is Land, We Land was undertaken on the morning of Sunday February 7th 2021 at the Welcome to Nowhere festival in Mangamahu, in the rural outskirts of Whanganui. A communal artist led performance on a tiny island site in the Mangamahu Stream, digging into our embodied connection with the whenua and the poetic construct of being an island together. The work seeks a deeper relationship with the Earth we inhabit in the critical context of Climate Emergency; Island, Is Land, We Land is a shared act of bare, ritual stillness. The concept also reflects narratives of isolation and togetherness in COVID-19 times. Participants gathered stream-side and removed their clothing, swimming naked to the island where 2 buckets of Papa rock, collected and carried to the site from Kai Iwi were waiting. With slow purposeful intent we collectively covered each other with the soft Papa in a connected movement of bodies, breath and voice.

Island, Is land, We Land | Photography and Sound Installation

Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui - The Sarjeant Gallery 2022 | Images: Brydee Rood 2021

A Future Canopy

A Future Canopy | Living Sculpture | Brydee Rood 2021 | Whanganui NZ 

A Future Canopy consists of six species of native trees; Tōtara, Kōwhai, Pūriri, Rata, Rewarewa and Miro - spread across the two green islands of the Burton Avenue to provide a continual food source of flowers, nectar and fruit for native fauna and pollinators. The habitat created will cater to the local birdlife and residents over generations to come. The inherent physicality and plant lore of the chosen trees creates a living composition that will enrich local ecology in the suburban landscape.

The official opening and planting day on Monday June 14 2021, involved sixty students from Whanganui East School, Whanganui Girls’ College, Cullinane College, St Anne’s Catholic School. As part of the project, each school planted a tree at this site and were gifted selection of native trees for their own satellite plantings on school grounds. A Future Canopy, was developed as a permanent public artwork with support from the Whanganui District Council parks team, the community arts coordinator and funding from the Eleanor Burgess Trust. Media: A Future Canopy - video of the planting day  | Article: Artist works with council and schools on ‘living sculpture’ project

Images: Brydee Rood 2021