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

Everything Rises

Everything Rises | Walking Performance - Live Installation | Urban Walking Festival | Takapuna Beach NZ | Brydee Rood 2019 

Everything Rises was an artist lead collective walk in the rising tide under the rising full moon. A  peaceful immersive intertidal sea walk in the elements, in formation. The walk is a movement tracing the incoming tide with a hand tied, glowing line of 400 solar lights carried by participants. A climate emergency vigil in contemplation of the nature around us and the future changing landscapes of low lying coastal areas and the implications of our human footprint.

Everything Rises | Brydee Rood 2019 - Photographer: Jody Yawa McMillan

Everything Rises | Brydee Rood 2019

Monsoon Prayer for Anjuna River

Monsoon Prayer for Anjuna River - 'We Are Weather Series' | Brydee Rood 2016 | Site specific performance on the river steps by St Anthony's Church in Siolim during the Sao Joao Festival. A second Monsoon Project, following the rains and carrying the ritual bathing cloth from Cemeti Art House Indonesia to HH Art Spaces & Residencies Goa India 2016

Catalogue Text - HH Art Spaces & Residencies Open 9: Monsoon Prayer for Anjuna River is a ritual steeped in the fluid landscape, the artist leads a silent ceremony in the depth of Goa's Monsoon, a communication with the water echoing a sensitive human footfall between earth and sky, a slow meditative prayer for our rapidly changing climate. The old steps form a passage between man and river - by occupying this space, 3 bodies wearing hand painted clay Matka water-pots over their heads and cloaked in garments folded, draped, dyed with natural indigo and detailed with drawings which reference invented ritual, water and change gods - seek confluence within bodies of water, monsoon, patterns of climate change and the localised water festivities of Sao Joao. Geopolitically the action is underscored by the here and now, it is part of an ongoing movement titled 'We Are Weather' reflecting a yearning for our deeper connection with the natural world; the River, weather, to water as an essential life force, not limited as a commodity, resource, thing to be used, consumed, wasted, polluted and profited by in a flailing globalised capitalist system. 

Images: Brydee Rood 2016

Picnic at Brahmpol

Picnic at Brahmpol / The Waste Whisperer Series Brydee Rood in collaboration with Chiman Dangi 2013 / Lakeside at Brahmpol Gate Udaipur India / Article: Foreign Artist Spreads Awareness Towards Water Pollution

All images courtesy of Brydee Rood

Exercises with Kasanova

Exercises with Kasanova / Brydee Rood 2012 / The Waste Whisperer Series / Live installation and video project / Headlands Centre For The Arts San Francisco USA. Rubbish bags donated by Envision Industries USA. Many thanks to Kasanova, Tessa, Presidio Riding Club, Fulbright NZ and the Wallace Arts Trust

At the Presidio Riding Club, a brisk walk from my studio at Headlands, I found a new friend and collaborator in Kasanova - a charming chestnut steed and his rider / owner Tessa de Franco. Exercises with Kasanova was created during an afternoon of gentle rubbish bag inflation, as I attached each rubbish bag to Kasanova I maintained continuous narration and eye contact "Hi Kasanova I'm just passing Tessa this rubbish bag balloon to attach to your saddle..." During a series of exercises we added more bags progressing into a sequence of movements through the Marin landscape. Frequently ‘Bear’, Tessa’s pet pug dog, trailed Kasanova, becoming an unexpected participant in the work. Towards the end of the exercises we were stopped by an inquisitive park ranger wanting to learn about the project and talk about horses.

 Images courtesy of Brydee Rood

Wens and Afvalzak Lantaarns

Wens - Open Studio Installation 10.08.2011 and Afvalzak Lantaarns - Starry Night Festival Live Installation 13.08.2011 were developed during the Artist in Residence programme at Van Gogh Huis, Zundert NL

Starry NIght LEDs Sponsored by RENA - Images courtesy of Brydee Rood 2011

Müll Ballon Wolke Kanal Projekt

Müll Ballon Wolke Kanal Projekt - The Waste Whisperer Series Live installation / Video 12.06.2011 Landwehr-Kanal Berlin DE

Materials: Assorted Berlin rubbish bags, rubber bands, air, 3 man kayak. This project was made possible by the generous support of Creative NZ

Photographer: Elsa Thorp - Images courtesy of Brydee Rood 2011