Title: Parliament is Built on a Fault Line (Official Oscillations)

Material: technical print-outs, handmade paper, vintage textbook pages, reproductions of postal and customs markings, rubber stamped image.

Year: 2018

This collage shows a picture of the Executive Wing of the New Zealand Parliament (colloquially known as "The Beehive"), superimposed on informational Q&A text about the Canterbury Earthquakes. New Zealand is split by major fault lines, at least one of which runs directly under the parliament building. This piece examines the precarious nature of both physical architecture and political leadership in a time of crisis.

Title: To Become A City

Materials: Reprints of official documents, photograph, vintage New Zealand Stamp

Year: 2019

Dimensions: 5.5" x 4.25"

This collage explores the meaning of "being constituted a city" by contrasting information about Christchurch, New Zealand, with the much bigger City of Chicago. Chicago and Christchurch are both in the top three largest cities for their respective countries, and both were shaped by major natural disasters that nearly devastated them. Both are cultural headquarters for intellectual and creative activities, and remain icons of ingenuity and resilience. Finally, through the visual equivalence of sky scrapers and the text of the Treaty of Waitangi this piece recognizes the Western colonial impact on both landscapes.

Title: (May Our Mountains ever be) Freedom's Ramparts

Material: vintage hymnal pages, church bulletin reprint, vintage children's textbook, mountains

Year: 2019

This work explores the recurring way nations identify with mountains, and stoke patriotism through song. The United States and New Zealand both have “spacious skies and mountain majesties”and both aspire to be the land of the free. Nevertheless, both manufacture “good citizens” through requiring school children to sing the national anthem.