Madison Emond
The River Sees
11–15 October 2023
Rhode Island-based artist Madison Emond has been collaborating on photographic works with the Kaiwharawhara Awa. This river is undergoing the process of obtaining legal personhood; Emond's collaborative creative process and resulting images seek to mirror this legal framework by highlighting the awa's intrinsic personhood and vitality. River stones, river clay and decaying plant material on the Kaiwharawhara’s banks have been shaped into light proof structures resembling wells that sit in the awa’s current; each is a pinhole camera and their apertures face the forest canopy above. The final photographs show one way that the river sees and will be displayed from October 11th to 15th.
Emond received a Fulbright Award for her photography and traveled to Aotearoa New Zealand to complete her year long award in January 2023. In Pōneke | Wellington, NZ, she is an artist-in-residence with the Whiti O Rehua MFA Program at Massey University and a member of Te Waituhi ā Nuku: Drawing Open research and artist collective.
