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E mōhio ana koe, he whakaahua nui tonu te ao? He maha tonu ngā mea hei tiki atu. Tē taea e koe te tiro noa ki te ao, tē taea te wetewete, nē? Hei aha te wetewete. E kore koe e hōhā.
— Nā Debra Bustin

I whakaputaina tēnei whakaahua i te Wellington Media Centre, ā, ko tōna pūtake ko te tāreitanga a Debra Bustin ki te whare whakairi toi o Pōneke, i te tau 1982. Ko te whānautanga mai ki te ao tōna tikanga, e ai ki te ringatoi, arā, he ruku ki te whakaaro, he kōmai, he matakanapa ki te ao. Nāwai rā ka kitea ngā hanganga kōiwi me ngā hanga koikoi e whakaatu ana i te tīorooro, i te tangi a Papatūānuku.

Ko ngā mahi a Debra Bustin i ngā tau 1980, he mahi muramura, he whiti whakaihiihi i ngā hanganga tangata, ngā taniwha tūturu me ngā mea hanga noa, ngā tupu me ngā āhua miramira, i roto i ngā tāreitanga rarahi, ngā mahi tā, te waihanga whare tapere, te pani rarahi me ngā pikitia tōrangapū.

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The world is a very big picture, you know? There’s a lot to keep getting from it. You can’t just keep looking at the world, you can never unpick it, you know? Never unravel it. You can never get bored.
— Debra Bustin

This screenprint was produced at the Wellington Media Collective, and is based on Debra Bustin’s 1982 installation at Wellington City Gallery. The artist describes the work as being ‘about being born into life’, involving a sense of wonder, joy and fascination with the world. But the jagged forms and skeletal figures introduce a discordance, suggestive of an environment under threat.

Working across large-scale installations, printmaking, theatre design, mural painting, and political posters, Debra Bustin’s works from the 1980s often contain vivid, energetic scenes made up of human forms, real and imagined creatures, plant life and brightly coloured, angular patterns.

— Text developed for Te Hau Whakatonu: A Series of Never-ending Beginnings (5 August 2023–11 February 2024), curated by Taarati Taiaroa