Extensum/Extensors

Extensum/Extensors

He tāreitanga tōna pūkenga, heoi e rua kē ngā horopaki e whai wāhi ana ngā mahi auaha a Pauline Rhode, mai i ngā tau 1970 rā anō. Ka whakatinanahia tētehi mā te whakarite i ngā matū hōu i te taiao o waho, ā, ko te ringatoi me te whenua noa i rongo, mā ngā kapohanga hei whakaahua. Ka kitea tērā atu i ngā wāhi whakairi toi hei whakatauira i ngā matū i hangaia e te ringa tangata, e taiao hoki. E hāngai ana hēnei tāreitanga ki ngā whanokē me ngā hua o tētehi hoahoa. Ko te tāera takirua a Rhode tētehi pāranga o te wānanga mutunga kore e aro ana ki te tirohanga a te tangata, ki te whiriwhiri a te tangata me tana noho i tōna taiao – he mea hanga ngā mea e rua, i puta hoki i ngā tukanga whakapōpopo, whakaahua me te whakarauora hoki.

I tāngia hēnei hei hono atu ki tētehi tāreitanga i puta tuatahi mai i Govett-Brewster i te tau 1983. He whakaharatau, he whakamahere rānei i te mea ngaro ka hua i te tāreitanga, waihoki ngā waihotanga a te ringatoi i tōna takiwā. He piakano hinu kōwhai ka aupiki, ka auheke rānei i te whārangi o hētehi, e tū torotika ana i mua i te pepa waikura o te tāreitanga; ka pokopoko hoki ngā pou piakano kākāriki i tōna papa. Kua tuhia he tohu ki runga i hērā atu kia rite ki ngā puke i a koe e titiro ana mai i runga, waihoki he hanganga whare e wero ana i tōna papawhenua.

Ko ngā mahuetanga o Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū peange te pūtake o ngā tohu nei, arā ko te noninga kumu o Rhode, me te wāhi mahi takatū, mahi tuhituhi e pā ana ki ngā waka rahi i tētehi wāhi ka pāngia e ngā rerekētanga o te huarere, o ngā tai me te papaneke. Ko ngā mahi a Rhode hei whakatairanga i te takiwā me hōna tairongo katoa, waihoki ko tā te tangata ngana ki te whakawhanake i te tinana me te hinengaro ki te rangahau i a ia anō i roto tonu i hēnei tukanga whakaahua.


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Recognised primarily as a sculptor, Pauline Rhodes’ work since the late-1970s has generally fallen into two categories. One manifests as temporary arrangements of material in outdoor environments, witnessed only by the artist and the land itself, and persisting only through photographs. The other is realised within gallery settings, as configurations of human-made and naturally occurring materials. These installations are formed in relation to the quirks and contours of a particular architecture. Rhodes’ dual working methods part of a “continuum” of inquiry into how humans perceive, negotiate and inhabit environments—both constructed, and those formed through earthly processes of decay, transformation, and renewal.

This work is among a set of drawings created in relation to an installation first realised at the Govett-Brewster in 1983. The drawings can be read as a rehearsal or plan towards her sculptural intervention, and the residue of the artist’s action in space. In some, fields of amber oil pastel descend or ascend across the page, standing in for the rust-stained paper in the installation; while lively strokes of bright green ink and pastel substitute rods that thrust from this ground. Others feature marks in ink which gesture to rolling hills from an elevated view, with structures punctuating the landscape.

These marks could refer to undulating landforms of Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū Banks Peninsula, where Rhodes has spent much of her life living and working to construct, and document, fleeting structures within a setting subject to tectonic, tidal and weather-borne change. We can read Rhodes’ work as a register of place and sensation, and a human attempt to extend the body and mind to find oneself in relation to, as a part of, these processes of transformation.

— Simon Gennard, 2026