Location: Front Window Project Space - Te Kōputu a te whanga a Toi - Whakatāne Library and Exhibition Centre
Jordana Bragg, 8min 55sec, Audio Visual (2018)

While undergoing the Volcanic Artist Residency based at the historic Harbour Master House at Whakatāne Heads, Jordana Bragg produced a new audio-visual work for the Whakatāne Museum. 

Bursting Through is aptly titled, activated by a preoccupation with light streaming in through the windows of the residency house, the experience of catching a 12-seater charter plane, setting out to sea on a boat in two-meter swells and witnessing an active volcano.

Each experience resulting in a love poem, now overlaying video documentation of each day of the Whakatāne Museum residency—which, at one point makes direct reference to Margaret Mahy’s 1969 work of fiction ‘A Lion in the Meadow’, in honour of Whakatāne as the region of the author’s birth and contribution to literature.

“And mother, there’s a big bright roaring yellow lion in the meadow, and I am too afraid not to be believed. Go and see, for yourself. So that I can march into the meadow unafraid with your metaphor and matchbox at hand with its little dragon inside. Ready to grow big and scare the lion away.”

Jordana Bragg, based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, is an emerging New Zealand artist with a diverse, disquieting multidisciplinary practice. Bragg brings together written form, live performance, still and moving image to discuss concepts of love and loss. Bragg’s work is characterised by a brutally honest, diaristic approach that attempts to capture the vulnerability and prosaic drama of everyday life.  

We are grateful to the following wonderful partners for making our Volcanic Artist Residency possible: 

White Island Tours / Ngāti Awa, Antipodes Water Company, Nicholson Auto, Arts Whakatāne, Whakatāne District Council, The Bach West End, Bouquet Floral Studio / Scilla Chocolates, Troy Baker Photography and Diverse Graphic