Jennifer Rendall (Lyttelton, New Zealand: Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Mamoe, Waitaha, Orkney Island), has an MFA in painting (distinction) 2010, from the University of Canterbury, where she was also awarded a UC Masters scholarship.
Her work has been exhibited in New Zealand, Australia, Spain and Japan, including the Sendai, Japan/New Zealand post-earthquake collaborations, and also a prior exhibition at Otago Museum, Dunedin in 2010, with Ngāi Tahu artists and Ainu artists from Japan.
Jennifer has been an artist in residence both locally, and in Catalonia, Spain in 2018. Her work has included paintings, drawings, printmaking projects, site-specific and public art commissions.
Shared Lines: Aotearoa in Japan 2020
‘‘Tohorā,Wahine,Tamariki’, Digital print of charcoal drawing (297 x 210mm) 2016
‘This is not a dream’ digital print of charcoal drawing, 2016 297 x 210 mm
My work occupies a space of environmental enquiry; having spent a lot of time in the natural world has greatly influenced and increased my learning and respect of the waterways, land and forest ecosystems, and in positioning the well-being of these ecosystems as a central concern around which all else revolves, for the benefit of all. The two digital prints in this exhibition, 'This is not a Dream' and 'Tohorā, Wahine, Tamariki' are from a series of five figurative charcoal drawings from which I made a limited edition of small prints. Together they form a dream-like series where fish, birds and mammals, including humans, inhabit space together at 'the edge of the world' where land meets sea and sky.
Shared Lines: Wellington 2017 / Kaikōura 2019
Psychedelic Kumara Migration (Ipomoea Batatas) – 2016, Christchurch
Framed Screenprint, 810 x 620mm
This print series came about from a project of invited artists, who don’t necessarily work in printmaking, to participate in a project under the guidance of the head of the printmaking department at CPIT in 2011.
The project started at this time, and an early edition of monotonal screenprints of ‘Psychedelic Kumara Migration’ was completed.
However, due to disruptions during the earthquakes in Christchurch, the full-colour screenprint edition wasn’t completed until 2016.
The idea behind ‘Psychedelic Kumara Migration (Ipomoea batatas)’, started to form while I was researching the origins of kumara, in the Natural History section of the Auckland museum. While there, I saw a kumara plant whakapapa, showing the descent of the kumara from Rangi and Papa, through Rongo, and including the star Whanui (the named celestial home of Kumara in this context), as well as all of the associated plant, animal and insect species associated within the environment of the kumara.
Some of these associated tohu of the kumara whakapapa, have been referenced in my drawing for this screenprint, including the native clematis flower (Pikiarero, or puawananga), the rata, the kumara moth, and the star Whanui (a.k.a Vega).
Shared Lines: Christchurch / Sendai 2012-2013
Untitled, acrylic on canvas, 2012 (2400 x1800 mm)
The content of my work traverses across a range of ecological, and cultural/anthropological references, sourced from a combination of the subjective inherent and experiential default of being a human passing through this particular temporal existence, and acquired documented arts history influences including thought and sound.
Stylistically leaning towards symbolism and surrealism, while still maintaining a close proximity to more literal and land scape references enables me to merge what are often otherwise seen as divisions and question and possibly subvert some of the many questionable default 'realities' of daily life.
In Jean Cocteau's novel 'Les Enfants Terribles' he writes:
'Vital moments were wasted and lost because they interfered with the mechanisms of daily life'