Hana Rakena is interested in how natural materials – shells, stones and plants – are transformed by forces such as water and wind. She builds her pots by hand over several days or weeks, then scours them back with a metal scraper to create their distinctive weathered texture. Here, one vessel’s circular form ripples to accommodate an additional curve, like water bending around the body of the land. The other tilts slightly, as though pushed by, or braced against, Ōtautahi’s warm nor’west wind. Ngāi Tahu call this maddening wind Te Hau Kai Tangata, ‘the wind that devours humankind’.

(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022- 21 July 2024)