When Robin White’s mother, Florence, died suddenly at her Te Puke home in 1979, she left everything in its usual place “as if she had just gone out to do the shopping”. Robin and her husband drove up from Dunedin and stayed in her mother’s spare room. “Her funeral was held on December 24. On Christmas morning, I woke very early and went about the house making drawings of things that spoke to me about my mother.” Borrowing a camera, White lined up photographs based on her drawings. “All these images are full of traces of my mother, her character and her beliefs.” Later, White – then living on Tarawa atoll in the Republic of Kiribati – made a set of accompanying screenprints. Following an order determined by the ebbing tide, they show the view across the lagoon towards Makin, a path the locals believed was taken by the spirits of their ancestors.

(We do this, 12 May 2018 - 26 May 2019)