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Fiona Pardington: A Beautiful Hesitation

Blue Room Exihibiton

Akura Pupu Waireti / Violet Snail, 2013
All works are archival pigment inks on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 308gsm,
in editions of 10, from 2013, 1460 x 1120mm.
Available also in the following sizes: 550 x 412mm & 1100 x 825mm.
Describe the Framing:
Dark brown, beveled wooden framing

Subject Matter and composition:
Portraiture blurs with still life with the main subject as seen here is her daughter.Filling the whole frame.Pardington goes on to say that,The Moari women in the photographs appear as themselves, representing the unbroken thread of women of whom they are the most recent life expression. These women are reinvesting culture through the support of their ancestors, informed by their Kai Tahutaka, self-determination and contemporary creative strength. They were photographed from above while they lay on the black and gold sands of Te Wai Pounamu's beaches, hair entwined with the seaweeds that have an important social significance to Kai Tahu because of its connection to mahika kai. The effect gained from this change of perspective is subtle, but very effective. Seaweed, or rimu, are the flowers and trees of Takoroa/God of the Ocean. Hair strands connect the person to their spiritual. unseen aspects of being. Seaweed can be imagined as an earthly metaphor for aka, or the spiritual/silver cords that link each person to their higher spiritual body and even higher spiritual being.

Describe the lighting:
Flash was used here you can see on her chin,left side of her face and chest

How does this image make you feel:
It empowers me and gives me reassurance to stay true to myself as a daugther,woman and a mother.That im on the right path to wherever im going.

Language Of Skulls Exhibition

Amanita Muscaria
Fiona Pardington
2011
1.2m x 1m
Describe the framing:
Matte black,Wooden,Bevelled,Glass cover

Subject Matter and composition:
The main subject here is the mushroom Amanita Muscaria, the fruiting bodies of the fungi family, have long held a peculiar place in human culture and imagination.The mushrooms are placed in a way that it fills the whole frame forming a square taken from a high vantage point.When Fiona Pardington was a child she loved fairy rings and always made a point of trying to stand inside one on the slim hope of catching a glimpse of a fairy. She was informed never to touch an Amanita muscaria, because their was a creature beneath it.It is A. muscaria which appears so liberally in picture books of tales collected by the Brothers Grimm which to me is so fascinating to learn about the history of this image Fiona took.

Describe the lighting:
Flash was placed at a lower angle facing the stems, where the stems seems more brighter than the top of the mushrooms.

How does this image make you feel:
Reminds me of my childhood when i loved to watch Alice in wonderland, when the caterpillar was sitting on a mushroom while smoking a hookah.The colours are so vibrant almost magical to touch.I really like this image because it is fun to look it.Knowing that the mushroom is very poisonous almost makes you cringe with excitement and just the thought of eating or touching it makes me feel anxious.

Becoming Exhibition
Autoportrait with granma, parau street, Mount roskill 1987
Silver gelatin Prints

Describe the framing:
A4 size,mounted in solid black frames with white large white borders. which makes it intimate you have to really get close to view the image.

Describe the subject matter and composition:
The main subjects here is Dorothy fionas grandmother and herself,this would was taken from a straight forward point of view infront of a mirror.This is such an intimate image of Fiona and her grandmother.

Describe the lighting:
Ambient lightiing was used

How does this image make you feel:
Fiona Pardintons grandmother as she described had a very close and loving relationship with Dorothy, her maternal grandmother,who had early stages of Alzheimer's. As the disease progressed to a stage where she was unaware of her family or herself, she stopped photographing her, initially out of respect for her grandmother who she adored.I just celebrated mothers sunday and after viewing this image again a reasurrance and empowerment,i also think of my mother when i see this image,how much my mum has done for me all this years and that i will always have eternal love for her through sickness and health.

Flesh Exhibition
Saul Saul
Fiona Pardington
1986
110 x 90 cm
Silver gelatin print
Describe the framing:Has gold framing,Patterns,Bevelled.

Describe the subject matter and composition:
A black and white shot of a shirtless man wearing a beekeeper's hat, arms crossed, stern expression, standing on an angle and facing the light. The man is Joe Makea.He was Rarotongan and had undiagnosed scarlet fever when he was a kid. So he had a heart operation, because the valves needed replacing. 'He didn't stop exercising and so he died on his press bench' says Pardington.He placed in the centre of the frame.

Describe the lighting:
This would be done with low key lighting placed on the left theirs shadows under his neck.

How does this image make you feel:
I was drawn to this image because of the headpiece,something similar to what im going to plan for my portfolio.As i went abit closer to see the models face i was shocked he looked so sickly with no eyebrows and any form of hair showing, i felt a wave of sadness.After researching online about this image that he had passed away makes me really appreciate life more,i am so thankful that im still here healthy and living, it really shows how a photograph is such a beautiful medium that can capture such a beautiful moment of a soul in every expression and emotion felt in that room is now no more but a solid photograph frozen in time.

Name of artist:

Imants Tillers (born 1950) australia

Name of work: Paradiso 1994

Approx size:

oilstick, gouache, and synthetic polymer paint on canvas boards

Size (h x w)

3000 x 9120 mm

Describe the art work:

Imants Tillers' paintings seek to renegotiate Australia's physical and cultural isolation from the rest of the world. For many years, Tiller's has made paintings based on reproductions of other artist's works. In this, he shows the main method by which we see art from other places - in magazines and books. Tillers' displacement of those images parallels the dislocation suffered by his parents as they left Latvia as refugees from World War II. "Paradiso" - Italian for paradise - is also an anagram of "diaspora" - the dispersal of people. "Paradiso" is one of three major works on this theme. 

How does this art make you feel:

It makes me really appreciate art and inclusively makes me really appreaciate all the artists that passionly love what they do.I can see from this piece of art that a great deal of time was spent doing this which turned out amazing.