Cathy Carter New Zealand Photographer and Multimedia Artist
  • Art Awards
    • Wallace Art Awards 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2014 >
      • Devonian Reefs, Molly Morpeth 3D Award, 2020
      • Parkins Prize 2019
      • Headon International Portrait Competition Finalist 2015, 2016, 2018
      • Walker and Hall Waiheke Art Awards Finalist 2016, 2017, 2018
  • Series of Works
    • Wai Wai Wai 2019
    • Weird Fishes, 2018
    • Poolside, Immersion and Emergence Malolo , 2017
    • Poolside Immersion and Emergence 2017
    • Waimarama, Residency: Waimarama, Reflecting on Water, 2018
    • Portals of Bare Attention 2016 / 2017
    • Waimarama, Reflecting on Water, Motu-O-Kura, 2018
    • Seaside Series 2016
    • Between Worlds
    • Oceanids: Rising
    • Oceanids # 1, 2, 3, 4
    • Drifting #1, 2, 3
    • Immersive Emergence
    • We Float
    • Viridescent -becoming green
    • Waitemata, 'Obsidian Waters' ( A public project)
    • Ophelia # 1, 2
    • Imminence
    • Immersion and Emergence
    • Adrift
    • Subtle Space
    • Mist
    • Zone of Immanence
    • Fluid Fields
    • Convergence
    • Sea Lion Rotation (light projection of stills)
    • Arpeggio ( Light projection of stills)
    • Arpeggio
  • Photos of Exhibited Work
    • Wai Wai Wai exhibition Nkb Gallery
    • Weird Fishes, 2018 Allpress Studio
    • Photoforum Exhibition 2018
    • Waitemata, Auckland Art Gallery
    • Arthaus Gallery 2017 Auckland Festival of Photography 2017, Theme: Identity. 2017 'Open Waters', (curated by Cathy Carter)
    • State of Play 2016
    • Oceanids , Paris Apartment.
    • Oceanids Rising 2016 Moaroom, Paris.
    • We Float 2014
    • Immersive Emergence 2013 (installation)
    • Imminence 2013
    • Zone Of Immanence 2012
    • Convergence 2012
    • Transitions 2012
    • Land vs Sea 2011 (Immersion and Emergence)
    • Mist 2010
    • Waterways 2012
    • Between Worlds
  • ABOUT
    • Curiculum Vitae (condensed)
    • Curiculum Vitae (expanded)
    • Profile
    • Contact: cathy.carter@xtra.co.nz
    • Press
    • Links
  • News
Oceanids Rising
​Oceanids Rising Series       
​ www.headon.com.au/exhibitions/oceanids-rising
 
Water, and in particular the ocean, has been a source of inspiration to finding new frames of reference to understand our world caught in ecological crisis.
Inspiration for this series Oceanids Rising arose from the Maori legendary supernatural creature the Taniwha. Some of these were protective guardians of their their watery habitats, ‘kaitiaki’ and were depicted as reptile-like sea creatures which could shapeshift their form to sharks, whales or dolphins.
In Maori mythology, the Taniwha has parallels with the legends of the Greek Oceanids. These were young mythological goddesses responsible for protecting the body of water they inhabited, and the creatures that lived within it. In the face of the ecological crisis impacting the world’s oceans and waterways, I was interested in constructing through photography a contemporary representation of these mythical eco warriors, 

“This is a self portrait without self, a storybook without words and a list of endless questions with no definite answers.” (Kyunghee Lee, 2012.)

​Blue Psyche, White Water Butterfly' 2017

 
In many cultures the butterfly is a symbol of transformation because of its process of metamorphosis. At the seashore, a wave is also a fluid site of water’s metamorphosis, from first a swell, then a crest, and then a breaking wave producing tumbling white water.
In this work, this white water is used to create a butterfly to symbolize the transformation needed (in the way we relate  to water) if we are to protect, preserve, and rejeuvenate the Earth’s bodies of water. 
In ancient Greek the word butterfly was psyche which meant soul and breath. 
Life is water.
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