All-at-once-ness

Exhibition Opening Night - Friday 8th September 6pm to 8pm
Jana Wood

“No single view gives you everything, the place is too varied, too active, and even if you do choose to gaze at one view, the weather changes everything anyway” (Paton, 2019, 155).

All-at-once-ness is the result of an ongoing fascination with Colin McCahon’s 1971 Series of works on paper, produced from his studio at Muriwai.

For Wood, this project began over a year ago after spending time with several of these works by McCahon. From there, she was hooked. On these works by McCahon, Wood writes;

“These paintings appeal to my emotions and senses.
They are elemental, they vibrate and move with energy
They are about place and being in it – the elation of that, being affected by it, feeling it.

Jana Wood. They also speak (to me) of a storm warning.

Tihei Mauriora, I am Alive! I am living on a sand-bank, facing rising sea-levels, and constant, damaging erosion.”

For Wood, this project is less about the view, and more about the daily phenomena that surrounds her, the constant building up and diminishing sand, the swirling movement of sky and weather, the turbulent sea and the mana of the Waikato Awa. In creating All-at-once-ness, Wood continues her immersion and connection with place.

Jana Wood is of Ngati Raukawa/Ngati Kikopiri and Scottish/Irish descent. The paintings in All-at-once-ness were completed in Wood’s studio at Port Waikato.