Fluid friendship inspires exhibition

MARION VAN DIJK

EBB AND FLOW: Dana Rose, left, and Kae Bennetts with daughter Tui, at the Wai Rua exhibition.

Relevant offers

Arts

Garden a rich source of material for eco-artist Fresh garden hues show in ceramics Taking a colourful journey to a good place over the hill Homesick artist renews spiritual connections Creative journey begins for NMIT award winner At last, Che's art fills the Riverside Cafe's gap Artists celebrate Tasman Respected potter ready for showing Four exhibits in one at Refinery Met breathes new life into Gounod's opera

It was music that let them meet, but it was water that drew them together.

Painter Dana Rose and photographer Kae Bennetts met during a world music choir rehearsal, but it was only later that they realised they were both artists, and shared a fascination with one the world's staple elements.

For Bennetts, it is contemplative. All her life, she has loved being next to water – "being dazzled by it, seeing through it as well as observing its light and reflections, its motion and clarity".

She started working on the photos for the Wai Rua exhibition with Rose, at Nelson's Refinery Artspace, while pregnant with her first child. Her partner bought her a digital camera while he was overseas. She had been resisting the move to digital photography after using film for many years, but a visit to Te Waikoropupu Springs in Golden Bay mesmerised her.

"I saw so many images in the spring, the most vibrant colours and jewels from weeds, stones, and the source itself through the water. I took my first digital images and loved them."

Bennetts says she likes to represent the whole or the essence of a subject through small, intense and detailed parts of it.

Rose says that at first, she was overwhelmed by trying to figure out how to capture water. Endless mind maps and searching resulted.

"How could I do it justice? It would take several lifetimes. I realised I would have to severely limit my ideas to create anything at all."

She also became fascinated with the springs. She was inspired by the beauty and power of the water patterns.

"I reflected on how the river exists because of the limitations created by its banks.

"No banks, no river. The creative process also requires limitations in order for something meaningful to be produced. No limitations, no creations."

But the pair now have their creations exhibited together. The name of the exhibition refers to the subject matter but also to the friendship created along the way.

Along the way, Bennetts has given birth to her first child, and Rose has a grandchild in the works. It has been a journey, much like the path of a river.

• Wai Rua at the Refinery Artspace until February 20.

- © Fairfax NZ News