Stained Silences

Stained Silences is the latest project by Pauline Rhodes, one of Aotearoa's most singular artists. The first iteration was installed in 1981; 43 years on, her process of rusting materials continues. Here, paper and ply are rusted—sometimes lightly, sometimes intensely—combining chance and control to create surfaces ranging from subtle to rich and luminous.

The installation includes rusted paper, ply, cotton fabrics and silk arranged fluidly and organically. Tripod-like forms hold stained silk clasped with wingnut and wood. Elements are placed deliberately yet remain moveable and recyclable depending on site and intent.

Works in the back gallery feature collages of ripped rusted paper on stretched canvases, with lines salvaged from texts damaged in Canterbury's earthquakes. Rhodes references thinkers including Theodore Adorno, Jacques Lacan and Walter Benjamin, linking art to new forms of expression and social and political ambition. Flecks of colour—reds, blues and yellow gold—punctuate the surfaces. These works feel sculptural, registering texture and colour across nature and culture. They are songs of silence: richly stained and inevitably mute.