Auckland Council selected photographer Kate van der Drift as the 2024 Artist in Residence, and she has just completed her residency in Waitawa Regional Park.
The Artist in Residence programme has been running since 2008 and is an opportunity for artists to live and work in an Auckland regional park for eight weeks, while creating art to highlight the incredible and sometimes overlooked natural world around them.
A multi-disciplinary artist, Kate van der Drift’s work focuses on the ecological impact of humans both on farmland and wetlands, using image, sound and video as part of her practice.
Kate often opts for a 'camera-free’ approach to get ‘readings’ or recordings of the land and water. Her unique style sometimes excludes light so that chemicals, sediment, bacteria and algae record the context for her.
The camera-free approach Kate adopts allows her to get ‘readings’ or recordings of the land and water. She sometimes excludes light so that chemicals, sediment, bacteria and algae record the context for her. The glowing images that result from this process have an other-worldly quality and Kate likens her process to eavesdropping on the environment, revealing some of the hidden interactions of nature.
Kate van der Drift with Auckland Council parks ranger Bryan Dowdle
Kate worked tirelessly during her residency capturing images using light from the sun and moon and utilising the wetland to make underwater prints capturing the essence of Waitawa.
“Wetlands are dynamic, uncertain, and exciting places with important cultural, spiritual and biodiversity values,” van der Drift says.
Kate van der Drift
About Kate van der Drift:
Kate van der Drift has a Master of Fine Arts from Elam School of Fine Arts. She has taught at Elam for the past few years and works as a photographer while pursuing her own art practice. She lives between Whāingaroa / Raglan and Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland.
A multi-disciplinary artist, Kate van der Drift’s work focuses on the ecological impact of humans both on farmland and wetlands, using image, sound and video as part of her practice. Her work has been displayed at Sanderson Contemporary, Pah Homestead and RM Gallery, and has featured in CIRCUIT, Art Paper and My Art.
About the residency
The Regional Parks Artist in Residence programme enables selected artists to immerse themselves in an Auckland regional park for eight weeks, while creating art to highlight overlooked and remarkable aspects of the natural world around them. Writers, filmmakers, composers and choreographers as well as visual artists working in a variety of media have been hosted as part of this residency. Site specific artworks influenced and inspired by the park environs are shared with the public after each residency usually via an event, performance, publication, exhibition, artist talk or on site signage.
Applications are now open for the 2025 residency at Huia in the Waitākere Ranges Regional Park. Applications close 5pm 21 February 2025.
