2026 • THE BIG ROOM
PAPER, SCISSORS, ROCK
A group show between Katrina Alexandra, Tim Steel & Liv Worsnop. Shown at The Big Room Gallery, 202 Heretaunga St. East, Hastings, 14.8.2026-6.9.2026.
“A blending of common interests revealed after a night of revelry fused the relationship between these three artists. Community, insatiable creativity, homemaking and a unified love of and living with the motu links these visually and materially distinct artists. Tim has spent a life time collecting rocks & pebbles from coastal beaches of Pukerua Bay and rivers around Aotearoa. Observations of organic evolution and rhythms contrasted with the destructiveness of nature informed Liv’s artistic exploration. Kat’s experience in motherhood invites an appreciation for the simple pleasures in life. Each artist has their own quiet rebellion against the modern world through a reverence to nature, attention to timescales & material interests.”
“In a field of interest that holds the entire world and all its timelines, it is awe and curiosity in the confluence between the seen and unseen worlds that moves me and my artistic practice. After many years of site specific artworks in Christchurch, I wanted a medium that was soft, intimate and transportable. Something reclaimed, affordable and which didn’t make a permanent mess Turning to fibre art and using the offcuts of editing op-shop purchased clothes, I began to appliqué landscapes. Using an intentional colour palette coupled with the natural textures of the fabric transformed these naive and cartoon like works into hospitable landscapes.
As a material, fibre nourishes me by weaving ties with herstory. Women have been foraging, growing, processing, making, wearing and mending any number of household and wearable items from plants and animals of the natural world throughout our time on earth. In using these materials and processes, I am leaping into the river of lineage and can feel a connection to my grandmothers and great grandmothers.
From obvious landscapes I have moved towards macro, ambiguous compositions referencing the textures, patterns and tensions seen in the peripheral corners of our world. Mycelium speaks of the life-death-life cycle, where perpetual existence is sustained in a closed loop system, where matter can return to the earth instead of this current abhorrent extraction and waste. Found across all facets of the macro-microcosm, venation emerges through an evolutionary design certainty that gives leaves structure, fluids flowing freedom and teaches us to be adaptive and open to the unfolding of our lives. Cracks, fissures, tumbled pebbles and stratification of cliffs and stone all speak to the slow or instant forming of the world and our lives through seasons of pressure, dormancy, catastrophe or a slow whittling away and working towards.
The woven strands of these works imitate the infinite and indivisible bonds that weave the worlds. Folding lore, lineage and seeing and feeling into reverence for the diverse and intricate tapestry of life. An antidote to the extractive, violent and tyrannical vice society currently suffers through, these seek to speak to the fertile, interesting and mysterious spaces where all is welcome.”
