Having voyaged to the Kermadec Islands in 2011 then south to Antarctica earlier this year, Elizabeth Thomson has travelled the full extent of Aotearoa New Zealand’s oceanic as well as terrestrial territory – and to many places beyond. Planet Waves and Cellular Memories looks back on the past two decades of her travelling, observing and recording – an energised and defining period in her artistic development. The works range widely in scale, format and material, exploring such contrary states as hot and cold, north and south, near and far, planetary and cellular, conscious and subconscious. Paradoxical by nature, her art can be the most abstract and the most real of things. In a universe so manifestly in flux, art-making for Thomson is a means of holding on, of making sense and embracing, while also being itself, a part of an irresistible rhythm, a pulse, a pattern of seeing, thinking and remembering.
As well as featuring key works from Cellular Memory, which toured nationally from 2018-2023, the exhibition includes works produced since the artist’s return from Antarctica in February 2024.
