Marino te hau = calm the wind : an exegesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Massey University Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa, Wellington, Aotearoa, New Zealand

Abstract

This exegesis examines an interdisciplinary art practice grounded in auto-archaeology—a methodology of embodied excavation that merges personal narrative, myth, and material process. Through large scale air-inflated sculptural forms made from parachutes and other repurposed materials, the project is an adaptation of printmaking beyond the frame and into atmospheric space, where air and breath become medium and metaphor. Engaging mythic figures such as Papatūānuku, Hine-nui-te-pō, and Persephone as internal archetypes, the work explores transformation, ageing, and the maternal body as sources of creative and political power. The project is a performative act, a show without actors retelling a heroine’s journey through a birth/death/rebirth cycle that is charted by the southern hemisphere seasons. It proposes an ethic of gigantic softness—making as resistance, care as method—and situates the Crone as both feminist symbol and regenerative force.