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A THINKING WILD


CURATED BY EMILY CORMACK

OCTOBER 17 - NOVEMBER 16, 2024


ANN SHELTON
SRIWHANA SPONG
ISADORA VAUGHAN





Wildness and our wild ways are so often subject to taming, curtailing and trimming. What is felt or known, but not understood, is so often silenced. But this exhibition listens to the thinking that goes on within ideas of the wild.

The artists in this exhibition give-in to nature’s persistent chemistry, opening to the wisdom in its endless cycles, its floating seed spores and ever flowing sap and blood. A thinking wild taps into the processes of disassemblage and decomposition, isolating moments of effervesce and activity, showing the productive forces of entropy. It occupies the moments  where apples rot to jewels, grasses are no longer weeds and sap or flowers transmute into remedies.

Each of the artists in this exhibition reveal the persistent links between the sensing, alchemical body and our inextricable connection with nature. Whether it be through Ann Shelton’s photographs that illustrate lost homeopathic knowledge; Sriwhana Spong’s film and sculptures that translate knowledge from the veins of trees; or Isadora Vaughan’s sculptures that free plants from their taxonomical traps. Each of these artists discuss the rebellion of nature and celebrate its innate knowledge defying the organising forces of urban civility.           
                 Emily Cormack, October 2024




Ann Shelton is represented by Two Rooms, Auckland
Sriwhana Spong is represented by Michael Lett Gallery, Auckland
Isadora Vaughan is represented by Station Gallery, Sydney & Melbourne












SRIWHANA SPONG robin vote, 2023 bronze, patina, 42 x 45 x 26 mm, 40 x 50 x 25mm, Courtesy of Michael Lett Gallery, Auckland ANN SHELTON The oldest wort (mugwort, felon herb, Una, Artemisia, St. John’s plant, cingulum sancti Johannis, chornobylnik, beifuß, besenkraut, fliegenkraut, gänsekraut, Johannesgürtelkraut, jungfernkraut, sonnenwendkraut, weiberkraut, werzwisch, wilder wermut, wisch), 2022- archival pigment prints on Hahnemühle Bamboo, 1120 x 840 cm or 840 x 1120 mm, Ed.of 6 from the series i am an old phenomenon, Courtesy of Two Rooms Gallery, Auckland ISADORA VAUGHAN i invented modern agriculture [details], 2023 steel, copper, epoxie, 1260 x 720 x 930 mm, Courtesy of Station Gallery, Sydney & Melbourne ANN SHELTON she consolidates wounds (goldenrod, solidago, wound weed, heathen woundwort, unsegenkraut, verge d’or, goldruthe, woundwort, Aaron’s rod, wunderkraut), 2022- archival pigment prints on Hahnemühle Bamboo, 1120 x 840 mm, Ed.of 6 from the series i am an old phenomenon, Courtesy of Two Rooms Gallery, Auckland ISADORA VAUGHAN less than one percent of original grasslands remain [detail], 2023 steel, copper, epoxie, 1260 x 720 x 930 mm, Courtesy of Station Gallery, Sydney & Melbourne SRIWHANA SPONG noizbiz (night raven) [detail], 2023 bronze, patina, 45 x 45 x 29 mm, 44 x 42 x 21 mm, Courtesy of Michael Lett Gallery, Auckland ANN SHELTON we thank you for the gift to decide the fate of man from birth (apple), 2022- archival pigment prints on Hahnemühle Bamboo, 1120 x 840 mm, Ed.of 6 from the series i am an old phenomenon, Courtesy of Two Rooms Gallery, Auckland ANN SHELTON on certain days or nights she anoints a staff and rides (brugmansia, datura [misleading], huacacahu, trumpet flower, angel’s trumpet, snowy angel’s trumpet, angel’s tears), 2022- archival pigment prints on Hahnemühle Bamboo, 1120 x 840 mm, Ed.of 6 from the series i am an old phenomenon, Courtesy of Two Rooms Gallery, Auckland Isadora Vaughan remains are always partial, 2023 glazed ceramic,480x600x520mm, Courtesy of Station Gallery, Sydney & Melbourne ANN SHELTON between nettle, needle and net, (commom nettle, wergulu), 2022- archival pigment prints on Hahnemühle Bamboo, 1120 x 840 mm, Ed.of 6 from the series i am an old phenomenon, Courtesy of Two Rooms Gallery, Auckland ISADORA VAUGHAN pistil, 2023 steel, copper, epoxie, 1260 x 720 x 930 mm, Courtesy of Station Gallery, Sydney & Melbourne SRIWHANA SPONG this tree is mine! 2022 16mm film transferred to hd video, 8m 11s, ed. 2/3, Courtesy of Michael Lett Gallery, Auckland Isadora Vaughan i invented modern agriculture, 2023 steel, copper, epoxy, 1260x720x930mm, Courtesy of Station Gallery, Sydney & Melbourne ISADORA VAUGHAN pistil [detail], 2023 steel, copper, epoxie, 1260 x 720 x 930 mm, Courtesy of Station Gallery, Sydney & Melbourne