Stone Moves

Miranda Bellamy & Amanda Fauteux

April 15, 2023 – June 16, 2023

Te Atamira

Tāhuna Queenstown, Aotearoa New Zealand

‘Stone Moves’ unfolds the complex geological, botanical, and human histories within schist.

‘Protolith’ describes an original rock, prior to metamorphic transformation. Mud, sand, other minerals and carbon-based material, including plants, combine under immense geological force over time to become the schist that forms the landscapes, foundations, and building materials of our environment.

Gold-bearing quartz veins within schist play a key role in the built history of this region. Introduced gooseberries, currants, sweet briar rose, elder, clover, and thyme remain on nearby historic goldfields. Bellamy and Fauteux have generated soundscapes from microcurrents recorded directly from the leaves of these plants, which trace and echo the movement of people, capital, and ways of seeing.

‘Stone Moves’ invites us to reflect on attempts to mediate, divide, and tame our environment. The artists present work which imagines a collapse of time and distance in order to consider new possibilities for relating to the world within and around us.

The artists acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Creative New Zealand, and the Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation.

Further reading: Hope Wilson “Other frequencies: a response to Stone Moves“