Quiet Constellation is a long-form, evolving multimedia work exploring the layered relationships between land, memory, perception, and regeneration. Originally developed as a video response to the regeneration of post-industrial coastal damage at Owhiro Bay, Aotearoa New Zealand, the work now includes live performance, sonic improvisation, and installation.
 

Filmed on location at Owhiro Bay on the south coast of the North Island, the project reflects on the ecological and cultural legacies of extraction. For most of the 20th century, the area was severely damaged by sand and shingle quarrying. Since 2000, the site has undergone regeneration led by Toi Pōneke (Wellington Council), in collaboration with tangata whenua and under the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi, 1840). Iwi associated with the region include Ngāti Mamoe, Te Āti Awa, Ngāi Tara, Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Ira, and Rangitāne.
 

Originally titled Return from Erasure, the project was first exhibited as a short video for the Crevice Communities online exhibition in 2021. In 2022, it was developed further during a residency at PACT Centre for Emerging Artists (Sydney, Australia) and performed live at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery (NSW). Research associated with the work was presented at Charles Sturt University’s Creative Practice Circle Symposium (2022).
 

As both an environmental and perceptual inquiry, Quiet Constellation engages deep listening, somatic performance, and mediated image and sound to explore how personal and collective memory can be reoriented toward care and reconnection. The work invites a space of stillness and attention, drawing audiences into quiet, resonant states of perception.

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Quiet Constellation (performance still), Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, 2022.

Photo by James Farley.

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