{"id":324087,"date":"2026-03-11T11:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T11:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/324087\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T11:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T11:47:09","slug":"spectral-birds-endemic-to-new-zealand-find-new-life-in-fiona-pardingtons-portraits-colossal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/324087\/","title":{"rendered":"Spectral Birds Endemic to New Zealand Find New Life in Fiona Pardington’s Portraits \u2014 Colossal"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is an air of the spectral to Fiona Pardington<\/a>\u2019s recent photographs of birds. While they are actual specimens, captured in atmospheric light and exhibiting unique plumage and expressions, there\u2019s something a little bit uncanny about them. Are they real? In a sense, yes, but they\u2019re no longer alive. Some no longer even exist. For Pardington, who is of M\u0101ori and Scottish descent, natural history specimens provide a unique and striking look at nature. And the photos seen here, comprising part of her series Taharaki Skyside, are slated for the artist\u2019s exhibition in the Aotearoa\u00a0New Zealand Pavilion\u00a0at the Venice Biennale<\/a> this year.<\/p>\n

Pardington\u2019s bold, large-scale portraits of birds native to New Zealand\u2014known as Aotearoa in the M\u0101ori language\u2014are all made in natural history collections around the country. The phantom-like depictions detail unique beaks, colors, and biological variations of the Fiordland penguin, with its bright yellow crest that looks like dramatic eyebrows, the South Island Takahe, which was thought extinct for a while before it was rediscovered in 1948, or the T\u016b\u012b, with its tuft of white at the throat.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>\u201cK\u0101k\u0101 kura, Nestor meridionalis septentrionalis, colour morph, Rangataua, Tongariro\u201d (2025), collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (OR. 001127), Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Pigment inks on Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag, 176 x 140 centimeters<\/p>\n

Pardington\u2019s series also develops through a literary lens, especially in relation to the poetic works of Dante, who situates Purgatory on an island-mountain in the Southern Hemisphere in the Divine Comedy. The concept of crossing over from one realm to another is mirrored in the uncanniness of preserved animals in vitrines, illustrating the diversity of life while no longer possessing it. \u201cSome birds, like the huia and wh\u0113kau (laughing owl), are long extinct; many others remain critically vulnerable,\u201d says a statement.<\/p>\n

Pardington\u2019s images, set in museums, harken back to an earlier era of collecting, when egg-hunters and birders would seek prized specimens only to kill them and \u201cpreserve\u201d them for posterity. This controversial practice occasionally rears its head, such as in the case of a researcher who killed an elusive kingfisher<\/a> in 2015 to \u201ccollect\u201d it for further research.<\/p>\n

\u201cBirds can symbolise familial love, romantic attachment, and ecological warnings. They can be intimations of mortality, and in my work, they can also represent individual people in my life. The ideas I am conjuring remind us of the integral significance of manu within te ao M\u0101ori (the M\u0101ori world) as sources of food and materials and intermediaries between human and divine worlds,\u201d Pardington says.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>\u201cT\u016b\u012b, Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae, albino\u201d (2025), collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (OR. 026541), Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Pigment inks on Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag, 176 x 140 centimeters<\/p>\n

Many of the endemic species she highlights are rare, such as the k\u0101k\u0101 kura, which is a color morph of the more common k\u0101k\u0101 parrot. And beyond their scientific significance, birds also play a sacred role for the M\u0101ori people, who refer to them as manu, messengers between this world and the next. \u201cThe \u2018captured\u2019 birds also reveal how museums classify, describe, frame, and celebrate or hide cultural narratives, influencing our understanding of the history and cultural legacies of Indigenous communities,\u201d says a statement.<\/p>\n

See Taharaki Skyside at the Venice Biennale from May 9 to November 22, and find more on Pardington\u2019s Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>\u201cToroa, Southern royal albatross, Diomedea epomophora\u201d (2024), collection of South Canterbury Museum (2025\/078.1), Timaru, Aotearoa New Zealand. Pigment inks on Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag, 176 x 140 centimeters<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>\u201cTawaki, Fiordland crested penguin, Eudyptes pachyrhynchus\u201d (2024), collection of South Canterbury Museum (2008\/157.1), Timaru, Aotearoa New Zealand. Pigment inks on Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag, 176 x 140 centimeters<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>\u201cMoho, South Island takah\u0113, Porphyrio hochstetteri, probable sub-adult, Deas Cove, Thompson Sound, Te Rua-o-te-Moko Fiordland, 1851\u201d (2025), collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (OR. 022236), Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Pigment inks on Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag, 176 x 140 centimeters<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>\u201cK\u014dmiromiro, Tomtit, Petroica macrocephala, leucistic, adult male, Whakat\u016b Nelson\u201d (2025), collection of Canterbury Museum (AV 2651), \u014ctautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand. Pigment inks on Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag, 176 x 140 centimeters<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>\u201cNorth Island k\u014dkako, Callaeas wilsoni, albino, Remutaka Range, 30 June 1883\u201d (2025), collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (OR. 000167), Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Pigment inks on Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag, 176 x 140 centimeters<\/p>\n

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