21 January — 21 February 2027
Ana Iti:
A dry and windswept body
Opening Celebration: Thursday 21 January, 5:30 - 7:30PM
Ana Iti’s video A dry and windswept body (2025) is composed of drone footage showing Kāpara-Te-Hau (Lake Grassmere, Blenheim) during the salt harvest.
Building on her previous work I am a Salt Lake (2023), the film represents Iti’s second engagement with the salt ponds. A dry and windswept body employs sound viscerally, connecting us to Iti’s experience. We hear her regular breath throughout, while static, percussive sounds and sounds of cracking evoke the industrial environment we survey. The water appears beguiling in its redness; aerial shots reveal the segmented landscape, while close-up details draw our attention to the salt itself. Iti’s work invites further enquiry: how can we connect with a landscape that has been so profoundly transformed? What does this mean for those who hold deep connections to a place? How might they perceive the land as it once was?.
Ana Ito, A dry and windswept body, 2025 (still). Image courtesy of the artist.
This work explores Kāpara-Te-Hau as a site of industry, where salt production has continued since 1952 – close to where Ana Iti grew up in Te Waiharakeke, Blenheim. It is a harsh environment, characterised by limited rainfall and hot, dry winds that are ideal for salt production. The industrial process involves pumping seawater from the ocean and transferring it through a series of gated ponds, where it becomes increasingly concentrated until salt crystals form and can be harvested. Kāpara-Te-Hau, significantly transformed over time, holds a rich history. Rangitāne, as mana whenua, tell of a battle between their tūpuna Te Hau and Kupe, an encounter that left a physical impression on the landscape. The landscape of Wairau, Marlborough, is also associated with Kāhui Tipua, the giants of pūrākau.
About the artist
Ana Iti (Te Rarawa, Ngāi Tūpoto, Ngāti Here, Pākehā) is an artist currently based in Te Matau-a-Maui Hawkes Bay, Aotearoa New Zealand. She has a BFA (Sculpture) from the Ilam School of Fine Arts, Ōtautahi Christchurch (2012) and an MFA from Toi Rauwharangi Massey University, Te-Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington (2018).
Her recent practice explores relationships between transformation, tension, and knowledge. Over the past few years, she has developed a body of work that engages with the unstable borders between land/sea and human/non-human through video, text, publishing, and modular steel sculptures.
Iti has shown extensively throughout Aotearoa in leading institutions and project spaces, and her work is held in the collections of national institutions. In 2024, Iti was the recipient of New Zealand’s premiere contemporary art award, the Walters Prize. She is also a recipient of the prestigious 2025 Harriet Friedlander residency.
Events & Public Programme
Opening Celebration
Thursday 21 January • 5:30 - 7:30PM
This exhibition is generously sponsored by EPSON.