Keelin Bell

'Wūru Paraikete' responds to an examination of 19th century portraits of Māori and reflecting on their intentional exoticisation for Western audiences. My constructed photographs show the relationship between people, landscape, and growing colonial disruption. Manipulation of the whenua and the implementation of non-native plants & invasive species have reformatted the landscape, making people appear distant from the context in which they exist. 'Wūru Paraikete' unites the series in a specific context, that of the trading era.