Samantha Lane

b. 1981

Residing and working in Auckland, New Zealand.

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Samantha's work employs the forms of Aotearoa's native bush to explore the inner terrain of memory and personal experience.  

 

"Whether I'm walking through a botanical garden or hiking through the bush, I feel a sense of awe and wonder that I don't feel anywhere else.

 

During rough weather, trees will talk and twist while others are solid and unmoving, their canopies disappearing into the clouds. As I journey between them, I am captivated by the energy of this ancient place that breathes, grows, and decays around me. I double take when shapes shift in the shadows, or light beams through branch and leaf. I want to record all of it. I move slowly through this space, since I stop often to observe tiny details: fronds, fruits, and fungi growing in the spaces in-between. I am a collector, wanting to preserve the object and the moment.

 

On a bright day the bush is an uplifting space. You can press your toes into the dust, lean against the mosses, take a rest and restore yourself. On a dull day it is a somber space to reminisce, reflect; it is a space for anxious checks. During wild weather the wet and the wind whips the place about you, torrents of water appear where there was nothing before, and then of course there is the mud. So much mud!

 

My work has been to explore the ways I connect with this space, and the special place it has in my life."

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Enquiries: laneartstudio@gmail.com