Antarctica inspired art

Published: 19 March 2024

Last Updated: 24 April 2024

Tiny drops of frozen moisture have inspired artist Gabby O’Connor to create a multi-coloured geometric piece, which is giant by comparison.

All the Colours, All the Light, has transformed MTG Hawke’s Bay’s foyer into an immersive kaleidoscope, the hanging forms bathing the viewers in beautiful colours.

Toni MacKinnon, MTG Art Curator, explains Gabby O’Connor’s artwork is inspired by a natural process in the Antarctic and is a fun, engaging way to bring climate research to the community.

“Gabby has worked on many collaborative art-sci projects, connecting research to the wider community.” says MacKinnon.

In Antarctica, moisture particles in the air can freeze and act as tiny prisms, reflecting a rainbow of light and twinkling clouds known as ‘diamond dust’.

Gabby O’Connor says that the colour configuration of the geometric panels, created from theatre lighting gels, change and shift as the audience moves.

“When all the colours, light and ideas mix together, we get something new,” she says.

O’Connor has participated in Antarctic oceanographic research with scientists from NIWA, and the Universities of Auckland and Otago in 2015 and 2016. It resulted in a series of exhibitions and publications with the project Studio Antarctica.

She is holding an artist’s talk at MTG Hawke’s Bay on Friday 26 April, and two workshops, one for 5-12-year-olds, and one for teens and adults, on Saturday 27 April.

All the Colours, All the Light runs until 1 September.

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