Fiona Pardington

Fiona Pardington’s photographic print Solitary Female Huia resurrects a lost world. The photographer offers us a low-lit, talismanic object for contemplation: an extinct bird, a female huia. The plumage emerges out of darkness; the long beak delicately curves like a crescent moon; there is a sheen on the feathers like that made by moonlight. This is an uncanny creature of the night, a creature from the realm of Hine-nui-te-pō, the Māori Goddess of Death, the ruler of the underworld.