As part of our programme associated with Listening Stones Jumping Rocks, artist Raewyn Martyn brought together Jessica Charlton, Stefanie Lash, and Johanna Knox to present an illustrated talk titled Greywacke Love Poems & Playing the Machine. Informed by their diverse forays into ecological thinking and storytelling in Aotearoa, the speakers considered the methodologies of making that are aligned with Martyn’s installation in the Adam Art Gallery. Available on our YouTube channel the talk is introduced by collection curator Sophie Thorn.

Raewyn Martyn’s artistic explorations over the last few years have focussed on transforming materials – stretching and attaching plant-based polymers infused with rock pigments on surfaces, their temporal nature recorded in photography. These works layer upon and draw out geological, cultural, and colonial implications of the rocky landscape of the south coast of Pōneke. Raewyn has a BFA Hons from Whiti o Rehua School of Art, Massey University and an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts, Richmond, Virginia. She has exhibited widely cross Aotearoa and had international projects in USA and the Netherlands. Raewyn is a PhD candidate at Whiti o Rehua School of Art, Massey University and has recently taken up the role of painting lecturer at Ilam School of Fine Arts, Canterbury University.

Stefanie Lash is an archivist and poet. She brings to this discussion her idea of the archive as a time machine along with her perspective as a crafter of lavish verse, as seen in her book Bird Murder (Makaro Press). Her poetry has previously appeared in Takahē, Turbine, Sport and Poetry NZ.

Jessica Charlton is a cinematographer and filmmaker drawn to breath-taking imagery and stories that reveal the humble gravity of people and the environment. She has filmed documentaries and fictional films across Aotearoa and the Pacific. Born in London but raised in Invercargill and Queenstown, Jess has shot over a dozen short films, including Jessica Grace Smith's award-winning Everybody Else is Taken and coming-of-age tale Tama. Jess also shot the feature-length documentary Loimata, The Sweetest Tears which won the Grand Prix du Jury at Tahiti’s prestigious film festival, FIFO.

Johanna Knox (Ngāti Tukorehe, Ngāti Kahu ki Tauranga, Tangata Tiriti) is a forager and kairangahau who has worked as a writer and editor for most of her life. She has shared her knowledge through published books including A Forager's Treasury (Allen & Unwin) and Guardians of Aotearoa (Bateman Books). In 2018, she completed an MA in Creative Writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters, and in 2019, Heke Rongoā at Te Wānanga o Raukawa. Her PhD project is a set of creative essays exploring whakapapa reconnection and repair through a personal lens.