Comfort Zone: Sorawit Songsataya

9 Mahuru - 26 Whiringa-ā-rangi 2023
9 September – 26 November 2023

Ka arohia te kōtuku me tō rātou kōhanga kōtahi i Aotearoa, waihoki, ka tūhura e Comfort Zone te māramatanga tangata me tā tātau whakamatara i a tatou i ngā momo kararehe. 

E mōhiotia ana he kōtuku, otirā he Eastern great egret Ardea alba modesta, he manarū te kōtuku, he nui ōna tuakiri, ā, ka kitea ki ngā rohe pārūrū, hātai anō hoki. Ki Tairanga, ki te whenua i whānau mai ai te ringa toi, ka kitea te kōtuku ki ngā whīra raihi heoi ki Aotearoa he momo mōrea nā ngā pānga matawhenua me te āhuarangi hurihuri. Ko te whakataukī "he kōtuku rerenga tahi" he kōrero mō tētahi āhuatanga me uaua kē ka kitea, mō te manuhiri rerenga tahi, i te mea, me uaua ka kitea tēnei manu.

I ia koanga, ka pīrere te kōtuku i te tī, i te tā o te motu ki tō rātou kōhanga ki te awa o Waitangiroto, koirā tētahi o ō Aotearoa kūkūwai taurikura ki tai, he tata ki Te Moeka o Tuawe. Ka whakatipu ai ā rātou pīpī kātahi ka rere atu, ka haere i ō rātou haere, ā, hei te kotahi tau hoki atu anō ai. He noho āritarita te ora i te kōhanga, ko tōna rua rau manu, me tētahi karapotinga pūnaha hauropi, tipu mai, pepeke mai, ika mai me ētahi atu momo.

I konei, kua whakapirihia e Songsataya ētahi ataata o te kōtuku i te kōhanga, ētahi whakaahua me ētahi hākori e tūhura ana i te hononga o te tangata ki te kararehe me ngā rangi. He mea karapiti e Songsataya ngā kaka moroiti o ngā huruhuru, ka kitea ai mā tētahi karu whakarahi irahiko, ngā manu e rere ana ki runga ki ngā whetū hangariki me ngā pae i waenganui i ngā aorangi tōririki – e whakakotahi ana i ngā tawhiti tē arohia me ngā pae hurihuri o te ao tukupū. He reo āpiti hoki e turaki ana i ngā whakapae kawatau mō tētahi kiriata "pakipūmeka taiao”. Engari, ko ngā whakautu ki ētahi pātai whānui hei wero i te whakaaro mō te hononga me te whai wāhi ki te taiao.

He ringatoi pāhorau a Sorawit Songsataya, he kāinga ōna ki Aotearoa me Rānana. Nō te whakatutukitanga o te whakawhiwhinga tūranga Frances Hodgkins 2022 i Ōtepoti, e whai ana a Songsataya i tētāhi tūranga tohunga ringatoi i Gasworks, i Rānana. I ngā tekau tau kua pahure mai, kua whakawhanakehia e Songsataya ana mahi toirau, ka mutu, i whakaatuhia, i kohia hoki e ngā whare toi nui whakaharahara o te motu, o te ao anō hoki. 

Ka nui ngā mihi a te ringatoi ki te hapū o Kāti Māhaki ki Makaawhio, ngā kaitiaki o te rohe o te kōhanga o nga kotuku.

Focusing on the kōtuku and their only nesting grounds in Aotearoa New Zealand, Comfort Zone explores the limits of human understanding, and the distances we put between ourselves and other species.

Also known as the white heron or Eastern great egret Ardea alba modesta, the kōtuku is an intriguing bird with multiple identities, commonly found in tropical and temperate regions. In Thailand, the artist’s country of birth, they are often seen in rice fields but in Aotearoa they are an endangered species at the limit of their geographic and climatic range. The whakataukī “he kōtuku rerenga tahi”, “a kōtuku of a single flight”, is attributed to a rare event and honoured guests that seldom visit, as the bird is not often seen.

Songsataya has woven together footage of nesting kōtuku with images and animations exploring proximities between the human, non-human, and celestial. The artist has juxtaposed the tiny filaments of feathers, seen under an electron microscope, with birds flying high among pinprick stars and ladders reaching between faraway planets – bridging the incomprehensible distances and shifting scales of the universe. An accompanying voiceover subverts any expectations of a narrated “nature documentary”. Instead, responses to a series of open-ended questions seem to test a fundamental sense of connection and belonging within the natural world. 

Sorawit Songsataya is a multimedia artist, currently based between Aotearoa and London. 
After recently completing the 2022 Frances Hodgkins fellowship in Ōtepoti Dunedin, Songsataya is currently undertaking an artist residency at Gasworks London. Over the past decade, Songsataya has developed an active multi-disciplinary practice which has been exhibited and collected by nationally and internationally significant public galleries and art spaces.

Voiceover by Awa Puna (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairoa). The artist would like to acknowledge hapū of Kāti Māhaki ki Makaawhio as kaitiaki of the rohe where the kōtuku nest.