IAM/MAI

Auckland NZ — 2008

Three glass letters I-A-M appear as fugitive abstract figures, separate yet aligned. At over 2m high, they are larger-than-life characters in an elusive world of languages, re-writing letters, signs and sounds. Seemingly fragile yet robust, these translucent and reflective texts can be read separately and together from opposing ends of the room, proclaiming equally: MAI and I AM. In the frame of Aotearoa New Zealand, against a blackened wall, the Māori MAI is reflective and affords an extension in time. In te reo Māori, it is a particle that indicates towards the speaker (or thing), and marks a point for the measurement of place and time. In the opposite direction, the declaratory I AM with its roots in Western philosophies and spirituality is subjective and omniscient. Holding space in the present tense it remains transparent, gender-free and non-binary, as it moves towards the light. On the axis between these mirror-texts, the letters are pencil-thin, barely articulating a framework while enticing the body and mind into a realm of synaesthesia and liminal experiences of object, idea and self.