The Art of Pollinator Paths

Nikki Wright presents a suburban journey of wayfinding with pollinator insects.

Grounded in the urban neighbourhood of Whitby/Pāuatahanui through the seasons of two years, Nikki’s art-science research narrates a journey on foot visiting suburban backyards, berms and plots creating a growing dialogue of wayfinding with pollinators, self and others. Stories from moths, bees, butterflies and flies connect with stories held in the landscape and in the past and intermingle with those of human neighbours, beekeepers, entomologists, artists, horticulturalists, landscape architects, and the local council.

Drawing on multispecies, anthropological, ethnographic, feminist and artistic perspectives the work explores our relationships with insect pollinators and other more-than-humans through ecologically centred, embodied techniques, aesthetic experience and fact. In the role of artist as researcher and ‘pollinator’ Nikki uses a practice-based arts approach blending observation, journaling, photography, videography, drawing and mapping woven within a multi-media blog, an eco-art berm and wider environmental goals within community.

Created in the context of the worldwide decline of insects and mindful that cities are becoming increasingly common refuges for insects, this work contains vignettes of wonder, unknowns and uncertainties that argue with the progress narratives of the human world and its preset logic. These are also tales of companioning and reciprocity within our shared times of precarious futures.

Nikki Wright is the recipient of the 2024 Lydia Wevers Scholarship in New Zealand Studies, supported by The Stout Trust. With an Arts degree and a postgraduate Diploma in Journalism Nikki has returned to Victoria University to undertake Master’s research with the School of Science in Society, working across boundaries to grow understanding of art-science approaches for the important environmental issues we face. Nikki is a writer and community engagement professional with a focus on collaborative art-nature initiatives. She co-founded and directs the charitable trust Nature Through Arts Collective creating projects, such as Imagine My City and Kaia the Virtual Kākā, with communities, mana whenua, scientists, theatre directors, actors, digital entrepreneurs and visual artists.

Venue and time

Wednesday 6 November 2024, Stout Research Centre Seminar Room, 4.10 pm