“A new media wallwork, Kaitiaki, involves the layering and affixing of disposable nappies/diapers in an imperfect mosaic. Kaitiaki, meaning guardian, protector, or babysitter, stretches from the gallery entrance to the curators’ door, somehow wrapping up the space. The work explores questions of commerce, culture, identity and spiritual values in a post-colonial, post-feminist context. The installation follows from the artist’s Master of Fine Arts research on liminality—a threshold position characterised by ambiguity and ambivalence. With the nation’s eyes on Te Tiriti O Te Waitangi (NZ’s Treaty of Waitangi), Gill Gatfield’s Kaitiaki offers an absorbing mirror to the current constitutional debate.”
Rhoda Fowler, Curator