A mournful and meditative sentiment inhabits this new video work by Shannon Te Ao − one of five process-led projects commissioned by Te Tuhi as part of the 2014 exhibition Unstuck in Time. In A torch and a light (cover) the words of a pre-colonial waiata are spoken in an industrial space followed by a quizzical scene of a figure manipulating a mound of soggy towels that resemble mountainous terrains or bodily forms. This lyrical and ambiguous content suggests a longing for some fond presence now made intangible, and perhaps some desire to seek it through the physical.
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