CULTURE

Events, art, books and films.

Smuts-Kennedy explores fields of energy and possibilities for positive, regenerative change. Concerned with the interactions between all things in the natural world, ourselves included, she is guided by biodynamic agricultural theory. Her practice is both pragmatic and highly conceptual, spanning multiple fine art disciplines and collaborative social sculpture. Her project, For the Love of Bees, began as a social sculptural commission for Auckland Council in 2016 and has since become a charitable trust and a movement supporting organic urban farming and bee-safe practices. Smuts-Kennedy’s current drawings expand on work she began during her McCahon House residency in 2016. She applies soft pastel pigment directly to paper with drumming movements. These percussive marks, frenetic scribbles and gestural lines thrum and churn with energy. WORDS KATE MULLINS