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Overview
Raewyn Atkinson is a ceramic artist whose practice has focussed on historical and environmental concerns with special reference to Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific.
'I too am in Paradise II' made in 2018 is a 50 minute time lapse film which records the cycle of life, decay and survival. The film focusses on New Zealand rare and indigenous plants Ngutukākā (white kākābeak) growing in Atkinson's clay urns within her private garden.
Filmed over ten months the delicate balance of survival and decay is experienced as the Ngutukākā flourish through the seasonal changes while the unfired urns inscribed with the words 'Et in Arcadia Ego' erode and return to the earth.
Following the project, Atkinson was able to return the surviving plants to their place of origin in Gisborne. Their return to this region signalled to her an important part of the survival of these rare plants which are threatened with extinction.
Atkinson's title 'I too am in Paradise II' is an English translation of the paintings 'Et in Arcadia Ego', by the French Baroque painter Nicholas Poussin (1594-1665). The paintings concern the philosophical questions of death and beauty within a classical inspired pastoral scene