Curatorial Response - How to open a door that won't stay open or closed by Mel Gilbert

I Runga O Ngā Puke (travels over feeling) is a durational, language-based installation presented
on a scrolling LED sign. The sign acts as a performer, continuously moving text across the wall,
while viewers encounter fragments in passing. Reading becomes a participatory act: the
audience is positioned not as a collector of complete narratives but as a witness to an unfolding
performance of language, time, and movement.

The work draws from the run-on structure of oratory speech, spanning multiple timelines and
traversing physical, emotional, and virtual landscapes. Small vignettes overlap and run into
each other, both textually and temporally, creating a fragmented river of stories. Its steady
horizontal motion mirrors a river’s current, carrying language forward while resisting closure.
Drawing on Hohepa’s spiral, a spatiotemporal framework in te ao Māori, the installation
proposes time not as linear progression but as a coiling movement in which past, present, and
future continually overlap. In this way, the work asks how knowledge is performed, what
escapes containment, and what continues to move beneath the surface.

Jamie R H (b. 1998, Te-Matau-a-Māui Hawkes’ Bay) is an artist and curator based in Te
Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. Since graduating with a BFA(Hons) in 2021, she has worked in
the museum sector at Te Papa Tongarewa and Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, and is
a co-director at play_station artist-run space. Her recent projects include the solo exhibitions Are
you terrain-proof? (Art Attic Gallery, 2025) and Dumb Spit (play_station, 2024); and curating The
Human Tongue is our Daily Furnace (Aotearoa Art Fair, 2025).

I Runga O Ngā Puke (travels over feeling), 2025
Durational work
Wall-mounted LED text, looped.

⢀
⠸⣦⣤⣾⣆
⣰⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⠂
⢠⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣆ ⢀⣀⣤⣶⣶⣤⣄
⣾⣿⡿⠃⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣤⣤⣴⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦⡀
⠈⠉ ⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦⡀
⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣶⣤⣀⣀⣀
⣸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⢻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⠂
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢿⣿⣿⣿⠃⠘⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧
⠹⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠟⠋⢸⣿⣿⠃ ⠉⠛⠛⠉
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠛⠛⠻⣿⣿⣇⡀⠘⣿⣿
⠹⣿⡅⢸⣿⡟ ⠈⠻⣿⣷⣆⠹⣿
⠻⣇⣸⡿ ⣿⠃⢰⣿
⢰⣿⡿⠁ ⢻ ⢨⡟
⠘⢿⣷ ⢸ ⡞
⠻⣄⣠⣴⡄ ⢸⣸⠁
⢸⣄⡄ ⢙⡿
⠻⠛ ⣸⠿