Theatre of the mind

Twenty glass hands implanted on black sand. A window framed by a mass of billowy black curtains. A stage is set.

Nancy de Freitas' installation, Different Directions: Narratives of being in the world, strikes a theatrical pose.

The iridescent quality of green glass on black metallic sand creates an eerie, mesmerising effect. There is also the irresistible desire to reach down and touch.

No one is looking, so I leave a swirl behind and immediately notice the black tint that stains my fingers.

The window of the small gallery room acts as a slight barrier to the traffic of Titirangi, making the sound recording of interviews, poetry and music barely audible from the 70s-era radio, which lies at the edge of the black sand stage.

When asked how the installation came about, de Freitas, who dedicated the first 20 years of her art career to figurative painting, talks about memory and how it gets entrenched in the body.

"Sometimes it is in our muscles, a place in our calves, for instance. So much is encoded in the body, circumstances in our life, the emotional and the mental."

Hands can represent the whole body, says de Freitas. The 20 glass replicas - delicately placed on the sand - are made from a "slumping" process, glass that is laid into or on top of a mould and heated in a kiln to the point it slumps into the mould. "No two hands are the same. I wanted each one to be slightly different, for each hand to contain a certain event, a certain memory."

Along with the visual are the recorded memories of past homes. A fictional narrative by writer Kapka Kassabova merges with real-life narratives of people talking about the homes they've occupied. To accompany these memories are the melodies of musician Mark Storey.

De Freitas is clear about her theatrical creation. "I envisioned creating an abstract space, a space that becomes a place of reflection or contemplation." Her previous installation, The Weight of the Human Heart, shown earlier this year at the Christchurch Art Gallery, exhibits de Freitas' conceptual focus on perceived impressions of home, identity, geography, cultural history and memory.

Different Directions has the potential to invoke all of these themes, entirely dependent, however, on the individual's interaction with the piece. "I have no control whether people will choose to connect with the piece or not, but some people will take away some memories, I hope."


Exhibition

*What: Different Directions: Narratives of being in the world, by Nancy de Freitas

*Where and when: Lopdell House, Titirangi, to Oct 3