Kate Stevens West

Holdfast

30 September – 18 October 2025

The holdfast of Rimurapa (bull kelp) binds it to rock, so the tipu (stalk) can move with the current. But if it breaks free, it has another strategy: it floats, in rafts that drift with winds and water, carrying itself and many other forms of life over oceans, to distant shores.

Hold fast to your children, your grandchildren, your stories, your rock. And if, and when, you must let go, let it be to drift in the spectacular flow of whakapapa: mammalian, botanical, ancient, slippery, wet, and unknowable.