Helena Andersson
Bio
I migrated to Aotearoa from Sweden in 2000 after spending 3 years in NZ. My inspiration is a combination of my life and surroundings in NZ and my Swedish background.
Growing up in Sweden minimalism is in every day life and this influence my work today as well as my life and experiences in NZ the 25 years I have been living here.
I love working with natural materials in combination with precious metal.
Description
My installation is a response to how the silth covered the sea floor and killed crayfish, kina and other sea life. The dead Sea life was washed up on our beaches after the Cyclone. In my installation are dried Kina and Kina cast in silver, copper and brass.
The metal Kina can be worn as a pendant or as an ornament on your mantel piece.
Social - @Studio66jewels
Contact - huaformnz@gmail.com
Link to research
My installation and pendants or objects is a response to the devastating effect the slash and silth had on the sea life and beaches.
Helena’s installation and pendants respond to the devastating effects that forestry slash and silt had on the moana and the beaches of Te Tairāwhiti. Her work transforms these impacts into objects of memory — carrying both the heaviness of destruction and the possibility of care and restoration.
The research documents how deeply people grieved the damage to their coastlines and sea life:
“The ocean was choked with mud and logs. The beaches we grew up with were unrecognisable.”
For many, this was not only an environmental loss but a cultural and relational one:
“The moana is part of our whakapapa, our kai, our identity. To see it covered in silt was like losing a loved one.”
Helena’s pendants hold that grief close, each object a small vessel of memory. Yet her installation also invites reflection on the resilience of both people and place — that even in the face of devastation, there is a call to protect, restore, and reimagine our relationship with the moana.
Her work reminds us that the debris of disaster can also be transformed into taonga — artefacts that tell the truth of loss while carrying the hope of renewal.
