Curiosities of Status
​Corban Estate Arts Centre, 2024 - 2025 with RE:USE Collective

Droplets
​Brick Bay Sculpture Trail, Matakana, 2024 - 2026

An installation that reframes discarded plastic as a material of value, Droplets demonstrates an exploration of the environmental consequences of plastic waste; urging a shift towards sustainable ways of creating and consuming.

Each Droplet is brought to life through the arrangement of hundreds of salvaged plastic parts, artfully manipulated into multitudes of imagined flora. The fabrication process is akin to composting - collecting what is deemed ‘excess’ or ‘waste’ and transmuting it into something of use and value, enabling new iterations of existence.

Theses three new Droplets have been created especially for display at Brick Bay. While they are part of an ongoing body of work, each Droplet is unique in colour, composition and array of flora.

Droplets
NZ ​Sculpture on Shore, 2023

​Highlighting the plastic pandemic through the redefinition of plastic waste, Droplets is a collaborative light-based installation for City of Colour showcasing the potential of used plastic as a material for making art. The Droplets are designed to evoke wonder and appreciation for our planet’s precious ecosystems and our humble place within them.

Made from hundreds of hand cut single-use water bottles constructed into forms evocative of our planet’s threatened biodiversity, the Droplets become vessels for new ways of thinking. Droplets serves as a stark reminder of the impact our waste has on the planet and its inhabitants, and hopes to inspire viewers to rethink their own consumption. 
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The form of the sculptures references the past life of the materials, as carriers of vital fluid. It is the shape of tears of sorrow and anger shed for the wildlife and ecosystems devastated by plastic pollution. Yet, it is also a symbol of renewal. Just as rainwater vitalizes the earth and brings forth new life, Droplets hopes to nourish and grow spaces of connection to our living earth and spark conversations about what we can preserve if we act thoughtfully.​

Fernware, 2022
Easel Gallery

Influenced by the principles of biophilic design, Fernware is a way of inviting the outside in.

Reminiscent of fossils, Fernware speaks of a specific time and place – each piece carefully crafted and impressed with real fern leaves, hand picked from our local environment. Through impressing the clay with leaves gathered from places I walk, each piece becomes a physical connection between nature and table.

Fernware aims to enhance the daily rituals of eating and drinking by putting you in touch with nature and helping you get your daily dose of ‘green’. Through linking the actions of growth and consumption, Fernware serves as a reminder of the vital role plants play in our wellbeing and encourages reflection on the ways we choose to consume.
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Fernware is a showcase of original handmade tableware designs by Lara Thomas. Functional works of art, made to be used, with the intention of elevating the everyday and bringing a little extra to the ordinary. 

Earth Matters - RE:USE Collective
Arthaus Contemporary, Dec 2022

An exhibition challenging common perceptions of 'waste'. Current modes of production and consumption are enormously destructive and unsustainable. This group of artists are searching for new ways of creating, new materials, new thinking about the concept of waste, recognising its material potential in using items that have been discarded or deemed useless. Planet earth is amazing and the one that matters most to us.

Droplets 
City of Colour Sculpture Walk, Auckland CBD, May 2022

Photographer: Luke Foley-Martin

Sampler Members Show, Dec 2021
Depot Artspace

Inflorescence, with Bobbie Gray and Jesse Watson
at Comet Project Space, for Artweek 2020

ia | flow with Kirsty McNeil, 2019-2020
Nathan Homestead Pukepuke

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'Moments', 2019 Unfired recycled commercial clay
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Installation view showing 'Leaves' and Kirsty McNeil's 'Cadence', 2019 Papier-mache and photocopy paper
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'Leaves', 2019 Photocopy paper
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Driveway at 'The Hill', Manurewa, ca 1935 (Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, Footprints 06239), 2019 Screenprint with earth from the grounds of David Nathan Park

Recent Species at Lightscape, for Artweek 2019
Comet Project Space


Creatures from the Deep, Salon des Refuses, 2019
Comet Project Space

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Photo by Pip Stephens
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Photo by Pip Stephens

Nest, 2018
Nathan Homestead Pukepuke

To nest is to make a home; a place of comfort, warmth and protection.

Nests are temporary homes. While they may be inhabited by different generations, they are not permanent. They are havens for time-being; spaces for nurturing, for privacy, for rest.

Nests don’t come with white ware, or built in storage, but they have excellent natural ventilation systems. They’re sustainably built from organic locally-sourced materials, they’re environmentally friendly and they make the most of small spaces. Plus, 9 times out of ten they come with a fantastic view.

Nests are never bigger than they need to be. They are sometimes fussy, but never overstated. They are perfectly designed for their purpose – to meet what Maslow defines as ‘basic needs’, essential for both physical and mental well-being.

Somewhere along the (bright) line we seem to have lost sight of this. While the rich get richer, wage earners who can’t afford homes themselves pay for criminals to have rooves over their heads, clean sheets, three meals, hot showers and underfloor heating.
Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognises that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”

The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act (1990), which is based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, acknowledges the right to freedom of expression, religious belief, movement and the  right to be free from discrimination, but fails when it comes to meeting the basic physiological needs that a home provides.

There’s no reason for our people to be sleeping in cars, or on the streets. There’s space enough for everyone. The average person doesn’t need a 200 square metre houses, they need a place to rest their head, a place where they can nest.

Home is.....

Field Notes, 2016                                                                                                    
Elam School of Fine Arts

Flora Urbana, 2016                                                                              
with Phantom Billstickers, Symonds St
What do I want? Where do I stand? Elam offsite group show

Human Nature, 2016                                                                                                  
Group Show, George Fraser Gallery