Pearled skyscapes merge with an underwater world of hyper-vibrant corals ̶ a constant of constellations looking down on a changing world. The Man Who Lived Between Sunset and Moonrise, the new solo show by artist Reuben Paterson at Bergman Gallery, traverses the hours of stillness between dusk and dawn, a time when navigators make their way across the moana by a map of stars.

“It’s that space where we really encounter the stars. It's the light and the dark. It's the beginning and the end. I've forever enjoyed relationships and the dualities of things. They speak to the past and the present and the future and the links between the sea and the sky; the impacts they not only have on each other but the impacts they have on us,” says Paterson.

Paterson’s connection to the Cook Islands is one of people and place; from his whakapapa of Ngāti Rangitihi, Ngāi Tūhoe, Tūhourangi to The Garden of Seven Stones in Ngatangiia. His 2005 painting/installation, When the Sun Rises and the Shadows Flee, was based on Paterson’s memories of the beaches of Rarotonga, and he has been represented by Bergman Gallery since his 2010 Artist in Residence and accompanying solo show. In the years following, his floral glitter works have been notably paired with tivaivai artist Tungane Broadbent inToday, Tomorrow and Yesterday in 2017 and at the 2022 Aotearoa Art Fair.

“The works in The Man Who Lived Between Sunset and Moonrise really talk to that migrational journey of Māori from Rarotonga to Aotearoa  ̶  honouring the place and the space of Rarotonga and of Ngatangiia Harbour as that very sacred exit point. At one stage it was an entry point as well  ̶  in a way that allows me to bring these works back,” says Paterson.

Paterson moved to New York from Aotearoa New Zealand last year, presenting his New York solo show, In The Stars I Trust, with Gow Langsford Gallery at Jutta Gallery in October. It is here in New York that Paterson’s Rarotonga show took shape, ironically under the starless night sky of a big city. 

“Being surrounded by so much graffiti in New York has made me introduce acrylics back into my works. I have realised how much I’ve missed painting, and the demands and intricacies in the handling of pigments. I think the city is starting to make her mark in my new works,” says Paterson.

His new series of works come alive when seen in person, the way light is captured to create the glittering depth of the ocean and night sky. They tell stories of the Pacific, of stars looking down at the darkness of the moana and shedding tears which turn into pearls of light  ̶  Manihiki black pearls and Japanese freshwater pearls. Sourced from Bergman & Sons, the black pearls travelled from Rarotonga to New York and then back again, Paterson recreating exact replicas of the Southern Hemisphere skies as seen through the Hubble Space Telescope.

“If I was going to use the voice of our Southern stars to visually talk about our story then I had to use the materials that the story is sourced from  ̶  I had to use those true tears. The Japanese freshwater pearls are sourced from our wider Asia Pacific region. I really wanted these works to be our place, our story and our jewels  ̶  our taonga,” says Paterson.

“I love the way a Pacific pearl sits against the plastic of glitter. They're endearing to one another and in a relationship on the surface of a painting. And I like this idea that I am in New York looking back home  ̶  I'm looking through the northern constellations to the southern constellations through a predominately American made telescopic lens.”

Below Paterson’s night sky is another world, an underwater world. An eke, octopus, gazes out with a watchful eye  ̶  swimming, playing or entangled in star shapes that mirror itself. Coral, modelled from photographs of seabeds from the past, are painted in hyper-vibrant glitter and acrylics to tell of corals adaptation to global sea temperature rise through extreme colouration during certain bleaching events.

“The corals are vibrating with a new intensity of colour, trying to survive. The fluorescence that’s being viewed in these coral paintings is really referring to survival modes. It questions the migration of Māori from Rarotonga to Aotearoa in part sharing the same story as coral.Is migration a survival mechanism or is it an adventure mechanismand what type of survival and adventure mechanisms exist between the seas and the skies and the people?” says Paterson.

All invite the viewer to look closer, to step inside the sea and sky. Dina Jezdic, art writer, states in her response to the show, “Amidst the intricate tapestry of life, the world reveals its complexity and inherent magic, a realm forever brimming with wonder. For Paterson, art is an invitation to delve into that magic  ̶  reviving those poignant moments of emotional connection that remind us of our place within it.”

Reuben Paterson  ̶  The Man Who Lived Between Sunset and Moonrise

November 4-30

Bergman Gallery, Rarotonga

Beachcomber Courtyard, Taputapuatea.