Southern Journey

Damian Skinner has observed, ‘By the time of [Don Binney’s] first solo show at the Ikon Gallery in 1963, [birds] had asserted their dominance.’[1] This painting connects with earlier and later works, like Eastern Journey and Te Henga from Man’s Head III, in which landscape is the dominant element. The subject is Mill Creek, Rakiura Stewart Island. The boat form ties to the notion of a journey and evokes human presence, although it remains unclear whether the presence is to be understood as Māori or Pākehā, present or past, physical or visionary. A related work, Northern Journey, is in the Arts House Trust Collection.

[1] Damian Skinner, Don Binney: Ngā Manu/Ngā Motu – Birds/Islands (Tāmaki Makaurau: Auckland University Press, 2003), 7.