Heidi Brickell (Te Hika o Pāpāuma, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Tāmaki-nui-ā-Rua, Rongomaiwahine, Rangitāne, Ngāi Tara, Ngāti Apakura, Airihi, Kōtimana, Ingarangi, Tiamana) is an Ōtaki-based multidisciplinary artist. 

Her current solo exhibition at the Arts House Trust at Pah Homestead, Wā Dividends, takes pieces from its larger body, which was originally commissioned by Director Sophie Davis at Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga | Hastings Art Gallery for the exhibition, Wā We Can’t Afford, having been developed in a six-week residency in Heretaunga as the gallery’s inaugural visiting artist. 

Bringing this body of work into a new space and context, and retitled as Wā Dividends, here Brickell places these fluent ‘exploded paintings’ in conversation with rimurapa (native bull kelp) sculptural pieces as gathered from the shores of Ōtaki and Te Raekaihau in one space – questioning the value of our time in relation to matauranga Māori, capitalism, and our worsening climate crisis; opening up her practice to fluctuate between the spiritual, relational, and existential. 

Sofia caught up with Heidi Brickell about Wā Dividends, beginning their kōrero by asking Heidi about the origins of this body of work and her experience during her artist residency in Heretaunga at the end of last year.