
Te Au o te Moana is a single channel video artwork commissioned for Te Rā: the Māori Sail Exhibition at Te Puna o Waiwhetū Christchurch Art Gallery 2023. Te Rā is the only known customary Māori sail in existence.

Te Au o te Moana weaves imagery of Te Rā with footage from Rāpaki and Pines Beach. The soundscape for the work is by Paddy Free with karanga by Liz Kereru (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāi Tūāhuriri).

Installation view of Te Rā: The Māori Sail at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū in 2023 also featuring work by Cath Brown (courtesy of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu), Fayne
Robinson, and Riki Manuel. Photograph courtesy of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū.



Te Au o te Moana

is a single channel video installation by Louise Pōtiki Bryant made in collaboration with clay artist Paerau Corneal. 

 explores the integrity of clay in a pre-ceramic state and our awareness of the world through our skin and sense of touch.

 Exhibition at Te Manawa Gallery, Palmerston North and at the 

exhibition at De Lawei in The Netherlands.

Kiri Wai

 is an immersive 3-channel video installation arising out of an international indigenous collaboration between Kahnyen’kehàka artist Santee Smith (Artistic Director of Kaha:wi Dance Theatre) and Louise Pōtiki Bryant, with music by composers Paddy Free and Cris Derksen.

 re-contextualises video designed by Louise for a series of dance productions by Kaha:wi Dance Theatre, inspired by the reawakening of the sacred feminine, its symbolic ritual renewal, and a conscious stripping away of colonial impacts on Indigenous women.

  has been exhibited at Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery for Auckland Arts Festival 2019 programme and at the Tauranga Gallery.

“Smith was a luminous presence as she danced ... floating in rippling water ... Vivid video imagery from Ngāi Tahu videographer Louise Pōtiki Bryant…It brought together dance, film, taonga puoro, vocals and a lush score, created by Paddy Free and Cris Derksen, to create an immersive experience…These beautiful images also honoured the traditional ritual power and transformative qualities of water for indigenous women, raising awareness of traditional knowledge and practices which have been lost under colonisation.” 

Production Credits for Blood Water Earth - video installation

Artistic Direction / Concept: Santee Smith
Video Artist / Editor / Installation Design: Louise Pōtiki Bryant
Directors of Photography: Paddy Free, Louise Pōtiki Bryant
Costume Design: Adriana Fulop
Music: Paddy Free, Cris Derksen
Additional Music: Adrian Harjo, Semiah Smith (vocals), Jennifer Kreisberg (vocals), Jo’el Komene (taonga pūoro)
Video Performers: Santee Smith, Bianca Hyslop, Nancy Wijohn
Sponsors: Creative New Zealand, Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council


Blood Water Earth

 is an expansive video installation commissioned for the 

 exhibition at Te Ara Ātea, for their 30 metre video wall.

 draws on the pūrākau of Kahukura, the atua responsible for clothing Te Waka o Aoraki / the South Island with plant and bird life. According to Ngāi Tahu creation narratives, the wreckage of Aoraki’s waka formed the South Island, and Aoraki and his brothers, sitting atop the upturned waka, formed Aoraki (Mount Cook) and the Southern Alps. Tūterakiwhānoa, Marokura, and Kahukura were sent by Raki, Aoraki’s father, to shape and adorn the land created by the waka and it was Kahukura who created the wetlands, grasses, trees, bush, and plentiful bird life. 

Inspired by the journey of these atua to find Aoraki and his brothers, and their abundant creative powers in adorning the wreckage of Aoraki’s waka, 

 is an expressive and vibrant video-scape, weaving animation, watercolour paintings, and footage from Te Waihora / Lake Ellesmere. With this work Louise also honours the plant-life, such as raupō and harakeke, as well as the ika and manu created by Kahukura to clothe Te waka o Aoraki and acknowledges the important restoration work currently taking place at Te Waihora and the surrounding wetlands.

For more information about the Herbarium Exhibition at Te Ara Ātea please see these two links: 

Te Korowai a Kahukura is now part of the 

Te Korowai a Kahukura

  is a collaboration between Louise Pōtiki Bryant (video artist / dancer), Ariana Tikao (kaiwaiata / composer / performer) and Paddy Free (composer).

addresses impacts of climate change in the takiwā (regions) of Kāi Tahu in Te Waipounamu, specifically extreme weather patterns.

The work also calls for a revitalisation of the mauri, or wellbeing of our waterways.

In Te Ao Māori, water is an integral part of our whakapapa. Waterways are intricately linked to our identity and role as kaitiaki, a deep connection environmentally, physically, and spiritually.

This video shows excerpts from the installation. The full work is 28 minutes.

“Te Taki o te Ua (The Sound of the Rain) (2021/21) is an immersive and spiritually explosive work by Louise Pōtiki Bryant (Ngāi Tahu) in collaboration with Paddy Free and Ariana Tikao (Kāi Tahu).”

Māori Moving Image ki te Puna o Waiwhetū

Video artist, editing, animation, installation design, dancer: Louise Pōtiki Bryant 

Waiata and taoka puoro composition and performance: Ariana Tikao 

Co-composer, sound design and photography: Paddy Free

 Mentors: Dr Daniel Hikuroa and Dr Mike Joy 

Created with support from Track Zero – Arts Inspiring Climate Action and Creative New Zealand

Te Taki o te Ua / The Sound of Rain

Ko wai ko au ko au ko wai - I am the water and the water is me

 is a single-channel video work inspired by ancestress and atua wahine Parawhenuamea.

Exhibition at Waikato Museum, Te Whare Taonga o Waikato in 2022.

Parawhenuamea is associated with silt deposit and is manifested by the relationship of freshwater emerging from and caressing the earth, in the springs and streams which flow from the mountains, connecting awa on its way to Hine moana.

The flooding power of Parawhenuamea is offered as a way to reset both emotionally and environmentally, shifting the silt of repressed emotions, ultimately leading to a cleansing, a regaining of balance, and a renewal of the mauri and well-being for our ourselves and our environment.

“Among other powerful moments, was Louise Pōtiki Bryant’s (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Mamoe, Waitaha) large moving image work Ko wai ko au, ko au ko wai – I am the water and the water is me (2022), exploring the artist’s personal journey with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). This condition is chronic, common and often misunderstood, yet Pōtiki Bryant’s work feels anything but conflicted. It presents a serene underwater-scape populated by silhouettes isolated in a deep blue abyss” 

Nigel Borell, review of Toi is Rongoaa, Art News Aotearoa, No 197, Autumn 2023

Ko wai ko au ko au ko wai 

is a single channel video art work commissioned  for He Kapuka Oneone Exhibition at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū . The work has also been  acquired by the gallery.

is inspired by the inseparable relationship between water and land - awa being the bloodways of Papatūānuku. 

'The kaupapa for the work emerged from my experiences during and after Cyclone Gabrielle in February 2023, and the ways in which whenua transformed around so many of us during the massive floods and slips. We live in Piha which was quite badly affected. It had a big effect on me watching the land move around us with the flow of water, so Te Hā o Papatūānuku is about whenua in relationship to wai and how whenua is never static. 

Experiencing the whenua completely change shape around us made me reflect on how Papatūānuku moves, shifts and changes form, in her constant relationship with water. I’ve related this to my own experience of being a woman, how my body is never static, and how as I age, I’m shifting and changing, just as the whenua does'  