Therapeutic Agent

Puke Ariki, New Plymouth, New Zealand, 2020

Therapeutic Agent, brings into focus past, present, and future challenges faced by local queer communities. Personal and historical artefacts introduce lived experiences shaped by periods of concealment and limited acceptance, including one object digitally remade to ensure its preservation. The rainbow flag is reconfigured into a disrupted and fractured form, reflecting the ongoing pressures, resistance, and incomplete progress experienced in the present. In contrast, a series of window works signal a possible future shaped by visibility and renewal, where colour and light shift throughout the day and reflect back onto the wall, creating new composite structures. These moments of overlap suggest the future actively illuminating and strengthening the present. Drawing its title from Joseph Beuys’ Therapeuticum (1964), the exhibition proposes care as a collective responsibility, positioning each visitor as a potential therapeutic agent in the continued healing and support of queer communities in Taranaki and beyond.