Katie Rasch is opening House Conspiracy new Garden Residency program. We are really pleased to have Katie who is using our garden to explore the Samoan concept of Va. Va is a word that describes sacred relationships, be it those between people or those between objects. It can be used to describe the relationship between a person and their community, where they sit in relation to other individuals and how they move and behave in that space.

Katie is a New Zealand born, Australian/Samoan woman living here in Meanjin on unceded Yuggera and Turrbul lands. She is an artist and filmmaker and most of her work up until this point has been in a video or photographic medium. Katie is now exploring the medium of nature, ideas of culture and belonging, and making art that is tactile and engages your senses.

About the work in the words of the artist

My work in the garden of House Conspiracy is primarily exploring the Samoan concept of Va. Va is a word that describes sacred relationships, be it those between people or those between objects. It can be used to describe the relationship between a person and their community, where they sit in relation to other individuals and how they move and behave in that space.

It can also refer to the physical space between objects. The night sky between the stars, or the ocean between our many many islands. It describes this space as not empty or void, but as a thing of its own that connects the objects that it surrounds. Practically this shows its self in the view of our ocean as a highway that connects islands and carries people, as opposed to an obstacle that needs to be overcome in order to travel.

I want to explore this concept in two ways, firstly through the physical space in the garden. I will be using traditional Pacifica tattooing patterns in the pathing through out the garden, as well as in the planting. I will also be using plants native to the tropics to help ground the space in a pacific identity. Lastly I hope to have a mural that uses more traditional patterns to depict the night sky on the back wall.

Secondly I will use this physical space to explore the relationship between my heritages and my space within the Pacifica community. Like myself, the space will have a clear pacific identity within a very Australian context. Just as the space will be grounded in the islands, it’s location and its history ground it firmly in Meanjin. I will be inviting other artists, weavers and story tellers to use the space and to build on its identity.