Close-up of Mikala Dwyer’s The silverings, featuring inflated silver balloons shaped like zeroes

Mikala Dwyer: The silverings

Hundreds of zeros hover above you. Zero is a number that usually describes absence – but here, zeros are an energising presence.

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He tini ngā rau poihau e tārewa ana i runga i a koe. He rite tonu ko te kore te tau e tohu ana i te kore – engari i konei, he kaupapa hihiri tō te kore.

Australian artist Mikala Dwyer sculpts what we cannot see. She uses silver balloons to trap helium, a gas created in the Big Bang.

Zero is a number that usually describes absence – but here, it is an energising presence. The zero-shaped balloons change as helium escapes, and the sculpture gradually descends. The silverings invites us to consider the everyday forces – seen and unseen – that shape us.

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Ka whakairo te ringatoi a Mikala Dwyer o Ahitereiria i ngā mea kāore e kitea ana. Ka whakamahi ia i ngā poihau hiriwa ki te pupuri i te haumāmā, he haurehu i whaihanga i te Orokohanga.

I te nuinga o te wā kua kore te tau e hāngai ana ki te kore – engari i konei nā, he kaupapa hihiri tōna. Ka panoni te āhua o ngā poihau hanga-kore ina ka āta puta te haumāmā. Kātahi ka heke haere te whakairotanga. Ko The silverings tēnei e pōhiri nei i a tātou ki te whai whakaaro anō ki ngā mea kāore e kitea ana – otirā, ngā mea e whakairo nei i a tātou anō.

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