Fragments of botanical specimens float suspended in the picture plane inviting us to become immersed in a wind-blown field of petals, leaves, pollen and twigs. Yet all is not quite as it seems. In allowing wind to move her specimens, the photographer has allowed, what she calls, 'Nature Time' to outpace 'Machine Time'. As she says: The technology was pushed beyond the limits of its ability to form a complete photographic image and produced instead a more complex map of the relationship between these two worlds. MachineTime_NatureTime enmeshes the familiarity of the botanic and the unfamiliarity of marks made by technological disruption.

This representation of normally unseen processes recreates for the artist some of the "moments of great expectation, anticipation and terror" involved in image processing in the film era. Here that mystery again becomes magical.

Mizuho Nishoka has recently completed her PhD in photography at Massey University in Wellington. This is the first PhD in photography in New Zealand. Mizuho was also the first person in Fine Arts to a receive Vice-Chancellors Doctoral scholarship.

We are delighted to present Mizuho's first exhibition in the gallery. Her work can also be seen at a large scale on the billboard in the gallery courtyard.