Description:

Built by numerous civilisations across continents and time, a cairn is a stack of rocks constructed with the purpose of marking a significant location or guiding travellers over unfamiliar lands.

Cairn was born from a desire to acknowledge and document a personal journey of reconnection with the landscape of Aotearoa New Zealand, employing the metaphor of a cairn to represent the marking of significant places. The work takes the form of eight stacked books, which become symbolic stones within a paper cairn. It embodies the characteristics of a cairn in several ways; by acting as a series of trail markers along the designer’s journey across the country, by indicating the end of that journey, by acknowledging the significant places found and experienced along the way, and by leaving a lasting mark on those places by recording her presence there. The resulting paper cairn is built from the patchwork of memories and experiences which form the designer’s connection and sense of belonging to the land. Woven throughout is an ode to New Zealand’s natural beauty, and a celebration of being able to call this place home.

Each book (or ‘stone’) implements elements of illustration, photography, and storytelling to evoke a sense of place and create an immersive exploration of a specific location in Aotearoa. As Cairn is concerned with a personal experience of each location, the project takes cues from the conventions of field journals. Each book builds up an idea of place by setting the scene gradually through observations, specimens, and sketches. RISO printed inserts and ‘handwritten’ fonts give the field notes a roughness and imperfection reminiscent of a genuine field journal.

The cloth which binds each book is hand dyed to mimic the textures of the landscape within; the reflections on a blue river, the cracked surface of a rocky mountain, the rough grain of a sandy beach - a tantalising hint of what's inside before you’ve even opened the book. The warm grain of analogue photography lends a sense of nostalgia and memory. Illustration offers a window into the essence of each location, capturing its unique character and beauty. Colour, texture, and imagery become placemaking tools which seek to transport the reader to each new landscape.