Elemental — a conversation between art, practice and place.
On Friday 4th of March in Ōtepoti Dunedin, Grava was proud to support Elemental—a richly layered group exhibition at the Dunedin Community Gallery that brought together five distinct artists, each grounded in their own practice, yet connected by shared threads of materiality, place, and personal observation.
Anne Cloonan, Kirsten McAuley, Penny Smith, Siau-Jiun Lim, and Lisa Perniskie formed a diverse collective, brought together specifically for this show but connected by their shared appreciation of practice. Across sculpture, painting, and mixed-media, their work explored physical and emotional, local landscapes —revealing both the elemental and the deeply personal.
For us, Elemental was more than a partnership. It was a chance to invite people into a different kind of wine experience—one where taste, sound and sight could align. Across the duration of the exhibition, we shared Grava’s sight+sound tasting notes for the first time in a public setting: a series of immersive, sensory pairings that translate the mood and structure of each wine into short film and original music.
Filmmaker Benj Brooking captured the layered textures of our Martinborough grown and crafted wines along with the winemaking process in five atmospheric works, that reflected composers Rose and Louis Stevenson original scores—all introspective, spacious, and designed for close listening. Visitors were invited to pour a glass, slip on headphones, take a sip and experience the wines not just through flavour, but through feeling.
Some paused longer than they expected. Others came back a second time. The Pinot Noir, Rosé, Riesling and Carbónica took on new textures in this environment—less about tasting notes, more about memory and emotion.
At Grava, we’ve always believed that wine is a deeply sensory, subjective thing. It doesn't need to be explained. It just needs space to be felt. Elemental gave us that space and we’re grateful.
To the artists Anne, Kirsten, Penny, Siau-Jiun and Lisa. Thank you for letting us share in the beauty of your work. To Benj, Rose and Louis— thank you for making an abstract, hard-to-define concept more understandable, relatable and joyous.
And to everyone who viewed, absorbed it all, tasted, listened and lingered—we hope you enjoyed it.
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