Regina Gorge

Regina Gorge (b. 2024, Ōtepoti) is an emerging artist based in Ōtepoti. Her practice observes the social dynamics of creative communities, queerness, and performative identity in art. You can find one half of her here, in me, and the other here.

all instinct like the bird in drouth got water out of the end of a jar by throwing in pebbles, group exhibition with Wesley John Fourie, Sarah McGaughran, and Regina Gorge, Art Attic, Waihōpai, Invercargill, 2025

Like the bird in drought, finding water by dropping pebbles into a jar, artists navigate a system where resources, funding, opportunities, energy, are finite, yet constantly shifting. All Instinct explores the creative ecosystem as a closed circuit, where every effort, time, generosity, collaboration, ripples outward, sustaining the flow of art and ideas. Taking inspiration from James Joyce’s Ulysses, chance encounters and resourcefulness shape the ways we engage with institutions, galleries, and each other. When the tap is turned off, what do we throw into the jar?

pebbling (a love expanding outward), 2025, ceramic, paper clay, dried flowers, acrylic paint, marijuana, tobacco, ash, soil, 24-carat gold leaf

4321 pebbles are laid out on the gallery floor. These pebbles explore time as a gesture of care, as the time dedicated to completing the project is time spent with each other, enjoying each other’s company. Each moment of their making was in collaboration, formed in the energy of a deep and cosmic friendship. pebbling explores the relational dynamics of artistic collaboration, that larger and more expansive works than what either individual can achieve are made possible when combining energies. Audience members are invited to take a pebble, either to keep for themselves or to give to someone they love. In this action, the work expands, becoming a gesture of care within communities, rippling outwards. These pebbles are also distributed to other ARI’s in Aotearoa to express gratitude to the work that these spaces do. The action of pebbling originates from the behaviour of Adélie penguins in which these birds gift pebbles to their partners. 

the lark ascending, polymer clay, paper clay, dried flowers, 24-carat gold leaf

On the wall above pebbling (a love expanding outwards) is a gilded claw delicately clutching a pebble. Gilded in 24-carat gold, the lark ascending speaks to the value of creative connections. However, the object itself is made of polymer clay (a relatively inexpensive material) which speaks to the illusions of value within the art world. The gesture of the claw, precariously clutching a pebble, is fragile and vulnerable. These relationships are fragile, and we are vulnerable, whether we are holding someone else or are being held. To allow yourself to be held, to be supported, to take flight beneath someone else’s wings takes immense vulnerability and trust. These relationships are the true prize.

the morning after the night we became birds, video installation

A video work, 2:45 hours long, comprised of footage taken by the artists over the course of three months. In the background, a sunrise moves into daylight, and clouds cover the sky and break giving way to new light. Moments of birds, desperately fighting for resources, or soaring, pecking, murmurating pop up periodically throughout the morning after the night we became birds. In this work, the artists compare the often vicious and competitive aspects of the art world to the behaviour of flocking gulls fighting for food. Other moments, show graceful soaring or birds moving in pairs and groups. Birds fly like a collective being, moving in coordination with those around them. The individual comprises a much larger whole. Watch the way one bird flies by itself, is joined by another for a moment, then alone again, then in a group, then alone. It moves gracefully between these states without stopping (it is as comfortable alone as together). Just like the natural movement between relationships, the ebb and flow, how we move as social creatures.