Sentinel, Acrylic and silver leaf on aluminium panel, 2006mm x 2006mm

Standing Ground by Dina Jezdić

Kauri trees are majestic. As the second-largest in the world by total wood volume, these ancient giants have long felt invincible. Their immense trunks rise with an assurance beyond human scale, yet this monumental strength belies a profound vulnerability. Today, kauri dieback threatens these sentinels, exposing the precariousness of lives we might otherwise imagine indestructible.

In Neal Palmer’s monumental depiction of Tāne Moana, a five-hundred-year-old kauri becomes a meditation on endurance, survival, and the intricate relationships that sustain life. A powerful central trunk anchors the composition, while a network of interwoven branches extends outwards, each reaching into the space around it. Tāne Moana stands as a true sole survivor—a lone, ancient giant left standing inside a pocket of original forest, holding his ground amidst generations of heavy land clearing, pastoral farming, and commercial plantation. When wounded or fractured, the kauri secretes a thick, milky resin. This self-healing gum flows heavily to seal its wounds, hardening over time to protect the inner core from rot and disease. In its continuous effort to heal itself while remaining vulnerable to a silent, soil-borne pathogen, kauri offers a moving way of thinking about the fragile relationship between strength and uncertainty. It serves as a profound metaphor for longevity, inviting us to consider time beyond the limits of a human lifespan.

At a moment of ecological insecurity, the immense scale of Tāne Moana functions as a vertical continent, anchoring a vast community of life. It supports hundreds of distinct epiphytes, perching plants, native insects, and birds like the tūī and kākā that nest in its towering canopy—all sharing its resources in a complex, symbiotic web. The kauri becomes a living symbol of collective endurance, reminding us that survival is inherently a cooperative act of living and working together. Its majesty is inseparable from its fragility, and its survival is inextricably bound to the tension surrounding our ability to conquer self interest in order to save the natural world that sustains us. 

Sentinel is in the group show, Into the Light, at Föenander Galleries from 3 – 20 November 2026