Jeffery Renard Allen
Writing
2025
Read MoreJonathan Kay is a photographic artist, researcher, and lecturer based at Massey University in Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington. His work explores the intersection of art and science, using photography to reveal the unseen and challenge conventional notions of landscape. Over the past seven years, his research has focused on developing a site-specific and responsive approach to photographic interventions within the landscape.
Drawing inspiration from scientific ‘fieldwork,’ Kay’s practice involves close observation and data collection, using these methods to uncover new insights into specific environments. However, his approach extends beyond the typical scientific framework by leveraging the unique possibilities of the photographic medium. This process enables him to move beyond the traditional, idealized representation of landscapes, offering deeper, more complex interpretations.
Kay’s exhibitions include Cold Listening (The Centre of Contemporary Art Toi Moroki – CoCA), Icebound (Hastings Art Gallery), Cryosphere (Jhana Millers Gallery + Ashburton Art Gallery), and Negative Mass (Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland).
Kay holds an MFA with distinction from Massey University, which he completed in 2013.
This project seeks to connect Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand through the lens of the 2019–2020 Australian bushfires. During this period, dust from the fires traveled across the Tasman Sea, settling on glaciers in Aotearoa/New Zealand. This event symbolically linked the two landscapes, both of which face challenging climatic futures.
At the Bundanon residency, I plan to experiment with various photographic methods to visually connect these two landscapes. This investigation will explore how the two environments were physically linked by the deposition of dust (smoke particles), and, in doing so, aims to highlight that our climates are interconnected by both natural and human-made (unnatural) phenomena.