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Anne Marie Basquin

@annemariebasquin

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Writer & Artist
Aotearoa & US
@rangecollective.art

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New experiments making lumens with kelp. I love working with decomposing plant materials, expired paper and no chemistry. Thanks for the paper @kempdunedin. by @annemariebasquin

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9 days ago

I'm especially fond of last week's post 'Psyche at Nature's Mirror.' Here's a short excerpt.

'Last Wednesday L and I went on a date to the movies to see The Dog Stars and then for takeaway. We walked to the Rusty Pelican, ordered takeaway from the restaurant and on our way through to the bar for a drink while we waited, I noticed a fishtank and then another. L and I being who we are, we both stopped to look at the fish, spellbound. The aquarium colours, so fluorescent and otherworldly, and the little fish, so streamlined and ethereal, make it possible to overlook the shallow depth of the tank, its tight perimeter blurring into fathoms. I heard my own voice in my head, younger, more American: ‘Can I go look at the fishtank?’ A memory clear as glass, dropping down into my head or rising up from within it, of being out at a restaurant and asking my parents this question and their answer: ‘Sure, just be back by the time the food gets here.’ I was smaller then, looking up into the tank, peering up at the mirrored surface, looking back over my shoulder to check to see if the food was there yet. Sometimes it was not a fishtank but a tank of lobsters, their pincers bound together, crawling over one another in various stages of defeat. No, I did not want to choose my own. I felt sorry for the lobsters and wouldn’t eat them. I had forgotten all about those fishtanks.' by @annemariebasquin

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20 days ago

I've been doing some fun writing over on substack. Each week is something different. I share a short, playful, experimental, dreamy, drifty piece of exploratory writing and a writing prompt.

Search for Understory or Anne Marie Basquin on substack and you'll find me. Or comment or message and I'll send you the link. 🖤 by @annemariebasquin

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20 days ago

New tessellations, new little beings. See the two meditating over everything? And the two little guys working away in the middle. My dad used to talk about plant devas. Maybe plant devas are showing up in these ethereal portraits?

Unfixed lumens made from banana passionfruit and bush asparagus. by @annemariebasquin

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a month ago

Inspiration & experiments with unfixed lumens. by @annemariebasquin

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a month ago

Ripiro Departure Day 🖤

Very grateful for this change of location and spaciousness. I have been working all week and could just keep going!! Back to gardening tomorrow. I'm home and feeling very inspired and clear. Thank you. by @annemariebasquin

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2 months ago

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Ripiro Day Six and Seven

Winds and thunder and heavy rain
Mornings by the fire
More whale bones
Finished Alone! Such a good read
Got out for a walk between storms today
People out doing wheelies between storms
It's very land of the long white cloud up here
Eagle ray washed up and stranded on the beach in yesterday's wild sea
Sharky's for dinner
Have had the most productive week!!
Very grateful for the change of location and spaciousness, for this gift from the Barrons and the University of Auckland. by @annemariebasquin

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2 months ago

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Ripiro Day Three, Four and Five

Coffee by the fire
Working at the massive dining room table
Daily lunchtime walks
More and more bluebottle jellyfish washing up
Chats with friendly locals
Found out the black stuff washing up is Plankton
Dune trails
Sun and rain
Biggest whale bone I've ever touched, wow
Very productive writing days
Working out the knots
Reading on the couch in the evening
Fire for company
Very grateful to be here by @annemariebasquin

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2 months ago

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Ripiro Day Two
Settling in
Very productive
Getting some clarity and space
Welcomed by the trees
People at the supermarket were very nice
Beach is so vast makes me feel like a bug, speaking of which, I heard a cicada!! by @annemariebasquin

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2 months ago

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Ripiro Beach Residency
Day One

Grocery and library for essentials
Two hour drive
Arrival
Bring in my things
Light a fire
Unpack
Settle in
Talk to the house, tell it why I'm here
Spread out, start taking up space
Move things around
Eat a late lunch
Make a cup of tea
Pull a beanbag up to the fire
Read a little
Walk to the beach
Marvel at how it vanishes in either direction
Send a couple of voice notes
Bring back an armful of driftwood for kindling
Shower, close a few curtains
Turn on lights, watch the sun go bright and then dim in the direction of the sea
Talk to L on the phone
Think about dinner
Miss L and the boys and home
Let myself adjust to the spaciousness and solitude, to this remote northwest coast, just as I did a once on a remote southeast coast, a long time ago, which is what I am here to write about.

Feeling grateful & toasty by the fire. 🧡 by @annemariebasquin

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3 months ago

We didn’t realise it, but it seems our collective art-making offers a kind of antidote against the rising tide of tech and AI, a way to slow down and pay attention that isn’t intentionally in revolt of all that (though many of us feel unsettled by that rising tide which isn’t necessarily going to raise all ships as the saying goes) but is more a simple turning away, a turning of the attention to light and aliveness, a lifting up of the face from our phones and screens towards the literal stuff of life, the rocks and dirt and roots and leaves and water and light and time and decay of life, towards the animal warmth, the human warmth of being alive.

There’s a particular kind of experience I have when in conversation with AI that I’ve termed ‘machine flattery’. At first I liked it — I had a weird medical issue that few medical personnel wanted to talk to me about and the ghost-in-the-machine did not usher me out of its rooms the way the five different GPs I saw did. It was soothing for a little while and I started using it more often, but it chilled me when I realised that every leader consulting with AI on war tactics will have his own version of this machine flattery — ‘What a great insight!’ I’ve restricted my use since then to almost nothing and learned about the vast resources AI consumes. Of course I believe in tech as a tool, working in concert with the tools we humans innately have and the skills we’ve worked to develop within ourselves. It’s just that I prefer the flattery of earth against the soles of my feet. I prefer asking a question on a long walk and seeing what answers land on my head. It’s that I prefer being in consultation with water and time and animal warmth. What a privilege it is, and at times a great frustration, to be alive, to feel, to be mortal.

Thanks to Kate and to the entire RANGE cohort and to all my loved ones near and far pouring love and grace into my life. I’m so here for it, for the light and dark of it, and I’m so grateful to be here.

Happy Solstice xo AMB

2/2 by @annemariebasquin

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3 months ago

Almost a month after RANGE opened in Tāmaki Makaurau I’m still soaking up the warmth of the experience and this culmination of the last twelve months of making.

(From our artist talk) ‘We met in July of last year through Kate van der Drift in her online Art Photo School. We met weekly over zoom. Many of us met in person for the first time as we installed this show. We’ve adapted to talking to each other and about our work through screens so it’s a real pleasure to be here in person. Our essence and quality comes through the screen but on a kind of dimmer switch. There’s an obvious physicality to presence — faces, voices, bodies — and our work revolves around this theme of physicality, materiality, and locality. The word ‘range’ has over 50 distinct definitions — it defines geographic terrain, movement, skill, sound, distance. In this show it serves as an intersection or a pivot point, a centre of gravity our work can orbit around.’

Meeting the APS & Range cohort in July 2025, working towards this project, the hours of walking and listening and thinking and making, working together towards an exhibition, installing, speaking about our work with visitors, in our artist talk and on video, manning the gallery, sharing writing behind the work, packing up and deinstalling, receiving the Exhibition Award from the Auckland Festival of Photography — a huge amount of love, effort and devotion has gone into this mahi over the last year.

1/2 continued. by @annemariebasquin

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3 months ago