Rachel Grimwood (Pākehā/English) explores the relationships between
psyche, soma, matter and the more-than-human world. Working in collaboration with
materials and ecologies, she creates relational, often playful works informed by
animist, mythic and mystical ways of knowing. Her lifelong art practice has evolved
alongside a 30-year career as a psychologist, where therapeutic work and witnessing of
inner worlds, together with ongoing engagement with depth psychology and altered
states of consciousness, continue to inform her art. Rachel completed a Postgraduate
Diploma at Elam School of Fine Arts and is currently undertaking an MFA.

Artist Statement

Mout, Nekhbet, and Henet are ancient Egyptian goddesses whose worship spanned
grand state temple rituals and protective funerary magic. In these three works, their
heavy block thrones evoke the primordial mound of earth that arose from chaotic
waters at the dawn of creation. While Egyptian mythology typically assigns distinct
animal guises to each deity, this series unifies them as avian hybrid figures. Reimagined
here as bird-women with the heads of the sacred ibis, they embody the profound
intersection of divine maternal protection, wisdom, and the eternal cycle of life.