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Steven Junil Park 박준일, Stories from the Soil, 2025
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TitleSteven Junil Park 박준일, Stories from the Soil, 2025
DescriptionSteven Junil Park 박준일 (Korean)
Stories from the Soil, 2025
Seven-channel digital video
I wanted to tell the story of how textiles and dyes come about — how they are not just their end product, but how they can be a rich field of connections, of people, of hands, and stories. — Steven Junil Park
In Stories from the Soil artist Steven Junil Park documents the 2024/2025 summer season at Gina Russell’s farm in Waikirikiri Selwyn, where she grows organic linen flax and natural dye plants for her project, Growing Textiles. Materials from Gina’s crop are used in the artworks displayed in The Soil Addresses Us As One.
The two largest videos, on either side of the elevators at Te Ara Ātea, follow the process of growing and harvesting linen flax (left) and natural dye plants (right). At both entrances to Te Ara Ātea, smaller process videos show Steven making twine from Gina’s linen and using her fresh Japanese indigo harvest to dye fabric. This video also shows Steven repurposing the indigo leaf pulp — a ‘waste’ product of the dyeing process — into the handmade beads which are upstairs in our Toi Cases.
Steven explains, “I wanted to show the textures of this story to the public, who likely have only seen clothing as a final product — which is how I grew up.” By bringing this sun-drenched summer footage into Te Ara Ātea, Steven invites us to connect with how textiles are grown and manufactured in Aotearoa New Zealand, and the stories they tell about this place.
DateMay 2025 - February 2026PhotographerSam Towse
DescriptionSteven Junil Park 박준일 (Korean) Stories from the Soil, 2025
Seven-channel digital video
I wanted to tell the story of how textiles and dyes come about — how they are not just their end product, but how they can be a rich field of connections, of people, of hands, and stories. — Steven Junil Park
In Stories from the Soil artist Steven Junil Park documents the 2024/2025 summer season at Gina Russell’s farm in Waikirikiri Selwyn, where she grows organic linen flax and natural dye plants for her project, Growing Textiles. Materials from Gina’s crop are used in the artworks displayed in The Soil Addresses Us As One.
The two largest videos, on either side of the elevators at Te Ara Ātea, follow the process of growing and harvesting linen flax (left) and natural dye plants (right). At both entrances to Te Ara Ātea, smaller process videos show Steven making twine from Gina’s linen and using her fresh Japanese indigo harvest to dye fabric. This video also shows Steven repurposing the indigo leaf pulp — a ‘waste’ product of the dyeing process — into the handmade beads which are upstairs in our Toi Cases.
Steven explains, “I wanted to show the textures of this story to the public, who likely have only seen clothing as a final product — which is how I grew up.” By bringing this sun-drenched summer footage into Te Ara Ātea, Steven invites us to connect with how textiles are grown and manufactured in Aotearoa New Zealand, and the stories they tell about this place.
DateMay 2025 - February 2026PhotographerSam TowseConnections
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Written ByErin Lee
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Steven Junil Park 박준일, Stories from the Soil, 2025 (May 2025 - February 2026). Selwyn Stories, accessed 11/02/2026, https://selwynstories.selwynlibraries.co.nz/nodes/view/6991
