Whakapapa 3 with Mulengi Dori

Acrylic on board, 120 x 90 cm, Private Collection

When a person dies, a “dead man’s string” (mulengi dori in Romani) is used to measure them—sometimes for a coffin. This painting is about the length of life—its beginning as a fertilized egg in the womb, the places we go, but mostly the need to know where we began. The patterns on the blankets reflect many of the same countries as the teacups in Whakapapa I, tracing the path of Roma migration. (Whakapapa is Maori for “genealogy.”)