Neil Pardington is a Wellington based artist, designer and filmmaker. He studied at the Elam School of Fine Arts and has an MFA from University of Auckland. Pardington is considered one of New Zealand’s most prominent designers and has been the Creative Director at Base Two for the past six years. Alongside this, as a film maker and producer, his work has been officially selected at major international festivals such as Cannes and Montreal.

This work is one of a series entitled ‘The Vault’. Pardington has taken his inspiration for this series from the original Latin meaning for the word ‘camera’, which is ‘a vaulted room or chamber’. This image, taken in the Pacific storeroom at Te Papa, is part of a large body of work he undertook in various museums throughout New Zealand. Pardington explores the idea of the camera as a kind of miniature storehouse in itself. Within it - like the actual vaults that are his subjects - ideas, images and memories are stored.

Pardington is of Kāi Tāhu, Kāti Mamoi, Kāti Waewae and Pākehā descent.