Old Southern Sky is a solo exhibition by Sierra Roberts. Comprising nine original pieces, Sierra re-imagines timeless scenes, combining her past and present homes to create a series of new works that renew and revitalise our interpretation of the lower South Island, New Zealand.

Sierra was born in Arizona, lived in Mount Cook with her family, and now resides in Wanaka.

“Immobilised at home by the Covid pandemic, I was drawn to reflect on the similarities between my three ‘homes’, what connects them and what home means to me".

The Great American West has forever been romanticised, with its vast landscapes and enormous trailing clouds. Land use has adapted with time, bringing new people and ideas but only changing the appearance of the land temporarily. Dramatically different seasons with extreme climates bring an unpredictable fierceness to the region, revered and loved by locals who live for it.

Sierra takes the viewer on a tour through the Central Otago High Country, narrating a gold-tinted epic of inland mountains and high plains and wonderful afternoon hues, alluding to some of the people who have stood atop these ridges and sought shelter and shade beneath them. Some may argue, who’s view is better? Those who like to stare up at the peaks and those who stare down from them.