Internal rumours is Ōtautahi Christchurch-based artist Lucia Sidonio’s suite of intimate, sensitively observed paintings examining memory and loss. Sidonio graduated from University of Canterbury Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha in 2020 with first class honours. Internal rumours is her 2026 MFA submission.

When a person permanently disappears from our lives, our recollections of them persist but continue to shift. Remaining at the site of loss gives us temporary access to once inhabited spaces and material objects that carry their presence. They operate as sensory cues to help us navigate our environment and reactivate our memory. The pattern of a bed sheet, the colour of a lampshade, and even particular formations on a garden lawn become markers, leaving imprints in our minds. Without logic or reason, the most mundane observation can suddenly become the most significant. But these associations are not as immutable as they appear. Whether we stay at the site or not, as new experiences shape us and time moves on, so does our perception. Out of these thoughts came the departure point for Internal Rumours.

These paintings intend to serve as meditations and quiet reminders. They inscribe a quality that appears ‘real’ and familiar, but only in part. As much as they prompt contemplation, they adopt an ambiguity and elusiveness, which reflects a state of memory, absence and time.

(Text by Lucia Sidonio)