Threads & memories

The Unmaking · Nov 4, 2026 · 1h 34m · transcript

Kathy Barber’s picked a scenic carpark above the path she used to run when she first arrived in Wānaka, not far from home, where the lake gets ready to become the river. She doesn’t look at the water or mountains as much as you’d think, preferring to look up: “I love the void and what’s above us.”

Kathy lost her mum at 12 and her dad at 20, then spent 12 years in advertising, before beginning to paint at home after the birth of her first son. She’s been painting dramatic abstract gestures from within ever since, evolving her work over the last 20+ years.

Memory runs through everything she…