Please enjoy Julian Sharp’s short and informative interview with me for TVNZ’s Seven Sharp, in my exhibition The Mermaid Chronicles at Adam Art Gallery Te Pataka Toi. This segment features wonderful footage of the show, including stellar performances by some of the world’s leading professional mermaids: Hannah Mermaid, MeduSirena, Julie […]
Professional Mermaid
10 posts
The short story: this is the PowerPoint I made for my exhibition The Mermaid Chronicles. It tells the story of how Splash influenced a generation of freelance mermaids in very short quotes and images. Dive in! The long story goes like this…I went to art school in the late 90s. […]
For my exhibition The Mermaid Chronicles at the Adam Art Gallery, we ran a series of film screenings: Splash (1984), Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) and I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987). Before each screening, I interviewed a relevant speaker about mermaids in culture. Below are my edited Zoom interviews with […]
Megan Dunn: The Mermaid Chronicles with works by Andrew Brusso, Olivia Erlanger, Julia Holden, Alexis Hunter, Suzanne Husky, Brett Stanley, Lena Maria Thüring, and featuring Annette Kellerman, MeduSirena, Hannah Mermaid, Merman Jax, and Julie Atlas Muz 21 October – 18 December 2022, Adam Art Gallery, Wellington. The Mermaid Chronicles explores writer Megan […]
I am one of the speakers on this episode of a new Radio New Zealand podcast called Pop! Culture. The entire episode – Beach, Please! – focuses on mermaids in contemporary culture and includes many fascinating speakers on why mermaids are so appealing right now. You can hear me wax […]
A tail can be manufactured Neoprene, dragon skin silicone, urethane, flukes customised & sold to finfolk lost@sea. Staccato tweets, eyespots as strange as olives. At work the dorsal fin separates easily from the mould. The mertailor’s apprentice eats. Knife and fork reveal flesh as pink as corned beef. Afterwards, he […]
Canvas Magazine, 24 February 2018 ____ Warning: If you tell someone you’re writing a book about professional mermaids their first impulse is often laughter. Don’t expect to be taken seriously. Not yet. “What is a professional mermaid?” That’s the first question. In 2005 Kazzie Mahina, a 27-year-old professionally trained dancer, […]
Litro Magazine, 9 December 2017. _____ How to describe Skype’s aquatic ring tone? That digital threshold of rising blips and sinking bloops. For some it is the sweet sound of being wanted. For others it is scary. For others still it sounds like an Owl City Song. For me, it can only […]
In October 2017 I attended the Mermaids, Maritime Folklore and Modernity Conference in Copenhagen. I’m currently working on a book of personal essays about mermaids in contemporary culture. This project started as my long overdue think-piece about the movie Splash but quickly became something much bigger and my research has many […]
A tinny ring and then a scratch and a shuffle as the world tilts upside down. “Hello?” “Hi,” she waves and her picture swims into focus. “I’m nervous, ” I say. “You’re my first mermaid.” “I’m nervous too.” In 2017 I started interviewing professional mermaids for my next book. I am […]