Mamakan is a New Zealand based botanical artist. Her large-scale museum installations are known for their experiential and sensorial qualities, where she immerses visitors into living the story using visuals, touch, sounds, scent and sometimes even food & drinks.
Mamakan Studio was set up in January 2020 as a collaborative art studio, inspired by her intuition for a need to experience botanical art online. By exploring different aspects of the beauty of botanicals through interactive and immersive art virtually, new connections with nature, our senses, ourselves and cultural history can be made across physical borders and limitations.
Mamakan's personal voyage of discovery began in Arhus, Denmark as 'Mette Kristine Oustrup'. Thus, she was not born Mamakan, she became Mamakan over the years. Her artistic purpose and practice is to channel nature's wisdom to the world through the beauty of contemporary botanical art. In fact, the name Mamakan means 'Mother Nature is able'.
Botanical art is a powerful reminder of our local heritage and connection to nature through plants. Contemporary botanical art that's designed to create intense sensorial experiences for the audience, has the potency of healing emotions and regrowing our roots. Mamakan, her husband Quinten and their three children are currently growing their roots in the beautiful forests of Waitakere, Auckland, New Zealand after years of moving between Denmark, Brazil, Belgium, Hong Kong, Italy, France and Singapore. When not out and about on botanical field trips or working in the studio, she is hiking the hills, trying out gardening and feeding an ever growing flock of chickens.
For biography (Artist CV) please see here.