Songsataya’s single channel video work, Unnamed Islands 2023 extends the artist’s rumination on relationships to place and the interconnected nature of our living world. The work centres around footage of kōtuku, also known as the white heron or Eastern great egret (Ardea alba modesta), and their only nesting grounds in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Commonly found in tropical and temperate regions, the kōtuku, much like the artist, has a home in more than one place, as their breeding cycles take them across Asia and the Pacific. In Thailand, they are often seen in rice fields, but in Aotearoa, they are an endangered species well outside their usual geographic and climatic range. Sound components of Unnamed Islands combine audio recordings with digital instruments including the Khim, a Thai stringed instrument. This sonic element, referencing the artists country of birth, foregrounds the drive for a migrating animal to return to its place of origin, a drive to return to an imagined home.

Filmed at Waitangiroto Nature Reserve, Unnamed Islands underlines the complexity of a controlled wildlife area within Aotearoa's ongoing land disputes. The categories of conservation land and different layers of protection continue the pervasive colonial logic in creating borders, imposing rules and legislations over diversity and multispecies relations, as well as creating distances between humanity and other species. The footage of kōtuku appear alongside a collection of digitally animated water creatures and 3D renderings of foraminifera shells, tiny organisms that contribute to limestone formation on the sea floor: bringing our attention to the interrelated dynamics of earth, sky and sea. These elements contribute to a profound sense of deep time, encoded geologically with an energy that creates a constant circular flow beyond the limits of human timescales and experiences.

This work includes 3D models by NestaEric, Foraminarium, and Société Géologique de France supplied by Sketchfab. Third-party copyright holders: NestaEric; Foraminarium; Société Géologique de France. 3D foraminifera models in this artwork were created by Foraminarium Laboratory Group, coordinated by Jennifer Fehrenbacher through an Oregon State University Learning Innovation Grant.

The artist would like to acknowledge mana whenua of Kāti Māhaki ki Makaawhio, Poutini Ngāi Tahu, as the kaitiaki of the takiwā where the kōtuku nest.