Sarah Munro's recent and ongoing Trade Items series consists of delicately embroidered works that respond to a watercolour and pencil drawing from 1769 by Ra'iatea navigator and high priest Tupaia, who joined James Cook's first voyage at Tahiti, depicting the exchange of a crayfish for a length of cloth or tapa.
Munro's detailed embroideries speak to the impact of introduced animal and plant species on endemic populations of Aotearoa New Zealand as well as the effects of single use plastics, horticultural and agricultural practices upon our biodiversity.
Munro studied at Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland, majoring in sculpture, and has a Doctorate in Fine Arts. She has been the recipient of artist residencies including the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship at the University of Otago and her work is represented in several public collections.
