[2] Rhodes' work takes two main forms: sculptural installations in buildings, usually art galleries, using materials that have often been modified through exposure to the elements (such as paper stained with rusted metal), and ephemeral outdoor interventions, where contrasting coloured elements and forms (such as dyed cloth or coloured rods) are placed in the landscape, photographed by the artist, and then removed.
[9]: 72 In 1998 art historian Priscilla Pitts wrote: Every day she runs long distances on the hills, often along Summit Road, 'absorbing the landforms' not just with her eyes, but also through the soles of her feet.
[8] In 1980 Rhodes contributed Extensions to the Sarjeant Gallery's 4 New Zealand Sculptors exhibition (which also included Andrew Drummond, Neil Dawson and Matt Pine).
[12] In 1981 as part of ANZART, the first Australia-New Zealand artist exchange initiated by Ian Hunter, Rhodes presented a work titled Stained Silences at the Robert McDougall Art Gallery.
She covered a long wall in the gallery with stained squares of newspaper and gave her first slide talk on her outdoors work as part of the exhibition events programme.
She constructed two walls of rust-stained newsprint sheets attached to lengths of cane, which formed a corridor and shook subtly when visitors passed between them.
Her installation, titled Intensums '85, filled a long gallery with a three-dimensional grid like a labyrinth, made of a wide variety of materials including steel rods, cane, green painted cane, paper, fabric, copper wire and dried beach grass, all stained with rust, and small boxes of earth which sprouted grass during the exhibition.
[20] An accompanying publication, also titled Dark Watch, features essays by Charlotte Huddleston, Tina Barton, Ash Kilmartin and Rebecca Boswell.