September 6 - 24, 2016
Curated by Eugene Huston
'Nga mahi whakatekateka' is an adaption of the old proverb
'Nga Pakihi Whakatetateka o Waitaha'.
One version of this pepeha is that the Canterbury Plains, where Otautahi now sits, was a place of pride for our ancestors. The Ngai Tahu website explains 'Whakatekateka' as, 'to create pride or to exhibit pleasure'. We also take this pepeha to mean that once our ancestors arrived, they created and lived on a landscape despite the adversities they faced upon arrival. Creating a new Christchurch in the face of adversity is something Ngai Tahu artists wish to celebrate with pride.
We also combine the pepeha with the more modern proverb, 'Ki te Ngoikore koe i te ra o te he, he iti tou haha' which implies that when faced with disaster, one needs to find strength.
Rawiri Te Maire Tau
Curator's Statement
Hana O'Regan in her book Ko Tahu, Ko Au : Kāi Tahu Tribal Identity (2000), writes that the experience of being tangata whenua is extremely variable and individual.
Being Māori in postcolonial Aotearoa exists at a messy intersection of tikanga, whakapapa, iwi/hāpu, physical appearance, language and cultural expression, and not necessarily all at the same time.
It is disingenuous to say that Māori visual culture has existed in a vacuum since the mid-nineteenth century, and throwing up a ring fence around it only results in unnecessary contradiction.
In this showing of contemporary Maori art, the odd work can easily be identified as 'Maori'. However many works might not fit the indigenous stereotype that some audiences have come to expect. It is my hope that this exhibition is at its very least an honest attempt at exploration of what I understand Maori art, and in particular Ngai Tahu art might be.
A collective should define and assert its cultural and identity boundaries. Ngāi Tahu culture and traditions help to define who we are and where we have come from as a people. Paradoxically, if I have been brought up with one certainty with regard to my Ngai Tahu heritage, then it is of its confident inclusiveness.
Nga mihi
Eugene Huston
Please hover over image to see title and description...
Nathan Pohio
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Neil Pardington
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Lonnie Hutchinson
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Lisa Reihana
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Sanjay Theodore
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Chris Heaphy
Steve Carr
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Nathan Pohio
Darryn George
Fiona Pardington
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List of works:
Nathan Pohio
The Feral Horses of Natasha von Braun / Two Files for Two Monitors, 2016
digital photography to HD video transfer
edition of 3, duration 5mins 45secs
Homemade Kitset Glider, 2011
lenticular photograph, 1/3, 1285 x 945mm framed
Neil Pardington
Abattoir #2, 2010
pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Baryta 315gsm
2/10, image size 1000 x 800mm
Abattoir #4, 2010
pigment print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Baryta 315gsm
2/10, image size 800 x 1000mm
Lonnie Hutchinson
Freedom; Justice; Equality, 2016
ink & acrylic on rag paper, 500 x 350mm
Lisa Reihana
William Hodges (In Pursuit of Venus), 2016
pigment print on paper, 3/5, 1600 x 1160mm framed
Nootka Warrior (In Pursuit of Venus), 2016
pigment print on paper, 3/5, 1600 x 1160mm framed
Both works courtesy of the artist and Milford Galleries, Dunedin
Sanjay Theodore
Germania, 2016 (with the assistance of Richard Gardiner)
painted wood, 1220mm diameter
Chris Heaphy
Maungapohatu, 2012
acrylic on linen, 1200 x 1200mm
Steve Carr
Cigarette Tree, 2007
35mm transfer, 3/3, duration 3mins 51secs
Courtesy of the artist and Michael Lett, Auckland
Darryn George
Card Catalogue #1, 2013
automotive paint on melamine board, 1000 x 1500mm<
Courtesy of the artist and PG gallery 192, Christchurch
Fiona Pardington
Mataura, Western Southland, Her Cunt Felt Good, 2004
silver gelatin print, edition of 5, 670 x 770 framed
Vanda, 1996
silver gelatin print, 590 x 490mm framed
Eugene gratefully acknowledges assistance from the Ngai Tahu Fund
and Andrew Paul Wood