EVENTS:
Saturday 27 October 2PM: THE FLUIDITY OF IDENTITY
Dunedin artist Rachael Rakena (Ngai Tahu, Ngä Puhi, Ngäti Päkehä) discusses
her video work, entitled...as an individual and not under the name of Ngai
Tahu.
Saturday 27 October 6PM: TÜRANGA
A dance/video installation performance created and performed by Louise
Bryant and Techno Mäori artist Rachael Rakena.
Statement by Rachel Rakena:
I have continued to use images of swimmers immersed in water with no
references to land to explore the idea of shifting identities; of the
freedom that might exist in an undefined space with no place to stand, no
türanga, and maybe no responsibilities. This has been mixed with emails, a
relatively new forum for körero amongst the iwi. The emails used in this
work establish and resolve a miscommunication highlighting the role and
place of individual versus iwi in representation.
One of our key points of reference in identity is the whenua, our
türangawaewae. By taking this reference away I am exploring new places that
we might identify with and relate to or from.
Emails have become a new meeting place for us and our communities, the
körero that takes place via email doesn't require a geographical place, yet
'sent to' or 'cc'd' establishes communities.
Rachael Rakena, September 2001
EXHIBITIONS:
TECHNO MAORI: MAORI ART IN THE DIGITAL AGE / Until 2 Dec 2001
City Gallery Wellington & Pataka Porirua Museum of arts and cultures
This exhibition brings together work by a selection of contemporary Maori
artists, expressing the diverse ways in which they are utilising or inspired
by digital technology. Presented at CGW and Pataka, with an accompanying
CD-ROM ($15 from both venues).
TOYO ITO: BLURRING ARCHITECTURE / Until 2 Dec
Blurring Architecture presents work by revolutionary Japanese architect Toyo
Ito who since the mid-1970s has become one of the world's most innovative
and influential architects. Animated computer graphics & video-installations
give an insight into Ito's work.
* LAST DAYS: BEHIND THE CURTAIN - PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE SEX INDUSTRY BY ANS
WESTRA / Until 28 Oct
Ans Westra is one of New Zealand's most significant documentary
photographers. This series of 38 black and white photographs depicts sex
workers in massage parlours, strip-clubs and a brothel as the women wait for
clients, dress, socialise or strip.
* LAST DAYS: A TOURIST IN PARADISE LOST: THE ART OF MICHAEL ILLINGWORTH /
Until 28 Oct 2001
GALLERY SEVEN (10,000 METRES) - MADDIE LEACH / 6 Oct - 4 Nov
Michael Hirschfeld Gallery
With this site-specific installation Maddie Leach continues her
investigation into spaces which house idleness, moments of leisure which are
imbued with silence and stillness. Gallery Seven explores the activity of
ice-skating, incorporating life-size video projections of a lone circling
ice-skater and sealing off the gallery space to evoke an atmosphere of
structured idleness.
ENDS