Digital Marae/Lisa Reihana

Media Release

 
19 August 2009        

Latest Govett-Brewster publication:

Digital Marae/Lisa Reihana

This richly illustrated, modestly-sized publication is devoted to a major ongoing photographic and video project by one of Aotearoa New Zealand's foremost artists.

Lisa Reihana’s Digital Marae project explores haunting images that represent Māori ancestral figures within a wider consideration of the wharenui or meeting house.

The life-sized, glossy, sensuous photographs are a contemporary take on poupou, the wooden carvings lining many wharenui. Imbued with magic realist lyricism, her images seamlessly blend the traditional with the contemporary.

In 2007 the Govett-Brewster presented for the first time the latest incarnation of Digital Marae; a suite of new photographs that reference atua (gods), who are male and takatāpui (cross-gendered) figures.

This publication, edited by Govett-Brewster Director and curator Rhana Devenport, includes writing by leading Māori architectural historian Deidre Brown, and cultural theorist and sociologist Nikos Papastergiadis from the University of Melbourne with curator and writer Victoria Lynn, who’s also Melbourne-based. Also writing is Te Papa curator Megan Tamati-Quennell. Additionally, an extended interview with Reihana by Devenport reveals the complex layers of influence that inform this ambitious, significant and ongoing project.

Lisa Reihana is currently the Artist in Residence at McCahon House in Titirangi, Auckland. She was shortlisted for the Walters Prize earlier this year and Digital Marae was shortlisted for the 2009 Anne Landa Award in Australia, an acquisitional award for video and new media.

Govett-Brewster publications reflect the Gallery’s role in offering New Zealand artists opportunities for further exposure. They’ve proven valuable reference sources and an enduring record of the Gallery's diverse exhibitions programme. Forthcoming publications include the lavish new Len Lye (due in September) and Peter Robinson: Snow Ball Blind Time.

Digital Marae/Lisa Reihana is now available through the Govett-Brewster Art and Design Shop and at selected bookstores in New Zealand and Australia. The Digital Marae project was developed with generous support from Creative New Zealand

ENDS

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