Massey Grads make tradition relevant

Graduates from the Massey University, School of Maori Visual Arts make tradition relevant

Urban street and contemporary culture meets customary Maori tradition in a new exhibition of graduates from Massey University’s School of Maori Visual Arts showing at Bartley and Company Art in Wellington until 8 May.

‘Tuku iho’ features a diverse range of artwork including graffiti painting, photography, cast bronze and multi-media objects by four recent graduates: Reweti Arapere, Erena Baker, Liz Grant and Kylie Tiuka

The notion of tuku iho – taonga passed down through the generations – is central to the rationale or kaupapa of the School of Maori Visual Arts at Massey University. It is an expansive concept, which embraces the innovations afforded by changing times and technology. As Maori in the east of the north island in the second half of the 19th century, responded to the range of paints brought by the settlers and developed a new style of figurative painting for their meeting houses, so today young Maori artists who have chosen to study Maori visual arts look for new ways of expressing timeless ideas and values. Tradition and innovation are thus at the heart of this exhibition.

The work of all four artists engages with the meeting house and speaks to the use of carving, of the decorative patterns kowhaiwhai, figurative painting and photography on the marae. The exhibition draws on work the students produced for the Masters degrees.

Rewete Arapere (Ngāti Raukawa, Tuwharetoa) brings together traditional carved poupou (ancestral figures) and contemporary urban graffiti and stencil art in paintings which he says are about making customary stories relevant to today.

Erena Baker (Ngati Toa Rangatira, Te Atiawa ki Whakarongotai, Ngati Raukawa) is a photographer whose practice is based on the way Maori have woven photography into the framework of Maori custom and ritual.

Liz Grant (Ngati Raukawa and Ngati Huri) draws on her background as a biological illustrator to create finely detailed creates bronze sculptures of native plants which play with the intersection of two and three dimensional forms and effectively operate as paintings and reference the plant forms depicted in some 19th century meeting houses

Kylie Tiuka (Tūhoe) is a painter who, for her Masters and this exhibition, has created whimsical objects that give contemporary expression her Tuhoe identity. Her diamond forms reference Te Kooti – a significant figure in Tuhoe history – the surface imagery links to painted artwork and stories associated with her own meeting house.

Tuku iho: Reweti Arapere, Erena Baker, Elizabeth Grant & Kylie Tiuka
8 April – 8 May 2010

ENDS

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