Hey māmā, come play with me Turumeke Harrington
Exhibition Preview: Wednesday 20 February, 5.30pm
Exhibition Runs: 21 February – 31 March 2019
In Hey māmā, come play with me Turumeke Harrington has made an installation-come-playground in order to engage audiences in small moments of respite
from daily life. In creating the exhibition, Harrington is also working towards understanding and validating her own
art-making process, posing the question ‘What makes something right?’ Drawing on a range of disciplines, knowledge systems, and personal beliefs, where each has its own priorities and
values, this question becomes difficult to approach. In this respect, the playground becomes a testing ground for the
limits of these various parameters.
Working at the intersection between design and art, and utilising a material vernacular familiar with play and our
everyday: rope, steel, and rubber, Harrington explores ideas of craft and whakapapa in contemporary Māori practice.
These newly created objects, which, for the purpose of exhibition are placed into conversation with one another, are
essentially distinct but modular things. Each was borne out of a specific need—a problem to be solved. However, when
existing semi-passively in the gallery they become dysfunctional and could perhaps be described as failed design (and
therefore descend into the realm of art).
In this context, the question of ‘rightness’ becomes almost pointless. Rather, Harrington considers the lifespan of an
artwork as a measure for success; where do works go to die? Can they have another life? After this exhibition it is
highly likely that these pieces of art, these industrial objects, these playthings will be repurposed in the home to
gratefully fulfil more pressing needs.
Turumeke Harrington (Ngāi Tahu) is an installation and sculpture-focused artist with a background in fine arts and
industrial design. She graduated with a BFA (Hons) from Ilam School of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury in
2018. Turumeke lives with her young daughter between Ōhinehau / Lyttelton and Pōneke/ Wellington.
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Current exhibition:
Megan Brady and Oliver Perkins
Exhibition preview: 5:30pm Wednesday 16 January 2019
Exhibition runs: 17 January - 16 February 2019
With special thanks to Dunlop Foam and Resene Paints for their material support of this exhibition.
The Physics Room is generously supported by Creative NZ, Christchurch City Council, The Rata Foundation, Three Boys
Brewery, Signtech, Resene Paints, and The Crater Rim.
ends