New Exhibition At Hastings Art Gallery Examines Realities Of ‘Working The Land’

The latest exhibition at Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga – Hastings Art Gallery explores New Zealand’s complicated relationship with agriculture.

What thrives on these soils recently opened and will run until 26 July. It features the work of Abigail Aroha Jensen, Yuki Kihara, Darcy Lange, Jimmy Ma’ia’i, George Watson and Daegan Wells.

Their artworks reflect on the experiences of workers and the economies of working-class towns like Heretaunga Hastings—communities which are often shaped by farming industries.

The marketing slogan of Hawke’s Bay ‘Great things grow here’ promotes opportunities for investment, industry and personal success. The artists in this exhibition complicate this narrative and explore growth, prosperity and working conditions, looking at the question of ‘who’ thrives and what it means to do so.

The exhibition features a video by the late Darcy Lange – filmed in 1974, following tangata whenua sheep farmers in Ruatōria, north of Tūranganui-a-Kiwa Gisborne. Lange was one of the first video artists use the ‘long-take’ technique. This is the first time the video has been shown in the Eastern North Island.

Yuki Kihara represented New Zealand at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022 and her work can be found in 30 permanent collections across the globe. Her photographs in What thrives on these soils, originally produced for MTG Hawke’s Bay in Ahuriri Napier, explore different histories of connection between Hawke’s Bay and Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, the Pacific Ocean, and weave together some of the stories of agricultural workers in Hawke’s Bay.

Other artworks in the exhibition offer different lenses – Jimmy Ma’ia’i works across textiles and installation, exploring the flows of labour and resources between Aotearoa and the Pacific Islands. Abigail Aroha Jensen uses sound and mixed media to explore the legacy of the Tokomaru Bay Freezing Works. Daegan Wells looks at the legacy of wool and George Watson considers the ideological nature of Māori and Pākehā architectures, drawing from the pastoral landscapes of Tairāwhiti.

“What thrives on these soils responds to Te Matau-a-Māui as a food producing region, and a place of ‘growth’ – both physical and economic,” Gallery Director and curator of the exhibition Sophie Davis says.

“This exhibition gathers artists researching and practising across the motu, from Tāmaki Makaurau to Tairāwhiti to the deep south of Colac Bay, to longstanding connections within Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa. The artworks in the exhibition connect us to wider conversations, and delve into stories that are highly relevant to the Heretaunga-Hastings community.”

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