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Download AudioThe director of the Govett Brewster Art Gallery says an exhibition drawn from the New Plymouth gallery’s collection of toi Māori is a chance to show the works in a new light.
Zara Stanhope says about 10 percent of the 237 artists represented in the collection are Maori, including Ralph Hotere, Lisa Reihana and Ngahina Hohaia.
Curator Taarati Taiaroa called the exhibition Te Hau Whakatonu, a Series of Never-Ending Beginnings, as a way to highlight the way they are part of a continuing conversation rather than being consigned to art history.
An example of this is a new work commissioned from Parihaka artist Ngahina Hohaia, He Ara Uru Ora, which reflects on Taranaki traditions and on the giant niu pole by Brett Graham which is also in the show.
“It’s a tower of feather in some ways, a circular tower, but there are many different layers to it. it’s based on waiata and histories as well but also she wants the message from that to be one of positivity and regeneration and how that’s connected with the maunga so an amazing work and we’re just so honoured to have that in the gallery,” Stanhope says.
The gallery is raising funds to buy the Brett Graham work, Cease Tide of Wrong-Doing.
Te Hau Whakatonu runs until February 2024.
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