April 19, 2024
Iti art blends protest and happening
Arts Foundation laureate Tame Iti is stomping the country sharing his story about how art and activism can come together.
Foundation manager Jessica Palalagi says it’s for an initiative All in for Art; He waka toi e eke noa nei tatou, aimed at fostering the arts at community level.
She says about 200 people turned up for a breakfast in Rotorua last week to hear his korero.
“He went back into his back catalogue and talked about all these performance art pieces he had done, setting cars on fire. That’s part of a wider art history movement, happenings. I think even though he’s been on his own journey, a lot of his art practice has probably tied into lots of international and global movements that have happened. But I really loved that actually his whole way of moving through the world is like an art form,” Ms Palalagi says.
The last two stops for He waka toi are Whanganui on April 20 and Wellington on May 2.