July 20, 2016
Ancestor guides art prize entry
The creator of a striking billboard on display outside Auckland Art Galley Toi o Tamaki says he needed to find connections between Christchurch and Auckland before allowing it to be shown there.
Nathan Pohio created Raise the anchor . . . for last year’s Scape public art festival in Christchurch, and it’s been picked up for the Walter’s Prize, the country’s largest contemporary art prize.
It uses a photograph taken in 1905 of rangatira mounted on horseback escorting new governor general Lord Plunket and his wife through the city to be welcomed on to Tuahiwi Marae.
Pohio says it’s a statement about the place the Ngai Tuahuriri hapu should play in the rebuilt Christchurch, but it also refers to their manaakitangi role feeding settlers, similar to the role Ngati Whatua and other tribes played in Tamaki Makaurau.
A portrait of one of the Tuahuriri ancestors by Gottfried Lindauer is already in the gallery’s collection.
"I kind of see the work coming up to TamkiMakaurau to tautoko our rangatira Hapuka Te Ata O Tu and so I asked the art gallery to hand this portrait for the duration as a part of my work, that the two works are able to talk to each other," Pohio says.
The Walters Prize is on show until October and entry is free.
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