Kā Kaupapa o te Wā
What’s On
Raymond McIntyre: A Modernist View
New exhibition now open.
Living Archives
Archives that tell stories about artists and history in Aotearoa
Whāia te Taniwha
Māori artists consider the enduring relevance of taniwha in Aotearoa.
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Ka tuwhera ki te 9pm i kā pō Wenerei
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Late night Wednesday until 9pm
Uruka utukore, ahokore utukore
Free entry, free wifi
Collection
Diane Prince Ka Whawhai Tonu Mātou
Diane Prince is a painter, weaver and installation artist who staunchly advocates for Māori rights, especially wāhine Māori. Ka Whawhai Tonu Mātou, meaning we will fight on, is based on her 2017 exhibition Cultural Incisions that included four judge’s wigs woven from muka, houhere, kuta and cotton with veils covering the face. In this series, Prince argues that the Aotearoa New Zealand legal system prioritises colonial ideas of justice, and she recalls how government policy and law were used to undermine and disadvantage Māori. Prince delivers a powerful political message with this work. Using kuta, a culturally significant wetland plant that is endangered, she reinforces the precious, fragile nature of our endemic flora.
wāhine Māori ~ Māori women
muka ~ prepared harakeke flax fibre
houhere ~ houi, hoheria, lacebark
kuta ~ tall spike sedge
He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil (from August 2024)
Collection
Francis Upritchard Eeling in the Ōtākaro
A sense of support and interconnectedness animates this work. It delighted Francis Upritchard to learn of two yōkai (or ‘strange apparitions’) from Japanese folklore known together as Ashinaga-Tenaga (Long Legs and Long Arms), ‘helper’ figures who symbolise harmonious working relationships. In her retelling, long-armed Tenaga-jin (手長人) sits on long-legged Ashinaga-jin’s (足長人) shoulders while they fish in deep water. Together, they do what they could never manage apart. They are tangled and bound by a pair of swimming tuna (eels) – like those living in the Ōtākaro Avon River that winds through Ōtautahi Christchurch.
(Dummies & Doppelgängers, 2 November 2024 – 23 March 2025)
Collection
Louis Auguste de Sainson Pl. 37. L'Anse de L'Astrolabe. (Nouvelle-Zélande) [Astrolabe Cove. (New Zealand)
Collection
![Pl. 52. Vue Intérieure du Pâ De Kahouwera (Nouvelle Zélande) [Interior View of the Pa of Kahouwera (New Zealand)]](/media/cache/29/e3/29e3b5ca12a75e91b89f38a4e081369d.jpg)
Louis Auguste de Sainson Pl. 52. Vue Intérieure du Pâ De Kahouwera (Nouvelle Zélande) [Interior View of the Pa of Kahouwera (New Zealand)]
Collection
![Pl. 45. Vue de L'Aiguade du Capne Cook, a Houahoua [View of the Watering Place of Captain Cook, à Houahoua]](/media/cache/ef/ac/efac937c1e331ec7f9abc343e1aa0a9b.jpg)
Louis Auguste de Sainson Pl. 45. Vue de L'Aiguade du Capne Cook, a Houahoua [View of the Watering Place of Captain Cook, à Houahoua]
Collection
![Pl. 46. Observatoire de L'Astrolabe. Dans l'une des Anses de Houa Houa [Lookout post of the Astrolabe. In one of the Coves of Houa Houa]](/media/cache/eb/e4/ebe4ee3d8d0801c7dd2678df775004fd.jpg)