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Te Wheke celebrates Ōtautahi Christchurch’s place in the Pacific
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An immersive exhibition that explores art through our connections with the Pacific will be unveiled at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū on 30 May.
Developed by the Gallery’s curators in collaboration with Stephanie Oberg, an independent writer and curator of Cook Islands heritage, Te Wheke: Pathways Across Oceania brings together a bold and exciting mix of traditional and contemporary art forms, including tivaevae, raranga (weaving), whakairo (carving), painting, works on paper, video, sculpture, photography and installation art.
At the heart of the exhibition is Christchurch’s public collection, including spectacular new acquisitions displayed for the first time. They are complemented by key loans of taonga from significant collections around Aotearoa New Zealand.
Exploring themes of navigation, belonging and identity, the exhibition’s title refers to the adventurous, resilient Pacific octopus (te Wheke in te reo Māori), a symbol of early voyages of exploration from the Polynesian homelands of Hawaiki.
“We’ve often viewed art, and our collection, through the lens of our ties to Europe and Western art history”, says lead curator Felicity Milburn, “but we wanted to try a new perspective – from Moana-nui-a-kiwa (the Pacific Ocean) outwards.
“Te Wheke offers a way to think about how we are linked across time and place. It’s a rich and exciting viewing experience that reaches back to the Pacific, and also out into the world beyond it, strengthening old connections and finding new ones.
“These works tell many different stories – they’re beautiful, complicated and sometimes confronting. We’ve tried to open up space for conversations about the relationships and tensions that shape our past, present and future.”
Te Wheke also reveals the Pacific Ocean as a place of both vulnerability and resistance, threatened by natural forces like earthquakes and tsunami, as well as harm caused through human actions, such as colonisation, climate change and environmental exploitation.
Te Wheke is free to the public and runs for two years, with multiple change-outs adding new works and perspectives. It is accompanied by a catalogue (available from the Gallery’s Design Store from April) and an exciting programme of talks, a children’s activity trail, making workshops, artist interventions, a family fun day and a not-to-be-missed performance by the acclaimed Pacific Sisters collective.
Te Wheke: Pathways across Oceania is free to the public and runs for two years, with multiple change-outs adding new works and perspectives. It is accompanied by a catalogue (available from the Gallery’s Design Store) and an exciting programme of talks, activities and workshops.
Related reading: Te Wheke
Exhibition
Te Wheke: Pathways Across Oceania
30 May 2020 – 3 July 2022
Experience the Gallery’s collection from the perspective of our place in Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, the Pacific Ocean.
Collection
Angela Tiatia Lick
With Lick, Angela Tiatia presents a balancing act between resistance and vulnerability. Filmed in Tuvalu, a South Pacific nation endangered by rising sea levels because of global warming, it shows how environmental, political and cultural issues can intersect.Because of the actions (and inaction) of much larger nations, Tuvaluans face losing their homeland and irreplaceable aspects of their culture within the next fifty years. As Tiatia fights to hold her position on a small piece of coral, we glimpse her malu – a traditional leg tattoo and adornment specific to Samoan women – through the shifting water. Associated with cultural responsibilities, sheltering and protection, the malu emphasises both Tiatia’s Oceanic heritage and the need to protect its people and their way of life.
(Te Wheke, 2020)
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Massive wall painting marks opening of Te Wheke at Christchurch Art Gallery
A 36-metre painting by artist Kelcy Taratoa is part of a new exhibition opening at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū on Saturday.
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He Toka Tū Moana
The Māori whakataukī or proverb “He toka tū moana” uses the image of a rock that stands firmly in the ocean to describe someone steadfast and strong in their culture or beliefs, who defies all opposition.
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Puta Noa I Te Ao / In the World
Artists from Aotearoa New Zealand are often well-travelled. Feeling the distance of Aotearoa from the world’s centres of art, they have often been drawn overseas to study and work, contributing to the art history of their adopted countries as well as this one.
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He Ara / Pathways
Aotearoa New Zealand is part of a submerged Pacific continent, which broke away from the Gondwana supercontinent millions of years ago to create two major islands – Te Ika a Māui / the North Island and Te Waipounamu / the South Island.
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Paerangi / The Fold in the Sky
The connection between land and sky is important in te ao Māori. In Māori creation, Papatūānuku (the earth mother) was separated from Ranginui (the sky father) by their children, creating Te Ao Mārama, the world of light.
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I Tawhiti Ra Ano / From Distant Shores
The islands of Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa / the Pacific were settled by remarkable ocean voyagers over many thousands of years. Aotearoa New Zealand was peopled through major waves of migration from the 1200s and later the mid-1800s. The seas of Oceania are like vast pathways; ever-present reminders of distant shores.
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Ko Enei Tauira Ataahua / These Beautiful Patterns
From a present-day perspective, the appropriation of customary Māori art forms and practice by Pākehā artists can be disconcerting, a more-than-awkward crossing of cultural lines.
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Kanohi Ki Te Kanohi / Face To Face
In te ao Māori, portraiture can encompass rangatiratanga (stewardship), whanaungatanga (kinship or connectedness), manaakitanga (kindness towards others) and whakapapa (ancestral genealogy). A sense of wairua (the spirit of a person) also resonates within these treasured portraits.
