Exhibitions
Events
On display
Te Tihi o Kahukura and Sky, I by Bill Sutton
William Sutton Te Tihi o Kahukura and Sky, I 1976 Oil on canvas. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 1980
Art Bite
Past event
Meet in the exhibition
Free
Join public programmes coordinator Amy Marr as she discusses Bill Sutton's Te Tihi o Kahukura and Sky, I on the first floor.
Art Bites are 30-minute lunchtime presentations on a single work on display, presented by our staff, guides and guest speakers.
There's a new Art Bite to enjoy each Friday at 12.30pm.
Related reading: Free event
Exhibition
Te Tihi o Kahukura: The Citadel of Kahukura
18 February 2017 – 18 February 2018
Selected works by Bill Sutton considered from a Kāi Tahu perspective.
Collection
Bill Sutton Te Tihi o Kahukura and Sky, I
This painting by Bill Sutton expands our view of a familiar site on Christchurch’s Port Hills, encouraging the viewer to consider what mysteries may have been present before the arrival of Māori tangata whenua, the people of the land. Te Tihi o Kahukura, or the Citadel of Kahukura, is the first name of Castle Rock, the foregrounded point at the left of the painting. The extended Māori name translates as ‘the Citadel of the Rainbow God (and a) sky full of boiling clouds roaring around all over the place’. According to Kāi Tahu tradition, Kahukura is the atua, or god, who clothed the land; Kahukura later transformed to become the atua of rainbows. Here, Sutton’s interest in landscape, light and colour is applied to a location of significance for Māori. There is an intimacy in the site for Sutton, as he was able to see it “from my upstairs back-landing window”. Sutton’s house remains in what is now known as ‘the red zone’, an earthquake-battered place of an undetermined future.
(Te Tihi o Kahukura: The Citadel of Kahukura, 18 Februay 2017 - 18 May 2018)
