Issue 19 Exhibitions Ōtautahi www.artbeat.org.nz July 2020 Galleries Christchurch Studios Waitaha Street Art Canterbury Art in Public Places ARTBEAT In this issue: Te Wheke 01 Art of Protest 02 News, Events & Workshops 02 At the Galleries 03 Discover Map 04 Reviews 06 Te Wheke Pathways Across Oceania. Our Public Art Collection but not as we once knew It Polynesia and the Pacific region, and migra- tion and belonging are allocated centre-stage in Te Wheke Pathways Across Oceania, an exhibition that draws from works in the Christ- church Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū collec- tion. It is exciting and enlightening experience developed by the Gallery’s curators in consul- tation with curator of Cook Islands heritage, Stephanie Oberg. Yet, in many ways Te Wheke Pathways Across Oceania is not entirely unanticipated or without precedent. Since its reopening in December 2015 the Gallery’s perma- ↑ Aotearoa New Zealand, the Christchurch Art but wide knowledge and a different perspec- nent collection has assumed a new-found contemporary. Milburn comments: ‘We really John Pule Not life, rediscovered by its curatorial team who wanted to re-imagine the Gallery’s spaces of This Time Gallery’s had its origins in European works, tive.She helped us to look outside more tradi- seem committed and excited about new and we were also keen to bring in different (Dreamland), particularly British works. The narrative of tional art histories and we found that really ways of thinking about and experiencing perspectives. We were especially conscious 2008. Oil on how those connections shaped our art history valuable.’ canvas. Collec- Te Wheke favourite works. that Māori and Pasifika artists’ work was tion of Christ- and subsequently led to the development of The new, central entrance to Lead curator Felicity Milburn acknowl- under-represented in the collection and church Art a New Zealand style has been told often, and Pathways Across Oceania takes the gallery edges that like previous re-hangs of the we really wanted to address that. Te Wheke Gallery Te Puna we have frequently told it here from a Canter- visitor into a space titled Hawaiki Tautau Te Wheke Pathways Across o Waiwhetū, Atu, Hawaiki Tautau Mai: A Distance Draws collection, became a catalyst for increasing that diversity purchased 2019 bury perspective, with regard to artists like Oceania is about doing something that feels through some really important acquisitions.’ Rita Angus.’ Near. It’s a beginning that Milburn says is very quite different. Gallery director Blair Jackson Throughout this process, Milburn was ‘It’s not the only story we can tell much about honouring ancestral Polynesian gave the curatorial team (Milburn, Ken Hall, aware of the tension between the desire of though, and for Te Wheke we wanted to see homelands and early migrations across the Nathan Pohio, Peter Vangioni and former many Gallery visitors to see change and expe- what would happen when we looked at the Pacific: ‘Migration and a sense of belonging Head Curator Lara Strongman) the chal- rience new works in the collection and the collection from another perspective, starting are themes that occur right across the exhibi- lenge of addressing and rethinking what had expectation of others to see familiar works where we actually are, here in the Pacific. tion. What you bring with you when you travel become a familiar experience of viewing the – “old friends” that they wish to come back How could art help us make connections from one place to another, what you leave collection, beginning with its historical Euro- to. ‘It is always a challenge to do both those right across Oceania?’ behind. What you create when you get here. pean works and working your way towards the things at once. Like most public collections in ‘Over the last few years, we’ve tried hard Many of the artists in this show are creating to unpick some of those very linear narratives hybrid forms that couldn’t have been made about New Zealand art history. For example, anywhere else but in Aotearoa New Zealand ‘ we’ve done that in relation to gender, reinsert- ‘One of the things that was important to ing female artists who played an important our thinking around the show was acknowl- part in the development of our art history, but edging that the Western concept of a separa- have been overlooked in its retelling, perhaps tion between past and present that can exist to make a more cohesive story. When histo- in a Western experience of the world isn’t ries are simplified or considered from only necessarily part of the Māori or Pasifika world one perspective, you can lose a lot. For Te view. Instead, the past walks with you in the Wheke Pathways Across Oceania we wanted present. That’s something artists make real not only to feature those new works, but to all the time,when their works connect past incorporate familiar works people expect to and present on an equal plane – and some see by presenting them in a different context.’ works in Te Wheke do that really explicitly. ‘Like most public art galleries in New ‘We are the Small Axe is a major new Zealand, we don’t have a strong collection acquisition, a huge collaborative bark cloth of customary Māori and Pacific art – tradi- work by Robin White (Aotearoa New Zealand tionally that has been collected by muse- (Ngāti Awa) /Kiribati) and Ruha Fifita (Tonga/ ums, which in itself reflected the attitudes of Aotearoa New Zealand). We are all pinching the time. We saw real value in undercutting ourselves, it’s amazing to have this work in that artificial separation by juxtaposing the Christchurch and in the collection. Robin, a contemporary with the customary. We’ve New Zealand artist of Māori and Pakeha heri- needed the support of private collectors and tage went to Kiribati in the early 1980s where institutions like Canterbury Museum to help she pursued her own arts practice, but was ← us do that by generously lending some very also interested in the art making being done in Grace Ngaputa significant pieces. the villages, particularly by groups of women Pera Matirita [chrysanthe- We were very lucky to be able to work with working together. That’s something that has mum] c.1958. Stephanie Oberg on the exhibition’s concep- continued over her practice in a range of Tivaivaitataura. tual development, configuration and interpre- places around the Pacific. Collection of Pera family, tation. She brought not only her connections Christchurch with Pacific communities within Christchurch, Continues on page 3 Artbeat Issue 19, July 2020 01 The Art of Protest writer Reuben Woods As protests have spread across the United calls for action (“Defund the Police”), civil ↑ here in Christchurch, messages such as increasingly, street art as it is framed so Messages in States and the globe in response to the death rights iconography, such as the raised fist support of the ‘George Floyd Rest in Power,’ and ‘All Power often by now has for many become about the of George Floyd and the long history of police symbol, and portraits of victims of police current protests to th[e] People’ have been sprayed on walls. shiny, and ultimately palatable, act of beau- brutality against black lives, there has been a brutality. But perhaps most reflective of the sparked by In the wake of the earthquakes and the tification, even when conveying an import- the death of notable visual aspect alongside the crowds urgency and anger of the protests has been George Floyd March Terror Attacks, messages of a simi- ant message. Of course, the relationship of people: the art of protest. While there have the graffiti marking protest sites. Rather appeared in lar nature appeared, voices of dissent in between muralism and gentrification has been a number of legally produced projects, than the identity-centric hieroglyphic tags Christchurch, times of upheaval. The tactical use of graf- been a discussion point for some time, but such as this such as the memorial mural painted at the or dynamic pieces, this graffiti has been one on Colom- fiti in such a way recognises the potential of now it seems even more important. Murals site of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, concerned with legible political declarations bo Street in the writing on walls to endure beyond the dissi- can raise meaningful issues, but their means Minnesota, and the giant yellow text painted over style and aesthetics. central city. pation of vocal cries, as well as the need to of production often place them in a compro- directly upon the newly named Black Lives In various scenes, backdrops have disrupt deeply entrenched systemic issues mised position, especially in relation to the Matter Plaza in Washington DC, guerrilla been covered with slogans such as ‘Black by attacking the façade of their control. In direct discourse of wall writing. Sometimes it graffiti and street art interventions have Lives Matter’, ‘ACAB’, ‘RIP George Floyd,’ stereo, the chants, signs and graffiti form a takes a jarring urgency of voice, as an image also appeared in streets around the world, ‘Say Her Name: Breonna Taylor’, and more, swelling voice, refusing to be ignored. of graffiti recently posted by international including a train painted with graffiti reading creating iconic images that capture the Graffiti and street art have always had street art festival Nuart that declared: ‘We ‘Please, I Can’t Breathe’ by the 1UP crew. In poignancy of this time in history. The plinths the potential to make meaningful state- want change, not a ‘mural’’. addition, in a more immediate accompani- of monuments, many with ties to the injus- ments, either specifically, or through their ment to the protests, alongside the physi- tice of colonialism and slavery, have been method of intervention, questioning public cal presence of chanting bodies calling for transformed by layers of paint, a reminder and private space and declaring presence change, placards and banners have featured of the potential to change the world.