The exhibition title, In Te Pō there are many beginnings, is a mihi to an early painting by artist and educator Kura Te Waru Rewiri (Ngāti Kahu, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kauwhata, Ngāti Rangi). As kaiako and mentor to Saffronn Te Ratana (Ngāi Tūhoe) and Ngataiharuru Taepa (Te Āti Awa, Te Arawa), the artists remain grateful and inspired by this mana wāhine and her practice.
The kaupapa of this phrase has stayed with Te Ratana and Taepa and carried forward into their respective making, which likewise hinges on “the connected nature of everything”. Te Pō refers to the perpetual darkness and realm of potential that preceded the emergence of Te Ao Mārama or the world of light, and the subsequent celestial pathways or Tātai Arorangi within Māori cosmology. Taepa recently attended an international hui on indigenous knowledge with a focus on Mycelium (a root-like fungi composed of a network of strands) that allows communication and nutrient sharing between plants. “We talked about the spaces of knowing and the spaces of not knowing”, says Taepa. “It’s in the unknown that you discover things, that things emerge. Unlike some cultures that see darkness as emptiness and something to fear, Māori see it as full of possibilities ... We all start in the dark in our mother’s womb.”
Taepa, renowned for sculpted works that reimagine traditional kōwhaiwhai patterns through contemporary methods and materials, is fascinated by the way this visual language of kōwhaiwhai has always expressed the relationship between cosmology and genealogy. Giving form to nature and whakapapa, kōwhaiwhai were originally located on the rafters of the wharenui — physically connecting the sky above to the earth below and the realm beyond. This exhibition features Taepa’s kōwhaiwhai derived from celestial pathways as expressed in karakia — together in kōrero with Te Ratana’s own lexicon of birds, trees, stars, and kete made from a variety of materials.
With a practice grounded in tikanga Māori, Te Ratana draws upon Ngāi Tūhoe concepts, pūrākau, and colours to subvert assumptions around painting and create a three-dimensional experience for the viewer. So, while Taepa’s work reflects the budding phases of emergent life within Te Pō, Te Ratana's forms and structures manifest this potential in full bloom, guided by phases of the moon and the ever-changing seasons. “Important to the transitions found in Te Pō is mauri, action and reaction, movement and fusion, all things that make up the Takapau Whariki (woven mat of life). In these works, Poi becomes an action of weaving together sound and time, star constellations become a gathering of light, together recalling frequencies that are ever-present in life itself, says Te Ratana.
As partners in both life and art — who have together grown extraordinary artistic practices, tamariki, and whānau— they have created a series of works that organically entwine and generate a visual dialogue, with some of Taepa’s carved works even offering up little kohanga for Te Ratana’s auaha to nestle inside.
Saffronn Te Ratana (b.1975 Palmerston, Ngāi Tūhoe) studiedat Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland before earning a Bachelor of Māori Visual Arts and Masters of Māori Visual Arts from Massey University. Te Ratana recently presented a large-scale installation for the Sharjah Biennial in the United Arab Emirates. Public exhibitions include Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki; Five Māori Painters at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki; Purangiaho: Ka kata te po at Te Manawa Art Gallery; Seeing Clearly at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki; and Taiāwhio: Continuity and Change at Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand.
Ngataiharuru Taepa (b.1976 Te Whanganui-a-Tara / Te Āti Awa, Te Arawa) completed his Masters in Māori Visual Arts at Massey University where he is Associate Professor in Māori Arts and teaches wananga on Te Rau Karamu Marae. As well as Toi Māori, Taepa is involved with the revitalisation of Māori ceremonial practices and Māori astronomy with Puharikiriki and Tai-o-Rongo. He was recently appointed to the Te Māori Taonga Trust and advocates for Toi Māori as an important contributor to Aotearoa/New Zealand society. Taepa has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally and is represented in significant collections including Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, and Auckland War Memorial Museum.
