Ahuru Mowai a glimpse into an artist’s journey

FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 2009

Press-Release: For Immediate Release
Visual Arts Debut in the Fringe Festival 2009:
Ahuru Mowai a glimpse into an artist’s philosophical journey.

Zooni (aka Giselle Stanton) is back home in New Zealand after spending five years working and travelling overseas and will launch the first solo show in New Zealand as part of the New Zealand Fringe Festival 2009 at Thistle hall from 17-22 February 2009, open daily from 10am- 6pm.

Ahuru Mowai is set to throw a new spin on conventional visual art shows being a feast for the conceptual mind with theories of Darwin’s evolution, Linneaus’ taxonomy, cultural migration, and Freudian psychology to mention a few of the topics that are evident in Zooni’s paintings. Zooni uses abstraction and mixed media on canvas, wooden museum specimen boxes and recycled coffee sacks to create a colourful and thought provoking exhibition.

Zooni says: “Ahuru mowai for me is the most sacred and sheltered of all spaces, that is the mind. This show is a glimpse into a personal journey exploring the philosophical influences that guide my life and shapes my idea of the self.”

Zooni made a conscious decision not to go to Art school when leaving school. Instead Zooni has been driven to learn about human nature in a social anthropology degree and knowledge generation in a career within the museum sector. These topics continue to drive Zooni’s paintings. The decision to be self taught for Zooni was a way of protecting painting as a personal meditation a way of processing the world and further defining a unique position within it.

Zooni currently works at Te Papa and has an interesting cultural background, born in Australia, raised in New Zealand with a mix of Scottish, French and South African-Indian mixed ethnicity, its no wonder the drive to explore such deep philosophical themes is prevalent in her work.. Zooni has embraced a global identity as a perspective that draws on the eastern philosophies of the east as well as the western philosophers of Europe.

Don’t miss this opportunity to see this unique solo show. Open daily from 10am-6pm at Thistle hall 17-22 February 2009.

ENDS

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