The Mirror Mama Project

The Mirror Mama Project

Image and Weaving: Lemlem Hebtemriam-Kifle

Exhibition: March 2 - 21
MAU Gallery
Corban Estate, 426 Great North Road
Henderson, Waitakere
www.mau.co.nz

Azita Kusari – Kurdistan, Teuke Malaga – Tuvalu, Sefuiva Saifoloi – Samoa, Kimi Hakaoro - Cook Islands, Lemlem Hebtemriam-Kifle - Eritrea, Rachel Cabire – Congo, Fatima Bulhan- Sed – Somalia, Delicia Sampero – Germany, Judy Cooper-Aotearoa, Tiana Epati – Samoa.

THE MIRROR MAMA PROJECT is a collaborative effort between the artist Delicia Sampero, Pacific Mamas and Refugee Mamas from Africa and the Middle East and is due to open with an exhibition at the MAU Gallery, Corbans Art Estate Waitakere from the 2-21 March 2009.

The exhibition involves large-scale portraits of these pacific and refugee women painted by Delicia Sampero placed together with material arrangements created by the mamas. bringing together their tapa, weavings, tivaevae, and body ornamentation from the pacific as well as Arab calligraphy, beadwork and African weaving and embroidery.

These material pictures are symbolic "self-portraits" -arrangements of material culture to represent an aspect of self-reflection and a celebration of culture and heritage.

Delicia has worked closely with these women over several months and found that although they were from vastly different backgrounds there were strong points of engagement / connections through their crafts and their being mothers and grandmothers.

The Incentive of THE MIRROR MAMA PROJECT is to give attention to the mamas as examples of artists who live what they teach- it is not just what they make it is a whole culture of being that comes with it.

DELICIA SAMPERO
Delicia has held solo exhibitions all over the world since 1987- and has been showing at Oedipus Rex Gallery in Auckland annually since 1997. The German born artist immigrated to New Zealand with her family when she was just 14 and her training and inspiration have been informed by her upbringing, travel and interests in the performing arts and her involvement with MAU.

PACIFICA MAMAS'
The Pacifica Mama's in this project are hailed as matriarchs of the pacific. The group was formed by Waitakere City Council’s Pacific Arts Advocate Mary Ama who over the past 10 years has organized the team at events around the country. The mama’s main project is passing on skills of weaving, lei making, storytelling and music & dance to groups of school children. They operate from the Waitakere Pacific Arts & Cultural Centre at Corban Estate in Henderson.

REFUGEE MAMAS'
These women have survived hardship and adversity in their homeland to build a new life in New Zealand. Often they have difficulty with learning to live in a completely foreign land where the language and customs are vastly different to what they know. Working on THE MIRROR MAMA PROJECT has helped them to reconnect with crafts from their places of origin, reflect on what is important to them and build their self-confidence.

THE MIRROR MAMA PROJECT is being presented as part of the MAU Forum - that is being curated with the guiding vision of “The Perception of Truth and Beauty." The time consuming, ancient arts of the mamas, together with life's journeys mapped on their mature faces, accompanied by biographies and some personal text should be a potent package to meditate on such a notion.

MAU Gallery
Corban Estate, 426 Great North Road
Henderson, Waitakere
www.mau.co.nz

ENDS

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