Waiheke Art Gallery Announces New Exhibit

PRESS RELEASE

Te Iti Kahurangi

The Most Precious One

Waiheke Community Art Gallery

Opening Friday November 20 at 6pm to December 14 2009

Click to enlarge Featured carving by the late Bob Stewart.

When Maori first saw the green glass bottles the colonials had brought with them they compared them to Kahurangi, the purest form of translucent Greenstone…This ‘moment’ inspires the curatorial trajectory for this contemporary Pounamu/Glass exhibition curated by Lyndal Jefferies. The passing of time since this ‘moment’ has seen great change in our post-colonial outpost and Lyndal has invited artists of our time to create artworks which comment on our present culture.

From a pate de verre shipwreck of the Battle of the Boyd by Lee Brogan, to a floor to ceiling poem titled ‘Letter to Captain Cook’ by Jacqueline Carter. These contemporary artists raise their voices to express their concerns about New Zealand’s colonial history; a history of ‘collecting’ land, resources, flora and fauna often to extinction. A history which has irrevocably reshaped Aotearoa to the land of this present day, where now we must share this place and collectively process the colonial legacy, including the loss of our great forests, the Huia and so many lives, as it says in the poem, "for a bottle and/or a blanket".

The exhibition design involves the use of Victorian wallpaper, colonial furniture and museum cabinets. Carmen Simmonds’ cast glass Doily Dress will sit on a Singer sewing machine table circa 1900, a curved glass china cabinet will house taonga carved from Obsidian by Waiheke artist Toi te Rangiuaia. Potion Bottles created by Jim and Leanne Dennison adorn a mirrored dressing table. Premier South Island Pounamu carvers Ian Boustridge, Paul Bradford, Rhys Hall and Dallas Crombie have all created new works for the show which comment on everything from the collision of cultures, Plate Tectonics and weathering by wind and water. Their work will be exhibited alongside two major works by master carver Bob Stewart, who sadly passed away last year; this exhibition is in dedication and honour of this artist, who truly understood these issues.

Here on Waiheke Island, the weight of our colonial history can be deeply felt. Our island was once covered in great Kauri forests which were harvested for ships spars, some measuring up to 100ft in height. Land was traded with Local Maori for tobacco, blankets, axes and muskets and with the musket came the slaughter of local Iwi by marauding tribes. Early colonial settlers endured severe isolation, Waiheke’s colonial women had to be incredibly skilled in everything from making butter, to home schooling and growing crops. This exhibition highlights our local history through the collection of green glass bottles on loan from the Waiheke Historical Society and Andy Spence, the Ranger at Whakenewha Regional Park. In this exhibition we are also delighted) to have a new photographic series by premier New Zealand Photographer Fiona Pardington of the Whakenewha Hei Tiki , which was discovered here on Waiheke Island in 1924.

It is envisaged this exhibition will be the outstanding feature of the Waiheke Art Gallery’s summer program, a time when Waiheke enjoys huge visitor numbers from both within New Zealand and from overseas. Obsidian Vineyard have sponsored the exhibition as have Resene Waiheke. It is planned that the exhibition will tour to several other galleries in 2010.

Whaia e koe ki te iti kahurangi, ki te tuohu koe, me maunga teitei

Seek the treasure you value most dearly, if you bow your head, let it be to a lofty mountain

ENDS

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