The six-week screening series precedes the opening of 'Māori Girl', a new solo exhibition by Ōtepoti-based artist, Ayesha Green. 'Māori Girl' looks to a wider understanding of whanaungatanga in our contemporary context, asking what does whanaungatanga mean in a bicultural nation? This exhibition comprises of a series of paintings and sculptural installations, referencing directly he tangata—The interrelation and unity of friendship, whakapapa and place.
'Māori Girl' is an extension of Green’s whakapapa, the knots in human networks, of tales from her grandfather and physical representations of whanaungatanga, speaking of the politics of gifts, papatūānukutanga(1) and knowledge as reciprocity.
The title of this exhibition comes from the name of a whaling boat. Built in 1871 for Tame Parata and Parahu Tira for their Waikouaiti Whale Fishery Company it was donated to Toitū Otago Settlers Museum in 1932. Taking the boat inherent as a vessel we can draw metaphors about its personification. Conduits of blood and immaterial traits of self. Her action as a raft, her ability to float, to hold others above water, her noa giving life. Māori girl becomes the stage between the ocean and the sky. The works in 'Māori Girl' use this line of thought as a foundation to ideas of whanaungatanga, where the self becomes collapsible.
Ayesha Green (Kai Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu) is an artist based in Ōtepoti. She graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from Elam in 2013 and completed a Graduate Diploma in Museums and Cultural Heritage in 2016. Recent exhibitions include: (Un)Conditional, The Melbourne Art Fair, The Physics Room and The Suter Gallery (2018); Alma Venus, Corbans Estate Art Centre (2018); 2. The Spirit of the Thing Given (Māori), RM Gallery (2017); Biographies of Transition, To Busy to Think, Artspace (2017).
(1) Emilie Rākete, “In Human: Posthuman, Parasites and Papatūānuku,” in The documenta 14 reader (Munich: Prestel, 2017)
