Front Page of the Art World: What’s Hot & What’s Not — 23 June 2022
Matariki is around the corner in Aotearoa NZ ✨ a time for recharging, celebrating and storytelling
Aotearoa New Zealand is celebrate Matariki this weekend. This year, for the very first time, we are celebrating the festival as an official public holiday.
This issue of the ArtCafé Blog is dedicated to the community as we come together to recharge, celebrate and tell stories.
What is Matariki?
Matariki is a star cluster known around the world by many names, most commonly Pleiades. Its appearance in midwinter signals the Māori New Year/ Te Mātahi o te Tau. Although the exact date changes, it usually rises in June or July for a three-week period.
Māori astronomer Dr Rangi Mātāmua was part of the advisory group and a driving force behind it becoming an official holiday.
"Matariki's about bringing people together for unity, for identity. There isn't a single person living in Aotearoa who does not descend from ancestors who used the stars to navigate, to tell time, to plant, to harvest.”
What is the significance of each star?
Matariki: The central and biggest star of them all, and the mother of the cluster. Matariki is the star that signifies reflection, hope, our connection to the environment, and the gathering of people. Matariki is also connected to the health and wellbeing of people.
Pōhutukawa: Many Māori believe that this is the star which guides the dead across the night sky. When the cluster returns to the horizon just before the sunrises, the dead of the year make their final journey into the sky. They then become stars in the sky for eternity.
Tupuānuku: It means to grow in the ground, and is connected to all of the kai/produce which we get from the ground.
Tupuārangi: The star that's connected to the forest - to bird life, and the harvesting of food products grown in trees or above the ground such as fruit.
Waitī: Fresh water. It's the star that is linked to fresh water and all the creatures that live in the rivers, the streams and the lakes - particularly eels. Waitā is salt water and is linked to the moana, and the many kinds of food that can be gathered from the sea.
Waipuna-ā-rangi: Water from the sky. It will determine whether there will be a drought, or an abundance of rain for that season.
Ururangi: Linked to the winds. Māori have hundreds of names for different winds.
Hiwa-i-te-rangi: The youngest star in the cluster. This is the star where we can send our wishes, hopes and dreams for the year.
Read more here: Matariki: Our guide to a new Aotearoa (RNZ)
It may be the shortest day, but it will also be the brightest night!
Here is a roundup of the celebrations happening around the country:
What's happening around Aotearoa for Matariki in 2022 (Stuff)
Matariki special XR Exhibition: Awaken: A Deep Dive into ‘On the Morning You Wake.’ Doc Edge Exhibition is hosting this XR exhibition event for Matariki, and will be bringing us some of the best local and international XR projects of 2022.
Auckland Art Gallery free event - Matariki Ahunga Nui. Listen to live waiata, eat kai, shop at te mākete, and keep the tamariki busy making poi and craft inspired by Matariki.
Māori movies to watch on the big screen this Matariki from The Spinoff.
Not to be missed
Film: Whina - “An extraordinary and gripping account of an exceptional life and times”
This film about Dame Whina Cooper has been in development for a decade. The shoot was planned to take a month, but instead became an obstacle-course of lockdowns that stretched over nearly half-a-year. Yet, the film that has emerged is an extraordinary and gripping account of an exceptional life and times. “Whina is a moving, heartbreaking and beautifully put-together film. Don't see Whina because you “think you should”. See it because it's a damned good story, very well told.” More info here.
Online event: Koea õ Tāwhirimātea – Weather Choir
Te Tuhi is participating in an on-line climate and weather monitoring initiative proposed by Artangel (London UK), titled ‘World Weather Network’. The project aims to provide innovative perspectives to focus public attention on the immediacy of climate change as it evolves around the planet. Some thirty gallery and artist-collectives worldwide will participate in the task of reporting on climate and weather in their local region, including Auckland based artist/musician Phil Dadson.
Dadson’s project initiative Koea õ Tāwhirimātea – Weather Choir involves a collective of participants eight climate challenged locations in the Aotearoa/Pacifica region, working together to create two linked voice streams for local and global online presentation:
Ngā tāngata – people, providing regular in situ reportage (video, audio, graphics and text) of how weather and climate-change impacts on their local community and environment.
The collective voices of aeolian (wind) harps, (one per location) monitored and recorded for Koea õ Tāwhirimātea Koea – Weather Choir. Unique to this project, the aeolian quasi/sonic-art/weather instrument, is considered a metaphorical ‘body’, responding harmonically to the variabilities of wind and weather, consonant when calm, dissonant when wild. Weather Choir operates as a conceptual chorus and collective data-mix for both online and gallery performances.
More info here. And check out some of Phil’s wind harps over on his Instagram.
Exhibition: Rivers of Wind opens exhibition at Te Auaha, Wellington
Rivers of Wind is showing until 26 June at Te Auaha Gallery on Dixon Street. Doors open 8am-7pm weekdays and 9am-8pm weekends. More info here.
Local movers and shakers
The Cloud Workshop: The incredible Deb Smith has been on a mission to better support bereaved children and has started a workshop to do just that, after losing her father when she was young. Watch Deb speaking with the Newshub team about The Cloud Workshop here. "There are so many children who are bereaved that just need a bit of support. You can just come and be with a group of other kids that understand what you're going through without spelling it out." - see why the Cloud Workshop was launched from The Project on Twitter.
Artfull: The duo helping people collect art from the comfort of their couch. Jessica Agoston Cleary and John Barnett are the duo behind Artfull – a new online platform making shopping for art a seamless, engaging experience for Kiwis. (Stuff - by Nadine Rubin Nathan)
Singer-songwriter who created viral Māori song '35' wins supreme award at Matariki Awards, Ngā Tohu o Matariki o te Tau. The man behind the viral Māori song 35 which gained international attention and more than 12 million views on TikTok has won the supreme award at the sixth annual Matariki Awards, Ngā Tohu o Matariki o te Tau. (Stuff)
Aotearoa on the world stage
Kiwiana, colonialism and New York's Met Gallery's Māori curator. Thomas Bywater points out that before 2020, there were more than 45,000 New Zealanders and Pacific Islanders living in NYC. “That would make it the fourth largest island in Polynesia, by population.” New Zealander Dr Maia Nuku, of Māori-English heritage is the Met Gallery’s Curator of Arts of Oceania. She is currently renovating the gallery's Michael C. Rockefeller Wing to make it a home for Pacific art, and has made it a base for her "network of artists, performers, poets and writers who visit me at the museum when they are passing through New York City." (NZ Herald)
Auckland-based artist Emma Bass chosen for prestigious London exhibition. Emma Bass is known for her colourful and distinctive take on flora, photography and life. She is one of only a number of New Zealand artists to have their artwork selected to be hung from the walls of the Royal Academy of Arts - a huge achievement. The interview with Emma from the NZ Herald is a lovely insight into Emma’s perspectives, taking learnings from a career in nursing and taking them into her art. Read it here.
Film review: Nude Tuesday – “this New Zealand orgy comedy told in gibberish is delightful.” 5 stars from The Guardian! Showcasing New Zealand’s world-famous scenery in a new way… The film is about an unhappy couple who go to a guru played by Jemaine Clement, and is entirely in gibberish, hilariously subtitled by comedian Julia Davis. Michael Sun’s description of the language is spot on: “lewd and crude, landing somewhere between a bad ABBA impression and backpackers at Oktoberfest. It’s as though an alien learnt Swedish entirely through Ikea’s most misjudged product names – and it is utterly delightful.” Read the rest of The Guardian review here.
The Spinoff published a great review of the film yesterday, discussing the symbolism behind and technical complexities of producing a film with so much nudity - indeed, ‘the most naked New Zealand film ever made.’ Screening across Aotearoa now.
An interview with Yuki Kihara: Aotearoa New Zealand at the 59th Venice Biennale
Traversing the topics of small island ecologies, queer rights and decolonisation, Yuki Kihara’s Paradise Camp at La Biennale di Venezia 2022 marks a number of firsts for Aotearoa New Zealand’s national pavilion as the artist selected is Pasifika, Asian and Fa’afafine, Sāmoa’s third gender. Read the interview here.
Contemporary HUM is a central hub for Aotearoa arts abroad. We champion the international projects of New Zealand creative practitioners through publishing, events and projects. For more Aotearoa arts headlines on the world stage - have a peruse of their website!
Helen Klisser During is recognised by Kea as a World Class New Zealander, is a Global Woman, and Ambassador of Auckland University of Technology.
The ArtCafé blog is put together with the help of Laura Cheftel.