{"id":2155,"date":"2021-10-04T01:32:57","date_gmt":"2021-10-04T01:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/thehockenblog\/?p=2155"},"modified":"2021-10-04T01:54:26","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T01:54:26","slug":"in-the-hocken-gallery-pokai-whenua-pokai-moana-by-bridget-reweti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/thehockenblog\/in-the-hocken-gallery-pokai-whenua-pokai-moana-by-bridget-reweti\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Hocken Gallery: P\u014dkai Whenua, P\u014dkai Moana by Bridget Reweti"},"content":{"rendered":"

Post written by Collections Assistant Nick Austin<\/em><\/p>\n

It was the Hocken\u2019s pleasure, and good fortune, to host the karakia whakatuwhera – opening blessing – for the exhibition\u00a0P\u014dkai Whenua, P\u014dkai Moana<\/em>\u00a0by 2020-2021 Frances Hodgkins Fellow Bridget Reweti (Ng\u0101ti Ranginui, Ng\u0101i Te Rangi), here in our gallery just prior to August\u2019s lockdown. University of Otago M\u0101ori Chaplain Dr Helen Papuni led karakia through the gallery,\u00a0followed by k\u014drero and waiata to welcome the exhibition and pay acknowledgements. It was great that so many guests from out of town were able to attend this special evening.<\/p>\n

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Bridget Reweti and Hocken Librarian Sharon Dell at P\u014dkai Whenua, P\u014dkai Moana opening. Photograph: Sharron Bennett<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Professor Robert Jahnke speaks at P\u014dkai Whenua, P\u014dkai Moana opening. Photograph: Sharron Bennett<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Sarah Hudson, Bridget Reweti, Erena and Unaiki Arapere, and Terri Te Tau at P\u014dkai Whenua, P\u014dkai Moana opening. Photograph: Sharron Bennett<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The title of Bridget\u2019s exhibition,\u00a0P\u014dkai Whenua, P\u014dkai Moana<\/em>, recognises two of the names of\u00a0Tamatea, a principal ancestor of the Takitimu waka, who explored areas in Aotearoa including Tauranga Moana, the artist\u2019s turangawaewae, and Murihiku, the southern part of Te Waipounamu (South Island).\u00a0As Bridget writes in her exhibition wall text: \u201cI use this connection to my tipuna who travelled over lands and seas to locate myself as a Tauranga Moana artist within Ng\u0101i Tahu mana whenua.\u201d It is this whakapapa that underpins the four series of works in the exhibition.<\/p>\n

Bridget uses photography in ways that you have probably never seen before. In the series\u00a0Kapo Wairua<\/em>, she has produced photograms of x-ray-like details of migratory seabirds \u2013 t\u012bt\u012b (sooty shearwater), toroa (albatross), kuaka (godwit) \u2013 onto stones cut flat on one side: pounamu (greenstone), onewa (basalt), k\u014dkawa (andesite), pakohe (argillite). From an accompanying wall text by Matariki Williams we learn of the symbolism of birds\u2019 departure and return, in the M\u0101ori world. For example: \u201cRoimata toroa is a well-known Ng\u0101ti Porou tukutuku pattern that references the excreting of saline from the nostrils of these seafaring birds and is a constant reminder of necessary preparation when undertaking long journeys.\u201d There is a haunting presence to these works that is potently summed up by the writer: \u201c[T]hese birds compel us to always remember those who have gone before us, those who have made their haerenga to Rerenga Wairua, those for whom we continue to long […]\u201d.<\/p>\n

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(L-R) through the fog it came and the silence of the sea (for Sarah), 2021, pounamu plate negatives. Photograph: Justin Spiers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Georgina May Young viewing after Fiona, 2021, toroa skull photogram on basalt. Photograph: Justin Spiers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It makes sense then that certain people from Bridget\u2019s artistic wh\u0101nui, some of whom have passed away, are paid tribute within works\u2019 titles. On this note, the thoughts of many people in \u014ctepoti Dunedin have recently been with Marilynn Webb (Ng\u0101ti Kahu, Te Roroa), a much-loved and influential artist who spent most of her artistic life in this town. Marilynn passed away just days after Bridget\u2019s exhibition opened. As a mihi to Marilynn, when installing the exhibition Bridget chose to present three works by Webb on the mezzanine level outside the Hocken Gallery, from her 1980\u00a0Aramoana Fossil<\/em>\u00a0series.<\/p>\n

Ghostly images combined with tactile materials are used again by Bridget in another series\u00a0Summering on Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri<\/em>. Last summer she travelled with friends into Fiordland to trace the movements, evident in landscape photographs from 1889, of Alfred Burton of the famed Dunedin-based firm Burton Brothers. She re-recorded Burton\u2019s views with a conciousness of there being lore \u2013 placenames and histories long held by mana whenua, Ng\u0101i Tahu wh\u0101nui – that he would not have known. As a gesture to this gap in understanding of place, Bridget has coloured her photographs with the pigments of whenua from those very places, given to her by local people.<\/p>\n

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4870 – LIVING THE DREAM, 2021, whenua coloured silver gelatin photograph. Courtesy of artist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Summering on Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri series in P\u014dkai Whenua, P\u014dkai Moana. Photograph: Justin Spiers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Rauhina Scott-Fyfe viewing How to drain a swamp series in P\u014dkai Whenua, P\u014dkai Moana. Photograph: Justin Spiers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is a strong sense of whanaungatanga \u2013 kinship \u2013 in every aspect of Bridget\u2019s work here, from production to exhibition. Whakapapa too, not only in the sense of familial and artistic genealogies but in there being all sorts of layers of, or connections between, land and people, images and materials. An immaterial presence within the gallery is somehow articulated by the audio recording of taonga p\u016boro played by Alistair Fraser that accompanies the large moving image work,\u00a0Like a rock against the tide<\/em>. These atmospheric sounds float through the gallery\u2019s open doors as a gentle but persistent entreaty: you should come in.<\/p>\n

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Still from Like a rock against the tide, 2021, HD Moving Image with sound<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

P\u014dkai Whenua, P\u014dkai Moana\u00a0is open (in Level 2!) Monday \u2013 Saturday, 10am -5pm, until 30 October at the Hocken Gallery, 90 Anzac Ave, \u014ctepoti Dunedin.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Post written by Collections Assistant Nick Austin It was the Hocken\u2019s pleasure, and good fortune, to host the karakia whakatuwhera – opening blessing – for the exhibition\u00a0P\u014dkai Whenua, P\u014dkai Moana\u00a0by 2020-2021 Frances Hodgkins Fellow Bridget Reweti (Ng\u0101ti Ranginui, Ng\u0101i Te Rangi), here in our gallery just prior to August\u2019s lockdown. University of Otago M\u0101ori Chaplain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27445,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15421,15409,8778,66],"tags":[65027,65029,65028],"class_list":["post-2155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exhibitions-and-events","category-university-of-otago-fellowships","category-photography","category-university-of-otago","tag-bridget-reweti","tag-ngai-te-rangi","tag-ngati-ranginui"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/thehockenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/thehockenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/thehockenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/thehockenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27445"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/thehockenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/thehockenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2155\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/thehockenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/thehockenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/thehockenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}