Artists connect in super summer season at Pātaka
15 Dec 2024, Rachel Healy
Provocative and political artworks by Diane Prince feature in one of four new exhibitions at Pātaka Art+Museum this summer. Diane Prince: Activist Artist opens alongside Rangirua, connecting two pairings of two artists: jewellers Neke Moa with Rowan Panther and mark-makers Gabrielle Amodeo alongside Martin Thompson, and Taku Hoe, artists from the Aotearoa delegation for the 2024 Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture (FestPAC). Later in the season, Boro – Timeworn Textiles from Japan showcases a method of beautiful hand-sewn, repeated repairs to preserve and recycle fabric.
Diane Prince: Activist Artist brings together a selection of artworks that demonstrate the close relationship between activism and art in Diane Prince’s work. It’s her first significant solo show in a public gallery – an overdue tribute to one of our most senior Māori artists.
Diane has a long association with Pātaka. In 1990 she and Robyn Kahukiwa held one of the first exhibitions at Page 90 Artspace, the forerunner to Pātaka. The show marked 150 years since the signing of Te Tiriti and was an unapologetic assessment of the gap between Aotearoa and New Zealand. As we head into 50 years since the Māori Land March, Prince re-creates many of her previous works for Pātaka and for a new audience – with political messages connecting even the quietest of her artworks.
See Mark Tantrum's images from our opening event below.
Rangirua presents two takes on the two-person exhibition, connecting two pairings of two artists: jewellers Neke Moa with Rowan Panther and mark-makers Gabrielle Amodeo alongside Martin Thompson.
Rangirua, which translates to “two minds”, celebrates the comparisons and conversations that emerge when artists are placed side by side.
In Taku Hoe, artists reconnect across Te Moananui a Kiwa (the Pacific Ocean) in an exhibition featuring artists from the Aotearoa delegation for the 2024 Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture (FestPAC), the Pacific region’s premier Indigenous arts and culture event.
The artworks re-presented at Pātaka include Cry of the Stolen People – Black Birding of the Tokelau Islands by Porirua-based Tokelau artists Jack Kirifi, Moses Viliamu, Mathew Lepaio and the late Zac Mateo, which shares the little-known history of Pacific slavery.
Textile art, and the unnamed women who created it, are celebrated in Boro – Timeworn Textiles from Japan, opening 14 December. Boro is a method of hand-sewn, repeated repairs that use sashiko – a running stitch, ideally the size of a grain of rice – to beautifully preserve and recycle fabric.
At a time in history when cloth was a precious commodity, these textiles were cherished and have been passed down through generations.
Diane Prince: Activist Artist is guest-curated by Gina Tawhai Matchitt.
Taku Hoe is made possible by the support of Creative NZ.
The textiles in Boro – Timeworn Textiles from Japan are from the collection of Pip Steel.
