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Title: Epicenter (E) Creator: Te Maari, author; Mokopōpaki, author Contributor: Mokopōpaki, issuing body; Laree Payne Gallery, issuing body Series: Mokopōpaki (Series), 27 November–21 December 2024 Publisher: Auckland, New Zealand: Mokopōpaki and Laree Payne Gallery ISSN: 2537-8783 Publication Date: November 2024 Format: 1 folded sheet: 30 cm, unfolded to 60 x 42 cm Edition: 138 Notes: Screenprint, ink on paper, made by Greg Thomas and JBB

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EyeContact (NZ)

“Make it new” was the modernist mantra of the early twentieth century and despite all the subsequent critiques of modernism and its replacement with another ism, the call to be to fresh and original still both applies and is practiced by the avant-garde today.

The Dadaists made it new, as did the Pop artists, and there are elements of both aesthetics embodied in the craft of artist, Te Maari and her most recent show, Epicenter (E), at Laree Payne Gallery. Yet who would have thought that stuffed ‘toys’ (knitted dolls), could work as art objects? Well, we’ve had knitted food and knitted Māori Meeting Houses, so why not?

I love this kind of bold inventiveness that goes outside the boundaries, abolishes hierarchies, that sees the employment of the ‘low rent’ and so-called banal object in the services of art. The Dadaists did it first and a long time ago. It seems like we are just catching up.

Te Maari has created a series of stuffed dolls, made of felt (employing hand spun Shetland, Corriedale and merino wool), complete with knitted apparel. They are all the same size, approximately 30 cm tall (your average cuddly toy); but what makes these sculptures, Manu Figures, special is the treatment and symbolism loaded on to them, so they carry the weight of social and moral significance.

These are humanoid creations, but they represent, by their colour, design and configuration, New Zealand native birds, and they are named as such. So, there is already an element of anthropomorphism operating here. The colour and texture of each bird is incorporated into the fabric, but beyond that there are no obvious or blatant bird-like shapes and formations going on. The dolls/sculptures all have similar configured faces and bodies, but with slightly different garments and outfits together with embroidered patterns that operate as moko-like forms on their faces.

They are a delight to behold and beautifully staged in the gallery arena, each one suspended in space on invisible cord and caged inside small Perspex platforms, which affords a kind of otherworldly spectacle to these pieces, placed as they are in a parallel line afloat in the middle of the gallery.

So, what’s the point?

Birds presented as human have a certain discombobulating effect, as does any anthropomorphic trope. We, the viewers, are provided with another lens through which to look at the familiar, which makes it importantly unfamiliar. And the lens here is to shift the category so that we apprehend the birds as something equal to and like us. This can be a useful exercise, particularly in a world of rampant consumerism attendant on the exploitation of the natural habitat. One of the Manu Figures has embroidered tear drops coursing down the side of its face.

At another level, given the artist is Māori, and together with the presence of identifiable Māori design motifs on the sculptures, one can read into the work a commentary on the effect of colonisation, not only on the native bird population, but also on the native human population.

A further layer is added with the Manu sculptures being given names: Sammy Haupapa, Polly Wiremu and the like, providing a more personal touch. And then beyond that, each work comes, alongside the title, with a given location - Davenport, the Bowery, Peachgrove Road, Broadway, etc. This is a cosmopolitan bunch where the famous and not-so-famous places on the world map share the same territory—and thus a democratising element enters the equation.

This is complemented by the fact that there is a mix of native and introduced birds referred to in the collection - starlings, birds from Europe and Asia - sit alongside kingfisher, kakapo, pukeko, huia and stitch bird, a nice and appropriately inclusive touch in today’s conflicted political landscape where some play a grievous game of identity politics. We are all the same species: endangered humans, irrespective of colour, identity or race. There’s a lot going on here and best of all, the delivery.

This is a clever show, seemingly unassuming, charming and winsome at first glance, but coming with a communique that can challenge and unsettle. This it does so in an adroit and quiet manner. Shrewd and astute stuff.

Peter Dornauf, Knitted Māori Dolls (Auckland: EyeContact, 16 December, 2024)

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Te Maari Epicenter (E) 27 November – 21 December 2024 He aronga hou, he tirohanga hou He mahi tahi a Mokopōpaki me Te Maari me Laree Payne Gallery In collaboration with Laree Payne Gallery 286 Victoria Street, Hamilton Opening Saturday 30 November 11am – 1pm Epicenter (E) by Te Maari for Laree Payne Gallery, spans from research on shopping, luxury, values in art, and new concepts for Mokopōpaki as an entity, to the creation of 10 unique artworks that reference particular birds, locations and family members. Beyond restructuring the physical reality of the gallery space, Te Maari’s virtual presence is defined through in-studio technology including handspun shetland, corriedale and merino, enhancing the tactile, three-dimensional qualities of her soft sculptures. The combination of these aspects generates an integrated exhibition structure that enables the artist to provide a new sense of originality, but also to reinforce the diverse and intriguing aura of her practice. Epicenter (E) is conceived as a specific insertion both in relation to the artist’s network of existing artworks as well as the city and cultural context in which the exhibition is situated. Epicenter (E) is accompanied by a new, limited edition screenprint, made by Greg Thomas and JBB, co-published by Mokopōpaki and Laree Payne Gallery. More information Ka nui te mihi ki a em45 rāua ko Eva Morunga Image: Te Maari, (E) Hōri Taranaki, Kākāpō-Groundparrot of Broadway, 2024. From the series Manu Figures, 2018 –

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E H McCormick Research Library

Hongerwinter is a stapled, A5-sized publication accompanying the exhibition at Envy gallery, Wellington. Organised by Mokopōpaki, the exhibition featured sculptural work by Yllwbro, A.A.M. Bos, Dr P and Te Maari.

Since 2017, the Auckland-based Mokopōpaki has variously operated as a dealer gallery, exhibition committee and publisher: ‘We are a critical collective or whānau who want to make “art for people” accessible. We apply Māori approaches to exhibition-making and the production of artwork. We work together to encourage and support emergent and established artists from across the generations.’

Their exhibition catalogues are often self-published and limited-edition booklets in various formats which elucidate and expand on the practices of represented artists. 

Hongerwinter is presented in a plastic slip that has been screen-printed to look like a Vogel’s mixed grain bag, with Dr P’s Very Thin Vogels, 2024 seemingly stamped on top.

The introductory text expresses artist A.A.M. Bos’s appreciation for sparrows – their ubiquity and tenacity, and as a symbol of peace and plenty for the artist’s mother who lived through devastation and famine during World War II in the Netherlands. The nursery rhyme ‘Mary, Mary Quite Contrary’ is broken down line by line as an apparently innocuous verse containing layers of disturbing historical fact and imagery relating to Mary Tudor (1516–1558). Yllwbro authors a conversation between siblings Kōkako and Miss Wētā, observing the dust-bathing habits of the migrant sparrows.

Reading this little publication is like being thrown from a garden into the bush then back onto the lawn, with a dizzying array of references seamlessly woven through its otherwise modest pages.

Melanie Kung, Five New Books at the E H McCormick Research Library 2024 (Auckland: E H McCormick Research Library, 20 August, 2024)

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Art New Zealand

Upon entering Envy, visitors are greeted by a surreal tableau reminiscent of a suburban backyard, where the features are rendered inert by their display. An empty birdbath covered in moss sits in the middle of the gallery, facing a digital photograph of a domestic sparrow, the gaze of which is fixed directly on the viewer. In the corner, an empty steel-wire hanging basket is suspended from the ceiling, evoking the presence of a security camera. A section of rusted corrugated fence, sourced directly from Dr P’s garden adorns the wall, serving as the backdrop to Yllwbro’s intricately detailed birdhouse, complete with its own wallpaper.

As one adjusts to the scenery, smaller details emerge, such as Yllwbro’s replica of the Wētā Hotel, a wooden box designed to trap and display wētā insects behind a small pane of glass, similar to those used in local wildlife sanctuaries. This installation recalls 19th-century scientific plates that catalogued unknown species from the New World, reflecting Enlightenment hierarchies of taxonomy and control. Nearby, two loaves of Vogel's bread rest on a chopping board, their surfaces marked by distinctive sparrow nibbles, forming a collaborative sculpture that embodies the ephemeral interactions within contemporary gardens. 

The garden, as we know it in Aotearoa New Zealand, manifests early settlers’ anxieties regarding the progress of the colonial project. The division of industrial and domestic space (of which the garden was exemplary) was a relatively new development within European middle-class society, yet quickly became a defining characteristic of what was considered ‘civilised’ culture, a standard by which an emerging colony might be judged. Henry William Petre, the colonial treasurer of New Munster Province, assuaged the Crown’s anxieties regarding the success of the colony in a letter, directly referencing the proliferation of the manicured garden. 

This show interrogates this country’s colonial artifacts through the lineage of artistic parody and appropriation, as practiced by figures such as Francis Picabia and Marcel Broodthaers. Just as Picabia’s parodies of glamour models nullified the presence of the artistic author, A.A.M. Bos’s Birds of the Air subverts objective categorisation of birdlife through genre mimicry. Hongerwinter’s delicately arranged exhibition of physical objects utilises the readymade in the context of New Zealand’s distinctly quaint and tumbledown gardens. Its intentionality places the colony under a microscope, prompting viewers to consider the assumed normalcy of a garden’s features as laden with meaning, rather than as harmless decor.

The references to Dutch influence initially seem convivial and tongue-in-cheek: Vogel’s bread paired with Dutch Gouda is shared, yet inherent in these gestures is an invitation to reflect on the historical circumstances of the colony. As Louis Althusser suggests, art reveals what we perceive and feel—distinct from knowing—as it emerges from and engages with its originating ideology. The alchemy of each readymade work inspires less an allegorical or metaphorical interpretation and more a mnemonic device to consider the naturalisation of alienation, without requiring viewer activation as a prerequisite.

Millie Dow, Exhibitions: Wellington: Hongerwinter (Auckland: Art New Zealand, No. 191, Spring 2024), p. 45

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Hongerwinter is a new book co-published by Mokopōpaki and Envy to accompany the exhibition by Yllwbro, A.A.M. Bos, Dr P and Te Maari at Envy, Wellington.

Hongerwinter (2024) ka puta mai i WARY���A Survey (2018) ki Mokopōpaki, Ākarana.

Title: Hongerwinter Creator: Yllwbro, A.A.M. Bos, Dr P, Te Maari, authors; Mokopōpaki, author Contributor: Mokopōpaki, issuing body; Envy, issuing body Series: Mokopōpaki (Series), 10 May–8 June 2024 Publisher: Auckland, New Zealand: Mokopōpaki and Envy ISSN: 2537-8783 Publication Date: May 2024 Format: 24 pages; 21 cm Edition: 200 Notes: Screenprinted bag made by Greg Thomas

Purchase here

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Yllwbro, A.A.M. Bos, Dr P, Te Maari Hongerwinter 10 May – 8 June 2024 Ko tēnei te wā, ka kōrero Mokopōpaki o te kotahitanga i waenganui o Mokopōpaki me Envy, he whare whakaatu toi o Pōneke In collaboration with Envy Level 2, 22 Garrett Street, Te Aro, Wellington Opening Friday 10 May 5:30 – 7:30pm No one really makes a point of noticing the sparrow, but my mother did. She lived in a war zone and endured famine. In September 1944, after the intense Allied bombing of the Netherlands that preceded the failed British-led attack on Nijmegen, my mother, aged 14 years, and two boys from her street, were out in the countryside foraging and searching for food. Like many, the children were desperate and starving, roaming a landscape totally ravaged and destroyed by conflict. My mother said, while wandering this landscape, what she remembered about this terrible time, was that everywhere they went, everything had gone. Nothing was left. No trees, no birds, no rats, no cats, nothing, not even sparrows. All gone. Annihilated. Blown to bits or eaten. For my mother, a sparrow sitting on a fence was a sign of peace and plenty. May this symbol speak also to you. —A.A.M. Bos Hongerwinter is accompanied by a new book, co-published by Mokopōpaki and Envy More information Image: Dr P, Very Thin Vogel’s, 2024

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Ocula

Wellington gallery Envy's booth was likewise transporting, thanks largely to Dr P's Breakfast With Broodthaers (2023).

The mixed media installation of fishbones and shellfish on steel and aluminium kitchenware—including a pot of mussel shells trapped mid-explosion and a tray of chemically-fixed bread rolls—painted a portrait of a harbour dweller surviving on kaimoana and copies of the New Zealand Herald.

Sam Gaskin, Aotearoa Art Fair Receipts: Tarot Cards and Mussel Shells (Auckland: Ocula, 19 April, 2024)

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Dr P Breakfast With Broodthaers 18 – 21 April 2024 Presented in collaboration with Envy, Wellington Aotearoa Art Fair Envy, Booth U34 Viaduct Events Centre, 171 Halsey Street, Auckland VIP Preview Thursday 18 April, 1pm – 5pm Opening Night Thursday 18 April, 5pm – 9pm General Entry Friday 19 April, 11am – 6pm Saturday 20 April, 11am – 6pm Sunday 21 April, 11am – 5pm More information Dr P was born in Whanganui. She lives and works in Auckland. Her primal zodiac sign is the Vulture. Fellow Vultures include Gwyneth Paltrow, Snoop Dogg, Eminem and Truman Capote. Dr P is not a doctor or a dentist, lawyer or plumber. She is an occasional writer, indoor landscape garden designer and General Secretary of the Mokopōpaki Exhibitions Committee (MMPK).  Selected exhibitions include: Colonial Road, Pah Homestead, Auckland; Colonial Road, Mokopōpaki, Auckland; Domestic #3: Ahimaru, Mokopōpaki, Auckland; and This Joyous, Chaotic Place: He Waiata Tangi-ā-Tahu, Mokopōpaki, Auckland. Selected books include: Colonial Road, Auckland: Mokopōpaki & The Arts House Trust; Domestic #3: Ahimaru, Auckland: Mokopōpaki; The Last Picture Show, Auckland: Mokopōpaki; Colonial Road, Auckland: Mokopōpaki; This Joyous, Chaotic Place: He Waiata Tangi-ā-Tahu, Auckland: Mokopōpaki & Spiral; Taranaki Tiki Tour, Auckland: Kīnaki Press; Have you heard of Artemisia?, with Allie Eagle & Heather McPherson, Wellington: Spiral Collectives; Not Another Gondola: Venezia via Rialto: A Self-Guided Walk in Photographs, Part 2, Auckland: Kīnaki Press; Not Another Gondola: Venezia via Rialto: A Self-Guided Walk in Photographs, Part 1, Auckland: Kīnaki Press; and Was There: Jane Zusters at Tivoli, Auckland: Kīnaki Press. Image: Dr P, Breakfast With Broodthaers, 2023 Mixed media installation, dimensions variable Courtesy the artist, Envy and Mokopōpaki Photo: Arekahānara

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Art News Aotearoa (NZ)

Red Teddy is co-published by Mokopōpaki and Te Tuhi, following the exhibition of the same name by Roman Mitch at Te Tuhi in 2022. The exhibition itself followed from Girls! Hit Your Hallelujah, presented at Mokopōpaki in 2018. Appropriating an online New York Times art review, the opening page is a press release about Mitch and his daughter, Ngaroma. Using the narrow format of the Times newspaper and the visual language of Richard Prince, the pages that follow colourfully reproduce a conversation between Te Ahorangi Grace Rangitauninihi Tūī and Mokopōpaki about her arrival in Tāmaki Makaurau from Rotorua in 1969, her unique sense of style and the Māori concept of rangatiratanga. Rich in art historical, conceptual and visual interconnections, Red Teddy shares a glimpse of almost 30 artworks, photographed by Sam Hartnett, including contributions from Rangi herself (The Discipline of Choosing, 2022), Mitch’s mother (Penelope Sue), his children (Marcel & Ngaroma), Ursula Christel and Yllwbro. Further referencing Mitch’s use of customised computer cases as stencils, the screen-printed cover, made by Struan Hamilton and Greg Thomas, alludes to carbon fibre, camo or snakeskin.

Book Stand: Red Teddy (Auckland: Art News Aotearoa, No. 201, Autumn 2024), p. 48

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Maureen Lander, Wave Skirt, 2023

Harakeke, muka, dye, acrylic

c. 150 x 200 cm

Photo: Sam Hartnett

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Maureen Lander, Wave Skirt, 2023

Harakeke, muka, dye, acrylic

c. 150 x 200 cm

Photo: Sam Hartnett

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Maureen Lander, Wave Skirt, 2023

Detail

Photo: Sam Hartnett

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Maureen Lander, Wave Skirt, 2023

Detail

Photo: Sam Hartnett

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Maureen Lander, Wave Skirt, 2023

Detail

Photo: Sam Hartnett

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Andrew Barber, Neighbours, 2022

Pigment, sand, gesso on linen

38/35 x 51 cm

Signed Andrew Barber and dated 2022 (on the reverse)

Courtesy Envy, Wellington

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Andrew Barber, Kahukura, 2022

Pigment, sand, gesso on linen

38/35 x 51 cm

Signed Andrew Barber and dated 2022 (on the reverse)

Courtesy Envy, Wellington