WEEK 2 TUESDAY - RESEARCH LECTURE:
WK 2 TUESDAY LECTURE: ASHLEIGH TAUPAKI
Notes from the lecture:
Te Whare Hera residency
Co-hosted with Enjoy
Emphasis on writing and research
Auckland based
currently studying PHD at Elam
Focus on sculpture, space and place
has got history with Wellington, showing works etc
Rānui, poverty-stricken area, half Māori, half Samoan
Connection to whenua, mountain, land, river,
Waiho River
Disconnection from land - loss - been turned into land-fill, etc
Whiritoa Blow Hole
Tiapo
Going through past works/exhibitions - 2020 - 2021,
Had a show every month
Paeroa, 2020, Art Space Aoteroa, New Artists Show
Paeroa, Ashleigh Taupaki
Concrete forms of the Kaimai and Coromandel-Moehau mountain ranges.
2020, Above
Install shot - Above
Along the mountainside, pain to make, concrete
Disconnection from the land
Group show at Enjoy, Māori Object, making work from what I have around me. - Below
Broke on the way there
Ashleigh Taupaki, Toro, piko, 2020, detail, copper wire, harakeke, natural dye, māta, plaster, found rocks, pink spiral shells, pupu shells, melted glass, aluminium. Image courtesy of Cheska Brown. - Above
Matā, 2020, RM Gallery, solo exhibition,
Whenua, Placenta, and ground,
Connection
Matā - Above.
Tirohai, 2020, Playstation, Art Space, Interacting with Land
Tirohia
Ashleigh Taupaki
27/01/2021 - 13/02/2021 -Below:
Paradies - 2021, Tautai,
Different to other works/ previous exhibitions
Moana Waiwai, Moana Pati - Samoan side, grandparents “Paradise” Migration - returning back, can’t retire here - Isn't “Paradise”
Elam Honours - sculpture - concrete works, carving,
Games, hopscotch
colonial language zone
current PHD
connections to wet land
Doing a residency in Germany
Pigment and Tapa
Materiality - working out materials
Objects, understanding objects, appreciating objects
“Walking backwards into the future”
Reflection:
I thoroughly enjoyed this lecture, and found the way that Ashleigh spoke about her experiences and feelings towards her practice and life after art school really comforting. It’s nice to know that it is common to feel unsure about some of your art works and the future, & the future of your art etc.
I particularly liked Ashleigh’s Matā solo exhibition at RM Gallery in 2020.
“Matā can be used to sever the umbilical cord upon birth, and is buried with the whenua in a place that becomes one’s tūrangawaewae. With this in mind, Taupaki collects minerals and objects from places, or in reference to places, that are significant to her identity as a wahine Māori. Creating hammocks, beds, and appropriate display stands, Taupaki acts as kaitiaki for these non human beings, and allows them to take shape of their own accord. Ties to the whenua as both placenta and land are brought forth through reciprocal nurturing and memory”. - https://rm.org.nz/ashleigh-taupaki-mata/ (RM Gallery)
Both the concept of this exhibition and the aesthetics of this work, I find really attractive, and I suppose aligns in ways with interests and intentions of my own practice. Themes of Identity, objects, material, nurturing & memory, for example, are concepts I explore in my work.
I enjoy the contrast of structure and soft, and use of materials and objects in this work, the hanging, and interaction etc - I find it really inspiring in terms of sculptural and install options for my own works.
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