Gallery36 Vol 4 No 2 2012

Vo l.4 No.2 2012

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Norm & NoeleenBernie Harfleet & Donna Sarten

1 June - 8 JulyOpening: Thursday 31 May, 6pm

Norm & Noeleen are two personal photographic series which reflect the story of many of the aged in our society.

Floor Talk: Saturday 16 June, 1pmArtists in conversation with freelance curator Rob Garrett

Open 10am - 4.30pm 7 Days426 Great North Road, HendersonPh: 09 8384455 or visit: ceac.org.nz

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Space for Rent

You could advertise your exhibition

or product here

Call Selene on 021 169 9084

or email [email protected]

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studiotolhurst.com

ANTIONETTE GODKIN GALLERY

new works arriving soon

Space for Rent

You could advertise your exhibition

or product here

Call Selene on 021 169 9084

or email [email protected]

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Objectspace is delighted to present Fancy Fools Flight, a new body of work by Martinborough-based glass artists Jim Dennison and Leanne Williams who since 2004 have worked collaboratively as the Crystal Chain Gang. Together the pair have pushed the boundaries of the medium, utilising cast glass to create innovative work that traverses the territories of art, craft, design and industry. Curated and toured nationally by the Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui, Fancy Fools Flight features an impressive new body of work which challenges the possibilities of the medium of cast glass.

Public Programme: Saturday 28 April, 11am. Jim Dennison and Leanne Williams will discuss their exhibition Fancy Fools Flight in conversation with exhibition curator Greg Donson, Curator/Public Programmes Manager at the Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui.

Publication: Fancy Fools Flight. This lavishly illustrated 30 page exhibition publication features images of the exhibition Fancy Fools Flight, accompanied by essays by exhibition curator Greg Donson and Bronwyn Lloyd.

Objectspace8 Ponsonby RdAuckland09 376 6216

Monday - Saturday10am to [email protected]

Jim Dennison and Leanne Williams, Birds – from Fancy Fools Flight, 2011, glass. Courtesy of the artists, photograph courtesy Sarjeant Gallery.

Left: Jim Dennison and Leanne Williams, Queenie – from Fancy Fools Flight, 2011, glass. Courtesy of the artists, photograph courtesy Sarjeant Gallery.

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DOORS OPEN 7.30PM // START 8.20PM // $10 CASH DOORSALES ONLY // CASH BAR

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A group event that you are invited to be a part of…The last lick of paint has almost dried, all the furniture has arrived and the artworks have begun to move across land and sea as we prepare to open Satellite Gallery.The time has come for us to welcome you into Satellite to experience what we have to offer to inspire, support and nurture creative talent.We have set up an event with the intention of not only exhibiting a wide pool of talent, but also to show how creative people live, work and play.Feel free to join us on Saturday the 21st of April, from 2-4 pm to experience the amazing potential of Satellite Gallery and to view or purchase works of art by creative talents such as; Jo Barrett, Katherine Batchelor, David Creed, Mark Curtis, James R Ford, Erin Forsyth, Mia Hamilton, Geoff Hedley, Prue Mac Dougall, Jasmine McCracken, Julian McKinnon, Greg Page, Marie E Potter, Antoinette Ratcliffe, Leon Rose, Rebecca Ross, Angela Rossitto, Helen Schamroth, Bevan Shaw, Selene Simcox, Raewyn Turner and Brian Harris.This exhibition runs from Saturday the 21st of April till Saturday the 5th of May, 2012

Mark Curtis Welcome Mat 2006 Glitter installation, 1.5M x 1M

Cnr St Benedicts St & Newton Road, Newton, AucklandP: 09 307 6416E: [email protected]: satellitegallery.co.nzGallery Hours: Wed – Fri 12 – 5pmSat 12 – 4pm

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Winter here already?!I don’t usually get hit with a hard dose of the flu but it seems my luck was up. Two weeks and counting...At what point does dedicated become workaholic. I have a friend who has had the ‘cough’ recurring again and again after her dose of the flu - so keep warm, look after your health (practice what you preach) and take some healthy vegetables and garlic! Although being sick has allowed me time to catch up on my little TV addictions thanks to TV On Demand, I look forward to returning to full health and getting back to the studio soon.

Time has been moving fast though. With Gallery36’s birthday exhibition, our April issue and the entirety of the usual goings on, I don’t know where March let alone April has gone!

What a delight it was to have a Gallery36 exhibition! Thank you to everyone who has made this possible. It is the wonderful collaborative effort from friends, colleagues and fellow artists that made Gallery36’s first exhibition a great experience. As for the opening night - impressive. A wonderful turnout and a huge amount of support for Gallery36. Thank you!

And thank you to everyone who entered Gallery36’s Birthday Celebration Competition, there was some brilliant work submitted. It is my pleasure to introduce you to our winner, Saba Aghahasan and her Persian Experiment. Enjoy reading about her work on page 12.

You will also see that Satellite Gallery is back on the event agenda, opening their doors again with a banger of an exhibition. Looking forward to the variety of art events on offer, do get in there and show your support.

Selene Simcox Editor

Editorial included in this publication reflects the opinions of the contributing authors and does not necessarily represent the views of Gallery36. Copyright for submissions belong to the contributors unless otherwise specified.

Gallery36© Auckland, New ZealandISSN 1179-8319www.gallery36.co.nz Editor: Selene SimcoxPh: 021 169 9084E: [email protected]

Executive Director: Selene SimcoxDirector: Andy TolhurstMarketing Manager: Johnny WalkerEditorial Assistant: Alissa West

Cover image: Saba Aghahasan Persian Experiment 2011 Digital Print 1200 x 2420mm ea

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Andy TolhurstBVA Elam 2005http://www.studiotolhurst.com

My current body of work involves studying local and international artworks that have been copied or reproduced and are well known. By changing certain elements, typically text, logo or layout I aim to create an original style alluding to something that is familiar, yet differs enough from the original that it can be deemed a clever derivative.

Tolhurst finds a logic within arranged shape and colour that is worth exploring. As part of a broader questioning of widely accepted ideas, values and knowledge associated with post modernism Tolhurst examines appropriation through geometric abstraction.

Saba Aghahasan with her prize, artwork Pepper Pot kindly donated by

artist Andy Tolhurst.

Congratulations Saba!Thank you to everyone who entered this competition, we had a wonderful response and a difficult time deciding on the winner. After much deliberation, Saba Aghahasan is the winner of Gallery36’s Birthday competition.

Congratulations Saba! We are extremely excited to have your work on our cover!

Some serious hot talent going on in Saba’s designs, She recently showed at Object Space and is now planning her next work. Inspired by life and her cultural background, Iranian born, New Zealand raised artist Saba Aghahasan is an artist who chooses her medium in response to the project. So this time we see large high resolution digital prints...but that doesn’t mean you will next time!

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Contents

Artists & Photographers12 Saba Aghahasan28 Tracy Porteous48 Aya McKenzie52 Cora-Allan Wickliffe54 Tracey Stevens

33 Have you heard of...?56 Blanket of Response58 smARTips62 Robyn Kahukiwa’s Hina: Super Woman, Super Hero By Rae Pleasant

Articles

20 Reflections on Delineate One by Juanita Jelleyman

Reviews

10 Congratulations Saba!16 Four Years On - Birthday Exhibition22 Bernie Harfleet & Donna Sarten

Features

40 Beth Nicholas

International

44 Monique Lacey

Realise your Potential

36 Tania Bostock

Interview

33

22

40

56

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Persian Experiment is a design project communicating traditional Persian idioms through a combination of Persian and Western typography and symbols.

Idioms are a contradiction to the literal, and semiotics presents a challenge because it rejects the possibility that we can neutrally represent ‘the way things are’. Chandler (2002). The symbolic content of the

M: 021 027 31480E: [email protected]

Saba AghahasanArtist

Persian Experiment is not a literal cultural representation.

My project attempts to explain Persian idioms by appropriating their literal meaning with Western symbols as signifiers. For example, in Persian culture, to express the extent of an apology, the idiom used is ‘I ate shit’. I have chosen to use flowers, illustrated in the traditional Persian style

of geometric shapes, which in Western symbolism traditionally represents an apology. The wide vocabulary of idioms used within Persian culture provides opportunity for visual experimentation through traditionally influenced contemporary design.

Using visual and linguistic

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communication between the two cultures, I have composed three designs in the typographical style of Kufi, to create a bridge of communication from the complex Persian idioms to a Western audience. The Western symbolic values that I have chosen to visually express within my design are subtle, allowing the composition to be seen as Persian rugs. I believe this makes the observation process more satisfying for the viewer as they may recognise different elements and create an understanding of the concept for them selves.

Research and inspiration for this project were derived from two disparate sources. Influential to the visual style of my project was the traditional style of typography of Kufi and post-Islamic geometric patterns. Both Kufi and post-Islamic mosaic design are geometric and are composed in structured grids. I was also conceptually influenced by the design group Slavs and Tartars who mainly deal with political and religious issues of the East and present them to their Eastern and Western viewers. This part of my research was important because it allowed me to examine how cultural language can be applied in the context of another culture.

By using idioms and traditional visual language from the Persian culture, combined with comparable Western symbols I have conveyed the meaning to my Western audience.

Chandler, D. (2002). The basics: Semiotics. New York, NY: Routledge.

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Saba Aghahasan Persian Experiment

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2011 Digital Print 1200 x 2420mm ea

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Feature

Birthday Exhibition

Those that have met a lovely lady by the name of Selene Simcox would know of her bouncy personality, extreme multitasking, great professionalism and intense drive towards perfection. She is the creator of an online PDF magazine called Gallery36 that dedicates its pages to young, emerging artists and allows them to showcase themselves through their own thoughts and words. Four Years On featured 12 artists and was created to celebrate the success of four years of love, dedication and care towards this vision.

The show reflected a variety of fine art that Gallery36 is dedicated to representing, exhibiting paintings, photography, video, installation, sculpture and live performance. A highlight of the show was the performance that started it off, Juanita Jelleyman showcased her slow moving, elegant choreography, while getting messy with black paint, she exhibits serenity and ability in adapting to her environment.

By Sin-Mae Chung

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Feature

1� / Gallery36 Above: Aaron Wilson The Process Becomes Art 2012 Green masking tape Dimensions variable

Left: Alex DiMercurio Fleeting 2012 Acrylic on canvas 1200 x 600mm diptychBelow left: Sin-Mae Chung 172 x 2011 Non-firing clay, stainless steel spoon and soot Dimensions variable

Above: Juanita Jelleyman Delineate One 2012 Performance installation

Above: Juanita Jelleyman before installation performance, Eva Pollack, Aaron Wilson

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Feature

Above: Eva Polak City of Lights 2007 Digital print 600 x 600mm

Right: Shelley Simpson Like, Comment, Share (Green, Yellow, Orange) 2012 Ink and resin on board 170 x 440mm & Like, Comment, Share (Green) 2012 Ink and resin on board 300 x 780mm. Right: Elsa Thorp Lichterfelde Süd Station, Berlin, Germany 2010 Photograph 535 x 640mm

Above left: Charles Olsen Kimono Rojo (Red Kimono) 2010 Video poem 5:28 minutes. Above centre: Michelle Christoffersen Full Circle 2012 Acrylic paint, glitter, polystyrene and perspex Dimensions variable. Above right: Rachael Garvey Construction Worker Alter Ego #1 2011 Digital print 365 x 486mm

Left: Amy Melchior I Would Die for That 2011 Encaustic and ink on board 1600 x 600mm

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It is 4pm and having entered the gallery I feel like a hazard warning. I place my bulky bag and coffee cup down tentatively in the centre of the room, careful to see that there was no spillage or overhang that could touch the white walls. I have the impression that the already hanging exhibits of the gallery are watching me curiously, for I am a moving, dancing body amidst art works that are already positioned; still. “Just make yourself at home,” calls Selene from around the corner.

And so just as I would in a studio I allow my wrists to flex, my neck to twist, my spine to curl and my hands to find the ground in efforts to warm up. The double lines of my hamstrings draw down towards the floor in a stretch. Then they begin to run. As I jog around the space to try and get warm I am acutely aware of my potential to collide with Sin-Mae Chung’s clay hand which holds in a delicate balance a spoon. So I make my tracks small at first, staying near the centre of the room.

Wanting to grow accustomed to the space that I am to perform in, I start to look back at the other art works and at one point pause standing in front of Charles Olsen’s video poem Kimono Rojo. The black ink of calligraphy spreads across the screen and I find a parallel with what I am about to do: Delineate One; a solo movement study with black paint and canvas. I watch the film for a few minutes, letting

Reflections on Delineate Oneby Juanita Jelleyman

it imprint itself on my memory so that I can re-member it through my body and movement later: Curation.

It is 5.30pm and performance time. I have entered the space again, this time ready to leave the marks. I have the image of a bird gently unfolding her wings and this gallery is now my nest. I scoop a sweep of wet paint into one hand. It sits along the side ridge of my palm; a backbone of sorts. This arc then meets the canvas with a deliberate press: hand on the wall - a first touch. It is a landmark. From here I travel. I move for about half an hour swept along by

Review

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trajectories of black lines left on the walls, my clothing and skin left as trails of where I have been. I am caught in a process of remembering, revisiting, revising and redirecting these marks.

It is about 6.30pm. I re-enter the space and the crowd of people attending the gallery opening has diffused somewhat. I have tried my best to scrub the black paint from my body but marks remain. Walking back to the canvas I stand for a moment and look at the painting that hangs and am confronted with a history; this is where I have been. Paint has even reached beyond the edges of the canvas and on to the walls. I am carrying the top that is also marked with this history; in movement and black paint, and just now I reach up to hang it on

a coat hanger that is waiting to hold it on my behalf. This top will hang here, present in my absence, for the rest of the exhibition and for the following three days, left of the door as you enter the space, remains a sketch of my body’s presence.

Performance Installation by Juanita Jelleyman Delineate One 2012

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I was lucky to meet Bernie and Donna when I rented a studio at Corban Estate. There was often a lot of activity in Bernie and Donna’s studio, with a good amount of humor and banter going on. Their door was always open, so it was not long before we became friends and I had the pleasure of helping out with a few of Donna’s all-nighters. Both artists have a healthy dose of creative energy running through their veins and are very proactive artists with a sound local presence. The ever expanding collection of objects in their studio affirms their ongoing research and exploration of what life has to offer as well as acting as a display setting for some of their works.

Bernie and Donna became partners in 1996 and have continued to inspire and support each other as their family has grown and their art projects have expanded. There is nothing done by half by these two artists, and it is obvious they are in for the long haul – especially when the family are brought in to help for the bigger projects.

E: [email protected]

Bernie Harfleet& Donna SartenArtists

Both Bernie and Donna are socio-political artists and share a passion for what they do and what their art is saying. Their artworks, whether painting, installation, sculpture or photography, are a physical manifestation of what they think, believe and understand to be ethical and moral issues confronting humanity.

Bernie’s school years were full of ambition to be an artist and this was supported by his teachers, who included Christine Heller. His fifth form art teacher and he clashed with the effect of altering that early ambition. After leaving school Bernie directed community theatre in West Auckland, and then in Auckland city at the Maidment Theatre, Auckland University (including directing Rena Owen – New Zealand’s own Beth from Once for Warriors).

It was not until Dean Buchanan, in a chance meeting, politely obliged Bernie with the gift of his used tubes of paint that Bernie started making art again. Hanging out with Dean in his studio resulted in hours of good

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bantering and lots of painting. It was this that kick started Bernie back into the realm of art making. Summer School at Elam with Michael Sheppard was a logical next move, resulting in Bernie painting heavily for the next 5 years, influenced by Buchanan.

In comparison, Donna was not thinking about art, instead her focus was survival. Once she became a mother, Donna fed creativity into her life by helping her children, including one with a disability, to learn, live and love. There was little time for her own creativity until Bernie came on the scene.

With Manukau Polytechnic expanding out to West Auckland through Rutherford College, Donna signed up for the foundation year of her BVA in photography. She followed with her 2nd and 3rd year at Manukau to gain her BVA majoring in sculpture and then went on to complete her MFA at Elam.

At their studio space at Corban Estate Art Centre, Bernie and Donna inspire each other and those that have studios alongside them. They both are very multi-disciplinary and are always looking beyond the flat surface for avenues of multi-creation, with both of them having at least 3 or 4 projects on the

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go at once. With a strong local presence in West Auckland they have won a number of awards both locally and further afield. Bernie won the Harkness Henry Best Sculpture Award in 2009 judged by Rob Garrett and Penelope Jackson. Donna was joint winner of the Waikato Contemporary Award in 2004, with the Waikato Trust buying her work. In 2011, she went on to win the Number 8 Wire Award. Both artists belong to the Habeas Corpus Artist Collective International along with Jude Nye and Dusty Rabjohn.

Both artists are adopted, although their experience of adoption was somewhat different. Their upcoming exhibition Norm & Noeleen is a response to Bernie’s now deceased adoptive father, Norm (photographed in Black & White) and Donna’s adoptive mother Noeleen (photographed in colour). The photos talk about Norm and Noeleen’s journey and the restrictions that can come with aging and

suffering from aliments such as cancer and dementia, while trying to hold onto your independence. These are personal stories that address universal themes too often not talked about. While the photographs only ever show Norm or Noeleen, each photographer is ever present, and a second story is told, that of the adult children and families of the elderly and the difficult task they face to do right by both their parents and themselves.

Norm & Noeleen opens Thursday 31st May, 6pm at Corban Estate as part of the Auckland Festival of Photography and runs

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from 1st June to 8th July 2012. To coincide with the exhibition PhotoForum New Zealand will be publishing a members only publication, MoMento, with images from these collections.

By Selene Simcox

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Norm & Noeleen 1 June – 8 July 2012

Bernie Harfleet & Donna Sarten

Part of the Auckland Festival of PhotographyOpening night Thursday 31 May, 6pmCorban Estate

Floor Talk with artists and Rob GarrettSat 16 June 1-2pmArt Gallery, Corban Estate

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Fine Art Giclée Paper & Canvas Printing

Full Range of Archival Fine Art Papers

RetouchingStudio Photography & Drum Scanning

162 Railside Avenue, Henderson , Auckland, New Zealand • (09) 836-8567 • [email protected] • www.phreon.co.nz

Fine Art &PhotographyReproduction & Capture

Phreon Creative is a state-of-the-art digital imaging studio, purpose-built to produce Fine Art & Photo prints, working alongside Artists to ensure the highest of quality.

Bernie and Donna use Phreon for all their printing needs.

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Photography, as we know it, was invented to mimetically reproduce the world as image/picture. When we are faced with an image that severely abstracts the world so as to make it unrecognisable we are still compelled to understand what it is of and how it was made because of this fundamental expectation of photography to show the world. If this doesn’t become apparent, we wonder if we can trust the image or how valid the intention behind the creation of the image is, as if, perhaps, a photograph has no right to exist that does not validate the world we know visually.

This link to the world is a vital aspect of photography that I venerate and expand upon in my work, yet I have come to realise that my images simultaneously challenge the parameters of what is expected and what is acceptable of a photograph. This is not so much deliberate as it is an outcome of where my passion lies in what I am photographing for I am interested in how the camera can translate light to form within the influence of the world, rather than how it translates the world to image through light.

A way to enter my work is to re-engage with

M: 021 257 1112E: [email protected]: tracyporteous.com (goes live mid May 2012)

Tracy PorteousArtist

the word ‘photography’. A translation of this can be ‘light writing’. As an artist my work revolves around the broad theme of how light gives form. As a photographic artist I intensify this by attempting to photograph light itself. This becomes a conceptual proposition because light does not stop to hold a pose for me – it remains diaphanous, omnipotent and elusive. I cannot move or separate light from the world in visual terms and it is the determination to fracture this binary to some degree that has caused me to build an unorthodox methodology based on performative movement, (referencing the constant and phenomenal speed of light), while still using standard DSLR camera equipment to capture light energy in the traditional fashion of in-camera, in one shot.

My images are therefore made from light in the world – the world ‘out there’ where cameras have been pointed for over a hundred and seventy years of photographic history. They are not meant to explain the world, but to offer new visual information as an alternative proposition to what we expect, engaging our imagination in the effort of considering them. My work marks and indexes passages of light in its

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interaction with the world in order to return emphasis back to our own connection to light through the direct interface that is the genius of photography. Who is to say that my images don’t exist? Not the camera.

Perhaps photography sits in a nexus between ideas of what reality might be? – the definition that is afforded through the description of the mundaneity of the world and that of the unfolding theories of science that photo technology can access. Light gives form and we make meaning from this according to the limitations of our

Tracy Porteous Kaipara 9915, 10-04-2010 Photograph [archival inkjet print on 308gsm Hahnemuhle paper stock] 900 x 1300cmm

physiology and perceptual engineering. My proposition is that the camera can reach in between mundaneity and science, accessing a slippage zone that our own eyes do not have the talent to locate or our brains to process. My challenge for a viewer is in accepting my work as the photographs that I believe they are – light writing a different translation of environment through a generative form of photography.

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Tracy Porteous Rarotonga 7616, 07-31-2011 Photograph [archival inkjet print on 308gsm Hahnemuhle paper stock] 900 x 1300mm

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Tracy Porteous Kaipara 9687, 10-03-2010 Photograph [archival inkjet print on 308gsm Hahnemuhle paper stock] 900 x 1300mm

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Tracy Porteous Melbourne 8566, 08-15-2011 Photograph [archival inkjet print on 308gsm Hahnemuhle paper stock] 900 x 1300mm

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Have you heard of...?

www.andrewsalgado.com

Salgado exhibits internationally and lives and works in London, UK. His work is an exploration of the concept of masculinity and the properties of his chosen medium – oil, but at times his practice also incorporates video, text, sculpture, performance and paper-based work. Salgado’s work is a vivid exploration of mark making, abstraction and figuration in the spirit of Cecily Brown.

Andrew Salgado

www.600x450.blogspot.co.nz

Born in Finland, Korpak is currently a student at Aalto University. Korpak says of her work that she has created “a map of the emotions in everyday life and an investigation [of] the different aspects of life. I balance between facelessness and intimacy, and aim for honesty.” Watch this space!

Helen Korpak

www.lizbrizzi.com

Born in France, to Italian parents, Brizzi grew up in Los Angeles. Brizzi is inspired by urban themes and loves to portray the beauty she captures in the raw and industrial aspects of city life. Her mixed media technique begins with the manipulation of her original photography collaged on to an acrylic painted canvas, finally blended within layers of colourful acrylic washes.

Liz Brizzi

Have you hear of...?

Research plays a vital key in all art practices. Here are some artists I have come across recently:

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www.artisgallery.co.nz

Williams is a very talented abstractionist who has been committed to the international standards of abstract art for over fifty years. Do look up his work!

Mervyn Williams

www.mapplethorpe.org

There is a history that Mapplethorpe has left that still inspires photographers today.

Throughout the 80s, Mapplethorpe produced stylized compositions of male and female nudes, delicate flower still lifes, and studio portraits of artists and celebrities. He introduced and refined different techniques and formats, including color 20” x 24” Polaroids, photogravures, platinum prints on paper and linen, Cibachrome and dye transfer color prints.

Robert Mapplethorpe

www.ronapondick.com

Rona Pondick studied at Yale University School of Art and received her MFA in 1977. She lives and works in New York City and has exhibited internationally as well as being held in numerous public collections. Pondick combines both ancient sculptural methods and the latest 3-D computer technologies to produce a powerful group of sculptures that fuse human and animal bodies or human and flora forms.

Rona Pondick

Have you hear of...?

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www.giulio-iurissevich.com

A self-taught illustrator and graphic designer originally from Pordenone, Italy, Iurissevich’s work – inspired by the tradition of figurative art, balances on the blurred boundaries of illustration and painting and the handcrafted versus computer generated. His work is collage influenced and explores youth, music, fashion and culture.

Giulio Iurissevich

Have you hear of...?

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E: Give us a brief biography - where are you from and how you started as an artist.

TB: I am originally from Southland. My parents are creative themselves, with my father a successful woodworker, and my mother Director at Anderson Park Art Gallery in Invercargill.

I’ve always had an interest in art, but didn’t do anything about it until I was married with a child and living in Blenheim some years later. It’s only now that I have a belief in myself, and know that painting is something that I really want to do.

E: what inspires you to keep going, and how do you keep yourself motivated?

TB: If I’m working on a painting I find that it consumes my thoughts to the stage where I’ll even dream about it. Staying motivated at this point is very easy, because painting is all that I want to do. However, when I have the dreaded ‘painters’ block’, and am experiencing those self-sabotaging moments of frustration and doubt, I will physically remove myself from the studio and do something else. I basically need to ‘get out of my head’, and trust that the difficult phase will pass.

M: 021 142 2297E: [email protected]: taniabostock.co.nz

Tania BostockArtist

Tania Bostock Adorn 2012 Mixed media including pumice on canvas 910 x 1220mm

Interview

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E: What themes do you pursue in your work?

TB: At the moment I enjoy painting artworks that have an ‘industrial’ element to them. They might resemble a corroded metal sign, and I’ll stencil words on that which are significant to me. My favourite part is when I cut into the canvas, lifting it up and adding various paints and mediums to give it a rusted appearance. The other main series of paintings that I do feature the form of a cross. The cross itself is often made to look distressed, and is framed by strong metal-like panels either side.

E: What inspires you?

TB: I am inspired by what I see around me. Tones and textures, light and shadows… and a nice piece of lifting paint on the side of a building!

E: Where do you get your ideas?

TB: I think that these industrial grunge paintings (as someone once referred to them as), started from what they call “a happy mistake”. I now desire to make things look even more ‘grungy’, and find myself drawn not to the beautiful garden in the design magazine, but the rusty old drain cover in the background.

Consciously and subconsciously we’re all taking in images every moment of every waking hour. I am aware of certain things that I am drawn to, but ultimately my ideas come from within.

E: What artists inspire you?

TB: I love the works of NZ born Artists: McCahon, Hotere and Gimblett, and adore paintings by acclaimed artist

Siavash Momeny. Living in Nelson I am also fortunate to cross paths with the some of the talented and wonderful artists that we have here, and I am especially inspired by upbeat friend and artist, Kathryn Furniss, (who encourages me not to take it all so seriously!)

E: What role does research have in your art practice?

TB: Research… I never really considered it to be anything more than ‘something fun to do’, but to give it a name, my research would come in the form of attending gallery

Tania Bostock I 2012 Mixed media on canvas 910 x 1220mm

Interview

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Interview

exhibitions, looking at Home Design magazines, and I’ve just completed an art class with established artist David Ryan. I have also surrounded myself with a lot of friends who are artists themselves, and we tend to bounce ideas off one another.

E: Has your practice changed over time?

TB: I hope so! I’m learning to trust more in the process, and not compare myself to others… (as often!).

E: What is your dream project?

I’m not sure that I have a specific ‘dream project’ at this stage. For me part of my decision to become a painter was that not only could I do what I loved, but I could fit it in around my family and friends. To be able to paint what I really want, for people to Tania Bostock Industrial Series Cross #2 2012 Mixed

media with pumice on canvas 910 x 1220mm

Tania Bostock It’s Always Darkest & Before The Dawn 2012 Mixed media including pumice on canvas 1215 x 455mm

connect with my paintings and validate what I am doing, is truly my bliss. In fact, that is exactly what is happening in my life now.

E: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

I have this little mantra that I often say when I’m painting. “There’s no such thing as a mistake” - (repeated until you believe it!) You can use it if you want!

E: Describe yourself in 5 words:

Now, this is hard! I decided to ask my friends and family to help me out here, which turned out to be very enlightening! I’ve chosen these words from my mother in law. Maybe I should make them my new mantra. Artistic. Talented. Competitive. Determined. Self Sufficient.

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Corner of Grey and Featherston Street, Wellington • Monday - Friday 9am to 6pm, Saturday 10am to 5pm, Sunday 11am to 4pmPh 04 472 3949 • Email [email protected] • Website www.dyrbergkern.co.nz

Tania Bostock’s work is currently on display at Dyrberg/Kern in Wellington.

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Making it in LondonI’m a British artist living in the East End of London, where apparently there are almost as many artists as rats per square metre!

When I was asked to write this article in Gallery 36 I was asked to write a bit about what it is like trying to make it as an artist in England, so I thought I’d just tell you a bit about my career so far and the things I am learning as I start out on this path.

I finished an Artist in Residency at a school outside London last July, initially only a one-year contract, I was asked to stay there for two. The residency changed my life and allowed me the freedom and time to explore my practice. One of the great things about working with young people is all the questions, and this really helped me explore my practice and where it was heading.

I have been back in London now for nine months and it has been a rollercoaster of a learning experience. When I first arrived I was extremely lucky to be introduced to a gallery owner who loved my work and has been exhibiting it both in her gallery and at art fairs in London, New York and Singapore. At the same time I have been organising my own exhibiting as much as possible in different group shows in galleries around London, and taking part in one in California. I have also exhibited in Open Studios

M: 027 487 4870E: [email protected]: beth-nicholas.comW: beth-nicholas.blogspot.com

Beth NicholasArtist

International Emering A

rtistBeth Nicholas Dreaming 2011 Ink 300 x 500mm

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events with my studio provider, which is an increasingly popular way of getting exposure throughout the UK, largely because artists get to exhibit direct to the public and sell without commission. In England artists are often referred to by their geography, a sense of place is important in the UK, for instance “Dorset Artist Annie Taylor” or “Norwich Artist Jenny Leonard” and so opening up your studio and bringing that outside world in really helps with that.

As a career artist you don’t have the luxury of simply focusing on your creative work you have to be constantly proactive, looking out for exhibition opportunities and always thinking about how next to go about marketing your work.

One of the ways of doing this that is becoming increasingly popular is by joining a collective or working in collaboration with another artist, which is a great thing to do and opens up lots of opportunities though the other artists.

I think this would be true for anyone working anywhere in the world, but its definitely true in England: make lots of friends and go to lots of Private Views (but never to drink too much red wine when you’re there)! One of my mantras has been to try and never say no to any possibility for exposure!

So, what is my work about? My work has roots in the Japanese aesthetic of Wabi-Sabi, which when loosely translated looks at exploring the beauty found within transience. I spend hours slowly manipulating the ink to find the right composition and sometimes when it is dry, writing streams of consciousness on top of the work or picking out elements to highlight. The writing for me is very important and as a dyslexic it can at times be a huge struggle, but at other times the thoughts flow and the time flies.

International Emering A

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Top: Beth Nicholas Watching The Storm 2012 Ink 195 x 300mmMiddle: Beth Nicholas Floating High 2012 Ink 210 x 325mmBottom: Beth Nicholas Softly Sifting 2012 Ink 205 x 335mm

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Beth Nicholas Watching You Drift 2011 Ink 255 x 380mm

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Beth Nicholas Hiding 2011 Ink 370 x 460mm

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Enrol in a year long mentoring programmeArtists Anne-Sophie Adelys and Andy Tolhurst have teamed up to offer a year long course to take intermediate level artists to the next step of their arts practice.

‘Realising your potential’ is an exciting year long course providing guidance and mentoring from Tutors and professional arts practitioners, with each term covering one aspect of arts practice. This course encourages artists of any media to develop a professional art practice, create a body

of work and to be better prepared to navigate the arts environment and understand its expectations.

‘Realising Your Potential’ is divided into 4 school terms, classes run in the evenings and some weekends to fit around participants work commitments.

For information about enrolling in the 2012 intake, please email: [email protected]

Realise Your Potential

Realise Your Potential

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After many years of experimenting with paint finishes in my job as an interior and furniture designer, I have became more and more interested in putting some

paint on to canvas. In 2010 I started painting in my garage, attended some classes, and got busy with learning the art of applying paint in an artistic way. I found that I loved it.

This year I enrolled in the Artist Mentoring Program at Corban Estate to get a clearer understanding of artistic processes, and really focus on what my intention is an artist.

I have found that I am very much process driven in my painting practice – I like the actual act of painting. I mainly use oil paints, as I like their viscosity and longer

M: 021 409 404E: [email protected]: moniquelacey.com

Monique LaceyArtist

drying time, which gives me more time to move the paint. I respond to what the paint does by manipulating it with different tools and brushes.

I prefer to work on larger canvasses, which suits my style of abstract and minimalist painting. The more muted earthy tones like Van Dyke Brown, Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna and Yellow Ochre seem to appeal to my senses and make regular appearances in my work. When combined these tones give me a mood to work with and determine the ways in which I move my brushes in response - I look for the accidental texture, and bring intention in my response.

At times my work is more rational and determined – often driven by the world of design and architecture. I am particularly fascinated by line and space and how they interact in balance and contrast. By utilising t-shapes and crosses I try to create a dialogue within the space of the canvas, so my composition is dominated by positive and negative areas.

The two focuses of my work – informal abstract texture and architectural minimalism – come together to create the

Realise Your Potential

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Realise Your Potential

final feeling. They push and pull against each other to find balance and it is these boundaries I search for in each new painting.

Two main artists who continue to inspire me are Mark Rothko and Jean-Michael Basquiat. Rothko’s art stems from a period in Abstract Expressionism that accepted a concentration on the act of painting itself. His often luminous colour palette and thin veils of pigment washed over a canvas in colour fields have an enviable intensity and depth. I am especially drawn to way he layers colours – warm over cool, dark over light.

I have recently started to experiment with text and words in my work and have found Basquiat’s graffiti-style inspirational. His paintings often use words to evoke emotion and feeling in combination with the sense of urgency he creates with his brush strokes.

Alongside my art I have recently started a furniture design business with my daughter. We both have a passion for unique design and found that joining forces to create ‘items of interest’ was the perfect way to bring our ideas to life.

Monique Lacey Junctions 2012 Mixed Media on board 600 x 450mm

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Realise Your Potential

I exhibit regularly throughout the North Island, and have taken part in a number of group shows last year. I also have work in the Red Moa Gallery in Carterton, and Red Art Studio/Gallery in Balclutha. I am currently working on a series of paintings for the Wellington Art Show, where I have fortunately been selected as a single wall artist.

Monique Lacey Dissection 2012 Oil on canvas 750 x 750mm

Monique Lacey Structure 2012 Oil on canvas 1000 x 1000mm

Monique Lacey Urbanite 2012 Oil on canvas 1000 x 1000mm

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Born in Japan, I have been interested in both fine art and digital media since I was young. I first started studying darkroom photography, then carried on my study to RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia) and completed a BA majoring in Photography in 2008. I have always been trying to combine both analog and digital techniques and as a result, I have formed my individual style called Paintagraph. My works are influenced by impressionist paintings and the New Zealand landscape. The textures, colours, shapes and lines in my photographs are the essence of my imagery, and are intended to evoke a response in the viewer to feel the beauty in uncertainness and fragility. My passion for photography and fine art has led me to develop my photographic skills and the conceptual basis of my work. I would like to use photography as a tool to represent nature without words, and emphasize emotional moments in our lives. My series of Paintagraphs consist of two distinct themes:

1.The beauty and sensitivity of the human body where I express the emotions of each individual sitter. My intent is to capture the fragility of the body, while acknowledging

M: 021 289 2809E: [email protected]: aya-photography.com

Aya McKenzieArtist

the strength it also contains. To capture this imagery I have used both analog and digital methods (pinhole and digital SLR camera).

2.Expressive Landscape: For this series, I shot a number of landscapes, including natural and urban areas. Images include buildings, changing weather, the sky and ocean waves that reveal their own particular textures and movements. I like to use landscape as a metaphor for emotions and our place within the environment. I have shot this series in film (6x7) which was then processed digitally. I have lived in Auckland permanently since 2009.

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Aya McKenzie Paintagraph 001-B 2011 Digi-tal print on canvas 762 x 254mm

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Aya McKenzie Paintagraph Beyond 2010 Digital print on canvas 762 x 609.5mm

Aya McKenzie Paintagraph 002 2010 Digital print on canvas 762 x 609.5mm

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Aya McKenzie Paintagraph 001 2010 Digital print on canvas 762 x 609.5mm

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Born and bred in West Auckland Cora-Allan Wickliffe has been enjoying the diversity and calmness that the Waitakere community brings. Her tribal affiliations are Ngapuhi and Tainui and her grandparents villages in Niue are Alofi and Liku. Cora-Allan completed her secondary schooling at Massey High School and later went onto completing a Bachelor in Visual Arts in 2007. After working as a photographer and doing contract work for Auckland City Council in the arts sector she later went on to gaining her teaching qualifications and went to teach Art in the Visual Arts department at Massey High School.

Cora-Allan now is a part of the studio artists at the Corbans Estate Arts Centre and is a young Maori/Niuean practitioner who uses her cultural heritage and interest in indigenous visual arts to develop her focus. With a strong importance placed on representation of Maori content, Cora-Allan works to create dialogue around cultural aesthetics in art as she discovers avenues of conversation through an exploration of techniques.

Strongly influenced by her Niuean grandmothers Tivaevae background Cora-Allan has used this method frequently alongside pyrography etching, Whakairo carving, printmaking and photography. Her broad range of media allows her to engage with opportunities and she is currently working on building her knowledge within collaborative projects.

W: cora-allan.co.nz

Cora-Allan WickliffeArtist

Cora-Allan is currently undergoing her Masters at AUT school of Art and Design and has been working in a Hapai role assisting with undergraduate students. Below is the abstract for her current study focus and outlines the territories she is presently working within.

Cora-Allan Wickliffe Ina TePapatahi 2012 Embroidery cotton on canvas 1219.2 x 1219.2

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This study is guided by a Whakatauki that explores collaboration with a focus on bringing forward indigenous content that fuses with the notion of relational aesthetics, through exploratory means of installation based events and post object making methods. Working with a cultural framework I will be using indigenous concepts of collaborative learning and engagement to initiate how I may implant this substance into an art environment in order for it to be received as a memorable cultural encounter and experience. I intend to provide opportunities for this content to be experienced and to provide an opportunistic space that will allow for transition of knowledge, relationship and cultural exchange to take position in an art context.

“Naku te rourou Nau te rourou ka ora ai te iwi”

Pop Up Series: With your basket and with my basket the people will live

Left: Cora-Allan Wickliffe Protected Pathways 2011 pyrography etching on wood 1800 x 800mm

Cora-Allan Wickliffe Poutama & Taniko Bracelets 2012 pyrography etching on wood

Cora-Allan Wickliffe Taonga 2011 pyrography etching on wood 1000 x 300mm

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I was given a Kodak Instamatic at age 9 and by 16 had graduated to a Canon SLR. In 1965 my father left New Zealand for the

United Kingdom by ship on a teachers exchange for a year. At each port the ship stopped along the way, he would send me a postcard - little cards with images and words, places and people

and memories. These postcards transported me, these cards that would appear in the post like magic, representing people on paper. My father returned home with slides, photographs and diaries of his year in the United Kingdom. This was the start of my lifelong love of photography, not just with images but images with stories behind them.

I found myself drawn to everything that could be captured on film and I have since become more drawn to photographing people. I find I am able to build a fast rapport with my clients enabling me to get behind the real person I am photographing. I am self taught and use only natural light. Unlike many who shoot digitally I do not enhance my images in photoshop. I like to see the real person and in this way am

E: [email protected]

Tracey StevensArtist

more a documenter.

My latest project is The Masks people wear. This project involves people from all walks of life and then I ask them to relate their story to me. To talk about the person behind the mask and what has made them the person they are today. The project was inspired by J. As soon as she told her story I knew what I had to do.

I have exhibited in Sydney at the AddOn Invitation Exhibition last year having been asked for two images and this year I was invited back for a secondary exhibition.

Tracey Stevens Tui Roman, Master Weaver Ruakaka 2011 Digital Print 4000 x 3553mm

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Tracey Stevens His Own Personal Jesus 2012 Digital Print 3456 x 5184mm

Tracey Stevens Its Because You Have a Beauty They Do Not Understand 2010 Digital Print 3900 x 2600mm

Tracey Stevens Joz, Now You Can Walk Tall Unmasked 2012 Digital Print 3120 x 4296mm

Tracey Stevens Fallen Angel 2012 Digital Print 2804 x 3756mm

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Having been fortunate to be in the UK for the Tracy Emin Retrospective in June 2011, I was quite taken by her blankets.

I was amazed that someone can be a) quite so angry and b) so willing to display the tiny intimate details of their life to all and sundry. When you look up close at her blankets there are little snippets of her thoughts, lines from diaries etc. The closer you look the more fascinating they are. They draw you in.

I live and work in Christchurch as a doctor and my trip to the UK was part escape, part recovery for me from the traumatic events of February 2011. (For those of you who don’t know, we had an earthquake - a big one!)

I began making the blanket on my return. I felt quite numb and unable to begin for a long time, what did I have to say? My house is still standing, my job still there, then I saw a postcard with the phrase “You cannot have community without place, and a place without community is only a location” (Coptic Church, Edware Rd, Chch after 4th Sept 2010) and it played on my mind. How true is that? In the rubble of Christchurch, remains its people, and they are the most important.

Blanket ofResponse

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My blanket is the result. For me, blankets mean a wealth of things, warmth, comfort, survival. I decided to use the emails I wrote in the week after the 22nd Feb (unabridged) to family and friends. I’d forgotten the details, that time is all a bit of a blur.

Unlike Emin there are no swear words (I did consider “liquif*ction!) but that’s not my way.

Kia Kahaha (sic) is my only reference to the frustration and helplessness I feel when thinking of the future. It simply isn’t going to be easy to stay strong and rise up.

Most of the symbols will mean something to anyone living here, the circles are the symbols for the dreaded land zones. 7032 is the number of aftershocks, but these had increased by one before I’d even finished sewing the numbers! So I had to change it. Currently at over 10,000.

“Strange times indeed”, is a line from a song I think, written by a Lyttelton band, I’m afraid I can’t remember the exact song, but it stuck in my mind. These times, past and present in post EQ Chch, certainly are strange times.

By Kay Joyce [email protected]

Kay Joyce My Blanket 2011 Fleece, felt and laser printed cotton 101.6 x 1168.3mm

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Ariane of smARTist: http://smartistcareerblog.com/aboutsmARTist Interest List: http://bit.ly/smARTistILmainsmARTist Telesummit: http://smartist.com/live-telesummit/2012OR - http://bit.ly/smARTistILmainsmARTips: http://smartist.com/live-telesummit/weekly-smartips

I’m Ariane of smARTist and I’ve been passionate about artists since I was a toddler tripping out on the cliffs of Big Sur, California while my artist mother held her breath hoping I wouldn’t fall into the Pacific before she could get to me.

These days, I hang out on the smARTist® cliffs, soaking in the sweet salt air of artists who love what they do in the studio, and feel just a bit lost when they come out.

For the last six years I’ve been running the only professional development, art career conference for visual fine artists, the smARTist Telesummit, coaching private clients so they can fast

Hi! –

In the December 2011 issue, I offered smARTips to encourage you to use your collector connections to sell your art.

Then I challenged you to reach out to one of your best collectors and invite them to reconnect or even buy something from you again.

So, tell me -> [email protected]

did you take the challenge?

I sure hope so, because keeping the lines of connection open between you and the collectors who love your work has to be your first priority. Everyone is too busy these days to think of connecting on their own, so it’s up to you to open the door to continue these relationships.

Today’s series of smARTips focuses on three areas that can hold you back from the success you deserve: the “just right” fit, a favorites and pricing mismatch, and the glue that holds it all together—self-worth.

smARTipsby Ariane Goodwin, Ed.D

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smARTip #1: Focus on Where Your Art Fits

Do you avoid doing research about potential placements for your art because it feels like a waste of precious marketing minutes?

Take a deep breath.

Doing homework will save you time and frustration.

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Just about everybody has had the experience of chasing the wrong thing. You know, you devote energy to attracting a certain guy, gal, job, or relationship—only to find that you’ve wasted your time, because it was the wrong guy, gal, job, or relationship.

Spare your art this tragic fate. Focus on the fit.

Chasing recognition and representation from places where your work doesn’t fit ends up being a self-fulfilling prophecy that can lead you to the erroneous conclusion that your art doesn’t fit anywhere.

Make sure that the gallery, agent, or director whose attention you’re chasing after is the gallery, agent, or director whose attention your art really merits. Even if three of your closest friends have been successful, it still doesn’t mean it’s a good fit for your work.

You want a “yes” to these 3 basic questions:

smA

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Three April smARTipsTM

forward their art careers, and developing information, inspiration, and insight for artists who want to bridge the gap between making art and making a living.

(OMG The 6th Annual conference rocked out, seriously! Did you miss it? We had international participation, from North America, to Russia, to New Zealand. The good news? We’ve bundled it all up for you in a very cool Home Study Edition, so you get all 13 presentations in audio format, written transcriptions, plus the bonuses!)

Click here for more info -> www.smARTist-Telesummit.com

I also write a free weekly newsletter - smARTips™ - offering you one tip a week, which sculptor Kevin Caron tells me are “scintillating, practical insights that really help my career.”

Here in Gallery36, I’ll be pulling together a series of three of my best tips for each issue. Enjoy… then go forth and thrive!

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1. Is your genre of art already represented?

2. Is your subject matter, technique/style, or concept unique from the other artists in this venue?

3. Is the venue run by people you respect and like?

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Your smARTist® Move on smARTip1:

If you lust after representation by a certain gallery or agent, take a cool look at whether it’s a good fit for your work.

Make a list of three other galleries, agents, or directors who would be good alternatives and pay attention to your gut about which is the best option to pursue.

*****

smARTip #2: Don’t Play Favorites With Pricing

Is your pricing based on how you feel about individual pieces?

Take emotion out of the equation.

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It’s completely natural to like some pieces of your work more than others. Maybe you found a new edge to play on—or maybe you just had a really good week in your studio.

Whatever the reason, a piece can have a certain something that speaks to your heart—making it a little harder to think about moving it into someone else’s space.

Don’t use a higher price as a way to hang onto it. Mark it ‘sold’ instead.

Savor it. Sit and meditate on your creation. Most importantly, use it as a tool for re-evaluating your pricing and your portfolio.

If you decide to raise the price (10% a year is recommended), then raise the prices on all similar pieces.

Or, if it’s groundbreaking work, keep it until you have more to offer in the same price range.

Let your favorite piece guide you to a new way of being an artist.

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Your smARTist® Move on smARTip2:

This week, spend some time considering a piece that you think is worth more than the others.

What qualities distinguish it from similar works?

Consider the possibility that the differences are only in your eyes—that a potential buyer would find them all equally valuable.

If you don’t have any similar work, what elements can you focus on in your studio to make more art that you like just as much?

*****

smARTip #3: Feed Your Sense of Artistic Self-Worth

Sometimes, you might wonder if you have what it takes to be a real artist. Especially if you haven’t heard anything positive about your art lately. Or maybe ever.

Take heart… and come out of the dark closet of self-doubt.

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Praise and recognition feel great. Who doesn’t love a few pats on the back?

The problem comes when you peg your self-worth as an artist on what other people say about your work—and who’s saying it. Sure, your first cousin loves your art, but she’s supposed to, right?

Make art that’s praiseworthy in your own eyes. If you create work that you truly like, revel in the enjoyment. If you create art that satisfies you, be grateful.

If you receive kudos along the way, good for you! Accept them graciously and enjoy the experience. (And remember, your first cousin just might want to buy that piece…)

The opinions of others matter, of course…but so much less when you keep the focus on how you feel about your art.

Satisfy yourself in your competence at the skill level, the execution level, your authentic fingerprint

level, and self-worth will naturally come along for the ride.

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Your smARTist® move on smARTip3:

Which recent creation gives you the most pleasure?

Try standing right in front of that piece for a couple of minutes, and give yourself permission to feel your gratitude for the experience of creating it.

*****

Now that you have some specific ways to keep egg off your face, and feel good about yourself at the same time, here’s this month’s challenge for you: Find one area where you know you can increase your level of competence, then do it.

Then pop me over an email and tell me what happened once your level of competence increased. Every once in a while, an extra idea pops into my head that I can share with you -> [email protected]

BTW, check out the Home Study Edition of our 6th annual, professional development conference. The artists who came had a lot to say, like this one …

“Once again, you pulled together a fabulous group of speakers – diverse and brilliant. Listening to the presentations and panel discussions was wonderfully informative and inspiring. LOVE that Eden Maxwell!!!

As I sift through my notes today, I am finding that my ideas about my art and myself as an artist are crystallizing into a clear, authentic me. I’m excited to continue on this journey – renewed and reinvigorated by your marvelous conference.” ~ Donna Blair

More details here -> www.smARTist-Telesummit.com

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By Rae Pleasant

Robyn Kahukiwa’s Hina:Super Woman, Super Hero

Maumahara: Remember is the retrospective exhibition of the artwork of Robyn Kahukiwa at the Mahara Gallery from 26 February to 29 April 2012.

Kahukiwa is known today as a leading contemporary, female Maori artist1. She has also written and illustrated highly acclaimed children’s books about Maori culture2. The feminisms manifest in the Maori female protagonist, Hina, featured in the 2000 children’s book Supa Heroes/Te Wero! by Kahukiwa are revisited with the present exhibition in which painted images of Hina are included. The power of propagation in cartoon and the implications of females represented in the superhero comic genre are great. These genres are at times parallel or synonymous with Hina as a

major contribution to both fields.

Born in 1940 in Australia, Kahukiwa began training as a commercial designer with the Adelaide News in South Australia as a young woman. She did not attend formal art school and was largely self-taught, but her exposure to commercial design proved to

be an influential foundation to her technique as a cultural artist. “Commercial training taught me how to use a brush. The practice of retouching type proofs made my hand really steady. Other benefits of design practice come in handy when I’m doing book illustrations” said Kahukiwa in a 2004 interview

in the book Touching the Sky. She arrived in New Zealand at the age of 19, returning to the land of her maternal ancestors after

Figure 1 Robyn Kahukiw A Supa Hero 1999 Oil on canvas, 1290 x 2060 mm

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embracing her not so distant Maori lineage. In 1967 Kahukiwa, then a housewife, began to paint as a means to explore her newly awakened Maori heritage. Painting also allowed her to express herself more creatively than she felt was permissible in advertising work and break the monotony she felt in the suburbs. She was influenced by and experimented with differing painterly styles from pre-existing eras and movements to depict various themes from Maori culture. There were a few however, that directly influenced her illustrative works. Kahukiwa states that she turned to French artist Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) and the flat, decorative style of the Symbolists as a template for depicting indigenous bodies3. Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), paralleled Kahukiwa in many ways and served as a major inspiration. Kahlo was also of mixed heritage and strongly identified with indigenous Mexican culture. She was politically active during the creation of modern Mexico as Kahukiwa was active in contemporary Maori matters. Kahlo taught herself to paint while she was isolated and healing after a near fatal bus accident which somewhat parallels Kahukiwa’s self instruction during a period of relative isolation. With Paintings full of personal symbols and references to Mexican folk art4, Kahlo’s approach was used by Kahukiwa as she depicted females in Maori mythology along with using 1960’s Op Art sensibilities and Surrealist habits. When in NYC, Robyn saw the work of Alison Saar,

the African-American sculptor most known for her reworking of the ‘Aunt Jemima’ caricature in sculptural collage. Afterward, Kahukiwa produced her first sculpture

by using similar collage techniques. The printmaking studio of African-American Robert Blackburn influenced her to create with a more global audience in mind5. In 1984 she was given a book about an ancestral house in Tokomaur Bay carved by Pine Taiapa (1901-1972). Taiapa, regarded New Zealand’s most influential carver, resonated most deeply with Kahukiwa. “Pine Taiapa’s carved image of my ancestor, Te Ao Mihia, radically changed my art” said Kahukiwa in the 2004 interview. From then on she began painting the

human form with the same technique and composition as a traditional Maori figural wood carving6.

From 1972 to 1982 she taught art at Mana College in Porirua, New Zealand and this linked her to young students many from which she noticed poverty and low self-esteem7. It is here perhaps, that subliminally the inception of a target audience and subject matter for her children’s super hero stories begin to take shape. In 1999 Kahukiwa painted an image of a female Maori woman leaping balletically through the air dressed for action titled A Supa Hero. Her name was Hina. In 2000, expanding from that single image, Kahukiwa created and self published the te reo Maori children’s book Supa Heroes /Te Wero! The

Figure 2 Robyn Kahukiw Hina 2000 (from the book Supa Heroes/Te Wero!)

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book debuted at a reading at the Rotorua Primary School to a thrilled audience. Hina and her twin brother Maui form a pair of fictional, contemporary Maori super heroes who star in the book.8 The Maori word hine broadly translates in English to female while hina translates to grey haired or grey in colour. Additionally, Hina is the name of the personification of the moon, combining the two ideas of each word. The word Mauī generally translates to ‘left hand side’ while Māui is the name of a feat performing Polynesian character. The book is written in the Maori language emphasising the importance of instilling and preserving the Maori language in youth.

By creating a male and female character she is immediately representing and catering to both sexes at once. They are not the archenemies of one another; one is not foe while the other is hero. Both are on the side of good. By making them related kin as opposed to colleagues any sexual tension or potential between the characters is eliminated. By making them māhanga, or twins, she is adding another dimension. Twins often display a seemingly ‘super natural’ bond between them and this twin bond symbolizes a strength stronger than the taboos of incest. The super hero twins are equal in many ways; one is not older, stronger, or bigger; they are level in abilities. For children at play there is a strong respect, cooperation, and friendly coexistence between the sexes when pretending within these roles and emulating these characters. She has not created an arch enemy with which they fight against there is no identifiable antagonist. Instead of a never ending epic battle, the costuming, symbolism and personas themselves are the focus. It is traditional

comic book material in the packaging of a children’s book. Rather than conforming to the world and format of the comics, Kahukiwa cares more about the concept as a whole and transmitting the idea of superhero. Later, she had action figures fabricated portraying the two characters. Her grandchildren grew up playing with action figures and Barbies imported from the United States9 thus Kahukiwa felt it was important that they had figural toys that reflected their own Maori heritage for a balance of representation in their world.

While the book and toys were inspired by her own grandchildren, the target audience is young Maori caught between tradition and urbanisation.10 When Maori girls look at Hina, Kahukiwa wants them to feel culturally connected, empowered, and represented. She also wants non-Maori children to be impacted by the universal themes. They are intended to be role models that challenge social stereotypes and artistic boundaries. Hina specifically is not just a character for girls but one for boys as well. She is teaching boys something about becoming men; about how to respect a woman’s strength and contribution. The child participates in the world of the book by identifying with and bonding to the characters, places, and scenes of the tale.11 The vividness, excitement and vitality of the graphic expression are enjoyed by a child at their own level12 making the absorption of information more organic. Such images have the power to capture the attention of the newly literate thus becoming highly influential.13 The intertwined combination of words and pictures guide the viewer in their interpretation. In the design of a character, easily recognisable traits help to create consistency in identification.14 While

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Hina’s costume changes slightly across the paintings and the book, the most iconic messages and attributes remain present. Cartoons, and subsequently comics and children’s books, have been historically used as tools of propaganda because they are attention grabbing and retaining. They are defined by their visual simplification and abridged text which makes their messages accessible and understandable; memorable and direct. Propaganda was originally a neutral term and concept meant to encourage a particular response or instil a particular attitude in the receiver of the message.15 The nature of the message is what makes propaganda dangerous or progressive. Hina’s messages both subliminal and overt regarding positive female Maori representation, female assertiveness, and notions of womanhood are propaganda to both boys and girls as

they read, admire and role play.

The images did not stay in the realm of children, they have been exhibited in leading contemporary art galleries as well. In 2001 curator Giles Peterson organized the exhibition Mauri Ora!, which toured nine New Zealand cities. It was the first nationwide solo show in Aotearoa of Kahukiwa’s art since the initial Wahine Toa exhibition in 1981. The exhibition theme was a journey of whakapapa through time, identity and pride. A Supa Hero installation was included in this exhibition. Two plain white banners depicting Māui and Hina respectively straddled a pair of their action figure dolls which bracketed a full body mirror. The reflection of the viewers was meant to cast them as heroes. Viewers were also meant to photograph themselves next to the banners and dolls, then provide

written comments regarding the work.16 The original 1999 painting of Hina was included alongside this set up. The Warwick Henderson Gallery presented the exhibition Robyn Kahukiwa-Superheroes in 2007 displaying ten works Kahukiwa created that same year, of which six were solo portrayals of Hina.17 These large scale paintings of Hina are stand alone works of art serving as a spring board to the super hero cycle while bridging the character illustrations to serious art concepts that fully explore Maori feminisms. In the

Figure 3 Robyn Kahukiwa Kaitiaki Hina 2007 9 colour Silk Screen Ed.30, 770 x 560 mm

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initial 1999 image, A Supa Hero, Hina holds a pounamu in one hand and a baby in the other. See Figure 1. The lining of her cape, as well as the background, is the flag of the Maori independence movement designed in 1990 which the artist was given special permission to replicate. The flag is said to be included to represent homage to Maori women past, present, and future.18 With negative outlines and heavy matte colour to fill the shapes, the proportions of the figure are also more natural in comparison to many of her other works. As Kahukiwa is a chameleon of style, her 1999 painting of Hina is akin to depictions of 20th century comic book heroines. Hina as portrayed in the 2000 book is also as precise in form and stying as the original painting, however, her costume varies and she compares in execution to mainstream cartoon characters. See Figure 2. Additionally, Kahukiwa uses the techniques which are the cornerstone of her artistic style while depicting the supporting characters in the book because the Gods that guide the heroes on their journey are styled after traditional Maori figural wood carvings. The style and execution of her 2007 painting series is much less defined than the 1999 image or the book illustrations. However, the format is closer to comic books with cells and word bubbles. Kaitiaki Hina is the title of the front piece to the series and it again features a solo depiction of Hina with weapon and baby attributes. The 2007 series reverts back to her figural stylings found in the Voices series in which kahukiwa overlaid graffiti like lettering over flat and oddly proportioned bodies. Because of this, the painting has a contemporary quality with less of a commercial tone and it is also not without movement and physicality. See Figure 3. Because Kahukiwa was an established

and recognised artist before the creation of the characters, it gives further artistic legitimacy to the comic character and to the genre of the cartoon. Her graphic design background is not only apparent but serves as the backbone of the entire concept. The character of Hina represents effective design and a concise, easily recognisable package with visual and conceptual accessibility which are the standards of any successful cartoon to directly communicate their message.

Perhaps Hina was the artist’s intended focus for the cycle all along for relaying a feminist message and offering an alternative companion for girls. In this, Māui is created in fairness, as a balance and pendant. This notion is evidenced by the fact that the first painted solo image of Hina was released before the publication of the book or the introduction of a storyline and other characters. The idea that one translation of his name is ‘to the left hand side’ further symbolises this concept. In the books, Hina is always depicted on the viewer’s right. As the eye reads beginning from the left, moving to the right, it rests on Hina. Within the context of the female comic or cartoon cannon, Hina is unique. She is certainly the alternative to Western European or so inspired fairy tale characters such as classic or even contemporary Disney princesses. Hina, and other female superheroes, differs from a fairytale princess by the comparatively grounded logic that guides their actions and the active roles they play in their own destiny. For Hina, in being equivalent to the male counterpart and by not having a love interest, the female audience is focused on Hina herself and not Hina measured against or validated by a male. Adventure comics from Western

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Europe and the U.S. beginning in the 1930s onward, were inspired chiefly by mythological and folk figures taken from various nations reinterpreted with predominately European male protagonists. In this, the female superhero has the potential to be a sideline character. Alternatively, because the female superhero challenges the machismo comic book world of power, justice, and idealism, Hina also becomes a feminist symbol.19 Many essays label the Supa Heroes to be in the style of Batman or Superman and Wonder Woman. While Māui is hardly similar to either of the former, Hina is in many ways parallel and contrastable to Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman was the first widely known, modern female superhero and created on the idea of the mythological Amazon woman.20 The name Amazon derives from the Greek words meaning ‘without breast’ because the Amazon women removed their right breast to better handle the heavy bow used in ancient warfare. But voluntary sacrifice of a breast for military prowess also meant sacrificing the distinctively female role of maternal nurturer. Due to the ontological affiliation of Wonder Woman to the desexualised Amazon, Frederic Wertham, the Freudian critic of the comic genre, called the character a lesbian and a “frightening image” for boys while being a “morbid ideal” for girls. The wonder of Wonder Woman was her proactive, stereotypical masculine abilities despite being a female. Yet the natural female wonder is the capacity to bear and nurse children, precisely the abilities that Amazons were lacking.21

That Hina holds both a naked baby and a fierce weapon means she pesonifies notions of superhero female wonder and natural female wonder at the same time. The baby

was said by Kahukiwa to embody the future generations of Maori yet it also serves to associate Hina with the deity Hine teiwaiwa; guardian of children, model wife and moth-er.22 Hina insinuates strength and indepen-dence to the young female viewer without sidelining the importance of the female as life giver and care taker. Young girls can as-pire to be both mother and modern warrior.

There is much potential for these characters, something Kahukiwa was aware of from the beginning. For the last ten years she has been trying to get major companies to turn the characters into a widely available product. It would seem that the Supa Heroes were Kahukiwa’s life work. However, the project is not perceived as cashing in on a gap in the children’s market, but as an extension to Kahukiwa’s artistic theories and goals. She has created a Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Maui-and-Hina-Maori-Supa-Hero-Action-Figures) for the characters to generate a following and has persuaded a U.S. manufacturing company to produce a small number of the dolls which can be ordered via the page. The idea of the Supa Hero has been established but the marketable miniature world has yet to be realised. Follow up books, comic book series, graphic novel, animated series, live action movie, toys, or off-shooting storylines are not unattainable due to the quality of the characters, setting and storyline set-up. It could fit into a pre-existing children’s market in the Pacific Ocean and the world. They have the power to be universal while staying true to Maori customs because they are from a traditionally rooted and distinct cultural group. These experiences are worldwide and families may feel a connection to the idea of having a brown complexioned representative for their

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Footnotes1 Kahukiwa, Robyn. 2000. Supa-Heroes: te wero. Rotorua, N.Z.: Mauri Tu Ltd. 3.2 Kahukiwa, Robyn, Angela Vreede, and Helen Pearson. 2004. Touching the Sky: the art of Robyn Kahukiwa. Whangaparaoa, N.Z.: Interactive Education. 5.3 Ibid. 2, p. 6.4 Ibid. 2, p. 7.5 Ibid. 2, p. 8.6 Ibid. 2, p. 4-5, 8, 11-12.7 Ibid. 2, p. 5.8 Kahukiwa, Robyn. 2001. Mauri Ora! Rotorua, Aotearoa, N.Z.: Mauri Tu Ltd. 7.9 Tahana, Yvonne. 11 April 2011. “Super Nan keen to market Maori dolls.” New Zealand Herald. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10718437.10 Kahukiwa, Robyn. 2001. Mauri Ora! Rotorua, Aotearoa, N.Z.: Mauri Tu Ltd. 4. 11 Klemin, Diana. 1966. The Art of Art for Children’s Books; a contemporary survey. New York: C.N. Potter. 15.12 Ibid. 11, p. 17.13 Carrier, David. 2000. The Aesthetics of Comics. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. 108.14 Strómberg, Fredrik. 2010. Comic Art Propaganda: a graphic history. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin. 14.15 Ibid. 14, 9.16 Kahukiwa 2001, p. 4, 7, 38. 17 “Supa Heroes for my Mokopuna.” 2007. Panui Tangatawhenua Rangikainga 17. http://panui.tangatawhenua.com/rangikainga/2007/issue17.htm.18 Kahukiwa 2001, p. 6.19 Robinson, Lillian S. 2004. Wonder Women: feminisms and superheroes. New York: Routledge. 7.20 Ibid. 19.21 Ibid. 19, p. 14-15.22 Exhibitions: Robyn Kahukiwa-Superheroes. Warwick Henderson Gallery, 2007. http://www.warwickhenderson.co.nz/exhibition/superheroes/.23 Kahukiwa et al. 2004, p. 10.24 In the context of this essay, terms such as mythology or legend are used with respect to tradition and the people practicing the religion that those narratives belong. 25 Kahukiwa et al. 2004, p. 4.

children which trumps being partial to one that specifically represents their demographic. This can be seen in a variety of genres such as Disney’s African-American Princess Tiana, Nickelondeon’s Mexican-American Dora the Explorer and her cousin Diego, or Disney owned Marvel Comics’ newest incarnation of Spider-Man Ultimate, the Afro-Latino Miles Morales.

Much of the feminist ideals and messages of Kahukiwa’s art are wrapped in the symbol of Hina and transmitted in the book Supa Heroes/Te Wero!: in her painted solo portrayals, Hina serves as iconography and in the context of the stories and dolls she is in tangible form. Though her own grandchildren were the inspiration, the children of New Zealand are reflected in the heroes. Within the canon of female super heroines, Hina is unique in her embodiment of both idealised fantasy and attainable reality. Kahukiwa had a long-standing practice of portraying women from Maori tradition and she recognised that in many legends around the world women had the risk of being portrayed as secondary in their contribution and importance.23 As stated before, she pulled from Surrealism, Kahlo and Op Art to depict legendary women in paintings.24 In the instance of Hina however, she is taking the same subject matter and placing it in a new, active and graphic context. Hina resides not in the trippy subconscious but in the deliberate projections of the self via character creation. In the words of Kahukiwa herself “Each person is somebody; there is a hero within all of us.”25

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the Arts Council of New Zealand, Toi Aotearoa. Ibid. 2000. Supa-Heroes: te wero. Rotorua, N.Z.: Mauri

Tu Ltd. Ibid. 2001. Mauri Ora! Rotorua, Aotearoa, N.Z.: Mauri Tu

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Ministry of Education. Maui: A Pacific Super Hero. http://artsonline2.tki.org.nz/resources/units/maui/section4.php

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New Zealand Children’s Book Foundation. 2000. 100 Contemporary New Zealand Children’s Writers and Illustrators. [Auckland, N.Z.]: New Zealand Children’s Book Foundation.

Robbins, Trina. 1996. The great women super heroes. Northampton, Mass: Kitchen Sink Press.

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