The quiet wave

Maori and Pasifika artists are at the heart of a new movement that is having its moment, and one gallery is leading the charge.

- SARAH DANIELL

Nancy is at the door. An older Pākehā woman, she has called into the Tim Melville Gallery in central Auckland to discuss a group visit to the exhibition Mind That Māori. “I came to look. But I’m a bit intimidated by the Māori at the entrance,” she says.

“Good,” Tim Melville replies quietly, with a gentle laugh. Melville (Te Arawa, Te Atiawa) is not setting out to intimidate anyone. He says his gallery is a conduit to the artists who will “show us the way”.

Showing us the way at the entrance is the “intimidating” sculpture in question, Kaitiaki: an angular warrior in cast bronze, about a metre high, proud on his plinth. The sculptor, Chris Bailey (Ngāti Hako, Ngāti Paoa, Te Aupōuri, Ngāti Porou), was one of 12 Māori artists in the show that ran in February and March.

Mind That Māori, the work that inspired the title of the group exhibition, is a crocheted statement in black and white by Lissy Robinson-Cole (Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Kahu) and Rudi Robinson-Cole (Ngāti Paoa, Ngāruahine, Ngāti Makirangi, Ngāti Tu, Te Arawa). It’s in stark contrast to their vast neon wool sculpture Wharenui Harikoa (House of Joy) that attracted more than 40,000 people in 100 days to Waikato Museum recently. “‘Mind’ that Māori or ‘watch out for’?” asks Melville. The art may be black and white wool, but interpretation lies in the grey area. “You’re seduced into wanting to touch it and find out what it is because it’s so lovely, soft, gentle, and then you receive the message almost by osmosis.

“We are brought together by artists doing their job.”