Haere mai! Please join us on Saturday 21 May to celebrate the closing of
Ata koia!
In place of a public opening, we will be celebrating the closing of this exhibition with an evening of poetry, musical performances and shared kai.
Performances
Liam Jacobson and Tira Walsh
Poet Liam Jacobson will collaborate with Tāmaki Makaurau-based painter Tira Walsh to perform a poem that speaks to and exists within Walsh's nine-panel painting Black out Days (2022).
Abigail Aroha Jensen, Alejandra Jensen-Whakataka and Rafael/a Luna-Pizano
Abigail Aroha Jensen along with tuakana Alejandra Jensen-Whakataka and Rafael/a Luna-Pizano will hold a response performance to Jensen's work Inside my papahou, ngā āhuatanga o te kuku o te tangata e te kēhua (2022), followed by an invitation for whakawātia.
Samara Alofa and friends
To close the evening, there will be a special performance by musician/producer/songwriter Samara Alofa and friends, including Dylan Cook, Matt Hunter, Navakatoa Tekela-Pule, Ruby Walsh and Abigail Aroha Jensen.
About the artists
Abigail Aroha Jensen and Alejandra Jensen Whakataka
Alejandra and Abigail embrace ngā tāonga pūoro in celebration of life. What began as an exploration in their tuakana/tainatanga revealed ways to feel closer in their whakapapa. Oro shifts, such as mauri, such as body, such as being.
Liam Jacobson
Liam Jacobson (Kāi Tahu) is a maker and poet based under the underground of Tāmaki Makaurau and they have shared their work throughout Aotearoa, as well as in Scotland and Australia. Their work often brings together an array of different mediums, as a collage of experiences and as rongoā. My poems tend to be both shaped into text and spoken aloud, looking to decipher the changing landscapes around/among me/us and to recognise what’s remained constant. I acknowledge those I have come from and aim to unravel and honour them in my work.
Rafael/a Luna-Pizano
Made from Ilocano, Visayan, Apache Chiricahua and Xicano lands, Rafael/a is finding his movement, sound and voice back in the center of ritual play. His creative practice is for the joy, rage, grief and power of Trans*formational beings everywhere.
Tira Walsh
Tira Walsh (Ngāti Wairere, Ngāti Hāua) is a painter whose practice focuses on translating the complex and clashing physical sensations of being in the world, drawing influence from cinema, popular music and everyday life. Walsh’s work has been exhibited at Sydney Contemporary; Two Rooms, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland; The Vivian, Matakana; Wallace Arts Centre, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland; Gallery 9, Sydney; and Sanderson Contemporary, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. She has been awarded residences at Altes Spital in Solothurn, Switzerland through the Kaipara Wallace Arts Trust Award and at the Karekare House, supported by Eden Arts.