Inside my papahou: puoro tuatini. Her site, Désirée - ā whakamātao owha is an 8-channel sound installation emanating from eight concrete benches. The work gathers together field recordings from the Tokomaru Bay Freezing Works, an industrial ruin that bears witness to the economic growth and decline of the Tairāwhiti region. The recordings are imagined as a sonic tukutuku (act of weaving back and forth), threading together sites of whakapapa and waiata. Materials found within the surrounding environment, such as pipe and rubble, are used to echo the sound of taonga puoro, making lively the imperceptible histories embedded in the ruins.
Opened in Waima in 1911, the Tokomaru Bay Freezing Works was founded by a group of local farmers and purchased in a deal brokered by Ta Apirana Ngata. The freezing works were part of an extensive East Cape industry, continuing Ngāti Porou’s struggle against land alienation through collective land consolidation, and the ownership and development of agricultural exports. When the works closed in 1952, it devastated the local community, leading to the loss of Waima’s electricity supply until 1960. The title of the work makes poetic reference to a frozen relic, and borrows the name of the artist’s marae which is also located in the coastal town. Using the language of taonga puoro and improvisation as a relational practice, the work speaks alongside the past, bringing to light recent histories of connectivity, ingenuity and resistance.
Artwork details
Abigail Aroha Jensen, Inside my papahou: puoro tuatini. Her site, Désirée - ā whakamātao owha, 2024
Concrete benches, pink candle wax, kawakawa balm, Sol de Janeiro Delícia Drench Body Butter, Rom&nd lip tint, kōkōwai wax, dirt, abalone shell, 8-channel sound, 12 min 38 sec
Co-commissioned by Te Tuhi and the Busan Biennale Organizing Committee
About the artist
Abigail Aroha Jensen is an artist who lives in Kirikiriroa, Hamilton. She holds a BMA from Waikato Institute of Technology with Honours from Toihoukura, School of Māori Visual Arts. Recent exhibitions include: Glittering Images, Grace Aotearoa (2024); Spring Time is Heart-break: Contemporary Art in Aotearoa, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhteū (2023); Old/Niu, A Drawing Showcase with Māpura Avondale Artist Group, All Goods Artspace (2023); Rope Play (I-IV), sites across Tāmaki Makaurau, Pōneke and Köln (2022-23); R.Boudoir, RM (2022); Ata Koia!, Te Tuhi (2022); Te Pō, Papatūnga (2022).