Karanga Karanga coincides with Māori women artist exhibitions in Gisborne and Wellington. Together they were ‘seen as the first definitive statement on the art of Māori women’ (Toi Maihi, exhibition organiser).
Each venue showed through audio-visual presentation works showing at the other venues, as well as all exhibits in their different stages of making. Some Karanga Karanga visual artists have pooled their talents with poets and writers to produce works which are combinations of traditional art forms while others work individually in a more contemporary sense.
This exhibition included a broad range of artworks – ranging from carving, painting, poetry to dress designing, furniture designing, kites, weaving and singing, including 30 artists in all. The gallery space was used to its fullest potential; walls, ceiling and floor will all support works.
The exhibition title is a reference to the karanga—the first call, made by women to visitors to a marae—and to this being the first public exhibition featuring work by Māori women. Karanga Karanga is also a response to Te Māori, the 1984 show of Māori taonga that toured the US, generating wider recognition of Māori culture. Te Māori did not include women’s art forms or contemporary work. By contrast, here, Māori women represent themselves, their culture and concerns.
Karanga Karanga celebrated the individual and collective making of art by Māori women, ‘who desire to see their art forms re-established as complementary to that of the men. Māoridom needs to use every strength it possesses in today’s society; it is illogical to ignore the tremendous influential potential of women. A number of the women involved are uncomfortable at the thought of exhibiting without men, the hope is that in the future we will be able to exhibit with our men.’
Ephemera
→ Karanga Karanga, 1986, artists catalogue cover
→ Karanga Karanga, 1986, artists catalogue
→ Karanga Karanga, 1986, exhibition card
Related
→ Karanga Karanga, 1986, City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi
Press
→ A calling out, a gathering in, NZ Listener, 12 July 1986
→ Karanga Karanga, NZ Listener, 12 July 1986
→ Creativity stimulated by supportive group, The New Zealand Herald, 14 May 1986
→ Fibres, stones, pots in Māori show, The New Zealand Herald
→ Karanga Karanga, Broadsheet, July/August 1986