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23 March 2019 —
19 May 2019

The True Artist Helps the World by Asking for Trust

PĀNiA!, Left: Cloakroom Motukiore Māori School, 2019. Coat hooks, beanies, embroidery, fixings. Right: Portrait of the Artist as Bruce Nauman (After Bruce Nauman), 2019. Colour duraprint, textured card. Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett.
PĀNiA!, Cloakroom Motukiore Māori School, 2019 (detail). Coat hooks, beanies, embroidery, fixings. Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett.
PĀNiA!, Portrait of the Artist as Bruce Nauman (After Bruce Nauman), 2019. Colour duraprint, textured card. Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett.
PĀNiA!, Sore Horse, 2019 (detail). Wood, powder-coated steel, hobby horse head, dowel, glue, leather, duster, wheels, fake eyelashes, band aid, bandage, fixings, sound. Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett.
PĀNiA!, Pā Māori Plankjes, 2019. Wood, acrylic, custom vinyl stickers, straw, pāua laminate, magnets, fixings. Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett.
PĀNiA!, Pā Māori Plankjes, 2019 (detail). Wood, acrylic, custom vinyl stickers, straw, pāua laminate, magnets, fixings. Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett.
PĀNiA!, Pā Māori Plankjes, 2019 (detail). Wood, acrylic, custom vinyl stickers, straw, pāua laminate, magnets, fixings. Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett.
PĀNiA!, The Merchant Was Here, 2019. Plastic, steel, rubber, wood, wheels, sand, mirror, rhinestones, hazard reflectors, ceramic tokens, mini plastic/wooden spades, tennis pole, nylon cord, antique plastic orange, pennant, wire, tripod, fixings. Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett.
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PĀNiA!, The Merchant Was Here, 2019 (detail). Plastic, steel, rubber, wood, wheels, sand, mirror, rhinestones, hazard reflectors, ceramic tokens, mini plastic/wooden spades, tennis pole, nylon cord, antique plastic orange, pennant, wire, tripod, fixings. Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett.
PĀNiA!, A Little Night Music, 2019. Mirror, pāua laminate on colour duraprint. Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Auckland. Photo by Amy Weng.
PĀNiA!, Indian Country, 2019 (detail). Left; Inflatable cacti, terracotta pots, sand. Right; Sore Horse, 2019. Wood, powder-coated steel, hobby horse head, dowel, glue, leather, duster, wheels, fake eyelashes, band aid, bandage, fixings, sound. Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett.
PĀNiA!, Plastic Orange Band, 2019 (install view). Fake plastic oranges, fixings 16 pieces. Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett.
PĀNiA!, Orange Ballroom, 2019 (install view). Mixed media installation. Right; Tennis Racket, 2019. Wooden vintage tennis racquets, safety earmuffs three pieces. Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett.
PĀNiA!, Orange Ballroom, 2019. Mixed media installation. Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett.
PĀNiA!, Tennis Racket, 2019. Wooden vintage tennis racquets, safety earmuffs  three pieces. Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett.
PĀNiA!, Left: Ball Girl, 2019. Foam tennis ball, acrylic, cement. Centre: (Do not use Marcel Duchamp), 2019 (detail). Found chocolate fountains, chocolate, tables. Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett.
PĀNiA! Left: (Do not use Marcel Duchamp), 2019 (detail). Found chocolate fountains, chocolate, tables. Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett.
PĀNiA!, Lunchbox Legend, 2019. Plastic container and lid (screen-printed), light fitting, bulb, electrical cord, plug, fixings. Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Auckland. Photo by Sam Harnett.
PĀNiA!, Lunchbox Legend, 2019 (detail). Plastic container and lid (screen-printed), light fitting, bulb, electrical cord, plug, fixings. Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Auckland. Photo by Sam Harnett.
PĀNiA!, The True Artist Helps the World by Asking for Trust (After Bruce Nauman), 2019 (install view). LED neon, acrylic, fixings. Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett.
PĀNiA!, Pakuranga Customs House/Attitude Arrival Lounge, 2019 (install view). Rope, bunting, concrete temporary fence feet, furniture, bollards, tables, chairs, blanket, passports, stamps, inkpads, stationery, fixings. Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett.
PĀNiA!, Pakuranga Customs House/Attitude Arrival Lounge, 2019 (detail). Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Photo by Sam Hartnett
PĀNiA!, PĀNiA! Passport Uruwhenua, 2019 (detail). Published by Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki ISSN 2537-8783. Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Auckland. Photo by Amy Weng.
PĀNiA!, Te Marama Pai, 2019 (video still). Digital video, colour, sound 14 mins 30 secs. Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Auckland.
PĀNiA!, Salut d’Amour: Salute to Love, 2019 (video still). Digital video, colour, sound 14 mins 30 secs. Courtesy the artist, Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki, Auckland.

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Te Tuhi and Mokopōpaki are pleased to present The True Artist Helps the World by Asking for Trust, a series of solo and newly commissioned collaborative works by the anonymous, über-cool-girl, artist-about-town, PĀNiA!

PĀNiA!’s exhibition at Te Tuhi includes her Pakuranga Customs House or Attitude Arrival Lounge: an immigration and border control office, complete with passport-issuing facility, welcoming those wanting to explore a world built on trust. In architectural form, Pakuranga Customs House adapts a well-known mahi whai or Māori string figure. Its transparent walk-through walls represent the change of heart necessary for trust, allowing visitors access to the unexpected realm of PĀNiA! – where the mysterious myth-maiden and doyenne of the deep becomes a legend in her own lunchbox.

The Customs House entry point also functions as a place of departure in the homage it pays to artistic explorations of the past, particularly those of American artist Bruce Nauman (b. 1941, Indiana). PĀNiA! produces her own unique take on an iconic work by Nauman: his 1967 neon The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths (Window or Wall Sign). In this invocation of Nauman, one fantastical presence plays with another – a long-imagined idea of PĀNiA!’s. For extra engagement with the spirit of Nauman, the exhibition also includes one of his experimental films from the 1960s.

The collaboration of The True Artist Helps the World by Asking for Trust continues at Mokopōpaki on Karangahape Road in the spinoff exhibition The Dutch Embassy. Here PĀNiA! in association with Yllwbro and A.A.M. Bos interrogates relations between people and places, using humour and provocation. In painting, sculpture, installation, photography, film, foodstuffs and specially designed soundtracks, they propose a counter-narrative to the nationally sanctioned 2019 commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the landing in Aotearoa by James Cook. Led by PĀNiA! the participating artists mischievously explore the cultural consequences of a ‘what if?’ situation in reference to the first documented European to sight our islands, the Dutch merchant Abel Janszoon Tasman. In 1642, more than 100 years before Cook’s expedition, Tasman made temporary landfall in Aotearoa, then abandoned all hope of a meaningful retail encounter with local Māori, and sailed away into the sunset, guilders intact.

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Press

→ Serious Fun: Who the Heck is PĀNiA!? – The Pantograph Punch
→ Make Way For Love – EyeContact
→ A guide to some of Auckland’s best artist-run initiatives – The Spinoff
→ Meet the underground art scene in Auckland that you’ve probably never heard about – The Denizen

Te Tuhi is open as usual during the Eastern Busway construction. Please call us on (09) 577 0138 if you have any questions.

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