In the Northern Scottish tradition of ‘waulking the cloth,’ women worked together to finish woven cloth as it came off the loom. They would sew it in a loop, soak it, and thump it rhythmically on a wooden table for several hours, singing folk songs over the beat to keep time. By the end of the process, the cloth would be thicker, more durable, and weather resistant. Waulking Song springs out of a shared curiosity in waulking and its rhyming, communal, interrelated processes.
Arielle Walker will make new work during the exhibition, experimenting with the sonic and relational aspects of textile-making and story-sharing. She will work on whakaruruhau (koanga), a double-sided loom made from driftwood and fallen branches, which allows two pieces to emerge in conversation with one another.
Additional pieces will keep Arielle company as she works.
Sylvan Spring’s audio work Uisce plays on a loop, providing continuous accompaniment. We hear their baby blanket being waulked in Ōwhiro stream, whose waters have been tainted by colonisation. Sylvan sings an Irish song about land alienation, as the blanket is softened in the dirty water.
Kahu Kutia’s essay Black tea, lanolin, and hot red earth and whenua-stained tapestry Matariki Tuitui Tangata draw connections between the lyrical structure of waulking songs, the visual patterns in weaving, and the rhythms of intergenerational learning. Gossip is embedded in the weave.
Madison Kelly’s piece TAUTIAKI HAPTIC consists of textured bronze creatures and objects that can be played like instruments. Visitors are invited to use a variety of toko supplied by the artist to make rhythms as they move between the mokomoko, cymbals, and bell, adding a layer of improvised percussion to the gallery’s soundtrack. Harakeke brushes against metal.
This exhibition considers the patterns and rhythms that connect bodies and their kin to the material world. It brings together contemporary responses to folk practices with roots in Aotearoa, Ireland, and Scotland. What rhythms do we inherit? Where do echoes land? What does it mean to feel them in our own bodies?
Related events:
→ Arielle Walker will be working on-site one day a week during the exhibition.
→ Visitors are welcome to join the artists for shared lunch from 12pm on Saturday 7 December. Please bring some food to share if you are able. RSVPs appreciated.
→ Please contact Jordan via jordan@tetuhi.art or @soft_shell_parnell with any questions or RSVPs.
Waulking Song is presented as part of Jordan Davey-Emms’ curatorial internship, soft shell, which occupies Te Tuhi’s Parnell Project Space until March 2025.
About the artists
→ Madison Kelly
Madison Kelly (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Mamoe, Pākehā) is an Ōtepoti Dunedin based artist, musician, and kaiārahi/forest guide at Te Korowai o Mihiwaka Orokonui Ecosanctuary. Grounded in Kāitahutaka, their practice explores field research, mark making, and percussion as sensory interfaces for the learning and sharing of multispecies whakapapa.
→ Kahu Kutia
Nei rā he tamāhine o te kohu, he uri nō ngā whārua katoa o Te Urewera, nō Mataatua, e mihi kau ana! Kahu Kutia is a queer writer, artist, storyteller and general haututu who was raised bilingually on her homelands of Ngāi Tūhoe. Across all mediums, whakapapa, whenua, takatāpuitanga, notions of kāinga, and connection are often central to Kahu's work. They are a member of Kauae Raro, a collective of passionate whenua artists and research nerds that was first brought together by Sarah Hudson, Lanae Cable, and Jordan Davey-Emms in Whakatāne. Kahu has exhibited art works at Hoea Gallery, Moana Fresh, Te Tīmatanga, and Wormhole Gallery.
→ Sylvan Spring
Sylvan Spring is a Pākehā writer, musician and artist of predominantly Irish whakapapa, who grew up being shaped by the lands and waters of Te Awakairangi and Te Whanganui-ā-Tara. Their work is interested in settler identity, tauiwi responsibilities, transness, whakapapa, Celtic traditions, relationships with the whenua, druidry and magick. They released their debut poetry collection, Killer Rack, this year via Te Herenga Waka University Press, and recently had a show at Enjoy Gallery with Holly Walker, titled Hiraeth.
→ Arielle Walker
Arielle Walker (Taranaki, Ngāruahine, Ngāpuhi, Pākehā) is a Tāmaki Makaurau, New Zealand-based artist, writer, and maker. Her practice seeks pathways towards reciprocal belonging through tactile storytelling and ancestral narratives, weaving in the spaces between.