Hobiennale 2017 

Te Ara o Te Ao Hauāuru (The stairway to the Western world)
Roadsign Sculpture
Glenorchy Art and Sculpture Park - Rosny Farm
Hobart, Tasmania

Transportation for Life
Video and Found Audio
7.55min
Glenorchy Art and Sculpture Park - Rosny Farm
Hobart, Tasmania

November 3 - 12
2017

Representing MEANWHILE Gallery of Wellington, New Zealand I was chosen to be apart of the inaugural Hobiennale in Hobart, Tasmania along with facilatators, Jordana Bragg and Jesse Bowling. Hobiennale is a biennale for Artist Run Initiatives (ARI’s) between Australia and New Zealand. The work’s I made related to the idea of Australia being an opportune place for Māori to raise above poverty and hard-ship, a place which offers economic prosperity. However a tribal identity and concept of Turangawaewae are traded for this opportunity to provide financial stability.

My work aimed to discuss these concepts through a road sign aesthetic that reflected a waharoa (gateway) into a new space where cultural value is traded for economic success. The video work incorporates video footage of Wellington and labourers within the city overlayed with the waiata (song) Te Wai o Whanganui, which was sung after the readings in the New Zealand parliament where the Whanganui River was recognised to be its own legal entity. The significance of this relates to the original concept of my sculpture relating to the capturing of 5 Māori men in 1847 after a raid on a military base, in what is now Boulcott Farm Golf Club. One of these men was from Whanganui and passed away on Maria Island while in captivity. Using this song was an ode to his presence within Hobart, Tasmania