Font Size:     

Whakarapopoto Korero
E kitea ai te hua kaupapa Māori mahi toi i rota i ēnei
rā, mō te whakaoti mahi, me te whakatinana me ōna
whakamārama i ngā heke o te momo ariā. E kite ana au
i tēnei āhuatanga i roto i te whakaū o ngā kaupapa here.
He maha tonu te hunga mahi toi e hiahia ana kia whai
atu i ngā ritenga ahurea, ēngari kāore rawa pea i te
hohonu te titiro. E hiahia ana au kite titiro i tēnei wahine
Māori whakarite uku, whakapakoko a Shona RapiraDavies.
He wero kei rota i ana mahi toi, kia hohonu te
titiro a te kaititiro i te mea e kitea nei i rota i te rā.
Me te āhua o ērā atu tāngata mahi toi pakeke, kāre a
Shona Rapira-Davies e whai atu ana i tō rātau huarahi,
ēngari ka mau tonu ia ki tāna e kite ai. Hei whakamārama
i te āhua o taku tuhi ka tirohia e au tērā o tātau a Barry
Barclay; tohunga ki ngā kaupapa hanga whitiāhua me
ngā whakaaro o ērā Marikena mahi toi, hītōria a Thomas
McVilley me Donald Kusit. E tohe ana au kia kaua e
whakatārewa te āhuatanga titiro Māori kia kaua noa te
rongo o āu titiro, ēngari kia ā54ta kitea i ahu mai 0 whakaaro
i whea.
Ko tā Barclay hoki e matakite ana i tā te Māori
whitiahua he marae tonu tōnā rite kia kaua e taurite ki te
titiro a tauiwi. Ko te ariā pono ia he maha ngā taumata
kia ahei te kuhu atu a tēnā, a tēnā kia kitea ai. Inā kitea
atu ana te hohonu o te kaupapa, ēngari ko te mea nui ana
kia pakeke mai te tangata i rota i aua ariā, momo
mōhiotanga tikanga e piripono ai ki ana tikanga o tōna
ahurea ūkaipō.
Abstract
A generational division in Māori art is now discemable
in current directions being taken in both the production
and interpretation (through publication and curating) of
the aesthetic. I interpret this polemic as involving pluralist
and essentialist components. There are a number of
younger artists and curators who appear to be engaging
directly with a current taste for deliberate cultural
superficiality involving a shallowness and opacity of
meaning often featuring parody, irony and ideas of
replaced, hyper-real indigenous culture. By contrast I
choose to concentrate on the work of mid-generation
Māori sculptor Shona Rapira-Davies. I have found her
work challenging in the sense that it forces its viewer to
move beyond a simply formalist interpretation to engage
with deeper richer levels of meaning.
As with other, generally older, Māori artists RapiraDavies
has chosen to completely ignore the current
popular post-modernist discourse and continue engaging
more strongly with an essentialist position. In order to
clarify what this approach involves I apply the theory of
pioneering Māori filmmaker Barry Barclay along with
the ideas of American art historians Thomas McEvilley
and Donald Kuspit. I argue for the possibility of a less
compromising position in Māori art where instead of
reflectivity a controlled degree of transparency of meaning
is made available to the audience.
Barclay's idea about Māori film as invisible marae
and talking in suggests that through such a lens art need
not be created in order to be read easily by its etic, nonMāori
audience. Instead a more ernie positioning might
suggest that Māori art is in fact multi-layered and has
historically often been created in such a way as to offer a
range of entry points always relative to measured
disclosure. While one might see into the heart of the work
the deeper meaning and significance of the work relate
specifically to experience and knowledge entrusted to the
artist through their own interface with their parent culture.