Picturing History

Goldie to Cotton - Auckland Art Gallery

this exhibition showcases some of New Zealands greatest and most influential artists, and gives insight into some of the grittier aspects of the history of 'our Aotearoa, New Zealand'.
Works cover early arrivals to our land, colonial influence as well as cultural integration and assimilation of our people.

the space is layed out well with plenty of room to move around the peices. staff are friendly, and keen to help.


works...

i particularly liked a peice called 'conversion 3.33R', by Robert Janke. it comprised of twelve mounted, lead cast axes with colonial religeos symbols, numbers and letters. they were all almost identical and cojoured up images of the 12 deciples.
the axes made it seem menacing and thier placement -against the wall with the blades facing outwards- gave me a sense of tension and unease.

'tamati waka nene' was a nga puhi warrior and a signitary of the treaty of waitangi, painted by the much debated, charles frederick goldie. this image is typical of the iconic new zealand painter. i think this is a strong choice of subject, and is beautifully painted with deep greens and rich earthy tones, but his works have lost some of their significance to me as they have become over popularised.

another favourite was 'painting', by peter robinson. this was a very wide work that made me walk along in front of it, from one side to the next. i thought this was a good trick by the artist, to get me to emgage movment to veiw this work, as it is concerned with early crossings of maori to new zealand. robinson has used a limited colour pallet to stay true with elements of maori traditional art. strong images and a clear message make this work very appealing to me.

i think that everyone should see these works in person to appreciate their power and relevance to us as kiwi's as they tell they story of our history.