Over the past four months, my work experience involved carving with a local carver, Shane Whatarau. He has been able to bring me back up to speed again creating many different carved forms such as the tuere, mokomoko and other types of manaia. Within the realm of whakairo it is vital to keep in touch with other carvers to enhance your knowledge as well as your skills. Below are a few things created in that time.
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ART
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They say your art is a reflection of who you are . YEAH RIGHT! Where's are his shoes? In 2005 i was part of a collaboration of artists that created a gateway to the Whakapara marae. This was my koha to the Ngati Hau tribe of that area. I carved this poupou out of a slab of totara that had been sourced from the area.
TANE-NUI-A-RANGI
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I was part of a series of wananga that were held in conjunction with the carving of 3 poupou that are now standing outside of the Whangarei Public Library. The wananga were held to give the carvers an understanding of the mythologies and reasons behind the atua called Tane-Nui-A-Rangi. There were also 2 tekoteko carved of which this is one. I carved this tekoteko from a totara log gifted from Te Kura Kaupapa Maaori o Te Rawhitiroa in Whangarei.
KOTIATE
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When I was part of Te Waananga o Aotearoa carvers, one of our briefs was to carve several diffrent kinds of maaori weaponry whilst staying with the traditional designs. This is one of my peices which is called a kotiate and is made from puriri.
Ranginui and Papatuanuku
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This image is a oil-painting on canvas which was done in 1st yr painting of 2006. It speaks about the separation of the heavens. The positive attributes and the negative. The known things of the light and the unknown of the dark. Also, the elements of male and female. These are expressed through the use of a wash combined with a pallet of black and whites.
Taa Moko (Niwareka and Mataora).
This was exhibited at the Tuatara gallery in our exhibition called "HAOLE" in 2006. This is a screen print 1400mm x 740mm professionally mounted in a carved totara frame.
ARCHITECHURE FORM
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A look within Henry Moore revealed the beauty of form and the use of negative space. Colour has been used to enhance the negative as well as light. 2007 The materials i used was bendy ply and spray paint.
Poupou Rahui
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Collaboration peice. These poupou are part of a collaboration with other emerging artists, Kassi Malanti and Gregg Spender. Through collaborating with them it gave me the opportunity to view other people's perceptions and how they respond to objects and space. I carved these out of Australian blue gum. 2007
Contemporary Glass Mere
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This mere was casted with a green and black billet of gaffa glass. A stainless steel holding pin supports the mere and the base is made from totara. The maori motiffs are called paakura or unahi, used with this piece to represent knowledge resonating. This is the resonating journey and discovery of casting glass.
Tangaroa and Ngapuhi.
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This is my major body of work. The brief for this peice was to research and develop a 3 Dimensional body of work of a self determined nature. We were encouraged to not only build apon previous work that we had done but also take that work to a higher level. This is my major piece which was carved out of totara and has 3 narratives. The head speaks of Tangaroa, the body speaks of taniwha in Ngapuhi and the 3 waves at the bottom speak about the waves that Nukutawhiti returned with to Aotearoa.
Te Ao Marama
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This is my supporting peice to Tangaroa. Both 'Te Ao Marama' and 'Tangaroa' are linked through tauparapara (incantations), oratal stories, materials and also that they are carvings that you will find in cirtain spaces on the marae.
ON LONGING EXHIBIT
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This is a unfinished preview of my latest peice which is currently on exhibition at the old town library. If you would like