Art in the city ... check out the new art in the Courtenay Place light boxes
From WCC website
Ko au te whenua, te whenua ko au
How do we protect and enhance the mauri within an urban environment? asks Te Whanganui-a-Tara based artist Tanya Te Miringa Te Rorarangi Ruka in the Courtenay Place light box exhibition for Matariki 2022.
Whakapapa Te Pō Te Ao turns the light boxes into a series of digitally woven pou whenua which are derived from the natural phenomena of Te Aro and the local environment.
Whakapapa Te Pō Te Ao acknowledges the whenua and awa above and below the city streets.
“Past, present and future coexist within the whenua,” says Ruka. “Our tupuna are the soil and the water. They hold our collective memory, the good and the bad, the light and the dark. We are alive because of them, by acknowledging this truth we enhance the mauri and we build our relationships with the natural world even within an urban environment.”
Whakapapa Te Pō Te Ao responds to Matariki as a time to recount the past seasons and set new plans for the coming year. Guided by the Maramataka, Māori lunar calendar, Ruka filmed the area surrounding the light boxes once a month during 2021. The focus of the filming was to capture the natural elements as they are now. Ruka’s key consideration was how we experience the three major awa sources - Waitangi, Kūmutoto and Waimapihi streams that were once a source of kai and are now below the city streets.
Ruka then translated her video imagery into digital weavings for the light boxes.
One side of the light box images references Te Whakapapa o Te Pō and the other, Te Whakapapa o Te Ao. Together, the whakapapa of light and dark capture a story of time unfolding in Courtenay Place from a kaupapa Māori perspective.