The Mata Aho Collective, made up of four Māori female artists, is a finalist for this year's Walters Prize, which honours the best of New Zealand’s contemporary art.
This year marks the tenth iteration of the biennial prize, which was established in 2001 and has celebrated a 20-year legacy of artists and artworks.
The Mata Aho Collective is a collaboration between four wāhine - Erena Baker, Sarah Hudson, Bridget Reweti and Terri te Tau - who produce large-scale fibre-based works, commenting on the complexity of Māori lives.
The artist, have their own active independent art practices, yet they joined forces to work together in 2012 to create work with collective authorship.
AKA, 2019 on display. Source: Mata Aho Collective
The Mata Aho Collective was chosen as a finalist for its installation, AKA, 2019, a 14m high, hand-woven work made from 25mm-thick marine rope, which was installed in the rotunda of the National Gallery of Canada.
AKA, from the Māori word vine, is inspired by the narrative of the female deity Whaitiri, the personification of thunder. Combining customary whatu (finger twining) practice and modern materials, this vine provides a space for contemplation and invites viewers' eyes to journey up to a place of raised consciousness.
“We mostly focus our works on atua wahine. We want to expose research that we’ve done and show that they’re not kind of passive helpers but very significant and important protagonists in their own right," says Reweti, of Ngāti Ranginui and Ngāi Te Rangi.
AKA, 2019. Source: Mata Aho Collective
Judges say AKA was selected to recognise how Mata Aho, whose work is firmly founded in mātauraunga Māori, has shifted the conversation around contemporary art through several recent projects.
“Working collaboratively and raising awareness of Indigenous practices and stories, Mata Aho calls attention to concepts and ways of working that are often overlooked in contemporary art contexts. Focusing on the visibility of Māori women, its large-scale projects demand attention in a dramatic and inspiring way, often unfolding in the online space and shared across digital networks to reach diverse communities.”
Atapō, 2020 on display at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. Source: Auckland Art Gallery
Since AKA in Canada the collective has had its work Atapō, 2020 on display at the Walter Prize exhibition at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.
Atapō runs the full height of the gallery and is made from insect mesh, wool, muka and cotton. The work was co-created with senior artist Maureen Lander and originally commissioned for Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Maori Art (2020–21).
Mata Aho Collective and senior artist Maureen Lander created Atapō. Photographer: Jos Wheeler
Atapō (or before dawn) explores the transitional states of female interconnectedness and draws on the stories of Hine-tītama and Hine-nui-te-pō and restages them as almighty and indefinite. The larger architecturally potent Hine-nui-te-pō sits to the fore as if sheltering the softer Hine-tītama, who in colour and shape reflects the deity of dawn, the first true human who bound day to night.
“Hine-tītama is the personification of the dawn and so we have used pinks in this installation and light to mihi to her. She kind of grew and developed into Hine-nui-te-pō who is the atua, who is there to welcome us when we die. She’s the custodian of all Māori in death and so she’s the black presence in the space.”
The artists hope that by creating big works and taking up a lot of space in gallery institutions they will inspire other Māori artists to do the same and “represent”.
“Colonisation affected Māori women differently from Māori men. The stories and the mana of that we hold as women has not had the same platform as tāne so we make big statements to take up a lot of space because sometimes - and it still happens - Māori women are silenced. It still happens. That’s why we do what we do," says Hudson, of Ngāti Awa, Ngai Tūhoe and Ngāti Pūkeko.
The other finalist of the Walters Prize 2021 are Sonya Lacey, Sriwhana Spong and Fiona Amundsen. Their work, alongside Atapō will be on display at Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Art Gallery until September 5, 2021.