Pakiwaitara International
Heroine of Kapiti, 1826, Kahe Te Rau-o-te-rangi Anna Dalzell
Mezzotint
Kahe Te Rau-o-te-rangi, a young Maori chieftainess, swam from Kapiti Island to the mainland to warn her tribe of an approaching war party.
The moon was bright on the night Paetere, her servant, saw waka (canoes) paddling slowly towards Kapiti from Otaki. He had previously dreamt of a war party invading the island. Patetere roused Kahe and she prepared for the swim. After the tohunga's karakia (priest's incantation), she was anointed with kokowai oil (red ochre) to protect her from the cold. She bravely bound Ripeka, her daughter to her back with raupo (rushes) for buoyancy and took to the water.
Kahe swam south along the coast in the shadow of the hills to avoid being seen. She then changed course for Waikanae. Between swimming with bursts of strength she rested singing soothing oriori (chants) to Ripeka. As the swell grew heavier and the moon began to set she swam in with the breakers, arriving south of the Waikanae River.
Kapiti did not fall. The reinforcements summoned by Kahe arrived in time to share in the triumphant war dances of Ngati Toa. Kahe went on to be a woman of great importance. She was one of three women to sign the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 and bore 20 or 21 children.
The Myth of the New Zealand Landscape Simon Edwards
Drypoint
The artist and his canvas lay sleeping under a tree in the crisp, clear midday New Zealand light. Some clouds crept into the mountain valley and into his dream, the dark shadows that were cast gave an intensity to the light. The artist awoke into his new landscape. The harsh clarity had been replaced with soft distances during the darkness of his sleep. Somehow out in the wilderness he had found a way home, and began to paint.
Francis Pound has argued that the search for an essential New Zealand landscape was a myth that suppressed painting's cultural, historical and stylistic background in order to promote a sense of national identity. The artist Petrus Van der Velden who came from Holland to New Zealand, was an early artist whose vision of the landscape conflicted with this myth.
"Myth deprives the object of which it speaks of all History. In it, history evaporates. It is a kind of ideal servant: it prepares all things, brings them, lays them out, the master arrives, it silently disappears: all that is left for one to do is to enjoy this beautiful object without wondering where it comes from. Or even better: it can only come from eternity." Roland Barthes
Hika Ra Taku Ahi/ Strike My Fire Te Maari Gardiner-Ngata
Screenprint
Tamatea Pokai Whenua was the grandson of Tamatea Arikinui, the high priest who guided the Takitimu waka from Hawaiiki to Aotearoa. His exploits as an explorer traveling throughout Aotearoa, from Muriwhenua to Murihiku, the far north to the far south, were legendary.
At one stage of his journeying around the South Island he arrived at Whangaraupo, the Lyttleton Harbour, and trekked into the hills above the harbour (the Port Hills). Whilst there, his party was overtaken by a violent southerly gale and without his portable fire container they almost perished.
By means of karakia, Tamatea appealed to Ngatoroirangi, the high priest of the Te Arawa waka, who had been responsible for the sacred fires of Hawaiiki being brought to Tongariro Mountain in the Central North Island. Ngatoroirangi's son was accompanying Tamatea on his travels.
Ngatoroirangi responded by sending sacred flames from his mountain. The fire rolled across the land down the course of the Whanganui River to the coast, rose into the air touching down briefly at Whakatu (Nelson). As it continued southward, sacred ash fell at a place that was named Te Whakatakaka o Nga Rehu o te Ahi a Tamatea (Where the Ashes of Tamatea's Fire Lay in a Heap) and gave rise to the healing hot springs now known as Hamner Springs. The fire finally reached Tamatea and his party bringing the warmth that saved their lives. The prominent outcrop known today as Redcliffs was given the name of Te Pukarehu o te Ahi a Tamatea (the Ashes of Tamatea's Fire) to commemorate the event.
The title Hika Ra Taku Ahi is taken from a line in Ngatoroirangi's karakia for bringing the sacred fire from Hawaiiki. As a descendant of Ngatoroirangi, I felt that this story gave me a personal connection to the area during my time in Christchurch.
The story came to mind again after the tragic devestation wreaked on the area by the recent earthquakes and the response of the rest of the country sending help and thoughts of warmth and healing to the people there.
De la tierra te levantas paracrear historias/From the earth you rise to create stories Victor Hernandez Castillo
Linocut
My graphic creations have a metaphorical meaning and it is very important for the observer to make his/her own interpretation and create their own narrative. In some cases these might become anecdotes. Under the rules of grotesque aesthetics, I put much emphasis on ironic and hilarious fantasies where humans share their beings with animals, imaginary beasts and fantastic crossbreeds, generating various poetic metaphors.
My current works are close to oneiric (nightmare) creations, which challenge the limits of human logic.