GIFTED SANDS :: 29 & 30 Dec :: Mahia Maori Arts Exhibition
Gifted Sands 2010
24 December 2010
Organising for Mahia’s “Gifted Sands” exhibition is well under way again. It will be held on the 29th and 30th December at Mokotahi Hall in Mahia Beach.
There will again be a meet-the-artists evening between 6.00 and 8.00p.m. on the 29th. This will be an opportunity for all our supporters to meet the Gifted Sands artists and the team who organise the exhibition.
Nau Mai, haere mai.
Our artists are working hard to have a good range of Maori traditional and contemporary art ready for the show.
As the reputation of Gifted Sands grows, we increasingly attract more artists who have links to Mahia, but for economic reasons live and practice away from their ancestral area. This is one of the values of the exhibition – that artists who are linked by whakapapa return to their home area to mingle with others here, to be inspired by the senior art practitioners who exhibit alongside them, and to get to know the people who support the exhibition by their attendance and through the purchases made.
Sadly, we lost one of our founding artists this year, Mahea Tomoana. The legacy of Gifted Sands which Mahea has left his people is one of great value to us. Upholding key community values for the artists that whakapapa to Te Mahia.
Whakapapa - recognition of our connections with one another and place, our connection with past & future.
Manaakitia - the practicing of hospitality and reciprocity in our interactions with one another. According respect and extending friendship towards one another.
Kanohi ki te Kanohi, pakahiwi ki te pakahiwi - the value of working face to face & shoulder to shoulder.
Haere atu ra e hika, haere, haere, haere.
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A year ago we obtained funding to update the Gifted Sands website (www.giftedsands.co.nz), adding new photographs of our artists and their work, and updating their profiles. The value of the website was proven when buyers from Switzerland told us they had seen the site and organised their holiday in New Zealand so they could attend last year’s exhibition. They purchased one of Shane Howard’s patu. Numerous comments have been made about the high standard of works and the professionalism of the display. At least four works from Gifted Sands 2009 were bought by overseas buyers from Russia, Switzerland, London and Santa Fe, USA. Several of Ngaromoana Raureti’s works were later sold to buyers in Napier and Santa Fe, as a result of Gifted Sands.
Gifted Sands artists have had a busy year with wananga and exhibitions around the country. Several of our weavers, including Parekura Robinson, Pita Walker-Robinson, Jessie Christie-Smith, Rosana Ratapu, Amiria Moyler and Jan McKenzie attended the weaver’s wananga at Kawhia early in the year.
Nigel How curated ‘Te Ha O Nehera (the Essence of the Old Days)’ at the Wairoa Museum. The exhibition, a tribute to fifteen Wairoa weavers which featured portraits, stories and examples of their work, closed at the end of November. Nigel also curated ‘Te Ariki’ which tells Sir James Carroll's story with special emphasis on his life as a boy in Wairoa and on his contribution to Wairoa, in later years, as a senior national politician. This is currently showing at the Museum until January 15th.
Shaan Te Kani, a photographer, will exhibit recent and new works at Wairoa Museum from mid January 2011 to mid April 2011.
Desna Whaanga-Schollum participated in “Te Tihi: International Indigenous Artists Wananga” at Rotorua; and had work in the 2010 “Hawke’s Bay Invitational”, "Source", exhibitions at the Hastings City Art Gallery and “Sculpture on the Shore” in Auckland. She completed a major public work that adorns the walls and glass ceiling of the Papakura Library and Museum complex in Auckland, which was blessed and opened on 1st October.
Each year we look forward to the exciting developments in our regular contributers’ art, and we hope that some new artists who whakapapa to our prominent Mahia tïpuna will also submit work.
And of course we look forward to seeing the loyal supporters of Gifted Sands - without whom this exhibition could not happen – as well as meeting those who have not had the opportunity to view local artists’ work before.