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Friday, October 15, 2004
New Zealand Maori Artists, American Indian Artists Work in Similar Media
By John Arnold
Journal Staff Writer
Their cultures may be half a world apart. But when it comes to art, native people of New Mexico and New Zealand share a lot in common, as Maori tribal elder Marie "Auntie Ma" Panapa observed after arriving in Santa Fe from New Zealand last month.
"There were similarities (in the art)," Panapa said. "Suddenly the world seems like a tiny, tiny little planet."
Panapa and two Maori art students from Te Wananga o Aotearoa (University of New Zealand) are participating in an international arts exchange with the Institute of American Indian Arts. The four-week program allows the students and Panapa, a university adviser, to study Native American art and technique. Last year, four IAIA students studied Maori art in New Zealand.
Although Panapa has already returned to her homeland, students Cheyene Emery, 42, and Lisa Bartlett, 32, continue to live and study on the IAIA campus south of Santa Fe. In addition to learning about pueblo arts and culture, Panapa and the students have also created paintings and sculpture unique to their own culture. That work will be on display at IAIA's Student Gallery for four days beginning Monday.
Panapa said that Maori artists and American Indian artists work in similar media, expressing their unique heritages through art. With the rise of the Internet and global television, Maori art has gotten more exposure and is now "in such great demand in the world," according to Panapa.
"More and more people around the world are seeing the art standing up on its own," she said.
For next week's show, Panapa and her students will exhibit contemporary pieces deeply inspired by Maori tradition.
Panapa's acrylic painting "Haka" depicts Maori men performing the Haka dance— traditionally performed by warriors prior to going into battle. With vibrant color and bold brush strokes, Panapa re-creates the dancers' thunderous movements. Dust rises from their feet. Spears wave in the air. Tongues protrude from beneath large, imposing eyes. The men dance beneath a confusing tangle of scribbles meant to represent difficult positive and negative choices that modern Maori men face: drugs and alcohol, family and faith.
As Panapa explained her work, Bartlett and Emery worked in nearby studios on their own projects. One of the pieces Bartlett will be contributing to the show is a clay sculpture depicting a pregnant Maori woman. It's an image Bartlett said she uses often in her work.
"Because (Maori women) carry the seeds of the next generation," the mother of five children said, "they carry on a lot of the stories."
While Bartlett worked the clay that would be her sculpture, Emery sat in an adjoining room with a nearly-finished abstract painting representing "te kore"— creation and boundless potential.
"Everything I do, it relates to my traditional upbringing," Emery said. "I like the spiritual aspects of art."
WHAT: Maori Student Show
WHEN: Opening reception— 3-5 p.m. Monday; show runs through Thursday
WHERE: Student Gallery at Institute of American Indian Arts, 83 Avan Nu Po Road
INFORMATION: (800) 804-6423