Te Au: Liquid Constituencies

Artists: Bonita Bigham, Megan Cope, Erub Arts, Ruha Fifita, Taloi Havini, INTERPRT, María Francisca Montes Zúñiga, Angela Tiatia, Te Waituhi ā Nuku: Drawing Ecologies, Arielle Walker

Curatorium: Zara Stanhope, Simon Gennard, Ruth McDougall, Beatriz Bustos Oyanedel, Huhana Smith and Megan Tamati-Quennell

“Ko te au wai ko te au tangata”: The currents of water connect and nourish the currents of our people
“Ka ora te wai ka ora te tangata”: A healthy water source is essential to our physical and spiritual health

The significance of the flow of water to human endeavour cannot be understated—springs, streams, rivers and oceans are sources of food and sustenance, routes for voyaging and trade, and repositories of spiritual knowledge and identity.

Te Au: Liquid Constituencies gathers works by artists who are engaging in significant relationships with water, and tracks not only our dependency on water, but the ways in which we share and must protect water in its many forms.

Bringing together eleven artists and artist collectives, Te Au takes its central theme from the rotating currents of Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa (Pacific Ocean). These currents flow from the unique landscape of Taranaki, move down Te Ika-a-Māui to Horowhenua and the Kāpiti Coast in Aotearoa New Zealand, course past Antarctica and Patagonia, Tuvalu and Tonga among many other island nations, and along the Australian coastline.

The variety of works on view draw upon forms of local and ancestral knowledge, as well as legal frameworks and notions of justice in relation to the natural world, to advocate and act for change.

Developed by a curatorium from within Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, Te Au takes a multidisciplinary approach to connecting art and action—artists similarly employ a range of media  to invite consciousness of our varied inter-relations to water, and to each other.

“Our most precious natural resource water is a recurring theme in the work of many contemporary artists. This exhibition draws on recent work by artists working around the Pacific to propose ways in which we can understand, protect and deepen relationships with the bodies of water that surround us,” says the exhibition’s curators.

“The project arises from asking how the Govett-Brewster can be a forum for imagining shared futures, and is the start of many conversations with Mana Whenua, scientists, researchers, educators, artists, and others. These conversations are intended to support the preservation of our most significant natural resource across in the time of a climate emergency,” says Govett-Brewster Director Zara Stanhope.

These conversations include those with artists on opening day, Saturday, December 3:

10:30am: Bonita Bigham and Te Aorangi Dillon in conversation
Whale strandings on the Taranaki coastline raise complex questions for Māori around causation, help, cultural response and the balance between pouri (mourning) and the intergenerational opportunities for reclaiming interrupted mātauranga (knowledge).

11:30am: Monique Jansen and Arielle Walker in conversation
Join the artists in a kōrero discussing engagement with materiality and connection to whenua and water towards environmental well-being.

12:30pm: Artist film: Blue Peril 
INTERPRT produced in collaboration with Deep Sea Mining Campaign and Ozeanien Dialog, Blue Peril presents a disturbing picture of future impacts of deep-sea mining for Pacific ecosystems, habitats, and communities. (16 minutes)

1:30pm: Megan Cope and Taloi Havini in conversation
Join the artists as they consider the kaupapa of the impact of an extractive mind-set on people, land, water and ways of being. 

2:30pm: Ruha Fifita and Faumuina Felolini Maria Tafuna’I in conversation
Water that connects the people of Te Moana-nui-a-kiwa. Join the artists in talanoa as they share experiences and learnings that seek to redress the balance, indigenous knowledge and natural relationships with Te Moana-nui-a Kiwa, its peoples, its lands and its histories.

Conversations continue throughout and beyond the exhibition with events including film screenings, biochar burns and more. Visit the Gallery’s website for more information.