Exhibitions
2016 Te Toy toi Exhibition
2016 Te Toy toi Exhibition
REVIEW: ARCTOPHILES BEWARE!
REVIEW: ARCTOPHILES BEWARE!
Te Toy Toi is an exhibition of discarded toys that Jane Matua has transfigured into toi (art). These toys were once plush, pliant teddy bears. Arctophiles (teddy-bear enthusiasts) will not find their new forms comforting. Flattened pelts evoke more taxidermy than tenderness, more road-kill than bed-buddy. There is little vestige of their former furry plumpness.Jane has injected these teddy-bear shells with raw clay & kiln-fired them. Their soft core has been incinerated and supplanted by rigid clay. This has created the semblance of a bony frame which somehow makes them more visceral, more real.
Te Toy Toi is an exhibition of discarded toys that Jane Matua has transfigured into toi (art). These toys were once plush, pliant teddy bears. Arctophiles (teddy-bear enthusiasts) will not find their new forms comforting. Flattened pelts evoke more taxidermy than tenderness, more road-kill than bed-buddy. There is little vestige of their former furry plumpness.Jane has injected these teddy-bear shells with raw clay & kiln-fired them. Their soft core has been incinerated and supplanted by rigid clay. This has created the semblance of a bony frame which somehow makes them more visceral, more real.
Hineahuone, the first woman, was also fashioned from clay. Since clay is sourced from the primal earth mother, Papatuanuku, it has an inherent life force. Jane Matua recognises and garners this life force. She has an intimate relationship with clay and collects her own supplies directly from nature, which she calls “wild clay”. These sculptures still retain a wild quality because Jane does not impose her will on the clay, instead yielding to its nuances and gifts of wabi-sabi. Wabi-sabi is a kind of fortuitous and random beauty bestowed by natural cycles of growth and degeneration. Here it shows as a weathered patina of surface textures and fissures. Even the vestigial faces of these bears look ravaged by decay. They oscillate between life and death with a repellent beauty.
Hineahuone, the first woman, was also fashioned from clay. Since clay is sourced from the primal earth mother, Papatuanuku, it has an inherent life force. Jane Matua recognises and garners this life force. She has an intimate relationship with clay and collects her own supplies directly from nature, which she calls “wild clay”. These sculptures still retain a wild quality because Jane does not impose her will on the clay, instead yielding to its nuances and gifts of wabi-sabi. Wabi-sabi is a kind of fortuitous and random beauty bestowed by natural cycles of growth and degeneration. Here it shows as a weathered patina of surface textures and fissures. Even the vestigial faces of these bears look ravaged by decay. They oscillate between life and death with a repellent beauty.
Ambivalence about life & death is a recurrent subject for celebrated post-modern artist Damien Hirst. His seminal work The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living preserves a shark in formaldehyde to confront this fear. While Jane does not go to these lengths (they are teddy-bears, after all!), her work subtly arouses ambivalence about life & death. Has the kiln claimed the imaginary lives of these toys, or have they been resurrected in clay? Are their resurrected new forms a critique of the cloying cuteness of teddy-bears?
Ambivalence about life & death is a recurrent subject for celebrated post-modern artist Damien Hirst. His seminal work The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living preserves a shark in formaldehyde to confront this fear. While Jane does not go to these lengths (they are teddy-bears, after all!), her work subtly arouses ambivalence about life & death. Has the kiln claimed the imaginary lives of these toys, or have they been resurrected in clay? Are their resurrected new forms a critique of the cloying cuteness of teddy-bears?
A suite of deliciously haunting monoprints accompanies the sculptures. These are images of teddy-bears prior to succumbing to the kiln. The tactile imprints of their furry body surfaces have been recorded on paper. Each filament of fur, each button and each seam of their garments is registered. Even with this clarity, the prints have a fleeting, spectral quality, as if the bears have resisted capture and merely brushed the surface.
A suite of deliciously haunting monoprints accompanies the sculptures. These are images of teddy-bears prior to succumbing to the kiln. The tactile imprints of their furry body surfaces have been recorded on paper. Each filament of fur, each button and each seam of their garments is registered. Even with this clarity, the prints have a fleeting, spectral quality, as if the bears have resisted capture and merely brushed the surface.
Jane Matua teaches in the Art & Design programmes of Waiariki campus. Her creative practice and her teaching practice seamlessly traverse a variety of art disciplines and media. She is prepared to forage to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. These are exemplary qualities for intending designers.
Jane Matua teaches in the Art & Design programmes of Waiariki campus. Her creative practice and her teaching practice seamlessly traverse a variety of art disciplines and media. She is prepared to forage to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. These are exemplary qualities for intending designers.
Te Toy Toi runs from July 2- 30 at the Cottage Gallery, Rotorua Arts Village, Hinemaru street. It is an exhibition that is both psychologically unsettling & aesthetically rewarding. Art could not offer more!
Te Toy Toi runs from July 2- 30 at the Cottage Gallery, Rotorua Arts Village, Hinemaru street. It is an exhibition that is both psychologically unsettling & aesthetically rewarding. Art could not offer more!
REVIEW: Debbi Thyne 2016
REVIEW: Debbi Thyne 2016
2005 MFA graduate Exhibition
2005 MFA graduate Exhibition
The common thread driving my art practice comes from a Maori spiritual dimension which connects me to, whakapapa, whanau, and whenua. These connections are represented by Taiawhio an encircling spiral symbolic of the relationships between the past, the present, and the future. I present this body of work as an expression of my connections to these spaces. Using ‘wild’ clay from my tribal whenua these pieces make historical connections between me and my Turangawaewae and are my response to the physical environment. I have traced the forms of nature and the effects of human occupation on the land and in so doing have traced my own place in transition and affirmed my identity as a Maori woman artist.
The common thread driving my art practice comes from a Maori spiritual dimension which connects me to, whakapapa, whanau, and whenua. These connections are represented by Taiawhio an encircling spiral symbolic of the relationships between the past, the present, and the future. I present this body of work as an expression of my connections to these spaces. Using ‘wild’ clay from my tribal whenua these pieces make historical connections between me and my Turangawaewae and are my response to the physical environment. I have traced the forms of nature and the effects of human occupation on the land and in so doing have traced my own place in transition and affirmed my identity as a Maori woman artist.
2004 Graduation Exhibition
2004 Graduation Exhibition
On and off the wall
On and off the wall
The aim of this body of work was to depict a connection between the wairua (spirit) and mauri (life force) of my ancestral wharenui Rangikurkuru in Dargaville, NZ. Exhibition at Hei Tiki Gallery, Whakarewarewa Maori Village, Rotorua, New Zealand.
The aim of this body of work was to depict a connection between the wairua (spirit) and mauri (life force) of my ancestral wharenui Rangikurkuru in Dargaville, NZ. Exhibition at Hei Tiki Gallery, Whakarewarewa Maori Village, Rotorua, New Zealand.