BRETT GRAHAM - Nebula
21 September - 1 October 2011
Bartley + Company Art is pleased to present this exhibition of 12 drawings by leading Maori artist Brett Graham. Although better known as sculptor, drawing has always been a part of Graham’s practice.
The works in this new exhibition Nebula were the preliminary drawings for the animation about the traditional Maori schools of learning that appears in the recently opened Tainui exhibition at Te Papa Tongarewa, the Musuem of New Zealand. Tai timu tai pari, Tainui: Journey of a people tells the story of Tainui iwi. Graham, who is a member of the Tainui sub-tribe Ngati Koroki, was the art director for this exhibition.
The drawings were inspired by the Maori scholar Pei Te Hurinui Jones and Aporo, a 19th century advocate of the Maori religious movement Pai Marire (good and peaceful). A nebula is an interstellar dust cloud but Graham has drawn his title, and hence the references for his work, from Pei Te Hurinui Jones writing in 1957:
In my reconstruction of the Creation Charts, the reader should find something of special interest. It would appear that the Māori, in his spiral designs of carving as used in his sacred rituals, had stumbled on the form of the nebula. Around these sacred designs, in the story of the creation, the Be-spaced Heavens and the World Hereafter – embellished with a wealth of imagery unsurpassed by other primitive races of mankind – the Māori has interwoven his ritualistic recitals in a manner that is at once absorbing and most fascinating; and, in the telling of it, he has used language the Gods themselves might have spoken.
Please note that there will not be an opening for this exhibition as Brett Graham is overseas.
Brett Graham, 2011, Nebula, ink on canvas, 380 x 380 mm.
Best wishes,
Alison and Kate.
|
