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Mana Wahine Art Exhibition

Losalini Dulakiverata

21 August 2005

In celebration of Mana Wahine week, south Auckland based female artists Ema Tavola, Melissa Cole, Melani Kahi and Yazma Smith collaborated in an art exhibition held during Wednesday 13 to Saturday 23 April 2005.

Mana Wahine Week occurs in April of each year, usually in the third week.

“Rupua Te Mana Wahine” is a project, funded by the Ministry of Health, to provide a national platform for promoting issues of importance to Women, in particular women that contemporary health promotion is not proving effective (i.e. Maori & Pacific).

Artist Ema Tavola felt that, “coming together to celebrate each other’s expression, and to celebrate the many hats that women wear, was a great conceptual focus for an exhibition.”

“Because the art world is male dominated, and we are four women artists doing something that is rarely done, in the context of a home, in suburbia, this is an area dominated by women.

So many people who make, or draw, or paint informally think 'it’s not good enough'... I question who they think it is 'not good enough' for and why.

Surely to encourage women is only to broaden the art spectrum.”

Ema Tavola says “when the focus is purely on women and women’s expression, the whole framework for viewing art changes.”

The “framework for viewing” the Mana Wahine Art exhibition was definitely atypical of traditional art contexts.

Not held back by the lack of galleries of art viewing opportunities in south Auckland, the exhibition was held in Duende, the studio of Melissa Cole and Toni Putai, located behind their home, in the domestic surroundings of residential Otahuhu.

The exhibition drew crowds of people who ordinarily would not venture into art galleries in Auckland City or major art centres in Manukau.

Ema Tavola said that the response to the exhibition was positive and the opening night held on Tuesday 12 April was an absolute success.

She said, “Maori, much like Fijians, come with big extended families and this exhibition aimed to embrace this as our families are our support systems. We had Aunties, grandmothers, nieces, daughters, mothers, cousins (so many cousins!), friends, peers, colleagues... support for us and our creative endeavours was overwhelming."

The artwork was hung on white walls of Melissa’s studio, treating the space like a traditional art gallery.

Each of the artist’s work was placed on walls facing each other, as if in conversation.

Ema says that, “together there is a visual dialogue going on. For some of us, we’re communicating a healing process, but for all of us this exhibition is statement of empowerment.”

All four worked with fabric in diverse ways.

Ema Tavola - 'The Bag Project'

Ema Tavola, in addition to curating the exhibition, produced the “Bag Project” which each of the four artists contributed to.

“I have often used fabric and textiles in one way or another and I am interested in the significance of fabric in a Pacific context. I am also drawn to collective art making, referencing Cook Island tivaevae sewing, I enjoy the 'working together' concept”, comments Ema.

“Partly I enjoy working on loose canvas as a medium for small works because it is sewable and paintable, fluid and changeable, but I think canvas also speaks of the fine art hierarchy. Working in the field of sewing and function suggests ‘craft’. This project seeks to blur the boundaries of painting as fine art and sewing and function as craft by producing a series of thirty ‘functional paintings’.”

Yazma Smith - Reclamation Series

Bag by Yazma Smith

Yazma in particular references the reclamation of Maori imagery that has been bastardised by commercialisation of 'New Zealand identity art'.

She says, “I aim to energise our tiki, our taonga created by our ancestors with the traditional colour schemes of red, black and white, colours relevant to self-determination, tino rangatirotanga.

This series symbolizes our past, present and future, reclaiming the symbols that represent cultural endurance and a people indigenous to this land, unique to this world”.

Reclamation Series, Yazma Smith

Melani Kirkwood Kahi - 'Huarahi Watea. Pathway'

Bag by Melani Kirkwood Kahi

Melani commenting on her work ‘Pathway’ says that, “We are a combination of races, joining as one, gathering as one, walking different paths, facing obstacles and overcoming them. ’X’ marks the signing of an agreement, signing to be recognized.”

Huarahi Watea 'PATHWAY' by Melani Kirkwood Kahi

Melissa Cole - 'Annabel'

Bag by Melissa Cole

Melissa Cole is primarily a clothes designer but for the exhibition produced a mixed media sculpture named “Annabel” dedicated to her sister lost in a tragic accident.

Melissa says, ““This work is a minute expression of my grief and incomprehensible loss of my sister.

It talks about the separation of spirit from the body and the veil that separates the spirit world from this human experience.

This is, in a small way, an extension of my grief and sorrow, hope and peace.”

'Annabel' by Melissa Cole

For the four artists, this exhibition has been “an experiment in sharing visual expression outside of the established art viewing frameworks”.

Ema Tavola said, “Personally, I feel the established art frameworks represent the Western art / culture system, which is not our own.

When we are involved in this discourse I believe our status as 'other' attaches pre-conceived expectations and categorisation to our practice.

When we take these frameworks and re-present them, on our own terms, we are creating our own platform for viewing and appreciating visual expression, which can only enhance the essence of our art work.

An art gallery comes with a legacy of arts viewing protocol, if we have not made our work for this context or for an audience that prescribes to these 'norms', placing our work within the art gallery can be politically disempowering.”

Melissa Cole (artist & studio owner) with Ema Tavola (artist & curator)

Click here to view more work by artist
Ema Tavola – MIT Visual Arts Student

Manukau Festival of Arts 08

Post by: Losalini in the Notices / Events forum.

Between 30 October and 17 November the Manukau Festival of Arts will showcase more than 30 exciting events around the city - exhibitions, youth events, music, dance, fashion, comedy and a film festival. All the details are on www.mfa.org.nz The Manukau Festival of Arts 08 is an inaugural event f...