At home
7 November 2023 - May 2024
Edith Amituanai, Jamie Berry, Megan Brady, Areez Katki, Steven Junil Park, Marilynn Webb
Curated by Erin Lee
Te Ara Ātea
Rolleston
Aotearoa, NZ
Between tide and time, 2023. Steel, thread pulled linen. Detail. Photo credit Kelly Shakespeare.
Between tide and time, 2023. Steel, thread pulled linen. Installation view. Photo credit Erin Lee.
Between tide and time, 2023. Steel, thread pulled linen. Installation view. Photo credit Erin Lee.
Between tide and time, 2023. Steel, thread pulled linen. Detail. Photo credit Kelly Shakespeare.
Megan Brady is on a journey to reconnect with her home. After discovering her Ngāi Tūāhuriri whakapapa, she has been spending time on her tūrakawaewae in and around Ōtautahi Christchurch. Between tide and time considers the tide which wraps around the coast from the Rakahuri Ashley awa to Taumutu as a site of connection. This tide, Te Tai o Mahaanui, connects the marae of Ngāi Tūāhuriri to Ngāi Te Ruahikihiki ki Taumutu, mana whenua of Waikirikiri Selwyn.
The steel structure traces the distinctive curve of Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū Banks Peninsula and supports seven lengths of linen, suspended from tracings of pōhatu Brady collected along the shoreline. The six breaks between the fabric indicate where different hapū are located along the coast, a mihi to Brady’s whanauka and the interconnected network of Kāi Tahu hapū. For Brady, home is found in identity and connection with others, as well as a physical place.
The threads removed from the fabric create a repeating pattern which depicts the cycles of water. Beginning with the tide of Mahaanui, clouds form over the ocean and rain falls on the mountains, moving through the rivers, returning to the sea. This pattern was inspired by the poem ‘The River is an Island’, written by Hone Tuwhare, a favourite poet of Brady and her father.
In Te Ara Ātea, Between tide and time ebbs and flows not with the tide, but with the changing sunlight and the movement of people who spend time with it.
Exhibition text by Erin Lee
Glossary of Māori terms
Whakapapa – geneology
Tūrakawaewae - a place where one has rights of residence and belonging through kinship and whakapapa.
Awa – river
Pōhatu- rocks
Hapū - kinship group, subtribe
Mihi – Acknowledgement
Whanauka – relative, kin
Between tide and time, 2023. Steel, thread pulled linen. Installation view. Photo credit Kelly Shakespeare.
Between tide and time, 2023. Steel, thread pulled linen. Installation view. Photo credit Kelly Shakespeare.
Between tide and time, 2023. Steel, thread pulled linen. Installation view. Photo credit Erin Lee.
Between tide and time, 2023. Steel, thread pulled linen. Installation view. Photo credit John Collie.
Between tide and time, 2023. Steel, thread pulled linen. Installation view. Photo credit Kelly Shakespeare.
Between tide and time, 2023. Steel, thread pulled linen. Installation view. Photo credit Kelly Shakespeare.
This project wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the following, to which I am grateful: Te Tai o Mahaanui, Pete Brady, Brady whānau, Henry Francis, Puamiria Parata-Goodall, Denise Sheat, Chloe Cull, Ollie Roake, Bella Roake, Paige Jansen, Alix Ashworth, Ngaio Cowell, Orissa Keane, Ray Moreton, Steve Trevella, Rob Palmer, Peter Nock, Paemanu Ngāi Tahu Contemporary Visual Arts and Erin Lee.
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