Capital Art - A Maori Perspective.

"Spinning Top"

Robert Jahnke 2002

Woodward St. Wellington

This is one of my favourites among the many contemporary New Zealand sculptures commissioned by the Wellington Sculpture Trust in partnership with the Wellington City Council, to enhance the capital city's urban environment. It was created by leading Maori artist, Professor Robert Jahnke, who is currently Head of School and Maori Visual Arts Co-Ordinator at Massey University in Palmerston North. Jahnke (Te Whanau a Rakairoa, Te Whanau a Iritekura, Ngai Taharoroa, Ngati Porou), was born in the East Coast settlement of Waipiro Bay in 1951. He has exhibited widely throughout New Zealand and internationally since 1982 and his work and career is an exploration of what it means to be a Maori artist. While an advocate for biculturalism, Jahnke often explores the issues around injustices to Maori through his artwork; and his sculptures often feature both Maori and Pakeha symbolism. Along with many wood constructions, Jahnke has also worked as an illustrator and in film and two of his best known commissions are door works for the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and the wall reliefs for Bowen House in Wellington.

Ngati Poneke - The Face of Wellington

Ngati Poneke

The Face of Wellington

Museum of Wellington

City to Sea

www.museumswellington.org.nz

Saved from the Wreckage

I visited Wellington's Museum of Wellington a couple of days ago and found it to be a very well designed and beautifully presented little museum - not that it was my first visit; this more a reiteration of my enjoyment of the small, intimate displays, the painting/mural entitled "Wahine" by James Turkington (1966), that was recovered from the wreckage of the vessel Wahine, that sank off the Wellington coast in 1968. It's part of the museum's very moving Wahine Gallery, which is a memorial to the Cook Strait tragedy. Although this mural had only been submerged for a few months before it was recovered, it was already encrusted with barnacles and small mussels. After cleaning and restoration though, only a few near-invisible scars remain on the formica surface. www.museumofwellington.co.nz