A handful of soil
An expansive new exhibition at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū explores the powerful and lasting connections that exist between people and land.
An expansive new exhibition at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū explores the powerful and lasting connections that exist between people and land.
Part of the Gallery’s two-yearly rehang of its upstairs collection spaces, He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil combines historic and contemporary art. It includes painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, weaving, and moving image works.
Flowing through a series of interconnected spaces, He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil examines the depiction and understanding of whenua (land) through different lenses. It begins with a selection of works by contemporary Māori artists such as Robyn Kahukiwa, John Bevan Ford, and Nathan Pōhio that are underpinned by the concepts of whakapapa and tiakitaka – genealogy and guardianship – acknowledging the ancestral connections Māori have to this whenua.
Artworks are grouped around themes such as identity and belonging, activism, climate change, and land use. Historic events such as the 1975 Māori Land March, the occupation of Bastion Point, and the Crown purchases of Kāi Tahu land in the mid-nineteenth century are explored in works by renowned artists John Miller and Areta Wilkinson. Elsewhere, the new hang brings visitors up close to wetland and mountain landscapes, blending historic and contemporary works to create rich and immersive viewing experiences.
“The relationship between tākata and whenua – people and land – runs through the art history of Aotearoa New Zealand, and has a strong presence in the Gallery’s collection,” says lead curator Felicity Milburn.
“The land shapes us, helping to build a sense of who we are. This is especially true for Indigenous peoples. But we shape the land too, and many of the artists in this exhibition consider the human impact on the land and our environment.”
The exhibition includes a special focus on contemporary Māori clay artists, many of whom emerged during the 1980s with Ngā Kaihanga Uku, a group of Māori artists who used the whenua as both the material and inspiration for their artworks. Examples by two of the founding members of the group, Colleen Waata Urlich and Baye Riddell, are displayed alongside works by a newer generation of artists, such as Tracy Keith and Sarah Hudson.
He Kapuka Oneone also debuts a host of new acquisitions and commissions. A sculptural installation by senior Kāi Tahu artist Ross Hemera is informed by the history and imagery of Te Waipounamu South Island ana whakairo (Māori rock art). A multi-part installation made from harakeke by a group of Ōtautahi Christchurch-based weavers, Te Kāhui Hono, hangs from the ceiling of another gallery space.
Also on show for the first time is a powerful new video work by acclaimed choreographer and artist Louise Pōtiki Bryant. Te Hā o Papatūānuku considers the relationship between water and land. Pōtiki Bryant was inspired by Papatūānuku and Parawhenuamea, the atua wāhine (female deities) of the earth and fresh waterways. Her fluid, evocative work incorporates images of her own body, evoking the transformation of whenua over time through the movement of water.
He Kapuka Oneone will be up for two years and will be complemented by an ongoing programme of events. An accompanying book will be published by the Gallery in 2025.
Clockwise from top image: Doris Lusk Canterbury Plains from Cashmere Hills (detail) 1952. Oil on canvas board. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 1974; Colleen Waata Urlich Paikea Pot 1994. Earthenware. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 2023; Ida Lough Water Grasses (detail) 1974. Wool. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased with assistance from the Olive Stirrat bequest, 1988; Louise Pōtiki Bryant Te Hā o Papatūānuku (still) 2024. Single-channel video with soundtrack by Paddy Free. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 2024.