The mutual cultural exchange between European and Polynesian peoples in the colonial era is the inspiration behind an exhibition on display in Tauranga.
Artist Jo Torr created her pieces over 18 years and brought them together for an exhibition at The Incubator as part of the Suffrage 125 Tauranga commemorations.
The exhibition, named Vahine - Wahine, consists of five sculptures depicting the transit of Venus astronomical event, cloth exchanges between the European and Polynesian cultures, and the similarity between the silhouette of fashion at the time and the ceremonial giving of tapa cloth.
There are also two 18th century etchings to give context to the works, one of the tapa gift-giving ceremony in which a woman swaddled in tapa is unravelled until all of the tapa is unwound, and the other is of a Tahitian making a gown.
Of the five sculptures, two are dresses made of tapa cloth, two are garments made of woollen blankets - one female and one male - and one is a dress made of bamboo fabric printed with images of the notes that Captain Cook made during the 1769 transit of Venus.