Walk The Path with three days of creative events

The Path exhibition featuring Aaron Kereopa's carved surfboards (top to bottom, Whai Sky's, 2021, Two Butterwhai + Sky Surfer's, 2021, Impact Zone, 2021). Photo/Supplied

If you've spent the summer at the beach, sand between your toes and salt in your nostrils, this weekend Te Whare Toi ō Heretaunga, Hastings City Art Gallery, celebrates the wonder of that ocean feeling – with a series of events featuring creatives who spend all year on our coastlines, chasing waves.

The Gallery's newest exhibition, The Path, celebrates the work of artists who surf. For many, surfing isn't just a pastime, it's a way of life. Deeply linked to the cycles of nature – weather, tides and swells – surfing doesn't just feed the mind, body and spirit, it inspires endless creativity.

And that endless creativity is why The Path isn't a show of just "surf art". Featuring 33 creatives, from all different walks of life, connected by their love of the ocean, The Path explores the ways in which surfing inspires their creative practice.

This weekend, January 21-23, a wide line-up of events will unlock the minds and processes of these creatives for the Hastings community. All events are free, with no booking required.

First up on Friday, from 12 noon till 1pm, hear behind the scenes of award-winning filmmaker Peter Day's documentary, In Search of Da Cat, about infamous surfer, Mickey Dora.

Dora is personified as the rebel-surfer - inspiring a generation to defy convention and take on that wave – but he was also a mystery and tangle of contradictions. Day will also speak about his creative practice, while showing snippets and exploring details of this film.

Then on Friday night, from 5.30pm, the community will gather with many of the artists involved in The Path, to celebrate and officially open the exhibition.

On Saturday morning, Gallery curator Clayton Gibson will lead a panel discussion, about the practice of art and surfing, and their impact on one another, with four creatives from The Path – painters John Walsh and Margaret Hansen, carver Aaron Kereopa and author Aaron Topp. This talk starts at 11am.

And on Sunday, from 11am, hear from artist Dr Steve Gibbs about his practice, PhD research and artwork in The Path exhibition.

His work is in response to his genealogical connections to Tūranganui-a-kiwa (Poverty Bay) and his PhD research focused on a series of painted and carved waka hoe, which were located throughout Europe despite having their origins in Tūranganui-a-kiwa.

The waka hoe are decorated with design systems which are the oldest surviving examples of customary kōwhaiwhai patterns. He was also involved in the process of locating and negotiating the return of several taonga tuku iho (treasures handed down by ancestors) from international museum collections and brought them back to Tūranganui-a-kiwa in 2019.

*For more information about these events, or anything else happening at Te Whare Toi ō Heretaunga, Hastings City Art Gallery, please go to hastingscityartgallery.co.nz

SIDEBAR: Please note, all visitors to the Gallery for these events will need their Ministry of Health-issued My Vaccine Pass scanned before entry. My Vaccine Passes will also be required for anyone visiting the Gallery between 10am and 2pm on Friday, January 21, and from 10am till 2pm on Saturday, January 22 and from 10.30am till 2pm Sunday, January 23.