Sarjeant Happenings: He Tohu Tēnā Pea, It is Perhaps a Sign opens at Sarjeant on the Quay

Artist and curator Vanessa Edwards has worked with the Sarjeant’s curator and public programmes manager Greg Donson to bring together the last show to open at Sarjeant on the Quay called He Tohu Tēnā Pea, It Is Perhaps a Sign.

It is Perhaps a Sign is an apt expression for the closing show at Sarjeant on the Quay.

It is signalling to a future in the reimagined gallery at Pukenamu, where the strengthened building and relationships from this time on the quay will flourish. The group exhibition draws on the strength of the collective and desire to express – and make sense of – signs that the natural world presents to us.

The exhibition, which opened on Friday, is a joint initiative with Awa Rere Roa Whanganui Māori Arts Collective and Te Whare o Rehua.

For leading curator Vanessa Edwards, the kaupapa was broad enough to give the artists space to reflect and respond in their own way, and for Sarjeant curator Greg Donson it also allowed for trust and intuition to bolster the developing relationship.

“From a programming perspective, this show and process encapsulates how we need to move forward,” Greg says.

“It’s not about putting a big structure around it, it’s a lot more organic and fluid and we have to let go in that process. It’s also about being brave, us being nimble and everyone thinking about the visual arts in a completely different way.”

With the help of Greg and his team they’ve pulled together 10 mattresses for the three wānanga events woven through the show’s duration.

Keeping it true to a marae-style setting, Vanessa brings a unique vision that welcomes the community to be part of the wider narrative that flows from these works.

With wānanga on Puanga, a star weaving workshop and artist-hosted kōrero, the community can experience the gallery in a way like never before.

“We are activating the space and the work to show how a gallery can be multi-functional and really about the community and to relax the usual framework of being a strict European approach. You respond quite differently when presenting and receiving kōrero – so we wanted to create a circular space where there can be more discussion.”

Building from the success of Huritau, at the Community Arts Centre 2022, Awa Rere Roa was formed and the artists came together to decide what they wanted to achieve as a collective, setting their sights on the future with He Tohu Tēnā Pea.

The result is some pretty awe-inspiring and wide-ranging works acknowledging the elements as both greater than and intrinsically connected to us.

There are pūrakau, ancient narratives, winking back at you in each piece, and yet they speak to what we are seeing and sensing right now. Together they’ve created a space to reflect on the challenges of the last 12 months, the passionate rain, our collective grief, pooling in the gaps between cyclones and the pandemic.

“There’s lots going on around the world, there’s an uneasiness. So it’s about being flexible and responsive and doing wānanga together as makers, so we can get to know one another. It’s not all about the end product, as Greg was saying, it’s about whakawhanaungatanga, and providing awhi however we need to.”

Artist Raukura Naani Waitai has reflected on Cyclone Gabrielle and the connection between the name of the storm and the archangel who appeared to the founder of the Pai Mārire faith, Te Ua Haumene. Gabriel, or Kapereira – the Māori transliteration as seen in her work – was a messenger from God.

Raukura Naani Waitai's work is called Kapereira.

“I find it interesting that they called it Gabrielle and that’s a messenger of God. I related it to that and thought, is it a sign? I reflected on the water and what happened to the earth, and I’ve worked with these earthy-ochre colours, the broken bridge, the ages of those that died. It refers to the elements, leadership and people. And it’s an acknowledgment, a poroporoaki of those that died.”

From a Māori worldview, observing the phenomena of the natural world – reading signs – and developing these understandings over time to monitor and forecast changes in the environment is crucial to prepare and strategize.

At this time of year we look to the early morning skies.

Along with Puanga, the star cluster of Matariki will appear again to signal a new year in Aotearoa. We can look to these stars and reflect on what’s been, send wishes for the year ahead, watch them closely, seeking a glimmer of what’s to come.

This group of stars are known as the eyes of Tawhirimātea, the force that creates the weather. It’s not a stretch to imagine that there are strong messages coming through to take heed of the powerful forces at play in the delicate balance we exist between earth and sky.

Frances Stachl’s work connects into this pūrakau with 18 pāua brooches set in signature oxidised silver, arranged in pairs of eyes, striking and mysterious. In the title of her work lies a message of cherishing and watching over our children, the future.

“They’re called Kia Mataara, Kia matapopore, be vigilant, be watchful. Just like Naani’s piece about storms and cyclones, I guess a lot of us have been thinking this way because there have been so many of these events.

“They’re also for the babies in my family. For a lot of us our first experience of pāua as an art material is in a meeting house, it makes so much sense to me that that would be how you depict seeing, or sight.”

Vanessa’s work, Ahi Kā, is inspired by the image and Pūrakau surrounding Mount Taranaki.

“I live on Castlecliff Beach and when we go for our walk along the beach, we always look for him, because – he tohu tēnā. This image had been there for quite some time of him emerging out of the landscape, and the waha is about the narrative and history that surrounds him. He rises like a sentinel and is a major tohu for the people of Taranaki and Whanganui, given that he created the awa.

“For the first time I’m showing the printing block as an artwork. The idea as a printmaker is that this is the ancestor that is born off this block. There are several editions, but as a Māori printmaker I call them generations. In this way the block becomes really special, like a tīpuna.”

That ongoingness of whakapapa speaks to the opportunity in this moment, before the doors close on June 30. The overall vibe coming through is that working together is the future. For Vanessa and Awa Rere Roa Collective it always has been.

“We look to Ngā Puna Waihanga, the national body of Māori Contemporary Artists. Our ancestors were part of that movement in the 70s and 80s. Artists who are in this show were part of that movement and quite active. We’re the next generation doing our part in creating opportunities for young and emerging artists.

“With it being the last show for this space added gravity to the kaupapa. The shutting down of the space and the kore space that comes after and then back up at Pukenamu and the epic duality we can work in going forward.”