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Councillor Tim Skinner criticised the Suter Gallery for displaying a New Zealand flag on the floor.
Deputy Mayor Rohan O’Neill-Stevens defended the artwork, emphasising the importance of artistic expression.
The artwork, by Diane Prince, invites reflection on historical and ongoing issues related to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
A controversial Nelson art installation that invites people to walk on a New Zealand flag has sparked a heated feud between local leaders.
The art up for debate is Flagging the Future, by established Māori artist Diane Prince, which was first shown in an exhibit 30 years ago atthe Auckland Art Gallery.
The exhibition, titled Diane Prince: Activist Artist, emphasises Māori rights, particularly those of Māori women, framed by past and present Māori activism.
In a Facebook post, Nelson City councillor Tim Skinner said he took his young son to the Suter Art Gallery on Friday and said, “We were horrified to see the NZ Flag on the floor requesting community to desecrate it, with ‘please walk on me’.”
Skinner said the piece was “Totally inappropriate on so many levels”.
Skinner said he made a formal complaint to the Suter director and raised the issue with the mayor and the Nelson City Council chief executive.
A Nelson art installation that invites people to walk on a New Zealand flag has sparked a heated feud between local leaders. Photo / Rohan O'Neill-Stevens
Skinner said, “This is more than disrespectful.
“I do not condone standing on any recognised nation’s flag.
“Nor would I ever think it okay to use public money to teach visitors or youth that this is what we do.”
Skinner said he was a supporter of the gallery but now asks for the installation’s immediate removal and an apology.
Deputy Mayor Rohan O’Neill-Stevens said in a post, “I’m well aware I’m a politician, not a curator or critic.
“However, given at least one of my colleagues has decided to chime in, going so far as to call for an artwork’s removal and an apology, I think it’s only appropriate to speak in strong defence of artistic expression and the right for us all to be challenged and confronted by art.”
Nelson Deputy Mayor Rohan O’Neill-Stevens at the LGNZ conference in Wellington. Photo / Laura Smith
O’Neill-Stevens said the exhibition was “painfully relevant” because there has been a significant rise in direct attacks against Te Tiriti o Waitangi and against Māori recently.
Prince’s works are “powerful statements and provocations against a status quo that is built upon violent colonisation, a status quo that continues to deliver inequities of every manifestation”, O’Neill-Stevens said.
“They are challenging, they evoke strong emotions and gut reactions – that is key to their impact."
O’Neill-Stevens said he understood why people reacted so strongly to the invitation to walk on the flag.
He said this offence people feel is an opportunity to “explore what it means when a government puts a fixed price tag on generations of harm, to ask if how you feel might at all correspond to how it feels to have a government unilaterally attempt to rewrite the Treaty or to ignore the systems put in place to avoid further breaches”.
“I can’t help but feel that if some of the people accusing the work of stoking division took a moment to explore how it makes them feel, they might instead find space for connection and understanding.”
