Artist and friends bring myths to life

THE LONG NIGHT: Vanessa Edwards with some of the work in her exhibition Te Poroa: The Long Night, showing at Space Gallery. PHOTO/STUART MUNRO 160715WCSMARTS3

Collaboration, intuition, and the Maori creation myth are the elements behind a striking exhibition at Space Gallery.

Vanessa Edwards' Te Poroa: The Long Night is a series of woodcuts and scraffito works, as well as an installation. The exhibition runs until July 24.

The exhibition began with the woodcuts which Ms Edwards, who is of Ngati Tuwharetoa descent, has been working with for some time.

She created a series of woodcuts that deal with the Maori creation myth of Rangi [the male sky] and Papatuanuku [the female earth] joining together to create life.

"After I'd printed them off, I realised the female portion that I'd created was there, but the male portion was not. So that was when the idea to collaborate with local male artists came into play," Ms Edwards said.

She approached Marty Vreede and Graham Hall, who had both taught Ms Edwards at UCOL, for the collaboration.

"I asked them to cut into the negative space to create a male presence within the work. They knew me, and they knew my work and what it was about, so they responded in a way that they felt was appropriate."

The third collaborator was Wi Taepa, who Ms Edwards met during this year's Open Studios.

All three chose an image of Ms Edwards' that spoke to them.

The fourth collaboration was made by Alexis Neal in memory of Mike Samuels, a good friend of Ms Edwards who has since died.

"He was an artist but before that he was a ta moko artist and a really respected carver.

"So it became obvious that he should be the fourth artist," Ms Edwards said.

The work contains Ms Edwards' central print, a small drawing made by Mr Samuels, and other details added by Ms Neal.

The four collaborations have given the works distinctly different appearances.

"It was an interesting process. It took me out of my comfort zone in that I didn't always have full control of my own work."

Ms Edwards said she works in an instinctive way.

"The magic of art happens when after all the skills you have, and all the best practice you have, and all the years of experience, just to give yourself over to the instinct and allow yourself to respond to that."

The scraffito works are Ms Edwards' response to the woodcuts.

The technique of scraffito is familiar to most schoolchildren - bold colours drawn randomly on to the surface, covered with a layer of black paint and scratched off to reveal the colours below.

"Again, it's that instinctive process of creating something and not knowing what's going to come out - in this case, what colour is going to come out from underneath."