3 tlz.lft, 4 t.l.z.i.f.t<1

Ko te mahi toi a Saffronn Te Ratana he patapatai e pēhea ai te kikotanga o te peita me te hanga-māka e marohi ai i ngā ariā mō te wāhi me te kōrero i roto, i waho hoki i ngā kikotanga tūturu. I konei kei te hangaia ngā ira, ngā porotaka, ngā kupu, ngā miru peita kua ukuparatia i te waehere ataata tūrehurehu i roto i te wāhi mānu. I te wā kotahi kei te whakaatu, kei te whawhati hoki i te tauira tīahoaho, ā, ko ēnei māka āhua peha, he wāhi tohutoro, he wāhi wehenga i kitea ai te mātauranga takitahi, ngā maumaharatanga, ngā wheako. Kei te hāngai te *3 tlz.lft, 4 t.l.z.i.f.t<1*, 2001 ki te taparoto, ki te whānui rawa, ā, ka whakaatu i te māramatanga ataata hei whakapuaki i ngā ariā mō te ao Māori, mō ōna tuturutanga me ōna tirohanga, ā, kei te kōrero mō ngā uauatanga kei mua i te aroaro o te ringa toi Māori. Mā Te Rātana,

Ko te auaha tawhito he tātauira mō te tauoranga. Kua whakawaeheretia i roto i te auaha tētahi pūnaha ata e tautuhi ai i ngā tauira whanonga mō te pāhekoheko o te tangata ki te tangata – ko tā te tangata me te ao tūroa, ā, ko tā tērā e whāngai ai i tōna tauoranga.

Saffronn Te Ratana’s practice has continuously interrogated how the physicality of paint and mark-making can proffer alternative notions of space and narrative within and outside physical realities. Here smudged dots, orbs, text and protruding bubbles of paint forge an abstract visual code in a floating space. Simultaneously suggesting and disrupting a decipherable pattern, these loosely figurative marks are instead points of reference and departure, into which individual knowledge, memories and experiences can be read. Speaking both to the subjective and the universal, *3 tlz.lft, 4 t.l.z.i.f.t<1*, 2001 presents a unique visual vocabulary to express concepts about te ao Māori (the Māori worldview), its diverse realities and perspectives, and articulate the complexities of what it means to be a Māori artist. For Te Ratana,

Ancestral forms offer templates for existence. Encoded within their form is an iconographical system that defines behavioural models for human interaction – that with humans and the natural, and that which sustains their being.

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