Te Ao Hurihuri (right)

Ko Michael Parekōwhai tētahi o ngā mātanga toi puaki kaupapa o Aotearoa. Kei te kukume atu ia i ngā āhuatanga o ngā tirohanga huhua, ka mutu he maha ngā wāhanga mō te toi, te mātauranga me te kaupapa ā-ariā. Ko te wāhi o te mātauranga Māori e kauhuri ai te mahi a te ringa toi, ā, ka kitea tōna ahureitanga. Nā ōna āhuatanga whakaihiihi, whakamīharo, pūkeke, e rongonui ai ngā tāraitanga a Parekōwhai. Putahi ai āna mahi ki te tapu me te noa, ki te māori noa me te taioreore. Ko ngā arewhana kaitā o *Te Ao Hurihuri*, 2009 he taiapa pukapuka ki tētahi kaupapa ā-hinengaro. I konei, ehara te arewhana i te arewhana, he kanohi mō te wā kē – kei te waha i te taumaha o te aronga. Ko tā *Te Ao Hurihuri* he huritao i ngā panuitanga mō te wā, te tauoranga o te tangata me ōna pānga huhua, he kōmitimititanga o te toi Dada me ngā tikanga ā-waha Māori mō te wāhi me te tauoranga.

Michael Parekōwhai is one of New Zealand’s leading conceptual artists. He draws on a range of influences, bringing into play multiple readings of art, knowledge and theoretical practice. The place of Māori knowledge is where the artist’s practice pivots and finds its distinction. Parekōwhai’s sculptural works are known for their grandeur, spectacle and tenacity. They often intersect perceptions of the sacred and the profane, the everyday and the sublime. The large elephants of *Te Ao Hurihuri*, 2009 are the bookends to a philosophical proposition. Here, the elephant is not an elephant but the earnest nature of time – they hold the weight of perception. *Te Ao Hurihuri*, which can be understood in English as ‘The Turning World’, sublimely ponders readings about time, human existence and relativity with a combination of Dada wit and Māori oral traditions about place and being.

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