This is Life on Earth

Ko tā *This is Life on Earth*, 2020 he whakatōpū i te takawhīwhiwhi ata pāpori, ata ahurea, mō te hītori koroniara o Aotearoa me ngā nekehanga o ngā whakawhitinga me ngā whakawhanaungatanga o te Māori me te Pākehā. He toi peita paki āwhata-rahi tēnei e whakaatu ana i te momo rohenga e kitea ai te taiao e taunga ana, e tauhou ana. Kua whakatūria he matauri o ngā tāne me ngā wāhine o te wā o Wikitoria ki tētahi taiao e noho muramura nei ngā ata o te Māori. Ko tā ēnei āhua he whakaatu i ngā kōrerohanga me ngā hītori whakamanawarau, ā, kei te whakawhiti te peita i te hikuwaru me te ōkawa, i te taunga me te tauhou. Ko tā ēnei tauruatanga he akiaki i te tangata ki te huritao i ngā āhuatanga a ētahi atu – he whakaaro ake ki te tūturutanga o te tauoranga, o te wheako o tangata kē.

*This is Life on Earth*, 2020 assembles a kaleidoscope of social and cultural imagery about Aotearoa New Zealand’s colonial history and the dynamics of Māori and Pākehā exchanges and relationships. A large-scale narrative painting, it presents a type of frontier in which the landscape is both familiar and foreign. It incorporates the silhouettes of Victorian era men and women positioned in a landscape within which bold illustrations of Māori hold the centre. These figures represent uneasy conversations and histories, and the painting moves between between the organic and the formal, the familiar and the foreign. These dualities encourage us to consider the positions of other people – to imagine the realities of their life and experiences.

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