Hemi Macgregor

Agent Provocateur #2

Agent Provocateur #2 by Hemi Macgregor

Artwork Detail

Ko tā Hemi Macgregor, ‘ko taku mahi toi he kaikawe i Te Ao Mārama, ki tō mātou tūturutanga o nāianei, ki te ao wairua o ngā atua.’ Kei roto i tēnei toi, kitea ai te tūturutanga o nāianei i te kāmera tūtei o mua e herea ana e tētahi maurino nō te wā Wikitōria. Nā tāna whakakotahi i ngā ‘āwhina kia mahia kētia’ o ngā wā huhua, e tukuna ai e Macgregor kia kitea e tātou ngā āhuatanga nekeneke hei wero i te whakamanatanga o te hangarau tūtei o nāianei e kore e taea te karo. I te wā i hangaia ai tēnei toi kātahi anō ka whakamanahia te Search and Surveillance Act 2012, whai muri i ngā whakaekenga pirihimana ‘ātete whakatuatea’ i Te Urewera, mana Tūhoe. Kei te kaha kōrerotia tonutia i ngā tautohenga tōrangapū ngā tikanga o te tūteitanga i te marea me te raweke a te kāwanatanga.

‘My artwork becomes a conduit between Te Ao Mārama, our present reality, and the spiritual realm of the atua,’ says Hemi Macgregor. In this work, present reality is foregrounded in the surveillance camera, mounted on a Victorian wrought-iron bracket. Bringing ‘assisted readymades’ of different eras together, Macgregor allows us to observe shifting norms and to question the contemporary ubiquity of surveillance technology. At the time this work was made, the Search and Surveillance Act 2012 had just been passed, following the 2007 ‘anti-terror’ police raids in Te Urewera, on Tūhoe land. The ethics of public surveillance and state intervention continue to figure strongly in contemporary political discussion.

Title
Agent Provocateur #2
Artist/creator
Hemi Macgregor
Production date
2012
Medium
aluminium, wood, paint
Dimensions
730 x 230 x 570 mm
Credit line
courtesy of the artist
Accession no
X2020/55/2/2
Copyright
Copying restrictions apply
Department
New Zealand Art
Display status
Not on display

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