With the sun aglow, I have my pensive moods

Commissioned for The Edinburgh Arts Festival 2017, With the sun aglow, I have my pensive moods is one of the most complex works by Te Ao to date, encompassing a cinematic approach to landscape, performance, poetry, and philosophy.

Developed out of filmic works, documented performances, and abstracted cinema, the work is Formed after a waiata written by Te Rohu, the daughter of a chief Mananui Te Heuheu Tukino II of Ngāti Tūwharetoa. Te Ao then partners his ancestor, Te Rohu with a fictional character from the 1978 film The Killer of Sheep, directed by Charles Burnett and set in Watts, California about an African American family. The black and white channel is composed within Kā Pākihi Whakatekateka o Waitaha, Central Canterbury landscapes, and despite the beautiful rendering, nature appears imposed upon by vast inter-crossing powerlines. The camera is motionless, ‘locked off’ and tightly composed, distanced from the scene. The dawns mist surrounding some cows suggests a critical eye upon the dairy industry. Juxtaposed are two women dancing in a field of organically grown hemp, the camera is handheld and moves gracefully, harmoniously within the scene. The pair are presented in natural light and colour, revelling in dusks end of day, light. They appear to almost sleep in their embrace, gently swaying to the sound of a breeze while the artists voice recites the waiata.

"I imagined what a conversation between these two women might be like. I hope the work resonates emotionally for people; I'm interested in empathy and thinking about these things as a particular ideal that we are striving for; about relating to people from completely different worlds." Shannon Te Ao, The Herald, 13 Aug, 2017.

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