Mark Adams

09.06.1986. Toot and Whistle Steam Railway. Kuirau Park. Rotorua

Artwork Detail

When Adams first exhibited is Rotorua photographs, he gave the exhibition a bilingual title Pakeha • Maori — A Conjuncture / Maori • Pakeha — He Waerenga Ururoa. He was fascinated by instances where the interplay between cultures in the region was visible – such as the Toot and Whistle Stream Railway, a popular tourist attraction.

Adams' long-time collaborator, Australian anthropologist Nicholas Thomas, provides a perceptive analysis of this diptych. He notes: "the subject is obviously not 'Maori carving in any classical or exoticised sense, it's the conjuncture. A conjuncture in whice tourism and recreation (the railway) loom large, as part of the various elements of colonial modernity (the edge of the carpark), while the overhanging gum tree evidences the singular trans-Tasman, Australasian dynamics of a particular colonial history."

- Sarah Farrar, Mark Adams: A Survey | He Kohinga Whakaahua, 2025

Title: 09.06.1986. Toot and Whistle Steam Railway. Kuirau Park. Rotorua
Artist/creator: Mark Adams
Production date: 1986 {printed 2009}
Medium: Fibre-based silver bromide prints, from 8 x 10 inch black-and-white negative film
Dimensions: 641 x 793 x 44 mm
Credit line: Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, purchased 2025
Accession no: 2025/20/6.1-2
Other ID: MA46 Artist's reference number, X2024/21/1/9.1-2 Former Exhibition Number
Copyright: Social Media use permitted
Department: New Zealand Art
Display status: Not on display

To find out which artworks are available for print requests and reproduction please enquire here. This service only applies to select artworks in the Gallery's collection.