Jesus Nike

Ko te toi a Gina Matchitt he tirohanga hou ki ngā auaha me ngā ariā Māori e pā ana ki ngā rawa o nāianei me ngā tohu ā-ao mō te tauhokohoko me te ahurea. I roto i a Jesus Nike, 1999 kua panonihia te ‘tohu tika’ o Nike e whakanikohia e te āhua o Ihu Karaiti kia mātau kē te āhua hei whakaatu i a Māui e hī ake ana i Te Ika-a-Māui. He apa tohu kei konei – ko tā te pine rākei a Matchitt he tānoa hangareka i te mana o te moni hua ā-ao i te whakatakotoranga o te taonga ki te taha o te taenga mai o te Karaitianatanga i runga i te rārangi haere o te koroniaratanga i Aotearoa.

Gina Matchitt’s jewellery practice reworks customary Māori forms and concepts with contemporary materials and global symbols of commerce and culture. In Jesus Nike, 1999 the ‘tick’ of the Nike brand, embellished with an image of Jesus Christ, is transformed into a hei matau (fishhook) symbolising Māui’s fishing up of Te Ika a Māui (the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand). Layered with such symbolism, Matchitt’s brooch satirically derides the venerated power of global capitalism while also placing it alongside the introduction of Christianity in a continuum of ongoing colonisation in Aotearoa New Zealand.

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