Artwork Information

He mātanga a Kura Te Waru Rewiri ki te auaha o te kōwhaiwhai; kei te whakaatu i tōna māia ki te toro atu ki tua o te horopaki o ngā rā o mua. Ko tā te *Puhoro Meets the Stripes III*, 2011 he whakaatu i te rahi o ngā ringa toi tāne e tukurua ai i ngā hoahoa me ngā tauira kōwhaiwhai hei tohu whai mana. Kua tāruatia ēnei tauira mai i te tuhinga mō te kōwhaiwhai me ngā whare o te rautau 19, a Augustus Hamilton. Nā Hamilton te pukapuka *Māori Art* i tuhi i te tau 1896, ko tāna tama a Harold, te kaihautū tuatahi o te Māori Arts and Crafts School i te tau 1927.

Kura Te Waru Rewiri paints with a heightened perception of the kōwhaiwhai (rafter painting) form and displays a readiness to take it beyond its customary context. *Puhoro Meets the Stripes III*, 2011 references the dominance of male practitioners who draw on or replicate kōwhaiwhai designs and patterns as a status symbol. These patterns are copied from Augustus Hamilton’s documentation of kōwhaiwhai and carved 19th-century houses. Hamilton authored the 1896 book *Māori Art* and his son Harold became the first director of Rotorua’s Māori Arts and Crafts School in 1927. (Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art, 2020)