Artwork Information

Ko ēnei toi i peitahia ai e Hiria Anderson i waenganui i te tau 2016 me te tau 2019, he tauira tino pai o tāna mahi toi. Ko te kāinga o ōna tūpuna, me te marae e pātata ana a Te Oha o Tuoroa i Ōtorohanga i te Waikato, ā, kua hopukia e te ringa toi ngā mahi parāoa noa a tōna hapori me tōna whānau. He peita ēnei mō ngā wā hū, he wā huritao, wā kakare, wā māori noa, wā pouri, wā whaiaro.

Ko tā ngā toi o Anderson he wetewete i ngā āhuatanga tōrangapū, ā-taiao hoki o te marae, o te ahurea Māori i ēnei rā – he whakaatu i te hapori Māori hei puna ahurea mōna. Ko tā tēnā peita, tā tēnā peita he toikupu mō ngā pahekotanga o te tangata ki te tangata, ki te taiao hoki.

These paintings, made by Hiria Anderson between 2016 and 2019, are striking examples of her practice. Responding to her grandparent’s homestead and nearby marae (communal space) Te Oha o Tuoroa in Otorohanga, Waikato, the artist has captured moments of her community and family members’ everyday lives. These are painted snapshots that ponder quiet times of contemplation, nostalgia, the mundane, the melancholic and the personal.

Anderson’s artworks unpack the political and environmental nuances of the marae hub and Māori culture in contemporary times, displaying Māori communal life as a source of cultural sustenance. Each painting poetically tells us something about what we as human beings share with each other and the environment around us.