Maori Television To Showcase Maori Artists

PUBLICITY RELEASE
FRIDAY MAY 29 2009

Maori Television To Showcase Maori Artists

From carvers to performers, painters to film makers, one television show goes across the creative disciplines and into the heart of Maori art in Aotearoa.

A new series of KETE ARONUI premieres on Maori Television from Tuesday June 9 at 9.30 PM.

KETE ARONUI pays tribute to contemporary Maori artists and their work, but also celebrates the traditions and culture that make their work uniquely and essentially Maori. The series explores both well-known and up-and-coming artists.

In this series:

Episode 1 – LISA REIHANA (June 9)
In a career that spans two decades, Reihana was an early adopter of digital media to produce art. Her eloquent story-telling of Maori culture has seen her work travel the globe, to reside in some of the most prestigious galleries and museums. KETE ARONUI explores Digital Marae, a powerful and provocative project that was a finalist for the prestigious Walter’s Prize.

Episode 2 – JAMIE BOYNTON (June 16)
This Bay of Plenty artist flies under the radar in the commercial art world, but Boynton’s body of work is impressive in its diversity. This episode looks at his oil paintings, screenprinting on glass, and one work in particular Mauri Ora, a concept piece about universal themes such as energy and creation.
Episode 3 – CLAUDINE MURU (June 23)
Muru creates text and installation projects to express the political and social issues that concern Maori. Another line of interest is the use of blown glass as a sculptural medium, a craft she learned from top glass artist John Anthony Penman. Inspiration for her work ranges from kumara growing, and her own ancestral connections with agriculture, to her uncle and mentor, artist Selwyn Muru. This programme visits her marae and whanau in Te Puke, and looks at new directions in her work.

Episode 4 – DARCY NICHOLAS (June 30)
A painter and sculptor at the forefront of contemporary Maori art, and the promotion of Maori art globally. He is well-travelled, which has helped him form the view that cultures must make a conscious effort to retain their unique identities.

Episode 5 – JUNE GRANT (July 7)
This painter and award-winning businesswoman displays her own work, and that of other artists, at the space she set up, Te Raukura Gallery in Rotorua. She recently spent time as a resident artist in the United States, where she was able to explore the work of First Nation artists.

Episode 6 – ISAAC AESILI (July 14)
He’s a multi-talented musician, DJ, horn player, composer, music producer and director, from an early age, Aesili was immersed in a musical world. This episode asks how one is able to work in so many directions at once, and looks at the people who have inspired him on his journey.

Episode 7 – CHRISTALL RATA-LOWE (July 21)
She is a fibre artist from Fielding, and among the most intriguing of her generation, having pioneered a unique way of preparing her flax. Her secret process involves ‘scraping the flax’ to reveal ‘the architecture of the leaf’, to create what is known as hapene, and which forms the basis of a thriving, internationally-recognised business.

Episode 8 – RUSS FLATT (July 28)
Russ Flatt’s dream to become a famous photographer took him all the way to the most glamorous cities in the world - London, Paris and New York. He has gone on to photograph some of the world’s most iconic and beautiful stars in fashion, music and film. Family illness brought him home.

Episode 9 – SUZANNE TAMAKI (August 4)
Suzanne Tamaki, of Otaki, is a fibre artist whose costumes and jewellery comes from the myths and legends of the Pacific, and indigenous costumes from around the world. A founding member of the Pacific Sisters fashion collective, took part in the Sydney Biennale, her work is also a political statement about perceptions of Maori, past and present. This programme looks at her ‘Native Eye’ project, based on research of late-19th Century and early-20th Century photographs and painted portraits of Maori.

Episode 10 – LEON KIPA (August 11)
Kipa is a designer whose work is inspired by his two passions – carving and three-dimensional designs. His aim to create objects that have both a Maori theme and everyday use. He has high hopes his Maori superhero toy, Tu, will have mass market appeal that may one day rival something like Buzz Lightyear.

Episode 11 – LORENE TAUREREWA (August 18)
Working primarily in charcoal, oil and ink, producing larger than life and detailed figures, Lorene Taurerewa draws on the immortal qualities of her ancestors for inspiration. A winner of the Martin Hughes Contemporary Pacific Art Award in 2006, she has been exhibiting internationally for close to a decade, and this show documents the lead up to her first solo show at the Native American Indian Community House in Lower Manhattan.

Episode 12 – JOE HARAWIRA (August 25)
He is a respected storyteller and tikanga expert, and has taken his skills to festivals around the world, and in Aotearoa. He sees himself as a practitioner of a traditional art, and at the same time that everyone has a story to tell. This programme shows the educator and kapa haka performer and coach as he returns from his professional base in the Waikato to his home marae in Whakatane, accompanied by many Tainui, including King Tuheitia.

Episode 13 – TERRI RIPEKA CRAWFORD (September 1)
Dancer, choreographer and lecturer Terri Ripeka Crawford is known for her collaborations across the creative sphere, bringing together fine art, drama, music and film, and her love of dance. She is also a keen photographer, and she says her guiding kaupapa is ‘Maori dance – the geographical, anatomical and spiritual embodiment of our ancestors’.

Intriguing, insightful and beautifully-crafted, KETE ARONUI returns to Maori Television from Tuesday June 9 at 9.30 PM.

Ends

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