Two new exhibitions welcome people back to the central city for the City of Colour Festival
Two new exhibitions are lighting up Britomart for the City of Colour Festival.
On The Pavilions on Te Ara Tahuhu and Galway Street, you'll see The Art of Tivaevae, where close-up photographs of incredible tivaevae quilts from the collection of Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira reveal a symphony a colour and intricate stitchwork.
"Tivaevae are meaningful within communities that produce them because not only are they presented to significant individuals, like a son at his hair-cutting ceremony or a child as a 21st birthday present, or presented to a couple at their wedding ceremonies, but they are passed down through families as beautiful heirlooms," says Fuli Pereira, Curator Pacific at Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira, who chose the images for the exhbition. "They are a wonderful expression of women’s skill and creativity."
Just across Takutai Square in the Atrium on Takutai, artist Sione Faletau has created Onga mei he tapa fa (sounds from the four corners), a series of works in which he developed kupesi (patterns) from sound recordings taken in the Atrium and Takutai Square. The work is made in conjunction with Ongo Ongo, a video that is a centrepiece of Turning a page, starting a chapter, the exhibition at nearby Gus Fisher Gallery (74 Shortland Street). "There's this kind of repetition within the architecture of these patterns, and in that I saw links to my traditional Tongan culture, where tapa cloth has the same kind of repetition with these repeated geometric motifs," Sione says.
Come to Britomart to see these beautiful works in person, and check out the rest of the activities on offer at Heart of the City's City of Colour page.
