Blood and Bone

18 October- 11 November 2023

Tania Gibson (Ngāti Te Ra, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Pākehā)

Ati Teepa (Ngāi Tūhoe, Kāi Tahu)

Te Kīra Whakamoe (Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Ruapani)

Blood and Bone brings together three artists with connections to the Whakatāne District for Wormhole's ninth and final exhibition at Riverslea Mall, Edgecumbe.

Tania Gibson brings pottery and paintings, Ati Teepa brings words, and Te Kīra Whakamoe brings installation, soil, and movement to the site we have imagined together.

Blood and Bone is located in the pitch black depth of our guts; the hot singed earth and glowing embers of the fire pit; the rich, damp soil of the maara. This is storied dirt. It's decay, but it's life, too.

New roots thread their way through. We stoke the fire. We dissolve. We leave; we return again.

The opening event for this exhibition is on Wednesday 18 October from 6pm. We will begin with poetry from Ati and an artist talk from Te Kīra. Check our What's On page for further information.

Thanks to Whakatāne District's Creative Communities Scheme for supporting this exhibition.

An infocard for the exhibition, with a detail image of Te Kīra's mud-crusted legs pressed into the earth as the background. The text reads: 'Blood and Bone, 18 October - 11 November, Tania Gibson, Ati Teepa, Te Kīra Whakamoe."

An infocard for the exhibition, with a close up image of dirt in the background. The text reads: "Opening Event Wedesday 18 October, 6pm. help us celebrate the Blood and Bone exhibition at Wormhole. Welcome and artist performance at 6 followed by food and social times. Normal hours from Thursday 19 October. Wed-Fri 12pm-4pm. Sat 10am-2pm."

Photos

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Artists and Works List

Tania Gibson (Ngāti Te Ra, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Pākeha) is an artist based in Whakatāne. Tania makes clay objects and paintings that resist being finished. Often Tania’s pieces carry marks and material inclusions from the places she likes to spend time in. Her works are living things that collect history. Forms and figures emerge in the making. Blood and Bone is her first exhibition.

Assorted unfinished works (Ongoing)

Clay, paper, fabric, wire, board, paint, whenua, earth pigment, ash, sand, bark, ochre, nature’s materials, rust, anything that presents itself

Ati Teepa (Ngāi Tūhoe, Kāi Tahu) is an artist and poet based in Ruatoki. He has extensive experience working in the creative arts sector, as a creative producer, public programming coordinator at Te Papa Tongarewa and as a senior Kaupapa Māori Advisor at Toi Rauwharangi, College of Creative Arts, Massey University.

Recently Ati’s work has included Associate Producer for the film Muru (2022); a collaboration with Tame Iti for the exhibition I will not speak Māori (2022); and a visual storytelling collaboration in Ōtepoti Dunedin with the Mana Moana collective (2023).

As a writer, Ati draws inspiration from his whānau, whenua and the stories of Te Urewera, his home. Ati is currently one of the inaugural fellows of the Tuwhare Creative Residency and is working on his first poetry publication.

@auedesigns

Hawaiiki is wet (2023)

Tarapounamu uku on brown packaging paper

2400x900mm

Otauirani (2023)

Kokowai on 300gsm Bockingford paper

Framed

450x620mm

Deity not royalty (2023)

Spray painted stencil on brown packaging paper

725x550mm

They birth beauty (2023)

Kōkōwai on 300gsm Bockingford paper

420x594mm

Kawekawe (2023)

Kawekawe uku on 300gsm Fabriano paper

1000x700mm

Te Kīra Whakamoe (Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Ruapani) is a mahi toi practitioner based in Heretauna Hawkes Bay, who has recently responded to the call home to Ruatoki. Te Kīra plays with transformative ritual processes, often using body, voice, and found materials like earth and bones to work through trauma.

“Mahi toi helps me stay in my body. I work with trauma and trust. I work with kōhatu guided by our kuia Raniwaitatao Turuwhenua in moemoeā spaces. I visually project toi rituals into other spaces as a manifestation of mātaurana Māori using my voice and my silence.

I like making tools and potions, casting circles, breaking cycles, collecting root systems, watching clouds and being in water, gathering bodies and rongoā with my feet in the earth and hands binding spells with whakapapa, karakia and harakeke. I'm interested in neurodiversity, matakite, mākutu and how our beliefs can affect mental wellness.”

In 2021 and 2022, Te Kīra exhibited AUKATI in Heretauna Hawkes Bay and Te Whanganui a Tara Wellington. This was a formative body of work for Te Kīra, which brought future collaborators close. AUKATI was Te Kīra’s personal creative transformative justice response to sexual violence, in place of the official justice system.

Te Kīra has received a Master of Māori Visual Art (Distinction) through Massey University Toi ki Āpiti (2021), a Bachelor of Professional Creative Practice (Hons) through E.I.T. (2019), and a Bachelor of Māori Visual Art through Toimairangi (2010).

@keziawhakamoe

RUA HINE AHU ONE (2023)

Installation; oneone, moving image

Moving image kaimahi:

Wāhine Ahuone - Waitangi Teepa, Te Kīra Whakamoe

Oneone - Ngā Taumata slip, Ruatoki

Videographer - Te Rangimoaho Iti

Kaitautoko - Sarah Hudson, Jordan Davey-Emms, Te Rangitiahopō

Creative director - Te Kīra Whakamoe

With thanks to Te Mira and Kūwao Space for loaning AV equipment