Tia’s works are accompanied by pieces of tapa, beaten by Israel Randell. They float in the gallery space, in different stages of completion. If you look closely, you can see the marks of the tools and processes Israel learnt to use with other oceanic wāhine in Whakatāne, under friend Sue Pearson’s guidance. One piece has a watermark of short, diagonal lines; others have horizontal stripes where the outer bark was removed; or smooth surfaces from their time drying on window panes. From certain viewpoints, they overlap each other. The little holes in the tapa (where branches would have been) can be used as spy-holes, adding a fuzzy vignette to Tia’s photos and Wormhole’s green walls. Another layer, another lens. Israel’s mahi shows us a physical, process-based approach to maintaining creative fires and connecting with mātauranga.

Tapa requires the maker to spend extended periods of time with the materials. Harvesting, soaking, and beating all have their own rhythms: “you’re on ancestor time.” She is learning to care for the aute trees in her backyard, trim the branches, harvest the bark, soak it. When the bark is ready, you beat, before it dries out! Israel often works at night-time when her kids have gone to bed (though sometimes they help, too). Oftentimes tapa is beaten with community. Larger projects require many hands, and so the practice is passed on. For Israel it’s a motivating medium. Soaking the bark means you’re gearing up to dedicate some time to creativity and reconnection.

Further down the track, single sheets of tapa are laid on top of each other, head to tail, and beaten again with a specially marked tool. This is the watermark, which helps the layers fuse, and leaves a pattern on the cloth. Israel’s practice, like Tia’s, is connected to a kind of wet whakapapa. Water carried tapa  practices - and both Israel and Tia’s tīpuna - to Aotearoa. It falls on the soil, and feeds the aute. It hydrates the bark, moves the maker, and helps the fibre take the mark of her beater.

Whakaahua celebrates the transformative potential of art making. Materials and artists grow together. Pieces are re-soaked and stretched, remixed and layered. Whakaahua presents living practices. The lens flexes; the story continues.

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