Kiko Moana

In 2016, Mata Aho Collective (Bridget Reweti, Sarah Hudson, Terri Te Tau, Erena Arapere) was selected by curator Hendrik Folkerts to be part of documenta14 in Kassel, along with Walters Prize-nominated Nathan Pohio and Ralph Hotere. This is the first time artists from Aotearoa have been invited to show at the festival. It is worth noting that this milestone is even more notable as Aotearoa is represented by all Māori artists with Mata Aho being the only wāhine Māori. This acquisition is for three pieces: Kiko Moana, the accompanying website 'Taniwha Tales' and the Collective's Instagram account.

Kiko Moana is made from blue tarpaulin, an everyday material that many whānau will utilise in various ways, a point that is explored in Mata Aho Collective's Instagram account. The colour of the tarpaulin is reminiscent of water but it is the style in which the material has been prepared that elevates this symbolism in a manifestly tactile way. The title itself encompasses the way in which the work relates to both water and taniwha in that ‘kiko’ speaks to substance and ‘moana’ speaks to water. It can thus be read that Kiko Moana is a physical embodiment of water, perhaps a taniwha that both lives in, and is personified by, water.

Kiko Moana draws on the concept of mana wāhine which denotes the inherent power of wāhine as derived from their ira wāhine. The whakapapa of ira wāhine links us back to the first woman, Hineahuone. A key aspect of mana wāhine is the passing of intergenerational knowledge through a tuakana / teina relationship which is reflected in the collective’s decision to seek time to wānanga with two established tuakana who have researched or practiced in the area of weaving: senior artist Dr Maureen Lander and distinguished academic Dr Patricia Te Arapo Wallace.

documenta, an exhibition of contemporary art, was founded by painter and professor Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of an attempt to re-connect Germany to the world, including art movements, after the fall of the Nazi regime. In terms of attendance, documenta13 attracted over 900,000 visitors during the 100 day period. In comparison the Venice Biennale draws an average crowd of 500,000 visitors over a period of about 5 months. documenta is one of the most highly-regarded contemporary art exhibitions in the world.　

Wānanga, prolonged time together to debate and brainstorm their work from genesis to completion, is a key element of their practice and something that they have applied in the making of previous works. This approach has allowed them to learn from Maureen and Patricia during the wānanga and to then implement what they have learned into their works. Taking what they learned and discussed during their wānanga, Mata Aho created a work that is impressive in scale. 'Kiko Moana' is made up of 60 panels at a dimension of 40mm (w) x 180mm (h). Each panel is 16 layers thick and has had diagonal lines sewn with a distance of 2.5cm each. Between each of these sewn lines they slashed up to 4-6 layers on both side. It is 10 panels wide by 6 panels long. The length is 11 meters by a width of 4 meters and weight of 50kg. The visual effect of this was one of movement, reminiscent of water or scales. It directly references the taniwha they were inspired by as well as the kainga of many taniwha, that is, water.

Being that the collective creates site-specific works, the manifestation of the work took into account the space in which it was exhibited during documenta14 at the Hessisches Landesmuseum. Suspended from the ceiling, the work flowed to the floor and draped along steps. It was viewable from multiple levels of the museum.