There is more in Te Kore.

item details

NameThere is more in Te Kore.

ProductionKura Te Waru Rewiri; 1986-1987

Classificationpaintings

Materialsacrylic paint, tempera, canvas

Materials Summaryacrylic and tempera on canvas

DimensionsImage: 1769mm (width), 1981mm (height)

Registration Number1987-0050-1

Credit linePurchased 1987 with Ellen Eames Collection funds

Overview

This essay originally appeared in New Zealand Art at Te Papa (Te Papa Press, 2018).

Kura Te Waru Rewiri is a leading contemporary Māori artist and one of the first women to lead a whare hui (meeting house) refurbishment project — for Te Puna o Te Mātauranga at NorthTec in Whangarei. In 1973 she graduated from the School of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury, where she was taught by the expressionist Rudolf Gopas and was also influenced by fellow Māori artist Buck Nin. She then taught in various North Island secondary schools before becoming a full-time artist in 1985. Te Waru Rewiri’s artistic sensibility draws deeply upon Māori philosophies, knowledge systems and non-religious spirituality, although the Rātana faith is also a significant source of inspiration.

There is more in Te Kore is an early-career work by a trained yet intuitive artist who brings Māori holistic understandings to painting. During the 1980s, Te Waru Rewiri drew upon Te Ao Māori (the Māori world), which was undergoing significant revival. Her artist peers were reviving te reo and supporting Māori creative arts in government support schemes in Porirua, Mangere and Ōtara. The social, economic and political energies of the time had an impact on schools, homes and marae. However for Te Waru Rewiri, wairuatanga (Māori non-religious spirituality) was missing. ‘We were not acknowledging the importance of wairua in our whole-being, our existence … I began to focus on Te Kore, Te Po, Waahi Ngaro, Matekite. I used to feel the earth, the mud, the sand, the stones, the water, the sea, the sun, those sorts of things and get lost in the silence of the tactile being of those elements. Much of my experiences in life has made me feel and reflect on the potential of wairua, mauri ora, kaitiakitanga in Te Kore, Te Po and Te Waahi Ngaro.’

In this dynamic painting, a world emerges as a cosmic, unified system bound by spirit. Te Waru Rewiri recalls that the deeper reasons were not clear at the time, but ‘30 plus years on, there are moments of pristine clarity’.1

Huhana Smith