item details
NameTangi, (When will I be going home...)
ProductionShona Rapira Davies; 1984
Classificationdrawings, works on paper
Materials Summarypencil, crayon on MBM paper
DimensionsImage: 567mm (height), 382mm (length)
Registration Number1992-0018-1/3-10
Credit lineGift of the artist, 1992
Overview
I started drawing over a period of 2–3 weeks. It was almost like a record, I wanted to mark [that event] … then put it away again …
They are probably the most personal of all my works, probably the most vulnerable … I thought they were too close to me … very quickly, I actually wanted to burn them.
Shona Rapira Davies
These highly personal drawings centre on Shona Rapira Davies’ experience, when she was 9, of losing her mother to mental illness. The family was broken apart, with her youngest brother being adopted by a Pākēha (European) family. Like a lament, the works express deep grief, pain, and loss.