Karapiro-inspired artwork to be exhibited in Canada’s National Gallery
An artwork exhibited at the Venice Biennale will soon be on its way to the National Gallery of Canada
A world-renowned New Zealand artist is getting ready to take a Karapiro-inspired artwork to one of Canada’s premier art galleries.
Brett Graham is from Ngati Koroki-Kahukura near Cambridge and is gearing up to send his work Aniwaniwa to the other side of the world.
Graham collaborated with digital artist Rachael Rakena on Aniwaniwa which has five large oval shaped vessels suspended from the ceiling with video images projected on to the bottom surface. Visitors lie down on mattresses to view the films.
Aniwaniwa is a tribute to Horahora Village which was submerged in 1947 to make way for Lake Karapiro and has already been on display in Venice, Australia and New Zealand.
“It was exhibited after Venice in Wellington, Hamilton and also in Tasmania and we have just been invited to exhibit it at the National Gallery in Canada,” he said.
The Waikato River was diverted in 1911 to create the Horahora Power Station but in 1947 Horahora became obsolete and the area was flooded and the new power station was commissioned.
“I came across these photos and I thought this would be great inspiration to do an artwork so this led to the creation of Aniwaniwa,” Graham said.
The photos show his grandmother standing with the local community as they gathered at the power station to pray and sing hymns as the waters rose. His grandfather wrote the words ‘Kia kaha ake ake, Graham 1947’ on one of the turbines.
It is a painful slice of history for the people of Ngati Koroki-Kahukura. Some people who witnessed the loss of land to the rising water are still alive to tell the tale but the tribe welcomed the artwork with open arms.
“In the case of this work it was embraced by the tribe and used in negotiations with Waipa District Council, Transpower and Mighty River and so they really embraced it to illustrate our history.
“I’m hoping we can take some people from Maungatautari over there,” he said. “It’s quite a big deal to take our lot over there.”
Graham is fascinated by the idea of taking local stories and making them relevant to the world and the invitation to Canada is the great encouragement.
“It’s sort of a dream scenario as an artists is that people actually look at the work and pay attention to it which quite often doesn’t happen,” he said.
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