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Ray Ching: the huia & our tears

reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Ray Ching

the huia & our tears

ARTIS Gallery

RRP $80.00

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

With his latest book “the huia & our tears” Ray Ching has shown once again that he is not just a great painter, he is also a clever storyteller and an expert ornithologist.

The large format book like all his previous publications is impressive with full colour reproduction, Illustrations spread over two pages, great typography and well researched text. It adds greatly to our understanding and appreciation of the huia which disappeared in the early years of the twentieth century.

The book is a remarkable collection of memories, observations, research and reflections on the huia and its place in New Zealand ornithological and national history.

Ching has had an interest bordering on obsession with the huia from an early age noting that he had always had the bird with him, connected by its image on the old New Zealand sixpence.

Included in the book are the artist’s encounters with taxidermists, ornithologists, writers artists and major figures in New Zealand’s history who provide fascinating insights into the history of the huia.

The Kite and the huia (detail)

In many of his previous books notably his Aesop’s Kiwi Fables  he has included moral tales featuring figures from the animal kingdom. In this  book he has included several examples of these including  “The huia and our tears as well as “The kite and the huia”

He includes early reports of the huia by Charles Heaphy, Edward Jerningham Wakefield and Ernest Dieffenbach as well as Walter Buller’s description of the huia where he wrote:

“The Huia never leaves the shade of the forest. It moves along the ground, or from tree to tree, with surprising celerity by a series of bounds or jumps. In its flight it never rises, like other birds, above the tree tops”.

There are a number of other mentions about the bird such as the poem “The Huia” included in Eileen Duggan’ s 1929 publication “New Zealand Bird Songs”  The final verse of this poem reads:

Where is it now that once was high?

Where is it now, where is its wing?

Where is the Prince of the leaves and sky?

Where is the King?

Ching notes that many of the illustrations of the huia are from examples held in museums but only few from recently killed birds which accounts for the lack of dramatic colouring as the plumage has faded.

Ray Ching, Huia (detail)

In this respect he notes that the work of Keulemans who produced the illustrations for Walter Bullers books on New Zealand birds may be the most accurate as he normally received his birds sent by Buller to Europe within a few weeks of their death.

There is a series of portraits of  Māori by Lindauer and Goldie in which the sitters have worn huia feathers in their hair with Ching referencing the use of the bird’s feathers by high-ranking Māori. Included in these portraits are images Pane Watene (Ngati Maru) and Tawhiao Matutaera Te Wherewhere (Ngāti Mahuta).

Gottfried Lindauer, Pane Watene (Ngati Maru)

As well as Chings account of his sixty-year interest in the huia he includes another important text.

The now out of print publication “The Book of the Huia” written by W.J. Phillipps and published in 1963 is reproduced in full providing additional information . In it the author included conversations and correspondence of early settlers and the place of the huia in the lives of Māori.

He also provides details of the bird’s life from birth through its use as a food and its feathers for decoration both for Māori and later Europeans and its wholesale slaughter in the late nineteenth century and inclusion in museums across the globe.

Ching also includes  details of all the huia held in the many New Zealand locations as well as the UK, America Germany

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Some Neo Impressionists: Gary McMillan and Elizabeth Rees

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Gary McMillan, Scene 60 (detail)
Elizabeth Rees, Low Tide

Gary McMillan, City in Progress

Fox Jensen McCrory Gallery

September/October

Elizabeth Rees, The Bay

ARTIS Gallery

Until October 7

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Two recent exhibitions see artists responding to the to the light, colours and textures of the environment just as artists of 150 years ago did with some variations on Impressionism.

In his latest exhibition “City in Progress” Gary McMillan has continued his depiction of views of the inner city, the motorways and industrial buildings.

These are nearly all seen from the interior of a car, capturing the often-fleeting images we have when driving. He also captures light in its various forms –sunlight at dawn and dusk, reflected light, refracted light, motorway lamps, industrial lights and traffic lights.

Each of the images has the simple title of “Scene” plus a number, an indication of the artist’s referencing photography and film which gives many of the works a slightly surreal quality.

As well as the connections to film and photography his work connects with traditional realist painting, pointillism and neo-Impressionism.

Many of the works capture the flash of recognition, of half seeing objects seen from a moving car as Scene 52 ($9500) – the rain speckled windscreen, parts of the car, overhead road signs, lamp standards and a blinding sun. They are the impressions  the brain takes in as it makes the journey.

Gary McMillan, Scene 63

Scene 63 ($9500) provides a complex view – light blooming on the car’s window screen, light shining through obscuring foliage, another view reflected in the cars side mirror. It becomes an image composed of different elements of light. But these various elements of light are all painted illusions created by the artist.

In these works, he investigates the way in which paint creates the illusion of the photographic pixel as well as the painterly impressionist dot.

At a distant his works look like photographs but as the viewer gets closer to the work one is more aware of the Seurat-like pointillism or the pixilation of low-resolution photographs.

With “Scene 57” ($5500) the pointillism is far more apparent with the sky and clouds stippled with the small dots of colour. The artist has added a sense of structure to the work with parallel power lines and one of his ever-present lamp posts.

Gary McMillan Scene 60

This focus on sky and cloud is also seen in “Scene 60”($8000) where the billowing cloud looks like a massive explosion saturated  with colour.

Where Gary McMillans exhibition looks at the urban environment Elizabeth Rees’s work is focussed on an isolated area of Northland. As she notes in the catalogue – “”The Bay” is a response to my new small-town life in the Bay of Islands where light ever changes the sea and bushclad land. My recent acquisition of a boatshed in a small tidal bay has now become my full-time studio. Being surrounded by water, this change has offered me yet another perspective – being able so closely connected to the natural environment.”

Her paintings owe much to the style of the Impressionists with a sense of the artist painting in the open air surrounded by her subject.

In responding to an environment she feels some connection with these paintings are a record of the various times of day, moods and qualities of light she has observed

Many of her previous works featured figures in a landscape, their presence providing a sense of isolation. In these newer works it is the landscape itself which provides that sense of isolation.

Elizabeth Rees, A High Tide

Here there are brooding landscapes such as  “Summer Shade” ($10,000) where the touches of colour seep through the dark foliage.

With works like “A High Tide” ($8000)) the  colours are almost bleached out with light swirling around the shapes of trees.

Elizabeth Rees, On the Beach

A similar work “On the Beach” ($8000 where the foliage is almost shattered by light, could have been used as the cover illustration for  the Nevil Shute novel “On the Beach” which tells of impending nuclear pollution in the South Pacific

A further connection could also see the work in reference to the origins of the title in the lines from T S Eliots “The Wasteland”

In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river. connection

Two of the works features figures as in   “Low Tide” ($8000) where the small figures contribute to the sense of isolation and drama. “Last Light” ($10,500) feels less successful as the two figures contemplating the vista do not contribute to the  sense of remoteness.

With “The Bay” ($10,500) there is  more colour contrast with the blue of the water and the sky more dominant and the colours of the foliage picked out by light.

Elizabeth Rees, The Bay

“Nestled in the Bay” ($13,500) also alludes to the human presence with several low buildings or boathouses which merge with the light colours of the sand and sea.

The merging of sands and sea is also apparent in “Dunes Beyond” ($10,500) where the dunes seem to be the foam of crashing waves.

With nearly all these works it is light which is the dominant aspect with the artist endeavouring to create an ethereal presence of cloud and sky .The hills and foliage created with scumbled paint give a sense of seeing through a darkened or fogged glass.

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Aotearoa Contemporary to open at the Auckland Art Gallery in July

John Daly-Peoples

Maungarongo Te Kawa, Celestial Stargate for Invisible People, 2024 (detail). Photo by Jemma Mitchell

Aotearoa Contemporary

Auckland Art Gallery

July 6 – October 20

 The Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and Ngāti Whātua Orākei have announced a new contemporary art triennial at Auckland Art Gallery which will celebration of the breadth of contemporary art in New Zealand.

“The Gallery is thrilled to partner with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei to present a new generation of talented artists and showcase Aotearoa New Zealand’s diverse artistic environment.”

“Set to occur every three years, the exhibition provides ongoing representation and pathways for new artistic voices, bolstering the future resilience of New Zealand art. Aotearoa needs a contemporary art triennial and it now has one.” adds Lacy.

Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Trust Deputy Chair Ngarimu Blair says, “Our tupuna Apihai Te Kawau gifted 3000 acres of land on the Waitematā on 18th September in 1840 to become a city which welcomed people, cultures and ideas from afar. Our relationship with Auckland Art Gallery is founded in the shared goal to foster the arts reflective of our multi-cultural community in Aotearoa.”

With an emphasis on artists not previously exhibited at the Gallery, the exhibition presents 27 artists and 22 compelling new projects in a range of media including painting, textiles, sculpture, ceramics, photography, and performance.

Senior Curator, Contemporary Art, Natasha Conland says, “Aotearoa Contemporary reveals a new cluster of artists who work afresh with ritual and storytelling, mythology, rhythm, indigenous space and materials. There is also a special emphasis on art’s relationship with choreography through the commission of four dance works.”

Curator, Pacific Art, Cameron Ah Loo-Matamua adds, “From Ruth Ige’s enigmatic blue paintings of anonymous figures, to the art collective The Killing’s installation of supersized soft-toys in a state of play, there is something for everyone in this exhibition. Amongst the ambitious new commissions is a three-channel video by Qianye and Qianhe Lin featuring mythology set in Hailing Island off the coast of China and Aotearoa.”

Aotearoa Contemporary is proudly supported by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, Auckland Art Gallery Foundation and the Chartwell Trust.

Aotearoa Contemporary has been scheduled to coincide with New Zealand’s leading contemporary art award, The Walters Prize 2024, to provide a broad overview of contemporary art in New Zealand in the Gallery’s winter programme.

The exhibition has been curated by Cameron Ah Loo-Matamua, Natasha Conland and Ane Tonga with support from Ruth Ha.

Artists featured in Aotearoa Contemporary

Emerita Baik, Leo Baldwin-Ramult, Heidi Brickell, Pelenakeke Brown, Jack Hadley, Ruth Ige, Hannah Ireland, Xin Ji, Reece King, Qianye Lin and Qianhe Lin, Te Ara Minhinnick, Ammon Ngakuru, Amit Noy, Sung Hwan Bobby Park, Meg Porteous, Maungarongo (Ron) Te Kawa, Tyrone Te Waa, The Killing (collective), Anh Trân, Manuha’apai Vaeatangitau, Jahra Wasasala and George Watson.

Jahra ‘Rager’ Wasasala by Jocelyn Janon

Jahra ‘Rager’ Wasasala is an award-winning cross-disciplinary artist of Fijian/NZ European descent. As an artist, Jahra investigates her ancestral connections through the art mediums of performance activation, contemporary dance and poetry, and has extensively toured her performance works both nationally and internationally.

As a child of the Pasifika diaspora, Jahra is invested in translating her shared internal conflict into an accessible, yet confrontational, physicalised language. Her most recent performance work titled “a world, with your wound in it” focuses on the complex relationship between the earth and a woman’s body, a theme Jahra continues to investigate in her developing work.

Maungarongo Te Kawa is a takatāpui fabric artist, educator, and storyteller. His practice makes old pūrākau newly relevant using brilliant colour, fluid design, and infectious good humour. Following a career in costume design and fashion, Te Kawa dedicated himself to full-time art-making and teaching. In addition to producing his own elaborate whakapapa quilts, he runs sewing workshops, guiding participants to express their creativity and genealogy through fabric.

Ruth Ige is a Nigerian New Zealand-based painter whose intimate, evocative compositions oscillate between bodily forms and painterly abstractions. While some resemble traditional portraiture, others consist of colour fields that capture a more mysterious, ethereal effect. Hands, shoulders, and faces emerge from a watery facture. “I am interested in creating images that are not easily understood,” says Ige. She considers her unique figuration, which renders her subjects featureless and inscrutable, to be a form of “veiling.”

Performances

The commissioned performances in Aotearoa Contemporary include Pelenakeke Brown, Is this a performance 1+2, Xin Ji, Doco Dance, Amit Noy, Errant and Jahra Wasasala, DRA.

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The APO’s captivating musical tour of Rome

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The Trevi Fountain

The Eternal City

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra

Auckland Town Hall

June 13

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Respighi’s Roman Trilogy takes the listener on a musical tour of Rome with three tone poems which celebrate the city’s fountains, pines and festivals. Along  the way we encounter the architecture, landscape and history  of the city with vibrant music which capture its moods, sounds and spectacles.

The three works were composed over a twelve-year period 1916 – 1928 and the APO presented the three works under the title of The Eternal City.

The programme opened with  Fountains of Rome, the purpose of which the composer said was “to give expression to the sentiments and visions suggested . . . by four of Rome’s fountains, contemplated at the hour in which their character is most in harmony with the surrounding landscape, or in which their beauty appears most impressive to the observer.”

In this work we encounter some of the smaller fountains like the one by the Villa Medici as well as the extravagant Trevi Fountain.

The first part of the work, inspired by the Fountain of Valle Giulia, depicted a pastoral landscape and  captured the early Romas  dawn with the strings and woodwinds.

This was followed by a sudden loud blast of the brass and percussion above the shrill tones of the orchestra, introducing the Triton who raises a conch to his lips and we also hear the sounds of activity around the fountain.


Next, he depicts The Trevi Fountain at midday, the theme, passing from the woodwind to the brass instruments, with the trumpets depicting the dramatic figure of  Neptune,  seahorses and another Triton blowing a conch shell, the sounds of which were depicted by the orchestra’s horns.



The fourth section depicting the Villa Medici Fountain at sunset captures the fading grandeur of the city with is a nostalgic theme and we hear the tolling of bells above the whispering strings of birds twittering.

The work which features much brass and percussion shows us a panoramic Rome filled with a sensory overload of excitement and activity.

The music captures the flow of water from a trickle to torrents with instruments providing flecks of light intermingled in the sprays of water.

The Pines of Rome

The second work, The Pines of Rome had an animated opening with a depiction of the trees around the Villa Borghese mixed  with the sounds of the city. The depiction then moves to the outer areas of the  city with a  melancholic mood in the area of  the catacombs highlighted with hints of the Latin mass .

The pines on the Janiculum Hill were introduced with timpani and gongs, giving a spacious vision, the trees picked out by the piano and clarinet. As though taking its cue from the clarinet comes a recording of a nightingale seeping into the hall only to disappear with the coming of night and the brooding sounds of the ghosts of centurions returning on the Appian Way. These sounds initially seem distant but then as the orchestra’s voice increases a sextet of brass instrument up by the organ let loose some triumphal sounds conveying the drama of Roman pomp and power.

A Roman Carnival

The third of the works “Roman Festivals” opens with  the same dramatic sounds which featured in the depiction of the Appian way. Here the triumphal sounds become the sounds of gladiatorial combat. After this overexcited opening there were some lovely, lethargic orchestral sounds with echoing strings. In the middle sections the music conveys all the excitement, colours and movement of the community festivals. Here conductor Bellincampi was agile in stressing both  the  clamorous sounds as well as the gentler ones.

The final movement featured a strong, slightly discordant section which morphed into  a folksy romanticism which included a mandolin-like sequence, before moving onto  some circus sounds which recall the cinematic compositions of  Nino Rota and his music for Fellini’s 8½ .The final movement ended with some thunderous sounds from the massed orchestra and  percussion, bringing to an end to a  entertaining journey.

The concert featured a number of musicians from the Australian National Academy of Music , as part of an ongoing collaboration with the APO. 

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The amazing Jacob Rajan returns in Guru of Chai

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Guru of Chai

Indian Ink Productions

Q Theatre

Until June 22

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Jacob Rajan is an amazing actor and Guru of Chai is an amazing play

For many years Rajan has been presenting us with engaging stories with a hint of India. Over that time, he has moved his characters from the Krishna’s corner dairy to the streets of Bangalore and Delhi, to America and back to New Zealand and now returns to Bangalore.

Even though the geography has changed, the stories still have a universality about them with themes of love, tragedy, death and renewal.

Guru of Chai is told mainly through the eyes of the tea seller Kutisar who encounters seven abandoned sisters in the Bangalore Central Railway Station. In order to survive they sing on the station platform but the local mafia in the form of Thumby and the mysterious Fakir demand protection money.

The local policeman, officer, Punchkin, intervenes and becomes their protector with a particular concern for Balna.


Six of the seven sisters marry but Balna, having rejected Punchkin marries the poet Imran who later disappears, presumed killed. Balna, now pregnant, has to flee Bangalore and with the help of Punchkin, who has been rising through the ranks, starts a new life.

The story come to a head several years later when the young son, Imran who, after being brought up by his six aunts meets with Kutisar in his search for his mother in order to find out about the tragic events around the time of his  birth , It a quest which leads to further tragic events.

Jacob Rajan plays all the half dozen roles, but not has he has previously done by using masks. Now he conveys the demeanor and emotions of the characters by subtle nuances of the body generally but particularly his expressive face and hands. He also manages to capture the essence of the characters through the use of different voices. It is his remarkable combination of acting and mime skills which helps him carry off the undertaking.

He sketches in a portrait of India’s underclass and some of the social issues such as the place of women, the ever-present gods who inform and dominate all stages of life as well the weaknesses, joys and sorrows of everyday life such Kutisar’s fascination with the banned practice of cockfighting.

He is supported by Adam Ogle playing Dave, a mute musician, who contributes with a brilliant sound landscape as well as providing the back up on a couple of songs of the street..

He cleverly sets the evening up as a play within a play which he has been instructed to perform by the theatre management to entertain and enlighten the audinece whose lives are empty and lonely.

He also uses the audience as one of his many props, engaging with individuals – don’t sit in the front row as well as the wider audience in an extended version of a Monty Python parrot joke.

The Guru of Chai also owes much to co-writer and director Justin Lewis as well as dramaturge Murray Edmond and the charming, sets and costumes designed by John Verryt

Guru of Chai also at:

Coastlands Theatre, Te Raukura ki Kapiti, Kapiti
4 – 6 July
 
Hannah’s Playhouse, Wellington
1 – 11 August

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A Different Light: First Photographs of Aotearoa

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

A Different Light: First Photographs of Aotearoa

Auckland Museum

April 11 – September

A Different Light: First Photographs of Aotearoa

Auckland University Press

RRP $65.00

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Opening at the Auckland Museum this month is the exhibition “A Different Light: First Photographs of Aotearoa” which will also see the launch of the book “A Different Light: First Photographs of Aotearoa” published by Auckland University Press.

The exhibition is groundbreaking in bringing together work from some of the most extensive photographic collections in the country – Auckland Museum, The Alexander Turnbull Library, The Hocken Collection and The National Library.

While early artists had recorded aspects of life in New Zealand through paintings, drawings and engravings it was the photograph which enabled them to record the full range of people, events, landscapes and the built environment.

The full range of such photographs can be seen in the exhibition and the accompanying new book  

The first recorded use of photography in Aotearoa was in 1848, less than a decade after it became commercially available in Europe. Over the second half of the 19th century, professionals and amateurs alike experimented with the new technology and set in motion an image revolution that changed the way our lives were recorded.

These first photographs reveal important individuals as well as ordinary people, imposing landscapes and the  New Zealand bush. There are example of Māori architecture and the fledgling townships. In those towns, there are examples of the most imposing of buildings which speak of government and wealth as well as the rudimentary dwellings of settlers.

Cold Water Baths White Terrace; circa 1880s; Charles Spencer; Auckland Museum Collection

The famous Pink and White terraces were photographed by numerous photographers including John Kinder, George Valentine  and Josiah Martin. In the book/exhibition there is one by Charles Spencer  “Cold Water Baths, White Terraces”. It has been printed as a cyanotype which gives the image a Prussian Blue colour. Another of Spencer’s cyanotypes is of Auckland Harbour which has an eerie appearance.

There are images which help give us an understanding of our past such as Francis Coxhead/ William Meluish’s photograph which shows Gabriels Gully in 1862 with its collection of tents dotted over the barren valley.

Maori King, Tukaroto Matutaera Potatau Te Wherowhero Tawhiao Auckland Museum Collection

There are a couple of images of Auckland by Hartley Webster including what is probably the earliest depiction of the town along with several other views of the town. There are also images of other towns in their infancy including Dunedin, Wellington, Hokitika and Lyttleton.

Two wāhine; circa 1887-1890 Harriet Cobb.  Alexander Turnbull Library

From the very first there were images of Māori such “Two Wahine” by Harriet Cobb and many images were printed commercially. One of the most widely distributed was of Wiremu Tamihana te Waharoa who was known as the “king maker”. At one point there was even court action over the plagiarised of images of him.

Other important figures represented in the exhibition include Sir George Grey,  Tamati Waka Nene and Gustav von Tempsky.

” The Native Earthworks at Rangiriri partially destroyed. ” Photo: M. Higginson, Auckland Museum

References are also found to the Land Wars  with Monatague Higginson’s “The Native earthworks at Rangariri” which was taken after the decisive battle for the Waikato fought in November 1863. There are aspects of cultural exchange to be seen in the dual portrait of Tom Adamson and Wiremu Mutu Mutu where styles of dress and fabrics are  merged.

The exhibition provides information on the development of the photographic processes from the  expensive, silver-coated daguerreotype portraits to the gelatine silver process, which when paired with a fast-shutter, could capture Victorian-era subjects in action for the first time.

Tom Adamson and Wiremu Mutumutu, Wanganui; circa 1867–1874; Batt & Richards; Hocken

With this growth in understanding of the technical aspects of the photograph came experimentation as can be seen in the double exposure image of John Buchanan, the noted botanist in “Spirit photograph of John Buchanan” by McGregor and Company.

David Reeves, Auckland Museum Tumu Whakarae Chief Executive, says,  “The advent of photography in the mid-19th century was a remarkable technological event which had significant impacts on society at the time. This exhibition gives us a chance to reflect on that and more recent changes in the way images are captured and shared and what that means for identity, privacy, and connection with each other.”

The exhibition travels to the Adam Art Gallery (Wellington) in  February 2025  and the Hocken Collections (Dunedin)  September 2025.

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Sculpture on the Gulf: Waiheke’s great art exhibition

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Brett Graham “Wakefield Dreaming”

Sculpture on the Gulf

Waiheke Island

Until April 1

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

A few years ago Waiheke’s Sculpture on the Gulf was included in the New York Times top things to do and the event is regarded by many as one of the great outdoor sculpture exhibitions, not just for the standard of the sculpture but also for the experience of the two kilometre walk with a backdrop of  bush, hills, sea and headlands as well as  panoramic  views of distant Auckland and  the islands of the gulf.

The event attracts tens of thousands of people for the five week show which features over twenty-one works, down from the twenty-seven of the last show two years ago.

There is a bit of a surprise mid-way through sculpture walk seeing  Jorge Wright’s monumental Corten steel work “Head Within” standing only a few metres from where it was two years. It was bought by the owner of the property which abuts the sculpture walk.

Many of the works in this years exhibition have strong architectural and historical connections, reflecting on the changing built environment and the congruent changes to the natural environment.

Turumeke Harrington “Stumped I-XII”

Turumeke Harrington slices of  native trees in “Stumped I-XII” reference the trees which once covered Tamaki Makura while  Chevron Hassett’s “Te Kupenga” welcoming entranceway with its 19th century fretwork would have been built with that cut timber.

Chevron Hassett “Te Kupenga”

There is Ana Iti’s “Whakaruruhau”, a deconstructed work of structural elements which is also similar to the more elaborate work of Lonnie Hutchinson’s “Moemoea – A model for Dreaming”  where her designs in turn relate to Chevron Hassett’s “Te Kupenga”.

Yona Lee’s “Fountain in Transit” uses the steel tubing she often uses to construct interior space with her to create a shower nestled in the bush.

Oliver Stretton-Pow’s marooned lighthouse “Hard Graft” links architecture to plant growth, timber and the tendrils of ocean creatures, referencing the country’s maritime history.

There are references to international architecture and art with  Natalie Guy’s “The Staircase” a homage to Carla Scarpa’s innovative use of materials and designs. Another reference to international art can be seen in Seung Yul Oh’s “Cycloid I, II, III, IV, V, and VI” which mimic Alexander Calder’s lively and colourful shapes . Here the works are like abstract bushes  growing alongside the path.

Seung Yul Oh “Cycloid I, II, III, IV, V, and VI”

There is an architectural component to Nicholas Galanin’s “An Unmarked Grave Deep Enough to Bury Colony and Empire” which uses the outline of Queen Victorias statue as a template for the grave he has dug on the headland.

The most powerful of the architectural works is Brett Graham’s “Wakefield Dreaming” which dominates the headland with his references to the justice system and the overreach of surveillance

Gavin Hipkins’ “Hotel Flag”  evolved from the nautical flag representing the letter H, the first letter of the artists name, it also references the abstract geometric art of Malevich or Stephen Bambury.

Steve Carr’s bronze tires “In Bloom (Waiheke)” can be seen as a sort of self-portrait while Eddie Clemens’ “Cognitive Reorientation” also references his interest in cars as a defining aspect.

Combing aspects of rural farm architecture and religious iconography is Ralph Hotere’s “Taranaki Gate Stations”. The work is based on the Passion of Jesus Christ and originally conceived for Easter 1981

Ralph Hotere “Taranaki Gate Stations”

The work consists of  a cruciform-shaped pen using fourteen standard pipe-and-mesh farm-fence units, with fourteen numbered sheep in.  The gates are marked with Roman numerals (I–XIV) and the sheep painted with Arabic ones (1–14), both in a spectrum of fourteen colours. The various shapes and numbers relate to the stations of the cross and other religious concepts. The work also links back twenty years  to Gregor Kregar’s “Mathew 12/12” shown St  at SOTG in 2003 where he displayed 12 live sheep linked to the biblical text.

Zac Langdon-Pole “Chimera”

Probably the strangest work in the show is Zac Langdon-Pole’s “Chimera”, a dinosaurs skull hanging from a crane which could have been unearthed from the Queen Victoria excavation in a quirky reference to the country’s past.

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Samoan play about the clash between traditional value systems and the modern world

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder

Semu Filipo as Pili Sā Tauilevā Photo: Anna Benhak

Auckland Arts Festival

O Le Pepelo la Gaoi, ma le Pala’ai

The Liar, the Thief and the Coward

By Ui Natano Keni and Sarita Keo Kossamak So

ASB Waterfront Theatre

Until 23 March

Reviewed by Malcolm Calder, 7 March 2024

A co-production by Auckland Theatre Company, I Ken So Productions and Auckland Festival

Director Ui Natano Keni

Producer Sarita Keo Kossamak So

Assistant Rehearsal Director Maiava Nathaniel Lees

Choreographer Tupua Tigafua

Composer Poulima Salima

Set & Properties Mark McEntyre & Tony De Goldi, GOM Arts Collective

Costume Design Cara Louise Waretini

Lighting Design Jennifer Lal

Sound Design Karnan Saba

Visual Design Delainy Kennedy, Artificial Imagination

I am a palangi and my knowledge and detailed understanding of fa’asāmoa is rudimentary at best.  So it would be presumptuous to pretend that I do – and no doubt very few Samoans would speak to me again.

My own antecedents settled here from Scotland, harking back mainly to small village communities in the north.   I have enjoyed visiting many times and am constantly learning things about their society from long ago.  So it would be presumptuous to pretend that I do – and no doubt very few Samoans would speak to me again!

My own antecedents settled here from Scotland, harking back mainly to small village communities in the north where they worked as crofters.   I have enjoyed visiting many times and am constantly learning things about their society and the customs young and productive people left behind in the fairly feudal society four or five generations ago when they sought betterment through emigration elsewhere.

However some customs and traditions travelled with them and scraps of those links remain today.  The result remains as some kind of low key but deeply-rooted spiritual melange – sort of what was ‘then’ overlaid with what is ‘now’.   Let’s face it, in my own case I have a spine that unfailingly frizzles each time I see and hear that lone piper playing Flower of Scotland high on the roof at Murrayfield before a rugby test.

All of which is a long way from Samoa. But the parallels are not dissimilar even though I approached O Le Pepelo with a certain sense of trepidation and even wondered if I had made a dreadful mistake during the first couple of context-setting scenes which are conducted almost entirely in Samoan.  Good heavens, I thought – Samoan speakers in the audience seem to be getting all the jokes while I didn’t have a clue!

But that soon changed as Samoan merged with English, my trepidatious concerns evaporated and I became totally absorbed as an excellent piece of theatre revealed itself.  You know … something about a simple story told well.  

O Le Pepelo started out that way.  The publicity machine had outlined the basic plot well – an ageing and ill village elder, concerned about who should inherit his position and status on his passing and the decisions this would require.  But that is just a context and this is a play that is so much more.  It is about a clash between the traditional value systems and customs confronting Pili and a more modern world where lifestyle becomes a determinant.  They are in no way simple.

This leads quite easily to discussion and debate, to adaptation and expectation, and eventually to a form of resolution.  Different characters flesh out these themes, and the more they do so, the more complexity and depth is revealed.  In fact, this simple story told well quickly moves to a grander more universal scale without losing its more intimate familial setting.

The bones of O Le Pepola are fleshed out with sparkling characterisations, liberal sprinklings of comedy and a remarkably competent cast, while my more personal echoes of the Scottish diaspora points to its universality.  Keni and So point to this using a fairly classic idiom that echoes the dilemma of a certain Shakespearean king.

In the village of Moa there are three key protagonists. The ill, aged and dying Pili Sā Tauilevā (Semu Filipo), a longstanding chief or Ali’i and his two children.  His eldest son Matagi (Haanz Fa’avae-Jackson) is a traditionalist with high expectations, while his daughter Vailoloto (Ana Corbett) returns from New Zealand embracing the new and the future, appalled because she cannot get a strong wifi signal.  Pili is strongly supported by his wife Fa’asoa (Aruna Po-Ching) .  But it is Masina (Andy Tilo-Faiaoga) who quietly and assuredly reinforces the dignity, wisdom and humility that underpins the both th inherited position and the play itself and becomes a significant part in its resolution.

Billed as a darkly comic exploration of mores and debate, O Le Pepola expands on something we all know a little about, gives it a contemporary currency and its key characters will remain with me for a while yet.

Auckland Theatre Company and Auckland Festival are to be congratulated on bringing this work to life.  It is on point.

Oh, and I loved the chickens.

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The APO’s colourful “Italian Style”

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Franz Schubert View of Florence

In the Italian Style

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra

Auckland  Town Hall

February 29

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

In the early nineteenth century it was fashionable to do a Grand Tour with Italy as the prime destination. Artists, writers and composers all sought to travel there to find inspiration.

The APO’s “In The Italian Style” presented works by three composers who were themselves were enthralled by various aspects of Italian music, history and landscape.

The first work on the programme was Schubert’s Overture in C “In the Italian Style” which was not a response to Italy itself but rather to the interest in Italian music at the time , notably the exoticism  of Rossini.  Schubert’s impressionist depiction of Italy conveys images of street life, dances and the leisurely stroll through classical  ruins captures the energy, colours and contrasts of his invented Italy which is a measure of the composer’s ability to convey images and sight he had never seen. The work also shows the young eighteen-year-old trying to move his compositions out of the traditions of Viennese music  of the time.

Mendelssohn was twenty-one when he travelled to Italy where he was captivated  by the art, architecture and landscape. When he was given a commission, he used his impressions of the country as the basis of his Symphony No 4 “The Italian”. While he had been despairing of Italian concert music, he was taken with local Neapolitan folk dance styles like the saltarello. This influence is seen in the final wild, breakneck movement which captures the drama of the dance and Mendelssohn’s vision of Italy.

The first three movements were filled with dramatic contrasts,-  massive sounds  which suggested the grandeur of the Alps as well as softer sounds which evoked contemplation  of art works and architecture.

Conductor Giordana Bellincampi displayed his astute conducting skills throughout the concert, at times creating dynamic waves of sound while at other times having orchestra whisper as in the opening of the second movement which depicts dawn breaking with bursts of sunlight. 

The major work on the programme was Hector Berlioz’s Harold in Italy with Robert Ashworth and his viola taking on the  character of Harold, the heroic figure based loosely on Byron’s Childe Harold, a wanderer who observes scenes of Italian life.

The four movements depicting outdoor scenes from various parts of the country were all derived from the composer’s experiences while travelling in Italy.

While the work is the composer’s personal response to Italy there seem to be reference to Byron’s epic poem throughout the work as in the references to Florence, its landscape and history.

A softer feeling for her fairy halls.

   Girt by her theatre of hills, she reaps

   Her corn, and wine, and oil, and Plenty leaps

   To laughing life, with her redundant horn.

   Along the banks where smiling Arno sweeps,

   Was modern Luxury of Commerce born,

And buried Learning rose, redeemed to a new morn.

Berlioz infuses his music with evocative imagery – the drama of the mountains, the softness of the light and the richness of the country’s art and history.

Robert Ashworth’s muted viola sounds helped paint an initial picture of the world-weary traveller but there were also touches of wonderment, solitude and merriment conveyed by his instrument.

Much of the time Ashworth played as though part of the orchestra, his sounds nestling in the luxurious colours of the orchestra but then there would come passages of sheer exuberance and his playing would rise above the orchestra akin to the emotional outbursts of  Harlod himself in his reactions to scenes and events.

Ashworth himself was attentive to the conductor but also the orchestra and he followed their playing intensely, as though he were Harold witnessing a new spectacle.

There was a clever bit theatricality at the close of the work as Ashworth exited the stage to reappear a few minutes later up by the organ where he was joined by a string trio to play the final moments of the work.

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“Beyond Words” : music to promote unity and peace

John Daly-Peoples

John Psathas

Auckland Arts Festival

Beyond Words

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Auckland Town Hall

March 10

John Daly-Peoples

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra joins with Aotearoa New Zealand’s Muslim communities and acclaimed international artists to present a unique concert experience at the  Auckland Arts Festival in March.

“Beyond Words” is a special collaboration to promote unity and peace through music and to honour the lives lost and changed forever in Ōtautahi Christchurch on 15 March 2019.

Conducted by Fawzi Haimor featuring powerful Moroccan vocalist OUM and Cypriot/Greek oud virtuoso Kyriakos Tapakis, the NZSO performs the New Zealand premieres of works from American Valerie Coleman, Iranian Reza Vali,  Estonian Arvo Pärt and the world premiere of a new work from renowned Aotearoa New Zealand composer John Psathas.

Psathas’ Ahlan wa Sahlan, composed in collaboration with OUM and Tapakis, uses the Arabic welcome to let people know they are in a place where they belong. Finding inspiration in a quote promoting peace, love and forgiveness from terror attack survivor Farid Ahmed’s memoir Husna’s Story, Psathas, OUM and Tapakis have fused together musical styles from Eastern and Western cultures in Ahlan wa Sahlan.

Psathas has established an international profile and receives regular commissions from organisations in New Zealand and overseas including  fanfares and other music at the  opening and closing ceremonies of the Athens Olympics.

This work has been created with guidance from The Central Iqra Trust and communities across Aotearoa New Zealand.

Vali combines Western orchestration with Persian style for the New Zealand premiere of Funèbre. Coleman’s Umoja, Swahili for ‘unity’, was the first work by a living African American woman premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Pärt’s Silouan’s Song is a powerfully spiritual and meditative work.

Vocalist Abdelilah Rharrabti, vocalist and daf musician Esmail Fathi, and saz player Liam Oliver from Ōtautahi Christchurch’s Simurgh Music School, also join the Orchestra to perform traditional music of the Middle East.

“It is not often one has the opportunity to offer a message of solidarity, love, and compassion through one’s artistic work,” says Psathas.

“This is a rare gift from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and I am even more fortunate to be able to share this creative journey with two fellow artists: OUM and one of Greece’s most celebrated oud performers, Kyriakos Tapakis. Together we are creating a musical message of welcoming – Ahlan wa Sahlan – a greeting used to tell someone that they’re where they belong, that they’re a part of this place and they are welcome here. It’s a way of saying ‘You’re with your people’.”

Alongside the concerts are a series of free community engagement events in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland in collaboration with Muslim communities and Unity Week, the official commemoration to be held from 15 March.

In each city there will be a community panel discussion with Beyond Words artists about the project. In Christchurch the events include a workshop by the Simurgh Music School, where the public can experience traditional instruments from the Middle East and Islamic world, a spoken word workshop and Share Kai Share Culture, run by InCommon and Mahia te Aroha, both founded in Christchurch in response to 15 March 2019.

In Auckland Town Hall a special calligraphy exhibition will feature works created by distinguished calligraphy artist Janna Ezat. In the Islamic world, Arabic calligraphy is both an art form and an expression of devotion, identity, and cultural heritage. The exhibition includes a powerful piece dedicated to Janna’s son Hussein Al-Umari, commemorating his bravery, and honouring his legacy in the aftermath of the tragic attack.

Beyond Word also performed in Wellington in association with the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts (March 9) and at Christchurch (March 7).

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