Dion Hitchens

On Tuesday we had Dion Hitchens come in to our class to show us and explain his art work and practices. Although he was only in class for an hour, one of his artworks that I found really interesting was the maunga artwork that is displayed in Manukau. He talked about how he had built the monument in his back yard making it out of stainless steel and had to use a crane to move it from his backyard to Manukau. The thing that I find interesting about that particular piece of artwork is that I’ve always known about the sculpture and I always see it at Manukau every time I’m there but now I actually no who created it “Dion Hitchens” and it amazes me because he is currently my lecture for sculpture and so every time i see him i no that he created this sculpture. He talked about how the image of his sculpture was inspired by this mountain in Tahiti called maunga and also how Auckland city is where the largest population of Polynesians Live, and so now not only do I no who created it but I also no about the significance backround of why this sculpture had being created the way that it was.

Being Maori /Asian he talked about how his practices are based around his culture. also in one of his artworks he says that even though he loves his Maori culture and background his religious faith comes from his Asian descent being of Buddhist faith.

For collaberation one of his artworks that I also found interesting was the “Tiki Wanaga” which was a sculpture that is currently hung up at the Onehunga community centre and library. For this artwork he collaborated with Charles Koroneho , Each piece of Sculpture is made from aluminium and lashed with fibreoptic cable that lights up in blue and white. His sculpture was inspired by traditional Maori objects used by Priests to obtain Knowledge, it also represented the combination of traditional Maori art and new technologies

Failing,Falling,Flying by Rebecca Ann Hobbs

We attended the failing falling flying exhibition by Rebecca Ann Hobbs at the A.U.T Art gallery on St Pauls street on the 27 of July. For me personally I didn’t really find much of her work that interesting, because I couldn’t really relate to her artwork. Although one of the images at her exhibition that stood out for me the most was called 90 Degrees. I found this piece of work really interesting because it shows us how the male on the image is lying down face up looking inside the skirt of the woman who is seen standing on the photo. For me that image is kind of feminist in a way but imp not sure. After looking through her exhibition we got together and listened to her and how she brought about the images she has at her exhibition Rebecca talks about the word absurd and for her it holds the idea of “strife to find meaning in this world, but how she has never been able to find it “. She talks about how she had been inspired by the idea from Sisyphus, who had been punished by God to push this huge rock up this hill, once Sisyphus was at the top of the hill God would then forcibly roll the huge rock back down the hill and would be repeated for eternity. Rebecca then talks about how a lot of her earlier works were just muck around work because the fact that they didn’t really have much meaning to them and that’s why the names of her works at her exhibition are very simple and literal

The second exhibition that we attended was at the auckland art gallery. The walter's prize was a 50,000 doller reward that had been selected for four nominees. In my opinion I thought that none of them should have won because of the fact that all there works were really crap and I simply had no interest in them.but because we had to choose one of them I think that Fiona Conner's work “Something Transparent” should have won the walter's prize award. I found it really interesting because of the fact that she had made an exact replica of the ceiling above her work using plastic and acrylic. It was an awesome piece of artwork

He taonga Maori Auckland Museum

The Hotunui marae

Over 1000 taonga are displayed in the main Maori galleries, He Taonga Maori (Maori Court) and Te Ao Turoa (Maori Natural History Gallery) and many more are held in storage. These Taonga are the ancestral representations of all the major tribes of Aotearoa. The Taonga provides the Moari people with a little glimpse of their past, the history and the people that came before them. In the Maori court the one thing that really stood out for me was the Hotunui Marae.The Hotunui marae was built in 1878 which it was carved by Wepiha Apanui and his father Apanui Te Hamai waho. Hotunui was originally a wedding gift from Ngati awa to Weipiha's sister Mereana who was marrying a Ngati Maru leader, now it stands in the auckland museum to this present day. A Marae is a sacred place for Maori's. it is a sacred place which serves both religious and social purposes in maori societies, which carries great cultural meaning. In Maori society, the Marae is a place where the Maori culture can be celebrated, where the Maori language can be spoken, where inter tribal discussions, debating and obligations can be met .Also Marae's are for when family occasions such as birthdays can be held, and where important ceremonies, such as welcoming visitors or fare welling the dead, can be performed.The word marae is found in many languages in the Polynesia example Malae (Samoan and Hawaii) and Mala'e (tongan) and you find Malae's or mala'es in Samoa, Tonga and Hawaii, its just not structured or built the same way. also In Tahiti Marae were dedicated to specific deities or leaders of the people, and also connected with specific lineages said to have built them during the 1994 restoration of Taputapuatea Marae at Ra'iatea by archaeologists from the tahiti museum. so you find Marae's not only in aotearoa but also all over the pacific nation. overall the Marae at the museum shows the real significance of maori cluture and the way they have been using sculptue to theiir cultural heritage to design such a beautiful building that they call the Marae.

Tongan style.

artists- Lingisiva ‘Aloua, Kolokesa Kulīkefu, Noma‘Ofa-ki-Nu’usila Talakia’atu, Manuēsina Tōnata, Hūlita Tupou

Curated by: Kolokesa Māhina-Tuai & Manuēsina Māhina

This exhibition that we attended (Tefisi style) at the fresh gallery was held in Otara. Fresh art gallery is made and viewed for young pacific Islanders, it allows young artists who are mainly local to view their artwork not just anywhere but in otara. Tefisi gallery was about 5 tongan New Zealand-based women artists who had something to show about were they come from and their cultural heritage. Each piece of artwork that they had made and displayed was about their labour, time and of their Tongan tradition, Tefisi style is just about the art practices of tongan woman who use these talents and skills that they have been passing on for generations to create embroidery and crochets sheets, pillow cases and dresses. the dresses that was designed in the Tefisi artwork was used and designed to be worn in churches, funerals, christenings and other special occasions.. The dresses can also show a persons status, like number nine of the exhibition list where u have an outfit that was specially made for Sepitema - a special Sunday in September that is dedicated to woman who have reached the equivalent of men's lay preacher, where they renew their governance with God . Also to wear a kiekie (waist ornament) is also an important part of the formal attire for Tongan's to wear at church for example the Tongan Methodist church. The real uniqueness of these pieces of art work is that embroidery is applied to clothing,giving that distinct look known to the Tongans as Tefisi style. and the embroidery is now done on cotton sheets unlike the traditional ways which it was done on cloth made of bark, also known as tapa cloth.embroidered pillowcase was used in January 2001 by Kolokesa's late father during the period prior to his passing. It was also used to decorate the pillows for her sons wedding when he got married in 2007.

Star Wars

In our tutorial we watched the movie starwars "A new hope" and had to choose a character that we thought we had found interesting. For me the character i found the most interesting would have to be Darth Vader because i find him an exciting character to watch not only because he was an ex jedi but because he was a villian an a traitor. Darth Vader was the scourge of the jedi, a master of the dark side of the force, and one of the emperors most trusted servants.Darth Vader was once part of the rebel alliance but soon became an alliance of the rebel force.Darth vader tries to recover the stolen plans of the death star and find the rebel alliances secret base, and in doing that he shows how powerful he really is and takes over this ship and captures princess Leia organa. he restrains her and shows her the power he has when he destroys her home world of alderaan. Another part of the film that shows darth vaders power was when he has a light saber duel with his former master obi-wan kenobi , darth vader emerges victorious. evan though the movie shows you that obi-wan kenobi sacrifices himself for luke and his friends to escape, I still think darth vador won fair and square haha.Darth vador has also showed in many other star war trilogies such as the first star wars IV, V ,VI and now in the latest star wars film "the revenge of the sith. In this film its about how young Anikan Skywalker betrays the jedi's and becomes part of the dark side of the force. ultimately to his fall in the battle against Obi-Wan Kenobi, it was eventually the new birth of Darth Vader.

The 4th Auckland Triennal

The Singing Cloud!

At the 4th Auckland Triennal one of the many collections of art works that stood out for me the most at this art gallery was the singing cloud. Created by Shilp Gupta the singing cloud transforms an audio of technology into a looming mass, weirdly reminisints of a bomb or a mushroom cloud. The singing cloud was made up of four thousand microphones wich it made multiple layers of sounds and voices. For me though the sounds and noises coming from the singing cloud gave me shivers up my spine,because of the fact that all these noises were going off from time to time. It gave that sense of feeling almost as if i was being watched or talked about by something that wasn't really there, given the fact that the room was dark, It made that effect of it much more realistic. But still i found the singing cloud amazing and very creative. so i really admire and appreciate Shilp Gulta for this piece of artwork. Shilpa Gupta was born in Mumbai ,India 1976. She studied sculpture at the sir J.J. school of fine arts from 1992-1997. Gupta creates artwork using interactive video, websites, objects, sound and photographs.In 2004 she received two awards for her amazing artwork, one was the sanskriti pathisthan award in new Dehli, and the international artist of the year award from the south asian collectives in Canada.

The Male Gaze part1

For me personally we can all relate to the term gaze because we all do it. we can't help but look at something that looks fascinating and attractive,because it attracts our attention.We all no that its naturally in us to do this!!. we can't help but to take a look at the curves of a woman, because it is something we enjoy. The male gaze expresses an unequal power between the veiwer and veiwed or the gazer and gazed, example when a man would impoze his unwanted gaze upon a woman, its up to the woman wether or not they welcome the gaze. so we all no that it is naturally in us to gaze like this!!. We can't just carry on walking by without taking a look at the curves or figure of a woman. So to me personally the male gaze is such an interesing thing to do because from a womans point of veiw it makes them fell attracted and noticed!!..well thats what i think.............



Tutorial "vertigo" by Alfred Hitchcock (1958)

In the movie"Vertigo" by alfred hitchcock we explore more about"the male gaze in this movie. The movie Vertigo is about an ex private investigator (John) who gets asked from his good friend to follow this woman(Madeline), his friends wife, during the half hour of this movie. They would always show us the veiw of John as he follows around this woman Madeline. Madeline would be followed to many different places by John never to be gazing back at him even though she knew he was there. Although in this one scene of the film Madeline who was still being followed at the time, takes John to this art gallery and Madeline is sitting down on this chair gazing at this image. John who had still been follwoing her notices that in the art gallery the image that Madeline seems to gazing at seems to be gazing right at John. He then also notices that this painting they are both gazing upon seems to what looks exactly like Madeline. So John decides to further on his investigation not only on Madeline but also on this Painting. He later on comes to find out that the painting that was in that gallery was a painting of a woman who had passed away, and realises that Madeline was trying to reinact the life of this woman.