The images in this exhibition (the title translates as ‘Breath of Mine’) take you from the physical to the spiritual world. The more you look the more you see. The patterning and carving elements remind me of this:

There was once a carver who spent a lifetime with wood, seeking out and exposing the figures that were hidden there.

Patricia Grace. Prologue to Potiki. Penguin Books (NZ) Ltd. (1986)

The exhibition space shadows the shape of a whare whakairo (carved meeting house). It’s about manu (birds) “treasured in Māori mythology as messengers that connect the physical and the spiritual realms” says the introduction, and honours the work of musician Hirini Melbourne whose bird waiata I enjoy. He researched early Māori instruments, which often echoed bird sounds, and revived their use as you can hear in the soundscape accompanying the exhibition.

I particularly like the painting of toroa (albatross) having seen them in flight recently at Taiaroa Head, and also the detail of sea life. If you look closely, you can see nets and boats, so exploitative human interaction is there but, mostly, there’s the power of nature such as water and wind and the special character of each bird and animal. The triptich panels echo the kōwhaiwhai panels used for storytelling and oral history in the whare whakairo.

The exhibition is a travelling one, in Christchurch at the pop up Canterbury Museum space at CoCA until the end of April. The link will take you to better photos than mine. You can also hear the music here.

The paintings are by Robin Slow and the carvings are by Brian Flintoff. The musicians are Bob Bickerton, Ariana Tikau, Holly Tikau-Weir and Solomon Rahui.