2011 - Michael Parekowhai
Michael Parekowhai, 2010. Photo: Derek Henderson.
Core Team Members
Commissioner: Jenny Harper
Project Director: Tanea Heke
Exhibition Attendants
Rose Campbell, Daniel Hayles, Sophie Keyse, Elizabeth Lochhead, Amy Mansfield, Catherine McKay, Ariana Odermatt, Flavio Villani
Project Publication Michael Parekowhai On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer
Editor: Mary Barr
Contributing Writers: Gregory Burke, Cushla Parekowhai, Justin Paton
Designer: Kelvin Soh
Publisher: Michael Lett, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery
Music and performance was a central aspect of Michael Parekowhai’s exhibition for the New Zealand pavilion at the Biennale Arte 2011.
On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer, included an intricately-carved red Steinway concert grand piano and two concert grands fabricated in bronze supporting two cast bronze bulls. On one piano a full‐size bull rested on the closed lid with its massive body suggesting the folding forms of landscape. On the other piano the bull stood offering an eye‐to‐eye challenge to anyone sitting at the keyboard. The installation also featured a figure from the Kapa Haka series (Officer Taumaha) and two small bronze olive tree saplings (Constitution Hill).
Five New Zealand pianists performed a mix of New Zealand, jazz and classical music on the carved Steinway piano He Korero Purakau mo te Awanui o Te Motu story of a New Zealand river. The public was also invited to play the piano at the discretion of the pianist.
The New Zealand pavilion was in the Palazzo Loredan dell’Ambasciatore on the Grand Canal near the Accademia Bridge. This 15th‐century Gothic palace once belonged to the noble Loredan family and was the birthplace of two Doges of Venice – Leonardo Loredan (1436‐1521) and Francesco Loredan (1685‐1762).
After La Biennale di Venezia, the work was exhibited at the Musée de quai Branly in Paris. The work returned to New Zealand where the standing bull was exhibited at the edge of post-earthquake Christchurch in 2012. Parekowhai’s work caught the public imagination and a fundraising campaign kept the work in Christchurch.
He Korero Purakau mo te Awanui o Te Motu: story of a New Zealand river, the ornately-carved grand piano which formed the centrepiece of On First looking into Chapman’s Homer, was purchased by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa for the national collection.
More on the artist
Michael Parekowhai has an extensive exhibition history. His work is held in many significant public and private collections in New Zealand and Australia, as well as several permanent collections across the Asia-Pacific region and in Europe.
Working across the disciplines of sculpture, installation and photography, Parekowhai’s work plays with perceptions of space, locality and nationhood. Early in his career he participated in exhibitions – Cultural Safety (1995), Headlands (1992) and Choice! (1990). These are now recognised as seminal in the development of contemporary New Zealand art. Along with artists such as Peter Robinson, Jacqueline Fraser, Shane Cotton and Lisa Reihana, Parekowhai’s work in this period expanded the terms of reference for contemporary Māori art.
Born in Porirua in 1968, Michael Parekowhai is of European and Māori (Ngati Whakarongo) descent. He graduated with a BA and MA from the University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts, where he is now Associate Professor in Fine Arts. In 2001 he was awarded an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate.
