Exhibitions

Auckland

BC Collective, Louisa Afoa & Edith Amituanai Layover

Artspace Aotearoa, 15 March–21 May IOANA GORDON-SMITH

The travel term ‘layover’ describes a stopover, a pause in a journey with a defined departure and destination. Also the title of an exhibition at Artspace, Layover might similarly be seen as a mid-point, functioning as the second iteration of a three-part project. Developed by a group of five curators (Freja Carmichael (Quandamooka), Sarah Biscarra Dilley (yak tityu tityu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash, Chicana), Léuli Eshraghi (Samoa, Iranzamin, Guangdong), Tarah Hogue (Métis, Dutch) and Lana Lopesi (Samoa)), The Layover continues on from The Commute (2018) at IMA Brisbane and precedes the scheduled Transits and Returns at Vancouver in 2019.

With such a strong transnational and collaborative approach, Layover is susceptible to being subsumed by the wider curatorial premise. Fortunately, the exhibition firmly focuses on strong, coherent works that are both warm and unapologetic. Accompanied by a children-friendly space with books, films and iMacs, the show comprises three main installations. A series of photographs by Edith Amituanai depict habitats in Alaska, Niue and Auckland. Domestic interiors have always been a strong body of work within Amituanai’s practice. The images identify the home as a key site in which to study diaspora, rich in distinct material cultures meeting and mixing. Global influences are also clearly active in reverse direction too. An image of an entrepreneurial business in Niue shows larger―much, much larger―than life superhero figures outside a home, ready as selfie backdrops.

A dining table, above which hangs a Perspex chandelier, awaits perpetually set for unidentified guests. The work by BC Collective features both marked hiapo, an art form BC member Cora-Allan Wickliffe has been reinvigorating for some time, alongside ceramics, a more recent venture for the artist.

While the pinch pots might not excite the most avid ceramic enthusiasts, they resonate with meaning as bespoke wares shaped for Moana and Maori kai. These include bowls for oka and vessels for lu’au.

Continuing food as an indigenous signifier that can travel, a large wallpaper installation by Louisa Afoa, in collaboration with BC Collective, takes stock Moana foods as emblems for a repeat pattern against a backdrop of pop purple. The work functions best as a talking piece. At the opening, viewers raced to identify and compare the selection of food in relation to their personal experiences, discussing not just what appeared on the wallpaper, but also omissions (most often overheard ‘where!?’).