THE NATIONAL ART GALLERY PRESENTS / A NGA PUNA WAIHANGA EXHIBITION / TAKI TORU / THREE INSTALLATIONS BY MAORI ARTISTS / SELWYN MURU / PARATENE MATCHITT / RALPH HOTERE / 16 JULY – 28 AUGUST 1988 / AT / TEMPORARY/CONTEMPORARY … Shed 11 … Custom House Quay, Wellington1
Intoxicated by Te Maori, grieving for McCahon, and before the hangover of biculturalism set in, Ralph Hotere (1931–2013), Paratene Matchitt (1933–2021) and Selwyn Muru (b.1937), founding members of Ngā Puna Waihanga and operating at the height of their powers, came together to give us Taki Toru.
Taki Toru commanded the entirety of Shed 11, a former Wellington Harbour Board store commandeered in 1985 as an offsite of the National Art Gallery under Luit Bieringa. Over four years, Shed 11: Temporary/Contemporary presented a stellar programme of exhibitions, which mixed the art-world stars of that time (Gerhard Richter, Anselm Kiefer, Barbara Kruger and Cindy Sherman) with edgy curatorial projects like When Art Hits the Headlines, and the curious production From Epstein to Matchitt (with Don Driver, Vivian Lynn, Mary-Louise Browne, Andrew Drummond and others) indicating the streamlining of contemporary Māori art in the programme.2 And while this venue represents a genuinely excellent period of institutional practice in Aotearoa New Zealand, Taki Toru has been cited as the best of the lot and marks a moment of consequence in contemporary Māori art history.3
Curated by Tim Walker, featured new and recent large-scale work that ruminated, a 14-metre long 14-part painting on stretched roofing steel panels. Made for the exhibition at the Ōtatara Arts Centre, Matchitt's bolthole in Taradale from the mid-1970s, was described as the whaikōrero for , though as the title indicates, took the form of an oriori, a waiata that transmits foundational knowledge to the next generation. Invoking the Stations of the Cross and McCahon's desire to make paintings to be walked along, created the silhouette of a city skyline, with selected buildings marked by Ringatū symbols—a star, cross and crescent. This ‘landscape’ was populated by the words of Māori leaders that evoked the complex and provocative spirit Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Tūruki (1832–1893), from King Tāwhiao to Apirana Taylor, Hone Tuwhare to Winston (spelt ‘Winstone’) Peters. ‘Tihewa mauri ora—behold the breath of life’ was inscribed on the twelfth panel, with the final one, triangular in shape and pointing forward, locating contemporary Māori realities in a historical continuum of change and adaptation.
