Wharenui Harikoa comes from a shared epiphanous moment between lovers: Lissy and Rudi RobinsonCole’s manifestation of a love supreme in the form of a life-size crocheted wharenui (meeting house), a fluorescent woollen beacon transmitting joy to the world. Its entry into Te Ao Marama (the world) took place over a month of stitching all the previously made parts together on Ngati Wairere land at Waikato Museum Te Whare Taonga o Waikato. Like all wharenui, there are depictions of atua (deities in Maori cosmology), recent and distant tūpuna (ancestors), various whetū (stars) from the Matariki constellation and pou (poles) made in collaboration with indigenous artists from Aotearoa, the USA and Iceland (Sami people).
Frankly, the kupu (language) I feel compelled to use to describe is unashamedly sentimental, using words that contemporary Western art histories typically lean away from. This monument to gives us free unfettered opportunity to get juiced up on joy. This is their fluorescent wero (challenge) to the stiffest of upper-lipped visitors to open up with abandon and let the wairua (spirit) move those lips into the shape of a smile.
