In Ringawera II (2022) two men gather in the whare kai around a sack of rīwai (potatoes), peeling them in preparation for feeding a large group. With their backs to the viewer, the light catches the creases of their clothes. The term ringawera refers to those who help in the kitchen—ringa means hands and wera refers to heat or the ahi kaa (burning fire) of a marae. The kitchen is a universally potent place, from whence one and all can be nourished. This portrait is visceral; the scent of rīwai and the repetitive act of peeling potatoes taps into the muscle of one's memory. The wharekai is a space of organised chaos, one that echoes with explosions of laughter and the sounds of hard work. This image shifts the viewpoint often employed in portrait painting; instead of the outsider looking in, it is the work of the insider, looking around.
Hiria Anderson-Mita graduated from Whitecliffe in 2016 with a Master of Fine Arts. Represented by Page Galleries in Wellington and Tim, at Wellington's New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata, is a survey of her practice over the last ten years, consisting of 26 works that hang on the wall in constellations of fours and fives. The paintings, like much of her oeuvre, are small windows into her world. They are organised into states of being; the show moves through the curatorial themes of reflecting, being, mending, caring and hanging.
