Maungarongo Te Kawa, Waitī, 2022, photograph by Samuel Hartnett
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Maungarongo Te Kawa, Waipunarangi, 2022, photograph by Samuel Hartnett
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Maungarongo Te Kawa, Matariki, 2022, photograph by Samuel Hartnett
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Maungarongo Te Kawa, Heavenly Bodies, 2022, photograph by Samuel Hartnett
Photo Credit
Maungarongo Te Kawa, Heavenly Bodies, 2022, photograph by Samuel Hartnett
Photo Credit
Maungarongo ‘Ron’ Te Kawa’s Heavenly Bodies centres on nine quilts. Each represents one of the nine whetū of the Matariki star cluster, which are often personified as a whaea, Matariki, and her eight tamariki: Pōhutukawa, Tupuānuku, Tupuārangi, Waitī, Waitā, Waipunarangi, Ururangi, and Hiwa-i-te-rangi. The artist comments:
‘My most ultimate happy place would be floating in the sky, bathing in warm, healing starlight. The energy that the Matariki stars sing down to Papatūānuku in her most desolate time is the same energy that flows like water from my tīpuna to me. The closest I can get to that wonderful, dreamy place here on earth is when I am making. The unwanted and discarded is transformed into a world of soft materials and warm skin.’
Maungarongo ‘Ron’ Te Kawa’s Heavenly Bodies centres on nine quilts. Each represents one of the nine whetū of the Matariki star cluster, which are often personified as a whaea, Matariki, and her eight tamariki: Pōhutukawa, Tupuānuku, Tupuārangi, Waitī, Waitā, Waipunarangi, Ururangi, and Hiwa-i-te-rangi. The artist comments:
‘My most ultimate happy place would be floating in the sky, bathing in warm, healing starlight. The energy that the Matariki stars sing down to Papatūānuku in her most desolate time is the same energy that flows like water from my tīpuna to me. The closest I can get to that wonderful, dreamy place here on earth is when I am making. The unwanted and discarded is transformed into a world of soft materials and warm skin.’
