Te korekore i takea mai, Ki te po te kitea, Te tangotango, Po whawha, Po namunamu, Ki te wheiao, Ki te ao marama.

From the realm of te korekore, the root cause, Through the night of unseeing, The night of hesitant exploration, The night of bold groping, Night inclined toward day, To emergence into the light of day.

                                                                                                                                                                                           Māori Marsden  1975

 

Drawing upon a karakia by Te Tai Tokerau kaumatua Māori Marsden that expresses a journey of unfolding potential, Ngakuru’s latest work, Tilt, is a response to the Crown’s proposal to create a Kauri National Park in the Waipoua Forest. Accumulating gradually over the exhibition’s duration, the evolution of this sculptural installation is guided by the karakia’s progression from a sense of unknowing into a place of clarity, and informed by the artist’s role with Te Roroa iwi in their investigation of co-governance and effects on forests as taonga. Functioning as vessels, Ngakuru’s diorama-like boxes are suspended and connected to each other, bringing to light a rhizomatic network of ideas, experiences and perspectives, slowly revealing physical, spiritual and conceptual aspects of integrated landscapes. Tilt invites the viewer to pause, come close, take a glimpse and explore other worlds; as Ngakuru merges customary and contemporary methods of working to investigate kaitiakitanga within diverse political systems and a universal paradigm that operates beyond human perception – the interconnected nature of all things. 

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